Rep. Jim Jordan is accused of lying about alleged sex abuse at Ohio State University by former wrestlers, according to an NBC News report published Tuesday.
The university announced in April it was launching an investigation of Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005. Strauss joined the Ohio State medical staff in 1978 and remained as faculty in some capacity until 1998. During his time he acted as an athletic physician, as well as a doctor for Student Health Services.
The latest round of accusations against Strauss involves male varsity athletes from 14 different sports, including the wrestling team Mr. Jordan formerly coached.
Three former wrestlers, Mike DiSabato, Dunyasha Yetts and one who remained anonymous, told NBC News that Mr. Jordan did know about abuse allegations at the school.
All three wrestlers explained that they were fond of Mr. Jordan, but were disappointed to see his denials. They claim that the rumors about Strauss were rampant throughout the school, and that Mr. Jordan’s head coach Russ Hellickson confronted the doctor about his behavior.
“I considered Jim Jordan a friend,” Mr. DiSabato told NBC News. “But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”
Mr. Yetts and the anonymous wrestler both claimed that they and several other teammates told Mr. Jordan multiple times about the abuse.
“I love Jimmy to death. It was a head-scratcher to me why he would say he didn’t know anything,” the anonymous source said, “Doc used to take showers with the team even though he didn’t do any workouts, and everybody used to snicker about how you go into his office for a sore shoulder and he tells you to take your pants down.”
Mr. Jordan’s staff repeated his previous denials to NBC reporters, claiming the Ohio Republican never heard or saw any abuse or had abuse reported to him.
Mr. Jordan, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, has made recent headlines for his intense grilling of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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