[continued from previous message]   
      
   But after Donald Trump decided to reendorse Moore, the RNC resumed its   
   support of his candidacy, stating, “We stand with the president.”   
      
   When it came to Jordan, congressional Republicans simply circled the   
   wagons. In 2018, then House Speaker Paul Ryan waved off demands for an   
   ethics committee inquiry into whether Jordan was lying about his conduct   
   as a wrestling coach, saying that the panel “??investigates things that   
   members do while they’re here, not things that happened a couple of   
   decades ago when they weren’t in Congress.”   
      
   He then called Jordan “a man of honesty and a man of integrity.”   
      
   Later, in 2020, Jordan’s GOP colleagues selected him to become the top   
   ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, which handles federal   
   criminal legislation—including on issues such as sex trafficking and child   
   pornography. Liz Cheney, then the No. 3 Republican in the House, said it   
   was a “totally unified decision all around.”   
      
   This all unfolded in the face of credible allegations that Jordan not only   
   knew about the abuse at Ohio State, but had responded to multiple students   
   who told him about it with comments like “If he tried that on me, I would   
   kill him.” By all accounts, Strauss’ behavior was an open secret. Six   
   former wrestlers told CNN that they were personally present when Jordan   
   heard misconduct complaints about the doctor. A former ref also filed a   
   lawsuit alleging that he complained to Jordan and another coach after   
   Strauss masturbated in front of him, and they merely responded, “Yeah,   
   that’s Strauss.”   
      
   Jordan claims that he was cleared of any wrongdoing in the official report   
   by Ohio State’s investigators, which did not mention his name. “The   
   investigators concluded what we have said from the beginning: Congressman   
   Jordan never knew of any abuse, and if he had he would have dealt with   
   it.”   
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   But that’s not what the report actually said. Rather, the investigators   
   wrote that, except in the case of one coach, they could not “identify any   
   other contemporaneous documentary evidence” proving that athletic staff   
   were aware of Strauss’s actions. In other words, there was no paper trail.   
   However, they added that “22 coaches confirmed to the Investigative Team   
   that they were aware of rumors and/or complaints about Strauss, dating   
   back to the late 1970s and extending into the mid-1990s.”   
      
   It is theoretically possible that Jordan really had his head so deeply   
   buried in the sand during his coaching days that he knew nothing about   
   what was happening on his team, and that the more than half-dozen   
   witnesses who claim otherwise are simply lying or misremembering. (Several   
   other former Ohio State coaches issued a statement saying they were   
   unaware of Strauss’s misconduct).   
      
   A much simpler explanation, however, would be that Jordan himself lied to   
   cover his complicity in a culture of tolerance around sexual abuse. Either   
   way, Republicans chose to make him one of their most powerful members in   
   Congress in spite of this unresolved cloud.   
      
   As for Gaetz, well, darkly enough, he also serves with Jordan on the   
   Judiciary Committee—which has jurisdiction over the very Justice   
   Department currently investigating him.   
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   House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said last year he wouldn’t punish   
   Gaetz or strip him of any committee assignments unless charges are filed,   
   because Gaetz is “innocent until proven guilty.”   
      
   “If it comes out to be true, yes, we would remove him if that’s the case,”   
   McCarthy said at the time. “But right now Matt Gaetz says that it’s not   
   true, and we don’t have any information. So let’s get all the   
   information.”   
      
   For now, the obvious conflict of interest remains. The Republicans have   
   apparently decided that the committee in charge of sex crimes legislation   
   should include one guy currently being investigated for actual sex   
   crimes—and another who allegedly looked the other way on them. It’s not   
   exactly the behavior of a party that cares deeply about sexual abuse   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)