As the NFL was investigating his team for widespread workplace misconduct, Daniel Snyder, owner of Washington Command, directed a “shadow investigation” into interference and vandalism. its results, a congressional committee said.
At Snyder’s orders, his legal team used private investigators to harass and intimidate witnesses, and created a 100-page profile targeting victims, witnesses and prosecutors The newspaper shared “credible public accusations of harassment” against the group.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee released a 29-page memo on Wednesday detailing the results of an eight-month investigation into how the Commanders and NFL handled the allegations. Pervasive sexual harassment of female team members. The report comes ahead of a hearing where the union’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, is expected to appear and face questioning. Snyder declined two requests to appear, citing “a longstanding business conflict.”
Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York who chairs the committee, wrote that the investigation uncovered evidence that Snyder sought to discredit those who made the statements. against the team and created “a satirical story” for which Snyder was not to blame. for misconduct, which allegedly took place between 2006 and 2019, nearly his entire tenure in his possession.
To that end, Snyder and his attorneys also collected thousands of emails from Bruce Allen, who served as the Commander’s chief executive from 2009 to 2019, in an attempt to put the blame on Allen. about creating a toxic work environment and seeking to influence the NFL’s investigation through direct outreach to the federation and Beth Wilkinson, the attorney who led the league’s report, according to the memo.
A representative for Snyder said in a statement that the committee’s investigation was “pre-determined from the start” and asserted that the team addressed these workplace issues “years ago”.
The NFL was aware of Snyder’s actions, the memo said, “but failed to take meaningful steps to stop them.” Wilkinson’s investigation led to the tournament $10 million team fine about Snyder and asked him to step back from the day-to-day operations of the club, but the NFL did not ask Wilkinson to prepare a written report, a decision that attract scrutiny of both from elected officials and former employees of the group participated in the investigation.
Goodell will tell the committee on Wednesday that the federation has “compelling reasons” to limit Wilkinson’s report to an oral briefing, namely to keep participants confidential. “We have been open and frank about the fact that the workplace culture at Commanders is not only unprofessional, but toxic in the long run,” Goodell said in prepared testimony. He added that there had been a “significant transformation” to the group’s office and that it was “unlike the workplace described for this committee”.
The committee, which says its intention is to examine the flaws of the Commander and the NFL and strengthen workplace protections for all employees, will present its findings at a hearing Wednesday. The NFL began a second investigation into the Commanders earlier this year, in response to a new allegation of sexual harassment directly related to Snyder during a Congressional roundtable in February. Goodell has said that the results of that investigation, led by attorney Mary Jo White, will be made public.
The committee’s memo also cites more examples of Snyder’s direct role in creating a workplace that Goodell admits has been marked by widespread disrespect and harassment. The team’s former executive told the committee that Snyder “refused to act” against a coach who allegedly spied on a public relations officer and fired consensual female workers. with the men’s soccer executive staff, while the men kept their jobs.
Add Doa, Washington Post reported that Wilkinson’s investigation looked into a confidential 2009 settlement of an allegation that Snyder groped a female employee and asked her to have sex.
