House speaker defends Ohio’s Jordan as ‘man of integrity’

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Paul Ryan is defending an Ohio congressman accused of ignoring college wrestlers’ allegations of abuse, calling him “a man of honesty, a man of integrity.”

Rep. Jim Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University from 1987 to 1995. Some former wrestlers have said Jordan knew about allegations that they were inappropriately groped by doctor Richard Strauss.

Jordan denies that.

A watchdog group has called for an ethics investigation into whether Jordan made false statements.

Ryan suggested Wednesday the House Ethics Committee won’t review the case because it doesn’t typically look at things that happened “a couple of decades ago” before a lawmaker was elected.

Ryan said he backs Ohio State’s investigation. He did not explicitly state whether he believes Jordan’s denial.