New allegations in the Ohio State University sexual abuse scandal are threatening to intensify the political firestorm facing its onetime assistant wrestling coach, powerful GOP Rep. Jim Jordan.

A half-dozen ex-wrestlers told POLITICO they were regularly harassed in their training facility by sexually aggressive men who attended the university or worked there. The voyeurs would masturbate while watching the wrestlers shower or sit in the sauna, or engage in sexual acts in the areas where the athletes trained, the former wrestlers said.


Larkins Hall, the building that housed athletic teams, became such a well-known target that people who frequented it at the time have reminisced in anonymous postings online how easy it was to ogle naked members of the wrestling team.

The situation was so egregious that former wrestling head coach Russ Hellickson would at times have to physically drag the gawkers out of the building, several sources familiar with his actions at the time said. Hellickson also pleaded with the university multiple times to move their athletes to a private facility, the sources said. Jordan served as Hellickson’s No. 2, and the coach has been described as Jordan’s mentor.

The accusations could exacerbate Jordan’s troubles. He was the wrestling team’s assistant coach from 1986 to 1994 and has adamantly denied knowledge of any sexual abuse.

“I never knew about any type of abuse,” Jordan said in an interview this week. “If I did, I would have done something about it.”

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Though none of the wrestlers and coaches interviewed blamed Jordan for the inappropriate behavior they experienced in Larkins Hall, they said he would have had to know about it. One former wrestler told POLITICO he saw Jordan yell at male voyeurs to get out of the sauna, though Jordan’s office refuted this account. Even three wrestlers who defended Jordan said it would have been impossible for him not to notice the pervasive toxic atmosphere surrounding the team.


“Coaching my athletes in Larkins Hall was one of the most difficult things I ever did,” said a former wrestling coach who worked with Jordan but asked not to be named. “It was a cesspool of deviancy. And that’s a whole ’nother story that no one has addressed.”

“Was there some deviant behavior? … Was there behavior when guys were coming into the sauna and showers, was there sexual misconduct? No one is denying that,” said ex-OSU wrestler George Pardos of Larkins Hall in an interview. He defended Jordan as “one of the most honest men I’ve ever known.”

Multiple former wrestlers have accused Jordan, a National Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee, of being among the faculty members who turned a blind eye to inappropriate behavior by the late Richard Strauss, the university’s former athletic doctor. Strauss allegedly preyed on male students during physicals, groping them to the point of making them ejaculate, according to one nurse who witnessed it and recounted the story in a video produced by alleged victims and obtained by POLITICO.


Ohio State has launched an investigation into Strauss’ behavior. Strauss worked at the university from 1978 to 1998. He killed himself in 2005.

Jordan has become the face of the controversy because of his current high profile as a leader of the hard-line conservative Freedom Caucus. But the Ohio State scandal, which first came to light in April, goes well beyond him. Jordan was fresh out of college, still in his early 20s, when he started training Ohio State wrestlers near his own age. Ex-teammates said he expressed interest in politics even back then.

But those two worlds never collided until now.

Now, Jordan is one of the most powerful members of the House and a potential candidate for speaker. He commands the loyalty of at least three dozen conservatives who regularly look to him for guidance on how to vote, often pulling GOP leaders to the right. He is close with President Donald Trump, who expressed his support for the Ohio Republican on Thursday night.

Jordan has also built a reputation on Capitol Hill as a truth seeker and champion of the underdog. But questions are mounting about his actions — or failure to act — two decades ago.

The controversy will continue next week when Congress returns from its Fourth of July recess, and he is pressed by reporters for more information. So far, Jordan’s colleagues have remained quiet, though he has called several Freedom Caucus members to reiterate his innocence, GOP sources said.

But Jordan’s denials have upset several of his former wrestlers, who want him to acknowledge what they felt as victims of sexual abuse.

Jordan’s office has emphasized that no one ever told Jordan that they were sexually assaulted or abused. Other wrestlers said Jordan is technically correct that no one used the words “sexual assault” or “sexual abuse” — such terms weren’t typically used in the 1990s, they said. Society has changed, they added: Often, victims suffered abuse privately and rarely spoke about it publicly.


“It was pretty common knowledge it was going on, yes,” said Rob Archer, who wrestled at Ohio State from 1993 to 1998 and called POLITICO to defend Jordan. Archer was speaking of the alleged voyeurism at Larkins Hall. “I don’t think anybody reported anything to a coach because it wasn’t ‘abuse.’ It was more like they were going, ‘Hey, this is inappropriate,’ We’d deal with it, and we’d go on.”

Dunyasha Yetts, a former champion wrestler at the university, agreed that “sexual abuse” wasn’t used to describe what was occurring. But he accused Jordan of playing word games. Yetts said he was easily the most vocal person on the team to complain about Strauss and the Larkins Hall situation. Yetts claimed he not only told Jordan about Strauss’ behavior, but asked Jordan and Hellickson to confront the doctor with him.

At one point after being injured during his senior year, Yetts said he asked Jordan and Hellickson to come into Strauss’ examination room with him because he didn’t want to be fondled. Jordan’s office said this allegation, which has not been previously reported, never happened. Hellickson also said he had no recollection of this account but declined to elaborate.

“Yeah, you can say we never told you those words because we didn’t know those words, which is true,” Yetts said. “But for him to say he didn’t know? I asked him to come in there with me!”

Jordan’s allies have questioned Yetts’ credibility because he served 18 months in prison for fraud. But Yetts said that has nothing to do with the widespread sexual misbehavior he witnessed two decades ago.

Other wrestlers have vehemently defended Jordan. Rick Burlenski, who wrestled for Ohio State from 1991 to 1994, said he “never had an issue with Dr. Strauss” and never witnessed lewd behavior in the training facilities.

“He's always been an upstanding and straightforward guy,” Burlenski said of Jordan. “If there was an issue, I would have thought those guys would have handled it.”

Pardos also defended Jordan and Hellickson, but suggested both were aware that Strauss’ behavior was unusual.


“Did Russ and Jimmy know about inappropriate behavior? Yes,” Pardos said. “Did they know about abusive behavior? No, absolutely not.”

The Ohio State scandal — and talk of Jordan specifically — is tearing apart the university’s once tight-knit alumni wrestling network. Jordan’s former wrestlers are now warring publicly, with some accusing him of not doing enough to protect them and others coming to his defense.

One of the wrestlers who first raised the allegations and accused Jordan of knowing, Mike DiSabato, has had long-running business feuds with the university and has also had run-ins with Jordan’s family.

DiSabato sent Jordan several ranting emails that at times appeared unintelligible, and Jordan complained to the Capitol Police about him this week.

DiSabato, however, is only one of several witnesses to have come forward. Even defenders of Jordan told POLITICO that the environment in Larkins Hall was abhorrent. Jordan used to work out with the students and use the sauna with them, even creating his own jocular “King of the Sauna” award at the end of the year for the wrestler who was best at trash talking his opponents and boasting of his successes post-practice. That’s why several wrestlers said it‘s implausible that Jordan didn’t see anything, despite his denials.

University spokesman Benjamin Johnson acknowledged in a statement that Ohio State is “aware of reports that individuals at the university did not respond appropriately during Richard Strauss’ time at Ohio State from 1978-1998” and said the school is investigating.

“The university recognizes and appreciates the courage and assistance of those who have come forward and contacted the independent investigators,” Johnson said. “Ohio State is focused on uncovering what may have happened during this era, what university leaders at the time may have known, and whether any response at the time was appropriate.”

Didi Martinez contributed to this report.