June 7, 2018
By: Tom Zawistowski
Tom Zawistowski, President of the Ohio TEA Party affiliated We the People Convention, today defended Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan against those accusing him of not acting to stop purported sexual abuse by a homosexual doctor named Richard Strauss at Ohio State University from 1978 to 1998. Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 1986-1994 and five former athletes have gone on the record saying that Jordan knew about the sexual abuse 32 years ago and did not report it or stop it. Congressman Jordan has vehemently denied the allegations made against him saying that “he was never told about any sexual abuse” during his time at Ohio State and that “he would have taken action had he known about any abuse by Strauss.” Jordan’s position is backed up by a statement from Head Wrestling Coach at that time, Russ Hellickson, who said this week, “At no time while Jim Jordan was a coach with me at Ohio State did either of us ignore abuse of our wrestlers.” The Ohio State University opened up an investigation into Strauss’s activities this April, when they first came to light, and hired law firm Perkins Coie which has reportedly interviewed over 150 people so far about these allegations against Strauss.
Zawistowski said, “First of all, I have known Jim Jordan for many years and I agree with President Trump’s statement on Thursday that Jim Jordan is one of most outstanding people I have met and I don’t believe these allegations at all. Second, in the nine years we have been involved in the TEA Party Movement, we have learned that there are no coincidences in politics. As soon as the NBC hit piece came out, we saw it for what it was. This is a story about greed, opportunism and useful idiots. The two main athletes accusing Jordan of knowing about the sexual abuse 32 years ago and not stopping it are both in serious financial and legal trouble, and one has a clear vendetta against OSU. They were both well aware of the $500 million financial payout being made by Michigan State to 332 female athletes who were sexually assaulted by the athletic department doctor and they saw an opportunity to get a piece of the action. Their motivation for specifically implicating Jordan, who is clearly a minor player in the full scope of this investigation, by lying about his role, is to make the story national so their potential payout will be larger. The investigation into these allegations has been going on since April of this year, but it is hardly a coincidence that the allegations against Jim Jordan ended up on the front page of NBC News just five days after Jim Jordan called out Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for illegally withholding evidence from Congress in a televised public hearing on June 28th. These athletes became the useful idiots for a smear campaign that is designed to take out someone who is threatening those in our government who have committed crimes and are worried about going to prison.”
Zawistowski continued, “It is a fact that Perkins Coie, the law firm Ohio State hired to investigate the allegations, is also the firm that funneled Hillary Clinton campaign funds to Christopher Steele who wrote the “unverified” fake Trump dossier and paid Fusion GPS to pedal the fake document to the DOJ, FBI and CIA as legitimate intel in order to smear candidate Trump and then undermine President Trump. This illegal activity is what Jim Jordan and others in Congress are exposing with their investigations. So it is not a coincidence that five days after Jordan attacks Rosenstein for covering up this illegal activity that this hit piece comes out. It was also not a coincidence that Perkins Coi tried to legitimize the accusations against Jordan by lying about contacting Jordan and suggesting he refused a request to be interviewed. Now we see the same pattern we have seen by the left wing “media” over and over, accusation with no evidence repeated again and again trying to make people believe the lie. Well, I can tell you flat out, no one in the Ohio TEA Party movement believes this nonsense and I will bet you that Jim Jordan hasn’t lost many votes in his Congressional District because we know this man, and we know his character, and we know this is all not true.”
Zawistowski concluded by saying, “So let’s get this straight. Thirty two years ago, Jim Jordan is an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State, and a homosexual doctor who works for the athletic department has been purportedly molesting hundreds of male athletes on up to 14 different athletic teams, for eight years before Jordan arrived on campus and then for another four year after he left, and the entire focus on this investigation is on Jim Jordan? These are not children, these are Division I male college athletes who would have no problem physically stopping Dr. Strauss if they did not like what he was doing. Are we to believe that, even though they were purportedly traumatized by these actions by Dr. Strauss, that all they did is causally mention it or joke about it in locker room talk with an assistant coach? The five athletes who are accusing Congressman Jordan admit, and specifically say in one case, that “he was too embarrassed to report the abuse directly to Jordan.” They claim, though they admit that they did not tell Jordan directly, that it was “commonly known” but have no proof other than hearsay. Now if I was being molested by someone, and I reported it to an assistant coach and they did nothing, I sure would have then reported it to the Head Coach or the Athletic Director because I would know that they have the power to do something about it – but there is no evidence of that either. Then, where were their parents? Are we supposed to believe that none of those athletes would tell their parents and that the parents would not have taken action to stop their son from being molested? If they were so injured by Dr. Strauss, then why did they not speak out when Dr. Strauss committed suicide in 2005? Why didn’t they speak up when the Jerry Sandusky case was going on at Penn State that involved the same type of activity? This just does not add up. At least at Penn State and Michigan State the perpetrator was still molesting people and needed to be stopped. That was a good reason to speak up. At OSU Strauss is long dead, so the reason to bring this up now can only be to cash in. Then the political opportunists saw their own opportunity to “cash in” as well by smearing Jim Jordan and we are just not going to buy the lie. We stand by Jim Jordan and look forward to his re-election and to him continuing to fight for equal justice under the law for all of us in the months and years ahead.”
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