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Report: Jim Jordan Under Fire For Allegedly Not Stopping Team Doctor From Molesting Wrestlers

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Robert Donachie Capitol Hill and Health Care Reporter
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House Freedom Caucus co-founder Jim Jordan is under fire from former wrestlers for reportedly failing to interfere with a team doctor who was molesting them and students while Jordan was a wrestling coach.

Jordan, a former Division-1 wrestler, was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University during the early 1990s. Three former Ohio State wrestlers told NBC Tuesday that everyone on the wrestling team knew about the doctor, Dr. Richard Strauss, and his questionable interactions with teammates and students.

Strauss is accused of showering with students and inappropriately touching wrestlers during appointments. One former wrestler claims Strauss tried to pull down his pants when he went in for a checkup for a thumb injury.

The former wrestlers contend there is no way Jordan did not know about Strauss’s behavior.

“It was a head-scratcher to me why he would say he didn’t know anything,” one former wrestler told NBC. “Doc used to take showers with the team even though he didn’t do any workouts, and everybody used to snicker about how you go into his office for a sore shoulder and he tells you to take your pants down.”

A former wrestler claims he told Jordan directly about Strauss and another pointed out that Jordan’s locker was adjacent to Strauss’s in the locker room. (RELATED: DARKHORSE: Growing Wave Pushing Jim Jordan For Speaker)

The spokesman for Jordan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Jordan and his team contend that he never heard about any type of abuse and that no one told him about it while he was a coach. (RELATED: Is Jim Jordan Running For Speaker?)

Ohio State University launched a formal investigation into Strauss, now deceased, in April. Strauss served as the wrestling-team doctor from the mid-1970s through the late 1990s. The university announced they were reaching out to former students, athletes and coaches in an attempt to get to the bottom of the allegations.

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