By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press, and other wire reports
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican congressman from Ohio “should have known” about allegations that college wrestlers he coached two decades ago were abused by their team doctor, the House’s top Democrat said Thursday.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters that GOP Rep. Jim Jordan should cooperate with investigators “rather than deny and dismiss” accusations that he was aware of the problem.
Jordan, a leading House conservative, was assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University from 1987 to 1995. Some wrestlers from that period have accused the doctor, Richard Strauss, of inappropriately groping them during medical exams and other incidents, and some of them have said Jordan knew about it at the time.
Jordan has denied knowledge of the problem, and other wrestlers have defended him. Jordan has said he will cooperate with an Ohio State investigation.
Jordan has also been defended in recent days by the House’s top three Republican leaders: Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
Meanwhile, former Ohio State wrestlers accusing Strauss say they were subjected to leering and lewd acts by other men after practices.
The wrestlers and their former coach say they complained often about their practice facility where older men would watch them in the shower and the sauna.
The former athletes who wrestled for Ohio State during the 1980s and ’90s practiced then at a recreation center where showers were open to male university employees and students. One former wrestler says athletes faced a “gauntlet of sexual deviancy” at Larkins Hall after practices.