Although the House Oversight Committee requested testimony from Dan Snyder and Roger Goodell, only the commissioner showed up for the Wednesday hearing. Snyder, via a representative indicating he was scheduled to be out of the country, refused the request.
But the committee plans to go a step further during its investigation into the Commanders. Chairperson Carolyn Maloney said she would issue a subpoena to Snyder for a deposition next week.
“Mr. Snyder has not been held accountable,” Maloney said, via Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post (on Twitter). “His refusal to testify sends a clear message that he is more concerned about protecting himself than coming clean with the American people. If the NFL is unwilling or unable to hold Mr. Snyder accountable, then I am prepared to do so.”
This marks one of a few issues the embattled Washington owner faces. The committee accused Snyder of conducting a “shadow investigation” aimed at discrediting former team employees and journalists amid the NFL’s inquiry into allegations of workplace misconduct, according to the Washington Post’s Mark Maske, Liz Clarke and Jhabvala. The league’s investigation wrapped last year, but after the league failed to issue a written report, Congress launched its own investigation into Snyder and the Commanders.
The alleged Snyder-driven counterstrike effort attempted to accuse former team president Bruce Allen of being primarily responsible for the workplace issues that came under scrutiny. Snyder fired Allen after the 2019 season.
Goodell attributed the lack of a written report in Beth Wilkinson’s Washington investigation to select former Washington employees seeking anonymity, but the committee’s findings during its probe revealed the NFL had planned for Wilkinson to issue a report instead of an oral summary. The committee uncovered a document indicating a September 2020 agreement between the NFL and Wilkinson’s firm that a written report — outlining the findings in the league’s inquiry into accusations of Washington workplace misconduct — would be in the cards, per Jhabvala. Goodell has been accused to changing that plan, prompting Congressional involvement.
The NFL’s investigation into Snyder and his franchise did result in the owner ceding day-to-day operations to his wife, Tanya Snyder. Goodell said Wednesday he believes that arrangement is still in place nearly a year later.
Another report, from the Washington Post’s Will Hobson, revealed Dan Snyder settled with a former employee who accused him of sexual assault in 2009. The woman accused Snyder of sexually harassing and assaulting her, leading to a $1.6MM settlement. Snyder has denied the allegations, with a team investigation accusing the alleged victim of an extortion attempt. When asked about that report Wednesday, Goodell said he did not recall if Snyder informed him of the allegation and settlement. Teams are required to inform Goodell of such allegations, per the personal conduct policy (Twitter links via Jhabvala and The Athletic’s Lindsay Jones).
Snyder-centered scandals have engulfed his franchise for years, and though the longtime owner has brought considerable negative PR to the NFL during his tenure, owners were — as of May — not planning a legitimate push to remove him from his post. Owners have, however, begun to grow tired of the constant smoke surrounding Snyder. His deposition before Congress stands to represent an important chapter during his controversial run as an NFL owner.
What is there to investigate? The guy is obviously a crook and should be banned from the NFL permanently and locked up behind bars.
Absolutely! Also, my neighbor is obviously the zodiac killer. No investigation needed for him either. He should be jailed immediately. So sayeth I!
Due process should only apply to cases in which I am the accused.
And there’s this girl who turned me down for a date once. They can go ahead and lock here up too while they’re at it.
They are investigating because the NFL won’t do anything about it
I’m sure that this has nothing to do with Snyder donating $1MM to the Trump campaign..one thing that is always constant with DEMS in office is that they over reach their authority. Let the NFL handle their own problems and PR and all employees are welcome to file EEOC complaints.
Found the dummy
It totally about Trump because everything is, right? It’s definitely not because he sexually assaulted an employee or anything….
You think overreach is a definitively Democratic thing? Wait til you hear about the last few years, or the first eight years of the millennium. And if team owners were persecuted for supporting Trump, there wouldn’t be many team owners left.
Exactly,
Who ever heard of the Oversight Committee looking into things?
Question, though…
After the EEOC complaints go nowhere because the NFL will not handle their own problems, then what?
When your trillion dollar, extremely public industry’s notional leader makes $60+ million a year and is exposed as ignoring this level of bad behavior, someone’s gonna take a look.
You’re right, it does have nothing to do with that. It has to do with how he runs his business.
Who brought up Trump? Are you another one of those Republicans who can’t get Trump out of your brain? Trump is living rent-free in your Republican head! Clearly you have TDS!
If Snyder had any sense he would work with Goodell to move his team to London or Mexico City. The Redskins legacy is dead, the new team name stinks, no local governments want to work a stadium deal with him, and Congressional meddling in private businesses isn’t in the NFL’s best interest.
So you think having teams run off to foreign countries every time there is a scandal is in the best interest of the NFL? Yikes!
The Harvey Weinstein of the NFL.
Rumoured topless cheerleaders on a late-night junket does not equal in any way breaking into actresses private homes and raping them or sexually assaulting actresses at day time meeting or professionally blacklisting said actresses if they refused to provide sexual service.
Dan Snyder is a garden-variety billionaire who is moderately annoying. High time he stopped meddling in Redskin drafts though.
Not at all sure that this sort of issue should be the subject of a Congressional Inquiry. Surely the United States has more important issues to deal with than off-colour emails between NFL executives?
Our government has much more pressing matters to be focused on. Is he a scumbag, likely. Is this time better spent solving real problems facing our society and culture, absolutely.
Alec… His legal team used private investigators to harass and intimidate accusers and witnesses and created a 100 page dossier targeting victims, witnesses and journalists who had shared credible public accusations against him/or the team.
Not rumor sir- Fact. You can whitewash it any way you want, but this is exactly what Weinstein did to his accusers. And this is a lot more than a “rumored topless cheerleader junket”. This is rampant sexual harassment of the team’s female employees over the entire length of his ownership.
Rondon, I’d like to see an exact list of what is alleged against Dan Snyder. Hearsay is not enough. Vague sexual harassment claims do not put him anywhere near Harvey Weinstein territory. Weinstein as I mentioned was breaking into women’s homes to rape them, pulling out his junk in daytime business meetings and what is probably worst of all, blacklisting the women who refused his advances across an entire industry. Weinstein was actively destroying people’s careers and people’s lives for decades.
No doubt Dan Snyder made a few lewd comments. I’m sure he or his agents made some lascivious propositions of tit for tat. These are events that happen in the adult world. Just turn on any law office show like Suits to see how it happens. None of that is Harvey Weinstein territory.
The vagueness of the charges against Dan Snyder bothers me. It’s always something I heard or it was really bad. Well what was it, man?
Actually, since virtually nothing can get through the Senate without 60 votes, Congress does not, in fact, have anything better to do.
Feel free to call your Senator and tell them you oppose that if you actually care rather than just want the talking point.
It’s really funny when people try to turn the Snyder stuff into a partisan political issues. I know a lot of Washington fans who spread the political spectrum, and one thing they all agree on is that Snyder is awful.
I agree that most fans go with the flow and hate him because that’s what they hear over and over.
It’ll be interesting if/when Bezos ends up buying the team and suddenly it’s all puppy dogs and roses in the media.
I mean, it’s not just going with the flow. He’s done a poor job running the team and shown himself to be a lousy guy at many turns.
A poor job running the team can be said for the two thirds of teams that don’t make the playoffs every season. The common line amongst Washington fans is he ruined the team. The team hadn’t made the playoffs in 7 straight seasons when he bought them, so not sure what he ruined. Now it’s true he hasn’t had a lot of success in playoff wins, but again, same can be said of a lot of teams.
I guess we have to draw a line between his poor football management / and him being a scumbag.
He hired Bruce Allen and let him keep his job for far too long, even as he clashed with the Shanahans and Scot McGloughan, going out of their way to smear the latter, and completely botched the Cousins situation. Jay Gruden talked about him mandating draft picks.
The administrative dysfunction and lack of on-field success are not totally coincidental.
Oooof – I;m afraid I am going to have to call you out on your blatant lie…no one knows a lot of washington fans.
A whole lot of cousins and a couple of friends. The former have the misfortune of also being old enough to be Orioles fans instead of Nationals fans.
Citing the League’s personal conduct policy, as a result of a Congressional Subpoena, Snyder will be suspended for 4-games.
Or less than a different person received when his email was found amongst the hundreds of thousands of WTF email. At least somebody was held accountable…
Well first off I want to thank the staff for allowing comments related to this issue. I consider this oversight committee to be a joke and waste of taxpayers money. Maybe they should be investigating the workplace violations that exist in their own ranks. They certainly haven’t clean hands regarding “shadow investigations”. This is going to be a lot of grandstanding by hypocrites trying to score some political capital.
Agreed wholeheartedly. Leave this to the police or tbe FBI.
Just get him out already. It’s been enough time stalling and waiting for nothing to ultimately happen. This is the first actually good sign that something could happen.
The Washington Redskins are Snyder’s to mismanage. Unless you think mismanagement is grounds for confiscation. Confiscation of private property on political grounds is a very steep slop downwards.
I don’t like the man, and he’s ruined what was one of the NFL’s best franchises, and now even lost the branding, but he’s paid billions for the privilege to do so. Don’t like it? Make him a good enough offer and he’ll sell.