First, some historical perspective:

On July 12, 2012, former FBI Director Louis Freeh released his report on serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky. As the assistant football coach at Penn State University (PSU), he had used the football facilities to sexually attack numerous young boys.

Jerry Sandusky

But Sandusky was regarded as more than a second-banana. He received Assistant Coach of the Year awards in 1986 and 1999, and authored several books about his coaching experiences.

In 1977, Sandusky founded The Second Mile, a non-profit charity serving underprivileged, at-risk youth.

Through Sandusky’s rampant pedophilia, these youths were placed in even greater jeopardy.

“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” Freeh stated.

College football is a $2.6 billion-a-year business. And Penn State is one of its premiere brands, with revenue of $70 million in 2010.

PSU’s seven-month internal investigation, headed by Freeh, revealed:

• Joe Paterno, head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, was lionized by PSU and the media. He was also aware of a 1998 criminal investigation of Sandusky.  
• So was president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz.
• In 2001, then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary reported to Paterno that he had seen Sandusky attacking a boy in the shower.
• Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz then conspired to cover up for Sandusky.
• The rapes of these boys occurred in the Lasch Building—where Paterno had his office.

In 2011, Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period.  On June 22, 2012, he was convicted on 45 of the 48 charges.

He will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.  

Now, fast forward to July, 2018—and the case of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

Jordan is running for Speaker of the House of Representatives, since the current one, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) plans to retire this November. 

Rep. Jim Jordan

Jordan is also pushing to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential election.

Jordan, a member of the House’s Right-wing Freedom Caucus, fanatically supports President Donald Trump, whose campaign received documented support from Russian Intelligence agents. 

Jordan believes there should not be any investigation into this unholy alliance. 

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing in June, Jordan asked Rosenstein if he had threatened to subpoena “phone calls” made by House Intelligence Committee staffers. 

“There is no way to subpoena phone calls,” Rosenstein replied, as the room erupted in laughter.

Meanwhile, Jordan is being haunted by a scandal of his own. 

Jordan served as an assistant coach at Ohio State University (OSU) from 1987 to 1995. Several former OSU wrestlers claim Jordan ignored sexual abuse of students by the team’s doctor. 

In April, 2018, OSU announced it was investigating charges that Richard Strauss had abused team wrestlers while he served as the team doctor from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s.  Strauss died in 2005.

Jordan claims he didn’t know about the abuse.

Yet several former wrestlers assert that they told Jordan about the abuse or remember Jordan being a part of conversations about the abuse.

“I considered Jim Jordan a friend,” Mike DiSabato, a former wrestler, told NBC. It was DiSabato’s allegations against Strauss that led OSU to open the investigation. “But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”

In an email to Ohio State’s legal counsel, DiSabato wrote: “Strauss sexually assaulted male athletes in at least fifteen varsity sports during his employment at OSU from 1978 through 1998.”

“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 Ultimate Fighting Championship world champion Mark Coleman told the Wall Street Journal.  

“I have nothing but respect for this man, I love this man, but he knew as far as I’m concerned.” 

Speaking with reporters in Ohio, Jordan offered a Sergeant Schultz “I know nothing” defense: 

“We knew of no abuse, never heard of abuse. If we had, we would have reported it. If, in fact, there’s problems, we want justice for the people who were victims, obviously, and as I said, we are happy to talk with the folks who are doing the investigation. But the things they said about me just were flat-out not true.”

Meanwhile, President Trump says he believes his ally Jordan “100 percent”: “I don’t believe them at all,” Trump told reporters, referring to the wrestlers who have come forward.

In 2017, Trump had similarly defended Roy Moore, Alabama’s Republican candidate for United States Senator. Moore had been charged with molesting a 14-year-old girl.

“Well, he denies it,” said Trump. “Look, he denies it. He says it didn’t happen. And you know, you have to listen to him also.”  

Moore was defeated when a majority of voters decided they didn’t want an accused pedophile as their representative. 

It remains to be seen if a majority of House Republicans want to be represented by a man accused of turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse of college youths.