Renee Nal
Michael DiSabato, the ringleader in pushing grotesque allegations that Rep. Jim Jordan turned a blind eye over an alleged sex abuse scandal involving a team doctor at Ohio State University (OSU), has made further outrageous and obviously false accusations on Twitter, which call to question all of his previous statements and the integrity of the numerous outlets that regurgitated his assertions from the beginning.
A self-proclaimed “social justice activist,” DiSabato claimed in December (archived here) that during Jordan’s tenure as coach in the late eighties and early nineties, when he was barely older than the wrestlers he was coaching, Jordan “performed homoerotic acts in front on [OSU Doctor Richard] Strauss & other deviant male predators.”
Interestingly, one of people who “liked” the Tweet was Obama-endorsed Ohio Rep. Tavia Galonski.
This latest accusation conflicts with DiSabato’s comments from a “report” from CNN:
Pressed on how he could be so certain that Jordan knew about the abuse at the time, DiSabato said there were many conversations in which he acknowledged Strauss’ alleged actions.’It just sounded like, ‘Jim, can you believe this dude? He’s out of his mind,’ DiSabato said, adding that Jordan’s response would be along the lines of: ‘If he ever touches me, I’ll kill him.'”
So which is it?
Michael DiSabato should not have any credibility, based on his long history of harassment, intimidation, and excessive litigation – including with Rep. Jim Jordan and his family since before the latest allegations became public. DiSabato seems to be the type to throw as much as he can against the wall to see what sticks.
At the time of the alleged abuse, Jim Jordan served as assistant wrestling coach, along with 30+ others, from 1986 to 1994. The team doctor served the wrestling team, but also other teams, as well.
DiSabato’s allegations came well over two decades later, and were coincidentally aimed at Rep. Jim Jordan right as he was making a bid to replace former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. The story written by Corky Siemaszko exploded in July 2018 after DiSabato sent a “heavily edited” video to NBC News. Three wrestlers, Michael DiSabato, convicted felon Dunyasha Yetts and Mark Coleman claimed that then assistant coach Jim Jordan knew about the alleged abuse but did nothing.
As DiSabato’s claims gained broad media attention, former Ohio State wrestler Mark Coleman “seemingly reversed course on an earlier claim that Republican Rep. Jim Jordan was aware” of the alleged abuse, as reported at Fox News. “At no time did I ever say or have any direct knowledge that Jim Jordan knew of Dr. Richard Strauss’s inappropriate behavior,” Coleman said. “I have nothing but respect for Jim Jordan as I have known him for more than 30 years and know him to be of impeccable character.”
Soon after the story broke, DiSabato sought a settlement from the university for the alleged victims and numerous fellow coaches and wrestlers came to Jordan’s defense, a fact glossed over, if mentioned at all, in the media coverage.
In the meantime, DiSabato landed in hot water after he “was arrested…in Columbus, Ohio, on a warrant related to his failure to appear in court on the harassment charge brought by Ohio State football player Matthew Finkes.” Finkes is Jim Jordan’s second cousin.
From NBC:
In January [2019], DiSabato was jailed after he missed a court date related to the harassment case. Later the same month, he pleaded no contest in Franklin County Municipal Court to one misdemeanor count of telecommunications harassment and was given two years probation, ordered to pay a $250 fine, plus court costs, and to have no contact with Finkes, according to court records.
No stranger to litigation, a 2009 article at the OSU publication The Lantern revealed that the Michael DiSabato lost a 2008 lawsuit against the university, which was one of many lawsuits he has been involved in over the years. DiSabato “has used a fighter’s mentality as he’s gone from business to business and lawsuit to lawsuit,” according to the article.
A cursory investigation into the nature of the sordid allegations against team doctor Dr. Richard Strauss, who worked at OSU from 1979 to 1997 and killed himself in 2005 after experiencing “significant escalating medical and pain problems since January 2002” according to a suicide note, certainly raises questions. In fact, this author questions not that abuse occurred, but that the extent of the abuse was nearly as rampant as has been claimed by DiSabato and his media allies and by the “independent investigators” of the Soros-funded lawyers of Perkins Coie (see addendum below).
According to The Lantern:
The wrestlers that defended Jordan on Tuesday said the alleged abuse was not as widespread as it is being made to seem, with one telling the Associated Press he knew nothing of any alleged abuse until claims arose this year.
Following the joint statement on Tuesday, two more wrestlers spoke to CNN in defense of Jordan.
One of the wrestlers, George Pardos, told CNN he had many interactions with Strauss and never experienced any attempted abuse.
‘If you’re sitting there saying everybody had the same experience with Dr. Strauss, that’s just not true,’ Pardos said. ‘People are trying to assume this was a widespread problem.'”
A quick perusal of DiSabato’s Twitter makes it abundantly clear that he is highly partisan and would be very happy to see Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who he refers to as “Reverend Snowflake” lose his position in the federal government. DiSabato also refers to President Trump as “Agent Orange”.
Here are just some of his bizarre Tweets, in no particular order. You be the judge:
Michael’s Brother Adam on Jim Jordan: ‘I’m Gonna Beat his Ass”
This author would be remiss not to mention that Michael’s brother Adam, evidently another class act, made more breathless headlines this past week for his largely incoherent ranting about Jim Jordan during a hearing for legislation enabling victims of sex abuse to sue the university. Adam claimed that he is a “leader” unlike Rep. Jordan, who was “crying” and “groveling” and called him so much that he had to get his attorney to ask him to stop contacting him, and threatened to “beat his ass”:
” Jim Jordan called me, crying — crying — groveling, on the Fourth of July, begging me to go against my brother — begging me, crying for a half-hour. That’s the kind of cover-ups that’s going on there.
Jim Jordan’s called me several times after that that week – I had to have my lawyer call him, telling him to stop calling me. I had a teammate George Pardos I called and told him ‘Call Jim Jordan and tell him to quit calling me or I’m gonna beat his ass’ …He’s thrown us under the bus, all of us.
He’s a coward. He’s a coward. He’s not a leader. He’s a coward. I’m a leader. I was captain of these guys. That’s why I’m here. I would never abandon my team. He abandoned us. Our head coach abandoned us. He’s flipped his story. He called other people to flip their story. He called Mark Coleman to flip his story. He called his parents – 90 years old – that’s the kind of person Jim Jordan is.”
In response, former head coach Russ Hellickson dismissed the claims, referring to DiSabatao’s assertion as a “blatant lie.” From CNN:
When asked to respond to DiSabato’s comments on Friday, a spokesman for Jordan highlighted remarks the congressman made in an interview with Fox News in 2018, when Jordan asserted “what has been said about me is completely false.” The head coach, Russ Hellickson, told CNN on Friday in response to DiSabato’s claims, “That is a blatant lie.”
If there is ever a time to vet the news, friends, the time is now. Never, ever take the news at face value. Do your own homework. The charges against Rep. Jim Jordan are obviously false.
A Note on Perkins Coie
Perkins Coie, which received well over a million dollars to conduct an investigation into the charges against Strauss, is the law firm of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Leadership Council, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. As an aside, Perkins Coie “was paid $12.4 million to represent the Clinton campaign and the D.N.C. during the 2016 campaign” according to the New York Times.
The Chair of Perkins Coie is Mark Elias, council for Eric Holder and Barack Obama’s “National Democratic Redistricting Committee,” which claims to fight against “partisan gerrymandering,” but according to IRS documents was founded “to build a comprehensive plan to favorably position Democrats for the redistricting process through 2022.”
It is not a stretch to consider that the law firm would have a vested interest in a rampant sex scandal at Ohio State University during the period where a conservative Congressman known to be a thorn in the side of the Democratic Party was a coach, and vulnerable to clearly-bogus charges only because those charges are breathlessly reported and conspicuously unscrutinized. In fact, it is surprising that Perkins Coie would have been hired at all, considering the potential conflict of interest. Their report, headed by T. Markus Funk, a former Clinton Justice Department official, is here.
Amy Mek
RAIR Foundation
Great info. Very timely with Dems attacking Jim Jordan again.