LIMA — U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan said a college wrestling referee is just “another person making a false statement” about Jordan’s knowledge of perversions facilitated by Dr. Richard Strauss when Jordan worked as an assistant wrestling coach at The Ohio State University.
“I’ve stood up against the Speaker of the House from own party in my own state. I’ve stood up against the IRS, stood up against the FBI, stood up against Adam Schiff, fought the Justice Department when the whole Trump-Russia thing — what they had done. … The idea I’m not going to defend our athletes when I think they’re being harmed is ridiculous,” Jordan said Monday during a visit to Lima.
“This is just, this is someone making a false statement,” he added.
According to the lawsuit filed in Columbus this past Thursday, the referee, who is unnamed in the lawsuit, alleges Strauss had masturbated in front of him in the shower locker room. After telling Jordan about the incident, both Jordan and wrestling head coach Russ Hellickson allegedly responded with “Yeah, that’s Strauss,” the suit says.
The lawsuit comes a day after Jordan was temporarily placed on the House Intelligence Committee in order to defend the actions of President Donald Trump during the upcoming public impeachment proceedings.
Strauss, who committed suicide in 2005, has been found to have sexually abused at least 177 students when he worked at the university over a 20-year-period, according to an independent investigative report released in May by the university. The report details how 40 university officials knew of the widespread abuse. Jordan has repeatedly denied having any knowledge of Strauss’s actions.
Since impeachment proceedings have begun, Jordan has been an adamant defender of the president and his alleged involvement in what Democrat’s are calling a quid pro quo related to Ukrainian military assistance. After participating at a Veterans Day ceremony at American Legion Post 96 in Lima, Jordan briefly detailed what he called four facts that exonerate Trump of wrongdoing. They included:
• The lack of a quid pro quo in the transcript of a July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky;
• The admittance of no pressure by both world leaders;
• Ukraine’s ignorance of military aid being held up;
• And Ukraine’s lack of action on an investigation allegedly pushed by the president’s administration.
“But the Democrats don’t care,” Jordan said. “They’re just going after the president. And they’re basing it all on some anonymous whistleblower with no first-hand knowledge. He has a bias against the president who worked with Joe Biden. And they won’t even let us talk to the guy, won’t even let him come in front of the committee hold up his right hand and swear under oath that he’s going to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. And let us evaluate his credibility.”
Over 2,000 pages of transcripts released by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of closed-door depositions have showed an effort by a number of National Security Council and state department officials to push Ukraine to publicly commit to an investigation of Joe Biden.
Trump has since tweeted that Schiff had doctored the transcripts.
