Yet another former Ohio State wrestler has come forward to accuse Rep. Jim Jordan of willfully ignoring sexual abuse of male athletes by the team doctor back in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Just a little backstory: Jordan, who has served as the U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 4th congressional district since 2007, worked as assistant coach for the wrestling team from 1986 to 1994.
The doctor in question, Richard Strauss, was the athletic director doctor from 1981 to 1995. He committed suicide in 2005.
A group of former wrestlers approached the university earlier this year after the conviction of Olympic gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Mike DiSabato was one of the first to come forward to say Strauss sexually assaulted at least 15 student-athletes during his time at OSU.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
But the scandal doesn’t stop there. A few of the wrestlers also claimed Jordan knew about the abuse but turned a blind eye to it all.
Now, David Range, who wrestled for OSU in the late ’80s, tells Washington Post that Jordan had to have known about the alleged abuse because it happened regularly to team members and people talked openly about it.
“Jordan definitely knew that these things were happening–yes, most definitely,” Range told the newspaper. “It was there. He knew about it because it was an everyday occurrence.”
Range is now the seventh person to claim Jordan knew about the abuse but did nothing.
“We talked about it all the time in the locker room” with Jordan present, Range added. “Everybody joked about it and talked about it all the time.”
Meanwhile, Jordan, who has been positioning himself to be the next Speaker of the House once Paul Ryan retires after this year, continues to deny knowing anything about the alleged abuse.
In a statement issued last week, his office said, “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.”
And in an interview on Friday, Jordan told Fox News’s Bret Baier that he believed two of the former wrestlers had a personal “vendetta” against him and were using the scandal to try and tarnish his reputation.
But even if this were true, there are still five others who don’t have any vendettas against the lawmaker who also say he turned a blind eye to the abuse.
“Conversations in a locker room are a lot different than allegations of abuse or reported abuse,” he said, adding that “no one ever reported any abuse to me.”
OSU is conducting an investigation into the charges. So far, it has interviewed 150 people. No doubt, because of his former position, Jordan will end up having to explain what he knew.
Related: Ohio state wrestlers are accusing this right-wing Congressman of ignoring sex abuse
DCguy
Jordan is already scrambling. He first said he’d never heard ANYTHING.
He has already changed that to “It was just locker room talk”.
Funny how all of the republicans who hate LGBTQ people and women sure don’t mind when any of them are being molested or raped. I guess it’s the same way a party that claims to be about family values can say there is nothing to be done when school kids are shot.
If Jordan doesn’t resign, just like Roy Moore he will be another flashing light screaming “The GOP Supports Child Molestation” hung around their neck during the mid-terms.
Kangol
An anti-gay Republican Congressman was enabling sex abuse? Is anyone surprised? Jim Jordan’s pal, President Trumpkin, admitted on audiotape to sexual abuse and forcibly kissing women against their will. Trumpkin also is the target of multiple allegations of rape, sexual abuse, forcible kissing, and sexual harassment, and Jim Jordan stands behind him 100%, even trying to create a smokescreen around Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the alleged Trump-Russia “treasonous” criminal conspiracy. Do you think Jim Jordan has demanded justice for the women Trumpkin admitted he groped, or allegedly fondled and raped? Of course not!
QueerTruth
Queerty – do you have to use a photo (on the link to this story) with two beefy wrestlers pinned on the ground in a sexual way?
The story is about sexual abuse against students.
It’s incredibly classless and if not offensive.
Black Pegasus
@Queertruth
LOL they used the provocative wrestling photo to get clicks.
QueerTruth
BP- I know. That’s what’s so gross about it.
The story is a tragedy. Not porn. It’s truly distasteful.
WillParkinson
Yes! All of this. Thank you.
tham
Is there a non-homoerotic pic of two wrestlers?
RevJames
This guy is a totally smarmy POS that set off my Gaydar from the moment I first heard him talk. Utterly repressed closet case like so many “Christians” I knew/know of in Ohio.
Mack
It’s the Republican mantra, everyone is a liar but them. Their hero, Donald, gets away with it why not them?
charlietex
How exactly does”none of this add up on any side?” If you don’t like this website or content, as indicated by every comment you make, why do you continue to come here and troll with stupid comments like that?
MonkeyMan
“Awesome” how queerty is actively baiting this to us as something hot and exciting, with a bunch of wrestlers getting it on in the thumbnails, when it’s really a story about a bunch of athletes who may or may not have been molested and a politician denying it.
Queerty are just click-whores at the end of the day.
Use photos of Jim Jordan or any of the actual wrestlers involved in the thumbnail!
QueerTruth
THANK YOU!