👺 Contender — Cong. Jim Jordan — A mouth never to remember!
James Daniel Jordan (born February 17, 1964) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Ohio's 4th congressional district since 2007.
His district stretches from Lake Erie to just below Urbana in north-central and western Ohio and includes Lima, Marion, Tiffin and Elyria. A member of the Republican Party, Jordan is a former collegiate wrestler and college wrestling coach. Recently involved and being investigated in a scandal at the school during his tenure.
Big Scandal — Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach with Ohio State University's wrestling program from 1987 to 1995. Ohio State University began an independent investigation in April 2018 into allegations of sexual misconduct against former wrestling team physician Richard Strauss; Strauss was the team physician during Jordan's tenure as assistant coach. Strauss died by suicide in 2005.
In June 2018, at least eight former wrestlers said that Jordan had been aware of, but did not respond to, allegations of sexual misconduct by Strauss. Jordan's locker was next to Strauss's, and Jordan spent so much time in the locker room that he created and awarded a "King of the Sauna" certificate to the member of the team who spent the most time in the sauna "talking smack"
In July 2018, Jordan's congressional spokesman Ian Fury released a statement in which Ohio State wrestling coach Russ Hellickson reportedly said: "At no time while Jim Jordan was a coach with me at Ohio State did either of us ignore abuse of our wrestlers. This is not the kind of man Jim is, and it is not the kind of coach that I was."
Former wrestling team members David Range, Mike DiSabato and Dunyasha Yetts asserted that Jordan knew of Strauss's misconduct. Yetts said, "For God's sake, Strauss's locker was right next to Jordan's and Jordan even said he'd kill him if he tried anything with him". No wrestlers have accused Jordan of sexual misconduct, but four former wrestlers named him as a defendant in a lawsuit against the university. Several former wrestlers, including ex-UFC fighter Mark Coleman, allege that Hellickson contacted two witnesses in an attempt to pressure them to support Jordan the day after they accused Jordan of turning a blind eye to the abuse.
Jordan has refused to cooperate with investigations into Strauss. He described his accusers as "pawns in a political plot" and said he did not even hear any locker room talk about Strauss or sexual abuse at OSU. In response to Jordan's denials, DiSabato said, "I considered Jim Jordan a friend. But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn't know what was going on."
On July 13, 2018, the editorial board of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote, "Jim Jordan must acknowledge what he knew"
In May 2019, DiSabato filed a Title IX lawsuit against OSU. In one count of the court papers, DiSabato claimed that a second cousin of Jordan's attempted to "intimidate and retaliate" against DiSabato. In 2019, DiSabato shared text messages with NBC News, corroborated by another former wrestler, indicating that Jordan, Russ Hellickson, and high school wrestling coach Jeff Jordan (Jim Jordan's younger brother) conspired to engage in witness tampering and intimidation when they called Coleman and Coleman's parents to pressure Coleman to recant his accusation that Jordan was aware of the abuse.
In November 2019, a retired wrestling referee filed a lawsuit alleging that he had warned Jordan and Hellickson about Strauss's misconduct but they had dismissed his warning. Jordan said that the referee was "another person making a false statement".
In February 2020, Adam DiSabato, the brother of Mike DiSabato, testified before the Ohio House Civil Justice Committee that Jordan called him "crying, groveling... begging me to go against my brother" and described Jordan as a "coward".
Jordan is a founding member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, serving as its first chair from 2015 to 2017, and as its vice chair since 2017. He was the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee from 2019 to 2020. He vacated that position to become the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.
A close ally of former president Donald Trump, Jordan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on January 11, 2021. Followed by many who felt the Medal of Freedom given to Jordan and Nunes, of T-RUMPS choosing, like Trumpets was a disgrace to the Medals Integrity and he was not deserving.
Donald T-RUMP And Jim Jordan Co-Holders of the Big Dick Awards —
Jordan has been a stalwart supporter and close ally of Trump. Asked by Anderson Cooper in April 2018 whether he had ever heard Trump tell a lie, Jordan said "I have not" and "nothing comes to mind”. He also said, "I don't know that Trump has ever said something wrong that he needs to apologize for."
In December 2017, Jordan sought to discredit the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Jordan questioned Mueller's impartiality, and called on Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to use his authority to disband the Mueller investigation or create a second special counsel to simultaneously investigate Mueller himself. Rosenstein rejected the request, saying that he could not appoint another special counsel as there was no credible allegation of a potential crime.
The New York Times reported that Republicans were increasingly criticizing Mueller's investigation after it "delivered a series of indictments to high-profile associates of the president and evidence that at least two of them are cooperating with the inquiry". In July 2018, Jordan led efforts to impeach Rosenstein as a way to shut down the special counsel's investigation. During a hearing on July 12, 2018, Jordan repeatedly interrupted FBI agent Peter Strzok while Strzok tried to explain that he couldn't answer specific questions to preserve the confidentiality of an ongoing investigation.
Jordan's behavior caused committee Democrats to protest his tactics and to allow Strzok to respond. They also objected to Jordan's exceeding his allowed time for questioning. House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte admonished Jordan for his repeated interruptions of the witness.
In July 2018, Jordan and Mark Meadows called on the Department of Justice to "review allegations that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to subpoena phone records and documents from a House Intelligence Committee staffer". In their written request, the two wrote that in his use of investigative powers, Rosenstein had retaliated "against rank-and-file (congressional) staff members", thereby abusing his authority. Talking to John Catsimatidis on WNYM, Jordan said he would force a vote on Rosenstein's impeachment if the DOJ did not deliver documents Congress requested.
In March 2019, House Judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler criticized Jordan for allegedly using anti-Semitic messaging by spelling 2020 presidential candidate Tom Steyer's name with a "$" in place of an "S" on Twitter while urging Nadler to resist calls for Trump's impeachment.
During Mueller's testimony to two congressional committees on July 24, 2019, Jordan asked Mueller why he never charged Joseph Mifsud with lying to the FBI while George Papadopoulos was charged for lying about Mifsud. Jordan said: "Mifsud is the guy who told Papadopoulos [about Russian dirt]. He was the guy who started it all. Yet when the FBI interviews him, he lies three times; you don't charge him." Mueller responded, "Well, I can't get into it and it's obvious, I think, that we can't get into charging decisions."
On October 23, 2019, Jordan and two dozen other Republicans staged a protest that delayed a Trump impeachment inquiry hearing. The coordinated action disrupted the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence where Republican and Democratic congressional members planned to take testimony from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper.The group staged a sit-in outside the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) hearing room. Some of the Republicans who participated already had access to the hearings since the members of the House Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees were welcome to attend and ask questions.
Describing the sit-in, Jordan said, "The members have just had it, and they want to be able to see and represent their constituents and find out what's going on.” The next day, he said on Fox News, "Adam Schiff is doing this unfair, partisan process in secret and our members finally said, 'Enough'...We're so frustrated. They reached a boiling point and these guys marched in and said 'we want to know what's going on.’"
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson wrote to the House sergeant-at-arms about Jordan, Representative Bradley Byrne, and others, requesting that he take action regarding their "unprecedented breach of security". Senator Lindsey Graham admonished his House colleagues for their tactic, calling them "nuts" for having made a "run on the SCIF".
As the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, during a July 2020 hearing with attorney general Bill Barr, Jordan presented a video montage that took statements by CNN reporters out of context to create a false impression they were characterizing violent protests as peaceful.
In December 2020, Jordan was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that called signing the amicus brief an act of "election subversion". She reprimanded Jordan and the other House members who supported the lawsuit: "The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions.” New Jersey
Representative Bill Pascrell, citing section three of the 14th Amendment, called for Pelosi to not seat Jordan and the other Republicans who signed the brief supporting the suit, arguing that "the text of the 14th Amendment expressly forbids Members of Congress from engaging in rebellion against the United States. Trying to overturn a democratic election and install a dictator seems like a pretty clear example of that."
On January 6-7, 2021, Jordan cast a vote to prevent the certification of the Electoral College in at least one state. He was one of the 139 representatives who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Congress on January 7, 2021, the day after the storming of the Capitol. At a later virtual committee meeting, Jordan said the storming of the United States Capitol "was as wrong as wrong can be".
On January 11, 2021, Trump awarded Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a closed-door ceremony.