Here's how Jim Jordan's school coach past in OSU could derail his bid for House Speaker
WASHINGTON, DC: Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is in the race to become the Speaker of the House following Kevin McCarthy’s ouster, was previously embroiled in a situation where Ohio State University wrestlers accused him of failing to protect them from a sexual predator.
Jordan, who is competing with Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) for being the third in command of the United States, has repeatedly denied the allegations by the wrestlers against him.
Jordan has vehemently denied the accusations that he was aware of team doctor Richard Strauss sexually abusing wrestlers when he was an assistant coach with the Ohio State University from 1986 to 1994, per NBC News.
The wrestlers, nonetheless, have never stopped accusing him.
Now that Jordan is in the race to become the Speaker, the former OSU wrestlers are once again bringing up their past experience.
‘Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?’
On Tuesday, October 10, four of the athletes who wrestled when Jordan was the assistant coach spoke up against him. It is pertinent to note here that Dr Strauss was a doctor of the team from the 1970s through the ‘90s. He died by suicide in 2005.
One of the former OSU wrestlers Mike Schyck, who was sexually abused by Strauss, said, “Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys?”
Schyck was also one of the several hundred who sued the university for Struss’ abuse continued, “Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?” per NBC News.
The position of the Speaker of the House is a prestigious position as it is second in line of presidential succession, just after the vice president.
Talking about the gravity of the situation, another former OSU wrestler Dunyasha Yetts, known for publicly calling out Jordan, commented that his “hypocrisy is unbelievable.”
Yetts said, “He doesn’t deserve to be House speaker,” before adding, “He still has to answer for what happened to us.”
Another former wrestler from the university, allegedly Strauss’s victim, and lawyer representing some of the students, Rocky Ratliff, said Jordan “abandoned his former wrestlers in the Ohio State sexual abuse scandal and cover-up.”
The fourth wrestler and allegedly Strauss’ victim, who is named as John Doe in the latest lawsuit, said while he believes Jordan “is qualified for the position,” he doesn’t want to endorse him.
The former wrestler explained, “My problem with Jimmy is that he has been playing with words instead of supporting us.”
He added, “None of us used the words ‘sexual abuse’ when we talked about what Doc Strauss was doing to us, we just knew it was weird and Jimmy knew about it because we talked about it all the time in the locker room, at practices, everywhere.”
How did the OSU scandal come out?
Per Deadspin, in 2018, four victims of Strauss alleged Jordan of knowing about the abuse and doing nothing against him.
In 2019, an investigation found out that Strauss, who practiced for almost two decades in the university, abused 177 athletes, including 1430 cases of fondling and 47 cases of rape.
OSU paid at least $60 million to settle cases with 300 abused athletes.
In 2018, when the accusations first came out, Jordan maintained he had no idea about Strauss’s abuse and said he came to know about it only in the spring of 2018, per NBC.
Mike DiSabato, a former wrestler instrumental in prompting the university to open investigation into the abuse, termed the GOP representative a “liar” in 2018.
He said, “I considered Jim Jordan a friend,” before adding, “But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”
He further added that before going public with the allegations, he went to Jordan who said, “please leave me out of it.” DiSabato continued, “He asked me not to get him involved.”
Yetts, who wrestled in 1993 and 1994 in OSU, said during the same time, “I remember I had a thumb injury and went into Strauss’ office and he started pulling down my wrestling shorts.”
He added, “I’m like, what the f--- are you doing? And I went out and told Russ [coach Russ Hellickson] and Jim what happened. I was not having it. They went in and talked to Strauss.”
Yetts also added that his teammates too talked to Jordan about the abuse several times.
He added, “For God’s sake, Strauss’s locker was right next to Jordan’s and Jordan even said he’d kill him if he tried anything with him.”
Jordan’s representative Ian Fury said to NBC, “Congressman Jordan never saw any abuse, never heard about any abuse, and never had any abuse reported to him during his time as a coach at Ohio State.”
While the scandal and Jordan's purported involvement in it never gained much traction previously, the wrestler's renewed allegations may cause difficulties in his gaining the position of Speaker.