Mary Jo White.

The #MeToo movement has hit the Ohio State University athletic department with a double whammy, resulting in a flurry of legal activity in the past week, and one almost needs a program to keep straight who are the lawyers on which issue.

The double whammy consists of two separate, unrelated investigations of alleged sexual or gender-related misconduct: The first involves the school's nationally prominent football program and an investigation into coach Urban Meyer's response after he learned of allegations of domestic abuse against one of his assistant coaches in 2015. OSU brought in Debevoise & Plimpton partner Mary Jo White, former U.S. attorney in Manhattan and ex-chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to head that one.

The second concerns a sports doctor who examined hundreds of primarily male athletes and is alleged to have sexually abused them, which is being investigated by lawyers in the Chicago office of Perkins Coie.

In the latest development in the Meyer case, Ohio State announced late Wednesday, after a nine-hour board of trustees meeting, that Meyer would be given a three-week suspension and forgo six weeks pay. The highly successful coach earns over $7 million a year. The board also suspended Eugene Smith, Meyer's boss and the school's athletic director, for two weeks without pay.

A 23-page summary of White's report concluded that Meyer had not violated any Ohio State or federal policies. But Ohio State suspended him anyway, saying, “In light of … multiple examples of inappropriate conduct by Zach Smith while employed as an assistant football coach, Meyer and Gene Smith went too far in allowing him to remain as an employee in the face of that misconduct.” (Zach Smith is not related to Gene Smith.)

There was, however, no finding that the assistant coach actually abused his wife, who had made numerous false claims to police, or that Meyer believed that he did. The report also noted that Ohio State policy was not clear about the reporting obligations of faculty and staff when no criminal charges were filed.

In response, the school's announcement said, “Ohio State will clarify its requirements and implement additional training to reinforce them.” The school also announced on Aug. 21 that it was creating a centralized report-and-response office for responding to sexual- and gender-based harassment or discrimination, including help on understanding reporting options.

One section of White's report dealt with the failure of several individuals to comply with requests by Julie Vannatta, senior associate general counsel at OSU, to retrieve emails and texts from Meyer's phone on July 25 and 26, 2018.

“No one appears to have actually checked coach Meyer's phone or even approached him about the requests,” the document stated.

Less than a week later, White's summary said that when a social media report suggested Meyer knew about the 2015 abuse claim, Meyer adjusted his phone to delete messages older than one year. White's report said the 2015 phone messages could have had an impact on the evidence.

“The absence of prompt and effective follow up [to retrieve the phone messages] is problematic and frustrating,” it added.

Neither Vannatta nor OSU general counsel Christopher Culley returned messages seeking comment for this article.

An independent working group formed by trustees to oversee the investigation included former acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Craig Morford, and former U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart for the Southern District of Ohio .

In the unrelated investigation involving the now-deceased sports doctor Richard Strauss, Ohio State announced Aug. 16 that the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has opened an inquiry. In addition, the school said it has hired the Columbus, Ohio, law firm of Carpenter Lipps & Leland to handle litigation filed by former students who say they were victims seeking to hold the university liable for the doctor's actions.

Ohio State said its handling of the litigation is entirely separate from the ongoing independent investigation of the doctor's alleged abuse being conducted by Perkins Coie, led by partners Markus Funk and Caryn Trombino.

Still unclear in this case is what, if any, role U.S. Rep. James Jordan, R-Ohio, may have played at the time, when he was an assistant wrestling coach from 1987 to 1995. Four former wrestlers have claimed they either told Jordan about the doctor's misconduct or that Jordan was present in a group when they discussed being abused. Jordan has denied the claims in numerous media accounts.

But that didn't stop a national women's group from driving a truck with a digital billboard around the OSU campus Thursday accusing Jordan of “covering up sexual assault at OSU.”

Jordan announced last month that he is seeking the House Speaker position that will be vacated by Rep. Paul Ryan's retirement in January.