This is a bit of an update of an older story we saw during all the drama of the Commanders sale to new owner Josh Harris. According to Nicki Jhabvala and Mark Maske of The Washington Post, former ticket and sales executive Jason Friedman is suing his former employers for defamation.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Friedman’s name in our reports of the Commanders ongoing investigations. Jhabvala and Maske provided a report back in May that the team had been fined $425K by the District of Columbia and was required to “refund more than $200K in deposits to D.C. ticket holders.” That punishment was the result of a settlement reached with the office of D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb. The Commanders had reportedly “improperly held on to security deposits that it was required to return…misused those moneys…knowingly used the security deposit for purposes it wasn’t supposed to use the money for…(and) knowingly made it unnecessarily difficult for fans to get their money back.”
Friedman, as the team’s former vice president of sales and customer service, an employee that would presumably have had knowledge of such accusations, testified on behalf of the District of Columbia, providing testimony damning to the team. His accusations were detailed in the April 2022 letter from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to the Federal Trade Commission. Despite agreeing to the settlement, the Commanders refused to admit fault, vehemently denying all allegations against them. In doing so, Friedman’s attorney asserts that Washington defamed his client, “repeatedly and publicly calling him a liar, accusing him of committing the federal crime of perjury, and falsely implying that he was terminated as part of the Team’s sexual harassment scandal that was being widely reported…in the press.”
His attorney further complains that the attacks on his client’s reputation have left him in a devastated mental state of anxiety and depression and unable to find comparable work. As evidence, Friedman’s legal team cites a public statement by the team, a letter the team sent to the Federal Trade Commission, and comments made by team attorney John Brownlee made during a radio interview. The lawsuit seeks $7.5MM in compensatory damages and $350K in punitive damages, plus interest, attorneys’ fees, expenses, costs, and any other damages the court deems proper.
In line with their previous stances, Washington released a statement claiming that the complaint is “completely without merit” and stating that they “will vigorously defend the team against these false allegations.” The NFL is currently awaiting the results of its second investigation into former owner Dan Snyder and the Commanders. The league has been urged to release the findings of this investigation to the public upon its conclusion. Perhaps the findings will disclose some information confirming or disproving the veracity of Friedman’s accusations.
Friedman should have had some idea of how vindictive Danny boy can be, so what did he hope to gain by appearing before an Oversight Committee? He should have played dumb like everyone else. The fans in Washington apparently got screwed out of money so why wasn’t a class action suit initiated? I’ll be surprised in Friedman sees even a fraction of that $7.5M he’s trying to score.
Play dumb? WTF is wrong with you? You support criminal activity?
I have no idea what criminal activity you’re referring to but if bad business practices are considered criminal then the vast majority of companies would be facing charges.
30-35% of the country has made their peace with supporting criminal activity.
If he was ‘in charge’ of this department then he likely has some culpability and ‘testified’ to save his own butt.
Agreed it’s nothing but greed and disdain from the ‘Team’ but who exactly made the decision to keep the monies? The 400k fine monies go where? Has the 200k been reimbursed to ‘fans’. Is the new owner responsible for this lawsuit?
Too much information missing too many questions not asked!