Gary Cameron / Reuters file

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was hired in November to determine whether Penn State University officials knew about child sex abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

The results of an internal investigation of Pennsylvania State University’s response to child sexual abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky will be made public on Thursday.

An announcement Tuesday indicated a report on the investigation led by former FBI chief Louis Freeh would be posted online Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. It said Freeh would hold a news conference an hour later to discuss its findings and recommendations.

“We look forward to seeing the report on Thursday and reviewing Judge Freeh's recommendations,” said Penn State spokesman David La Torre. “The university will provide a response in Scranton on Thursday at a time and location to be announced.”

Sandusky, 68, was found guilty of 45 counts of child sexual abuse last month and is currently in prison awaiting sentencing. He faces a maximum sentence of more than 400 years in prison.

Freeh was hired by the university in November to review of the university's dealings with Sandusky and its response to a 2001 report that he sexually abused of a boy in a Penn State shower room, an incident witnessed by football assistant Michael McQueary.

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier has come under particular scrutiny in recent weeks amid news reports suggesting that he was made aware of suspicious activity involving Sandusky in 2001 and that no report of the incident was made to authorities.

Citing emails obtained by Freeh’s investigators, CNN reported last week that Spanier and two other university officials — Gary Schultz, the former senior vice president of finance and business, and Tim Curley, the athletic director on administrative leave — agreed to take a "humane" approach in dealing with  Sandusky following his alleged sexual encounter with a boy.

Instead of reporting the incident to police, according to the report, administrators instead planned to ask Sandusky to seek counseling and said they would tell officials at the Second Mile, the charity he founded and where he met many of the children he would later abuse, about their concerns.

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Attorneys for Spanier fired back earlier Tuesday, saying their client was never informed about the shower room incident involving Sandusky.

"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,'' Spanier's attorneys, Peter Vaira and Elizabeth Ainslie, said in a written statement.

In addition, Freeh’s report is expected to include information about the actions of former head football coach Joe Paterno in the wake of McQueary’s allegations. Paterno, a legend in college football, died of lung cancer in January at 85.

In a statement Tuesday, Paterno's family also pushed back against the leak of emails to CNN, including one in which Curley stated, "After giving it more thought, and talking it over with Joe yesterday - I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps."

"The media spin that this is proof of some sort of cover up is completely false," the statment said. "When the facts come out, it will be clear that Joe Paterno never gave Tim Curley any instructions to protect Sandusky or limit any investigation of his actions.

"Joe Paterno did not cover up for Jerry Sandusky.  Joe Paterno did not know that Jerry Sandusky was a pedophile.  Joe Paterno did not act in any way to prevent a proper investigation of Jerry Sandusky.  To claim otherwise is a distortion of the truth.

The Sandusky scandal led to the ouster of Spanier and Paterno and charges against Curley, who is on leave from the university, and Schultz, who has since retired.  The latter two are accused of perjury for their grand jury testimony and failing to properly report suspected child abuse.

Spanier hasn't been charged.

Chip Bell, Tom Winter and Julmary Zambrano of NBC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated at 5:58 p.m. ET: BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky decided not to testify in his child sex abuse trial after his lawyers were warned that prosecutors would call a surprise new witness — one of the defendant’s own adopted sons, sources told NBC News. The man's lawyers said he was prepared to testify that his father had abused him.

Matt Sandusky, one of six adopted children of Jerry and Dottie Sandusky, was observed by NBC News entering the courthouse, accompanied by Pennsylvania state troopers, on Wednesday morning as the defense was preparing to wrap up its case — and apparently still wrestling with whether Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator, would take the stand.

Matt Sandusky, 33, has been a stalwart supporter of his father, visiting him at his home after he was charged with sex abuse and showing up at the courtroom last week to sit with his mother and other family members. But after the trial began, according to the sources, Matt Sandusky contacted prosecutors and agreed to provide testimony about events that he witnessed.

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NBC News was unable to locate him this week for comment. But his attorneys, Andrew Shubin and Justine Andronici, confirmed that Matt Sandusky requested their assistance in arranging a meeting with prosecutors "to disclose for the first time in this case that he is a victim of Jerry Sandusky's abuse."

AP Photo/Centre Daily Times, Nabil K. Mark

Matt Sandusky, adopted son of Jerry Sandusky, leaves the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., on Wednesday.

Shubin and Andronucci said in a statement that they would have no further comment.

"This has been an extremely painful experience for Matt and he has asked us to convey his request that the media respect his privacy," they said.

Prosecutors contacted Sandusky’s defense lawyers in the last few days to inform them that Matt Sandusky might be called as a rebuttal witness if Sandusky testified in his own defense — news that alarmed the defense team and introduced a new wild card into their intense discussions about whether he should do so, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A source close to Jerry Sandusky told NBC News that "there was no one factor that led to the decision" not to have him testify Wednesday. Sandusky's lawyers were also known to be concerned that the defendant would be grilled on cross examination about apparently incriminating statements he made to NBC's Bob Costas in the "Rock Center with Brian Williams" show last November, including unaired portions that were played on the "Today" show for the first time this week. Defense lawyers also believed they had made some headway chipping away at the prosecution case this week, especially by playing a tape showing that police investigators may have coached Sandusky's alleged victims by telling them what other witnesses were saying about him.

The drama over whether Sandusky would take the stand continued to play out in court on Wednesday as defense lawyers were finishing their case. During a court recess in the morning, Sandusky's lawyers motioned Sandusky to enter a side room for a conference. They then joined prosecutors for a second conference behind closed doors meeting in Judge John Cleland's chambers. About 30 minutes later, Sandusky re-entered the courtroom, looking somber and chastened. At that point, Sandusky's lawyer rose and announced, "The defense rests."

Matt Sandusky first met his father at his Second Mile charity when he was 10 years old. He later went to live in the Sandusky home after he set fire to a barn in 1995. A judge approved the Sanduskys as foster parents for Matt and he was formally adopted by the couple when he was 18.

Matt Sandusky has been named during testimony in the trial. During the first day of testimony, one of the alleged victims —listed in the grand jury report as "Victim 4" — testified that Matt Sandusky seemed "nervous" when, after they played racketball with Jerry Sandusky, the three showered together and Jerry Sandusky then began throwing soap at him, "Victim 4" testified.

"At that point, Matt got up and left," he testified. "Well, not got up, but turned off the shower, went out and into another shower."

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