Watchdogs File Supplemental Information with Office of Congressional Ethics Re Complaint Filed Against Rep. Jim Jordan

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Today, Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer and former White House chief ethics lawyer Norman Eisen (2009-2011) sent a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) that provided supplemental information to a July 9, 2018 complaint they filed requesting that OCE conduct a preliminary inquiry into the conduct of Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH).

The July 9 complaint asked for OCE to investigate whether Jordan is violating House ethics rules by denying statements made by seven former student wrestlers at Ohio State University that Jordan had had known of sexual abuses that allegedly took place at OSU during his time as assistant wrestling coach there and did not nothing about it. The complaint alleged that Jordan’s current statements contradicting the statements of the former student wrestlers and denying his knowledge of the past sexual abuse, if false, would violate House ethics rules.

Our July 9, 2018 complaint stated, “According to a story in Politico, Jordan ‘said his accusers are lying. Jordan said he would have not have hesitated to come forward to report sexual abuse. ‘It’s not true,’ Jordan said. ‘I never knew about any type of abuse. If I did, I would have done something about it.’”

Wertheimer and Eisen previously sent supplemental information to OCE on July 11, regarding an eighth former student wrestler who corroborated the allegation of Jordan’s past knowledge made by the other seven students.

In the supplemental letter to OCE sent today, Wertheimer and Eisen provided information regarding Rep. Jordan’s reported efforts to pressure student wrestlers’ to recant their allegations, citing an NBC News report published August 1, 2018. According to the NBC report:

Retired Ohio State wrestling coach Russ Hellickson reached out to two ex-team members and asked them to support their former assistant coach, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a day after they accused the powerful congressman of turning a blind eye to alleged sexual abuse by the team doctor, according to the wrestlers and text messages they shared with NBC News.

The former wrestlers said their ex-coach made it clear to them he was under pressure from Jordan to get statements of support from members of the team.

The original complaint was filed based on the Code of Official Conduct of the U.S. House of Representatives, which states in clause 1 of House Rule XXIII that Members of the House shall conduct themselves “at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.”

According to today’s letter:

The NBC News report further supports our request for a preliminary inquiry because it asserts that Jordan is attempting, through Hellickson, to apply behind-the-scenes pressure on the former student wrestlers to change their public statements that Jordan knew of the sexual abuse that had taken place but failed to act on that knowledge to protect students under his care and supervision.

Any such attempt by a Member of Congress to pressure a witness to recant statements that contradict current statements by the Member about his potentially improper past behavior would itself be an action that fails to “reflect creditably” on the House and thus itself be a violation of clause 1 of Rule XXIII.

Further, the publicly reported effort by Jordan to have former coach Hellickson act as an intermediary in an effort to pressure the former student wrestlers to change their statements, suggests that Jordan may be seeking to improperly cover up his allegedly false current statements about his past knowledge of sexual abuse and his past failure to act to prevent it.

The complaint requested that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) conduct a preliminary inquiry into whether Rep. Jordan is currently making false statements about his knowledge of whether members of the Ohio State wrestling team were being sexually abused by the team doctor during the time he was an assistant coach of the team.

The letter concludes:

We renew our request to OCE to conduct a preliminary inquiry into this matter and to take the recent NBC News report into consideration as part of that inquiry.

Read the full supplemental letter here.