Ohio State wrestler who accused Jordan of knowing about sex abuse now recants

[brooklynite]

Source: Columbus Dispatch

WASHINGTON —One of the wrestlers who accused Rep. Jim Jordan of knowing about accusations that a doctor at Ohio State University was sexually abusing members of the OSU wrestling team now says Jordan didn’t know of the abuse.

Former Assistant Wrestling Coach Mark Coleman, in a statement put out through the conservative public relations firm hired by Jordan’s campaign to defend him against the allegations, said Thursday he never said that Jordan knew about the abuse more than two decades ago.

“At no time did I ever say or have any direct knowledge that Jim Jordan knew of Dr. Richard Strauss’s inappropriate behavior,” said Coleman. “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.”

Those comments stand in contrast to comments he made to the Wall Street Journal in July, when he said, “There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State. I have nothing but respect for this man, I love this man, but he knew as far as I’m concerned.”

Read more: http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180809/ohio-state-wrestler-who-accused-jordan-of-knowing-about-sex-abuse-now-recants

[Historic NY]

1. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[bettyellen]

2. As others have reported they've been chasing these witnesses down and trying

Trying to get them to recant. This guy was bribed. Shame on him.

[empedocles]

4. or threatened?

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

3. Somebody got a sack of cash. It's so obvious. Rich people have no scruples and are the first ones

to say money doesn't buy happiness etc. I'd like to have money and be able to make my own decision on that.
One things for sure..it buys damage control. Until the next one comes up. Remember Hastert? Some uber rich guy or the gop slush fund just made a 5 million dollar donation to Coach Colemans Trust Fund.
The Genie is out of the bag for the subset of caveman who hung around gym locker rooms toe tapping and whatever else they intended to do in the toilet stalls. Good grief.

[still_one]

5. Then the asshole should be charged with making a flase statement in a criminal investigation

[jberryhill]

6. To what criminal investigator did he make a false statement?

[brush]

8. He's changing his story from before. Sounds like recanting to me.

[LandOfHopeAndDreams]

12. Lying To Press Is Not A Crime

He never actually said that he knew for a fact, just that Jordan would have had to essentially be brain dead to not know.

But he got paid, no doubt about that.

[jberryhill]

16. I doubt he got paid

His initial statement - based on no fact whatsoever - that Jordan must have known, could be looked at two ways. Either it was an opinion or it was a defamatory statement of fact.

He could spend a good chunk of change defending himself in a lawsuit to find out, or he could clarify that he had no factual basis in the first place.

[mr_lebowski]

11. Not really a false statement, he is correct in saying (now) that he previously didn't say

He had actual knowledge that Jordan had knowledge, he said 'there's no way he wouldn't have known', which is different. It is inherently a 'guess' by it's nature.

So, not going to get him on the 'false statement' I'm afraid.

This isn't even a 'recanting', it's actually a 'clarification' ... ergo, the headline is false.

[kcr]

24. Yes. No accusation was made to begin with. It's a clarification of what he said.

Thank you for pointing this out.

[DoctorJoJo]

7. Everything Repukes Touch Becomes Another Scandal

[TeamPooka]

9. the check cleared.

[House of Roberts]

10. Why does it say it was a wrestler,

then say it was a coach? Different perspectives for different roles in the scandal. This coach could be covering for the school too.

[bettyellen]

17. Yes there was another coach contacting players and asking them to lie for Gym Jordan, so....

This is just another rat coach.

[yonder]

13. Check Coach Coleman's cash cache.

[a kennedy]

14. Ok, that's one guy, how many others were there???

[JI7]

15. "statement put out through the conservative public relations firm hired by Jordan's campaign"

[Judi Lynn]

18. Coersion is probably more convincing than money. I'll bet someone has threatened him. n/t

[jberryhill]

20. One would imagine....

That if you accuse a well known person of having knowledge of child sexual abuse, when you have no factual evidence of said knowledge, that the threat of being sued for defamation is a credible one.

[kcr]

23. I deleted my previous post because I'm going to to give the benefit of the doubt here

and assume you simply have no knowledge of the story.

[jberryhill]

28. Feel free to share

Quite obviously this guy was contacted by lawyers for Jordan who gave him a choice between (a) clarify that he had no factual basis for the statement of Jordan's state of mind, or (b) be sued for defamation.

Quite obviously, this guy chose (a).

Did Jordan know? Yeah, probably. But you can't go around saying that about people without clearly stating it as your opinion, unless you have a factual basis of some kind to do so.

[Kaleva]

19. Columbus Dispatch ought to recant its headline

It's more of a clarification then a recant. The comments Coleman made earlier to the Wall Street Journal were just speculation.

And this part of the article is wrong:

" ...now says Jordan didn’t know of the abuse."

What Mark Coleman did say was that he himself has no direct knowledge or ever say Jim Jordan actually knew of the abuse. But he did not say that Jim Jordan didn't know of the abuse. How could Coleman say such a thing with certainty?

[Achilleaze]

21. "My new, improved version of the 'truth' is, um, better for me and Gymbo." - Coleman

republicans and truth just don't mix

[kcr]

25. That article is extremely misleading. He is not recanting.

Here is a CNN article where he says he's clarifying his remarks. He seems to regret his remarks because they're being misconstrued.
He explicitly says he's not changing what he said. https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/09/us/coleman-interview-jim-jordan-ohio-state-abuse/index.html

[1cheapbeemr]

26. Um, well...

'Coleman told CNN he no longer stands by his statement.'

[LenaBaby61]

27. SOMEBODY ...

Got to this guy .....