In the pre-Trump era, fear of the “deep state” was the domain of Ron Paul acolytes, AM-radio hacks, Alex Jones and Internet conspiracy-mongers. It described a force they couldn’t see, but of whose existence they were utterly convinced: an invisible cabal of unelected military and government officials who steered policy from the bowels of Washington. Following the election of Donald Trump, however, the term has gone mainstream. According to a recent Monmouth University poll, three in four Americans believe the deep state exists. And Republicans, inspired by Trump’s use of the term to demonize federal investigations into his campaign, are following suit, blaming the deep state for everything from undermining Ben Carson to, in the case of House Freedom Caucus leader Jim Jordan, fueling allegations that he ignored reports of sexual harassment while working as a wrestling coach at Ohio State University.

The O.S.U. scandal could be a career-ender for Jordan. In recent days, multiple former wrestlers at Ohio State have come forward to accuse Dr. Richard Strauss, who committed suicide in 2005, of sexual harassment. Seven told the Associated Press that Strauss did things like touch them inappropriately during medical check-ups, and “[shower] among athletes multiple times a day for no apparent reason or [perch] himself on a stool to stare.” Jordan, several say, was fully aware of these behaviors. “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,” former M.M.A. star Mark Coleman, who trained under Jordan, told The Wall Street Journal. “I have nothing but respect for this man,” he added, “I love this man, but he knew as far as I’m concerned.” On Tuesday, one former wrestler recalled explicitly telling Jordan about the incidents. “I remember coming up and saying, ‘Strauss held my balls longer than normal,’” the wrestler told CNN. Jordan, the wrestler said, “just snickered.” The congressman, he added, is “denying this because obviously it would be political suicide for him.” But “Jim Jordan knew. He didn’t do anything about it.”

Jordan’s response has been both swift and brutal. “It’s not true,” the congressman told Politico shortly after the A.P.’s initial story broke. “I never knew about any type of abuse. If I did, I would have done something about it. And look, if there are people who are abused, then that’s terrible and we want justice to happen.” He’s pledged to cooperate with an O.S.U investigation into Strauss’s behavior, highlighted a longstanding grudge that one of his accusers holds against the university, and corralled character witnesses from both his time at Ohio State and his time in Congress. On Tuesday, Politico reported he’d hired a conservative P.R.-crisis firm to guide him through the tumult—the firm quickly launched the site StandWithJimJordan.com. Both Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have echoed the defense, the former of whom said he believed Jordan “100 percent,” and the latter of whom, though he has frequently butted heads with the Freedom Caucus, nevertheless said he considered Jordan a “man of honesty [and] integrity.” In due time, articles emerged in right-leaning outlets, such as The Daily Caller, scrutinizing Jordan’s accusers.

For the most part, these are textbook measures. But Jordan, whether wittingly or not, has also deployed one of the most potent weapons of the Trump presidency: the claim that the allegations against him are a weapon of the deep state. During a Friday interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, Jordan pointed out that Perkins Coie, the law firm hired by O.S.U. to investigate the claims, is connected to the Clinton campaign, represented the D.N.C., and in fact commissioned the controversial Steele dossier that claimed Trump had colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. Baier asked whether Jordan was claiming that a “conspiracy” had been hatched against him. Jordan said no, he wasn’t, but proceeded to throw red meat to the right: “I think the timing is suspect when you think about how this whole story came together after the Rosenstein hearing and the Speaker’s race,” he said, referring first to a contentious exchange with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein over access to classified information, and second to a nascent campaign to install him as Speaker after Ryan’s departure.