Former Penn State president Graham Spanier told investigators hired by the university that he was not informed of an incident involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky that described child abuse, sexual misconduct or criminality, his lawyers said Tuesday.

The attorneys said Spanier was interviewed Friday in Philadelphia by investigators for former FBI director Louis Freeh, who's looking into the child sexual abuse scandal. Freeh's findings are expected to be released soon.

Both Spanier and Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno were ousted by school trustees a few days after Sandusky was arrested in November. Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted last month on 45 criminal counts.

''At no time in the more than 16 years of his presidency at Penn State was Dr. Spanier told of an incident involving Jerry Sandusky that described child abuse, sexual misconduct or criminality of any kind, and he reiterated that during his interview with Louis Freeh and his colleagues,'' said a statement from the lawyers, Peter Vaira and Elizabeth Ainslie.

Spanier declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press and deferred to the statement.

His comments to the Freeh group echoed his testimony before the state grand jury looking into Sandusky. That testimony concerned graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary's report of seeing the retired defensive coordinator in the football team shower with a boy in 2001. Spanier was notified about the report by Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz, who oversaw campus police.

A grand jury report said Spanier testified that the two men came to him ''to report an incident with Jerry Sandusky that made a member of Curley's staff `uncomfortable.''' The grand jury said Spanier described it as Sandusky in a football team locker room ''with a younger child and that they were horsing around in the shower.''

The grand jury report said that even in April 2011 - presumably the date of his appearance before the grand jury - Spanier did not know that the staff member was McQueary.