Thread by @AliAdair22

📰The fifth former Ohio State University (OSU) wrestler has come forward to say that U.S. Congressman Jim Jordan had knowledge of sexual abuse committed by the university team doctor while he was an assistant wrestling coach in the 1990’s.
daytondailynews.com/news/local/rep…

🥼Dr. Richard Strauss worked as the Ohio State University team physician, student services doctor, faculty member and professor emeritus from 1978-98.

daytondailynews.com/news/crime--la…

🔎The University has been investigating the matter since April 2018, retaining the law firm Perkins Coie, but Dr. Strauss committed suicide at age 67 in 2005.

The investigation doesn’t stop with the wrestling team. It branches out to include 14 different sports teams and Perkins Coie has interviewed over 150 people.

🖥️A website has been set up by Ohio State University, announcing the investigation & welcoming anyone with any information about Dr. Strauss to come forward and contact the law firm.

compliance.osu.edu/strauss-invest…

🔍The investigation is looking to identify sexual abuse claims and also to identify who at the university knew about the allegations.

📹A former OSU student, Mike DiSabato, who alleges that he was molested by Strauss, produced a video last month with 3 former students—two of them wrestlers—alleging Strauss molested them during medical exams.

🔎He gave the video to OSU in June.

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/p…

🙈🙉🙊Rep Jim Jordan has adamantly denied the charges (seeing, knowing or hearing) that he knew Strauss was molesting members of the wrestling team, who insist it was common knowledge & “locker room talk.” He also says that one of the alleged victims has a “vendetta” against him.

⚖️The allegations against Strauss include groping, public masturbation and other sexual misconduct. Some of these actions occurred during physical exams.

Jordan did say that he may have been part of locker room conversation about misconduct the former wrestlers described but that did not constitute abuse in his opinion. “Conversations in the locker room” he said, “is a lot different than people coming up and talking about abuse.”

From the @washingtonpost:

washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost…

But of course Trump🍊 is 100% sure that Jordan didn’t know about the abuse:

whio.com/news/trump-bac…

Mark Coleman, who won a national championship at Ohio State and went on to become a UFC world champion, reported to the Wall Street Journal: “There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State. (cont'd)

🤼‍♂️Mark Coleman, UFC world champion (cont'd): "...I have nothing but respect for this man, I love this man, but he knew as far as I’m concerned.”

Wall Street Journal excerpt via Politico:

politico.com/newsletters/hu…

🤼‍♂️Mike DiSabato, a former OSU wrestler, who appears in the video, said that the joke in the locker room was that regardless of what your injury was, Strauss would end up examining your genitals.

🤣Hilarious.

🔥DiSabato, who said he was groped by Strauss dozens of times labeled him a “serial groper.”

💥💥💥Another former student estimated that Strauss may have molested at least 1,500—and possibly up to 2,000 OSU students between 1978-98.

vox.com/2018/7/6/17536…

Separately, the Associated Press reported that seven former athletes and a former nursing student shared detailed allegations of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1970s against Strauss.

detroitnews.com/story/sports/c…

🔁The case has similarities to Larry Nassar, who sexually abused hundreds of girls at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics. There are also similarities to Penn State Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky, who is now serving 30-60 years in prison for 45 counts of sexual abuse.

👮‍♂️👮‍♀️FBI & Pennsylvania state police investigations revealed that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and others at Penn State concealed information about Sandusky's serial abuse, but Paterno died of lung cancer shortly after the news broke.

cnn.com/2017/09/09/us/…

⚡️Another abuse survivor Brian Garrett was working at Strauss' clinic in between attaining his bachelor’s degree and starting graduate school.

💥💥💥[Strauss also had a private medical practice in Columbus in the 1990s and may have treated high school students.]

Strauss also asked him to watch while he abused one of his patients. According to Garrett “he played with the guy’s penis” until the patient ejaculated. The patient was embarrassed and Garrett’s duty was to get tissues and clean up the mess.

cnn.com/2018/07/06/us/…

Later that same day, Strauss asked Garrett if he had any medical issues. He replied that he had heartburn and was asked to lay down on the examining table. Strauss then “played with me for 5 or 10 minutes trying to see if I would get aroused.”

Future graduate student Brian Garrett left work and didn’t return, but never told anyone what had happened and never heard any other stories about Strauss.

On the video, OSU Coach Russ Hellickson from 1986-2006 said that Strauss was always “too hands on” with athletes & that he took showers in the same place as the athletes. Hellickson said he caught athletes having sex and masturbating in the team & surrounding areas.

Coach Hellickson also said administrators knew Strauss' activities were an "issue."

🤥He warned Strauss, who said he was just being thorough.

record-courier.com/news/20180705/…

🥼Former wrestling team captain Dave Mulvin said he went to the student health center after Strauss fondled him and complained and the doctor there shrugged it off.

chicagotribune.com/sports/college…

⁉️All-American wrestler Nick Nutter thought twice before complaining about an injury and wondered to himself "is this injury bad enough that I'm going to get molested for it?"

Nutter recounted that he was once forced to call Dr. Strauss because he had a painful case of poison ivy on his genitals. He was told to come to Strauss’ house & lay on a table naked in a candlelit bedroom w/naked pictures of men on the walls. He was molested for several minutes.

Ex-wrestler Denyasha Yetts complained to Coach Hellickson after being groped three times during “medical exams” and Yetts verified that the Coach told Strauss to stop it. Yetti also claims Congressman Jordan knew about the abuse.

🚿Strauss was also known to take several extended showers a day and to sit on a stool and ogle the student athletes.

nbc4i.com/news/investiga…

Sexual abuse of young men can be considerably more complex than sexual abuse of women. According to 1in6.org, a partner with RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), 1 in 6 men have been sexually abused or assaulted.

1in6.org

From 1in6⚫️org:
The social stigma and silence around male sexual abuse and assault results in a lack of awareness and understanding about the effects of these experiences, and what men need to move forward.

Myths:

1in6.org/get-informatio…

🧾Facts about male sexual abuse & assault from 1in6.org:

💥Final points from 1in6.org:

☑️For any man harmed by unwanted or abusive sexual experiences—and anyone who wants to support him—becoming free of these myths is necessary to overcoming the effects of the abuse, and to achieving the life he wants & deserves.

@threadreaderapp please unroll!

Thank you!

Adding other abuse survivors who have come forward from the Ohio State University (OSU) wrestling team. Shawn Dailey told NBC News that he was groped "a half a dozen times," by team doctor Strauss, but was too embarrassed to tell U.S. Congressman Jim Jordan.

However, Dailey says that Jordan was present for conversations about Strauss' abuse and that it was "common knowledge." Dailey also described Jordan as a "close friend" and said he donated to his first political campaign in 1994.

💥Strauss: it was “very common knowledge in the locker room that if you went to Dr. Strauss for anything, you would have to pull your pants down.”

vox.com/policy-and-pol…

💥Another abuse survivor, David Range, also came forward and spoke to the Washington Post. He also said that "Jordan definitely knew" and added "we talked about it all the time."

washingtonpost.com/powerpost/rep-…

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and members of the "Freedom Caucus" AKA the Tea Party are standing by Jim Jordan. "The accusations that have been made by these couple of people who I don't know are ... not consistent with the Jim Jordan I've come to know and admire and...

Rep. Meadows (cont'd): "...certainly not consistent what Jim espouses every day when nobody's looking," Meadows said in a phone interview. "He's a seeker of truth and justice and it's just not consistent with anything."

washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/…

As well as Trump (mentioned earlier), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is also defending Jordan, saying that the sex abuse scandal is a "deliberate attempt" to disrupt upcoming testimony from FBI Agent Peter Strzok.

tampabay.com/florida-politi…

💥Other conservative sources have defended Congressman Jordan, trying to discredit the abuse survivors. Shirley & Banister Public Affairs of Alexandria, VA has been hired to defend him, although NBC News was not able to discover who was paying the bill.

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/r…

💥However, both Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows have both accepted money from Koch organizations.

Jordan has also questioned the timing of the charges. And in his denials appears to be focused on the word "abuse."

#UnKochAmerica

sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch…

🔥As noted, Jim Jordan was the Assistant Coach at Ohio State University from 1986-94. This was during the period where society's attitudes towards sexual abuse changed drastically in the late 1980s and 1990s.

[h/t @ewillis7 on Shirley & Banister Public Affairs hire.]

This change in attitude towards sexual abuse was partly due to the work of Oprah Winfrey, who increased awareness on the subject, first by revealing that she had been raped when she was 9 years old on THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW on November 10, 1986.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

But because there are many more girls than boys that are sexually abused, the attitudes mainly changed towards female victims. Society has changed their attitudes towards male survivors much more slowly.

📊Statistics differ quite a bit, but The National Center for Victims of Crime claims that self-reporting statistics are: 20% of females 5-10% of males recall a childhood sexual assault or sexual abuse incident.
victimsofcrime.org/media/reportin…

But it would be safe to say that males are more reluctant to report sexual abuse incidents.

So in 1994, it is very unlikely that the term "abuse" would have been used regarding a young man—and certainly not in 1986.

⚡️And in this July 3rd USA Today article, Deirdre Shesgreen and Jessie Balmert note that this is not the first time Rep. Jim Jordan claimed to have not known about "improper sexual behavior."

usatoday.com/story/news/pol…

In November 2017, the @washingtonpost reported that a "rising star in evangelical politics," Wesley Goodman, a member of CNP (Council for National Policy) had fondled a teenage boy. It was discovered by GOP members 2 years earlier and covered up.

washingtonpost.com/politics/how-a…

Goodman was the state Rep for the 87th district in Ohio before resigning. He was also married to a woman & promoted “the ideals of a loving father and mother” on his campaign website.

@washingtonpost published this letter written 2 years before Goodman resigned under duress.

⚡️But according to this article, Goodman worked for Jim Jordan's Congressional office for several years.

Not only that, Jordan endorsed his candidacy for #Ohio state Rep. in 2016.

cincinnati.com/story/news/pol…

⚡️Jordan about the disgraced Goodman, he had: “the character, experience and passion to serve the families and taxpayers of our part of Ohio in the Statehouse.”

dispatch.com/news/20171115/…

▶️▶️▶️For more information on the "Council for National Policy" or CNP, please read this excellent thread by @jennycohn1:

https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/885578511842328576

Also, as the @washingtonpost notes in Tony Perkin's letter (former president of CNP), this was not the first incident. Perkins refers to "other similar incidents" that involved Goodman.

This letter was written 2 yrs before the above-mentioned incident at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

💥But Goodman did not resign for the Ritz Carlton incident. Ohio House Chief of Staff Mike Dittoe confronted him after he found out that Goodman was guilty of consensual, but "inappropriate conduct," in his office.

Goodman quickly resigned that time.

dispatch.com/news/20171115/…

💥There were also 2 other times when Ohio Speaker Cliff Rosenberger had to direct staff to confront Goodman for "cheating on his wife" with men.

cincinnati.com/story/news/pol…

💥And also according to cincinnati.com, there were dozens of "Facebook and Snapchat interactions that Goodman allegedly had with men—some welcome and some unwelcome." According to the dispatch article, rumors had been circulating through the Ohio House for weeks.