A second man has come forward to say that, during Rep. Jim Jordan’s years as an assistant wrestling coach, he directly told Jordan about sexual abuse by the team’s doctor. A lawsuit against Ohio State University involves 43 survivors of the abuse, but this allegation is noteworthy not just in that Jordan was directly told at the time—it also involves not a student but a referee. So Jordan, now one of Donald Trump’s most aggressive defenders, has had a lot of practice pretending he doesn’t know what’s right in front of his face.
The man, identified as John Doe 42, says that Dr. Richard Strauss masturbated in front of him in the shower, and when he told Jordan and then-head coach Russ Hellickson, their response was “Yeah, that’s Strauss.”
“It was common knowledge what Strauss was doing so the attitude was it is what it is,” John Doe 42 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.”
This makes two people who say they directly told Jordan, and a whole bunch of others who say that Strauss’s actions were such common knowledge that there’s no way Jordan didn’t know. But Jordan, like so many other Republicans involved in wrongdoing—like the president he defends—continues to skate, facing no consequences for his complicity in sexual abuse.
