The brother of Ohio State University whistleblower Mike DiSabato told state lawmakers in a public hearing Tuesday that Rep. Jim Jordan personally pleaded with him to intercede after DiSabato publicly accused the Republican congressman of turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse of male wrestlers by team doctor Richard Strauss, NBC News reported.
Adam DiSabato, who was a champion wrestler at OSU, told members of the Ohio House Civil Justice Committee that Jordan was in tears when he called on July 4, 2018, a day after NBC News broke the story, according to a video of the committee hearing that was published on the Ohio public broadcasting website.
“Jim Jordan called me crying, crying, groveling, on the Fourth of July…begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for half an hour,” Adam DiSabato said at the hearing. “That’s the kind of cover-ups that’s going on here.”
Jordan, a powerful Republican congressman and a top defender of President Donald Trump, was an assistant wrestling coach at OSU from 1986 to 1994, a period when the DiSabato brothers wrestled. He declined to comment on Adam DiSabato’s allegations.
