There are now five former Ohio State wrestlers who say Jim Jordan knew about but took no action about sexual abuse by the team doctor on the University wrestling team during the time he was an assistant coach. (The team Doctor, Richard Strauss, has since died.) Jordan deserves due process and a presumption of innocence, despite giving those to no one else who has entered his crosshairs. In Congress, that means an Ethics Committee investigation. The accusations in this case precede Jordan’s time in Congress. And I think the House Ethics Committee’s purview may not extend to that. But from what I can tell there’s been no move to call for any investigation from Jordan’s Republican colleagues.
Indeed, Rep. Mark Meadows, head of the authoritarian-leaning “Freedom Caucus” which Jordan founded, has suggested that accusations themselves may be part of some “deep state” conspiracy to derail Jordan’s bid for the Speakership. “I know it’s not true,” said Meadows who did not know Jordan at the time and has not investigated the matter: “I think in time it will all come out that not only did Jim not know anything about it, but if he had, he would have acted upon it.” President Trump agrees that the accusers are not telling the truth: “I Don’t Believe Them At All.”
