Gym Jordan in the hot seat again

 

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Jim Jordan, a former Ohio State assistant wrestling coach who is now a U.S. congressman, has long denied any knowledge of the decades of sexual abuse perpetrated by Richard Strauss during his tenure as an Ohio State physician.

But "Surviving Ohio State," a new documentary produced by George Clooney that aired on HBO June 17, alleges Jordan and many other coaches and administrators within Ohio State were very much aware.

Multiple wrestlers and a referee told filmmakers that Jordan was aware of Strauss' abuse. Jordan declined to be interviewed for the documentary.

[...]

[Dan Ritchie, who wrestled at Ohio State from 1988 to 1992,] recalled a conversation where Jordan said he wouldn't allow Strauss to abuse him like others had.

Ritchie claimed Jordan, an assistant coach at the time, told wrestlers, "If he ever did that to me, I'd snap his neck like a stick of dry balsa wood."

[...]

Frederick Feeney, a wrestling referee from 1988 to 2024, [...] told filmmakers that he told both Jordan and former Buckeyes wrestling coach Russ Hellickson about [an encounter with Strauss]. But Feeney said Jordan shrugged off the incident and said: "It's Strauss, you know what he does."

[...]

Former wrestler Adam DiSabato told filmmakers that when Jordan was accused of knowing about Strauss' abuse, the congressman called him and asked him to stand up for him. Jordan, DiSabato said, cried on the phone and asked him to say publicly that he had no knowledge of the abuse.

  Columbus Dispatch

No doubt.

Jordan made it through earlier reports of the scandal.  Will he make it through again?

Ohio, get out there and dump Gym Jordan

An Ohio farmer who left his post as chairman of a local Republican Party — in part over President Trump’s agricultural policies — is considering mounting a challenge to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

The Toledo Blade reports that Chris Gibbs, a cattle farmer and former chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, is launching an exploratory committee as he mulls running against Jordan for his seat in Congress.

Gibbs is considering running against Jordan as an independent and plans to formally announce the launch of his campaign Wednesday, according to the news outlet.

Gibbs has been a frequent guest on cable news outlets, including CNN and MSNBC, knocking Trump for the trade war with China that he said has negatively impacted American farmers.

[...]

Gibbs voted for Trump in 2016 but said he wouldn’t support the president in 2020 even if Trump walked on water.

  The Hill

I just found out why they're calling him "Gym" Jordan.

A professional referee says in a lawsuit filed Thursday that disgraced doctor Richard Strauss masturbated in front of him in a shower after a wrestling match at Ohio State University, and that he reported the encounter directly to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who was then the assistant coach [at Ohio State University].

“Yeah, that’s Strauss,” Jordan and then-head coach Russ Hellickson replied, according to the lawsuit, when the referee, identified in court papers as John Doe 42, told them about the incident. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Ohio, implies that Jordan's response to the incident, which the referee said happened in 1994, was essentially a shrug.

John Doe 42 is the second person to say he told Jordan directly about either being approached or molested by Strauss, who was found by independent investigators to have sexually abused 177 male students over two decades.

Jordan, a powerful Republican congressman and a top defender of President Donald Trump in the ongoing impeachment inquiry, has repeatedly denied knowing anything about what Strauss did to the wrestlers he helped coach from 1986 to 1994. He has said the allegations against him were politically motivated.

[...]

Former Ohio State wrestler Dunyasha Yetts was the first person to say he spoke to Jordan directly about Strauss. He previously described how he went to see Strauss for a thumb injury, and when the doctor tried to pull down his pants, he stormed out and complained to Jordan and Hellickson.

[...]

The lawsuit was filed by 43 survivors against Ohio State, claiming the university's “ingrained culture of institutional indifference” enabled Strauss to sexually abuse former students and athletes from a half-dozen other sports.

It cites instances of Strauss “drugging and raping athletes” and said Strauss preyed on underage boys who participated in athletic events on the campus.

One of the underage victims, identified as John Doe 49, said in the court papers he was 14 or 15 years old and participating in an OSU wrestling camp lead by Hellickson when he went to see Strauss for an ingrown toenail. He claims Strauss had him drop his pants, threatened him with a scalpel and was sexually abused after he fainted in fear.

[...]

An investigation commissioned by the university and conducted by the Perkins Coie law firm found that what Strauss was doing was an “open secret” and that the coaches and administrators at Ohio State knew for two decades that the doctor was abusing students but failed to stop him, according to a report released in May.

Unbelievable.

John Doe 42 said that when he informed Jordan and Hellickson about what happened, their response was, “Yeah, yeah, we know.”

“It was common knowledge what Strauss was doing, so the attitude was it is what it is,” he told NBC News. “I wish Jim, and Russ, too, would stand up and do the right thing and admit they knew what Strauss was doing, because everybody knew what he was doing to the wrestlers. What was a shock to me is that Strauss tried to do that to me. He was breaking new ground by going after a ref.”

  NBC

Sorry, buddy. It's not in Jordan's makeup to do the right thing.

UPDATE: