A new HBO documentary is once again raising serious questions about Republican Congressman Jim Jordan’s role in the Ohio State University sex abuse scandal.
Surviving Ohio State puts Jordan’s name front and center as former wrestlers say he knew about the sexual abuse happening under his watch — and did nothing.
“To say that (Jordan) knew nothing, that nothing ever happened, it’s a flat out lie,” former wrestler Dan Ritchie said.
Jordan, who was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 1987 to 1995, is repeatedly accused in the documentary of being aware of the sexual abuse carried out by university doctor Richard Strauss. Strauss, who worked at the school for nearly two decades, sexually abused at least 177 men. He died by suicide in 2005.
Jordan refused to be interviewed for the HBO film. But the accusations haven’t gone away.
Referee Fred Feeney described how Strauss assaulted him in a shower after a match. He says he told Jordan directly.
“Jim Jordan looked at me straight in my face and said, ‘It’s Strauss. You know what he does,’” Feeney recalled.
Jordan has always denied knowing anything about the abuse. “Chairman Jordan never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had, he would have dealt with it,” said his spokesperson Russell Dye.
But Ritchie said Jordan once brushed off the abuse, saying, “If (Strauss) ever did that to me, I’d snap his neck like a stick of dry balsa wood.”
In a clip shown in the documentary, Jordan insisted, “There was no truth to the fact that I knew of any abuse.”
“I’ve stood up to the FBI. I’ve stood up to the IRS,” he told NBC4’s Colleen Marshall. “So if I thought there was something wrong… I would have stood up for them.”
For survivors, those words ring hollow.
“Jim Jordan is a pit bull,” said former wrestler Mike Schyck. “And so I figured why in the hell wouldn’t this guy step up for us?”
Jordan went into politics after coaching. He now represents Ohio’s 4th Congressional District and is up for reelection next year.
Ohio State has paid more than $60 million to settle with nearly 300 survivors. “We express our deep regret and apologies to all who experienced Strauss’ abuse,” said university spokesperson Chris Booker.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine hasn’t watched the HBO film but says he’s working to hold abusers accountable. In 2021, he signed a law allowing the State Medical Board to punish licensees who commit sexual misconduct.
But for the men who lived through Strauss’s abuse, the question remains: What did Jim Jordan know — and why didn’t he speak up?
