NYTimes posted:

Still, the abuse scandal that came to light in 2018, concerning Jordan’s time as a young assistant coach at Ohio State, threatened to sink his career.

Five former wrestlers, including Mark Coleman, a former UFC champion, said Jordan was aware of the abuse by a team doctor, Richard Strauss, who was accused of abusing 177 male student athletes over two decades, but did nothing to stop it, an allegation Jordan has consistently denied.

A conservative public relations firm aligned with Jordan pushed back, circulating statements of support defending Jordan and claiming that the accusers were “seeing dollar signs.”

Coleman soon walked back his statement and released a second one saying he had merely been referring to how widely known Strauss’ predatory behavior had been around the university. He clarified that he had no knowledge of anyone reporting a specific abuse claim to Jordan.

In an interview, Coleman said he stood by both statements but had made the second only after Jordan spoke by phone with Coleman’s aging parents in an effort to get him to change his story. A lawyer who worked on Jordan’s behalf during the scandal did not dispute the account but said the conversation happened after the parents approached the congressman at an event and expressed a desire to clarify what their son had said.

Coleman said allies of Jordan’s also reached out to him directly, including a lawyer who helped prepare his second statement.

In the interview, Coleman said Strauss routinely took 45-minute showers to ogle the athletes, including Jordan.

“Jim got stared at; I got stared at. Unless he has Alzheimer’s, Jim Jordan knew,” Coleman said. “But I have no knowledge of anyone being abused reporting it to Jim Jordan, and I have no problem with Jim Jordan. He was a fantastic coach. He’s a good man — a good, churchgoing family man.”