This has already been covered in a recent diary but it has the potential to become a huge story that can do the GOP major harm in both its attempts to discredit and derail the Mueller investigation and to retain control of congress in the fall, so I thought I’d do a quick hit on this emerging story.
NBC News reported earlier today that leading Freedom Caucus Member and Mueller/Rosenstein agonist Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, while an assistant wrestling coach at the Ohio State University several decades ago, knew and was repeatedly told about allegations of sexual abuse against team doctor Richard Strauss, and yet basically looked the other way and did nothing to investigate or stop it.
"It's sad for me to hear that he's denying," said one former wrestler. "I don’t know why he would, unless it’s a cover-up." by Corky Siemaszko / Jul.03.2018 / 10:00 AM ET / Updated 5:18 PM ETRep. Jim Jordan, the powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, is being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students.
The university announced in April that it was investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s.
Jordan, who was assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994, has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the abuse until former students began speaking out this spring, and continued to deny it on Tuesday. His denials, however, have been met with skepticism and anger from some former members of the wrestling team.
Three former wrestlers told NBC News that it was common knowledge that Strauss showered regularly with the students and inappropriately touched them during appointments, and said it would have been impossible for Jordan to be unaware; one wrestler said he told Jordan directly about the abuse.
I.e. if this story is true, he’s Joe Paterno to Strauss’s Jerry Sandusky. Which is not only disgusting and unconscionable, but, again, if true, basically means the end of Jordan’s political career and a serious blow to the “Freedom Caucus” (which is about as appropriately named as a conservative think tank) and its attempts to derail the Mueller investigation. I am, of course, sad and upset for the players, but if this does harm to the GOP and its anti-Mueller crusade, I won’t complain.
And yes, this is the same Jim Jordan who cruelly, gratuitously and self-servingly attacked Deputy AG and Bob Mueller’s boss Rod Rosenstein in a congressional hearing last week. He is a first-class ratfucker and I SO want him to go DOWN.
Update: I just saw that this was also diaried this morning by Joan McCarter. But these scandals tend to generate multiple diaries and round the clock news coverage, yet neither happened today. Strange. This is a potentially huge story.