Daniel Snyder conducted ‘shadow investigation’ to bury findings of official investigation into Washington’s Command organization, House committee says

Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder has conducted a “shadow investigation” into allegations that he fostered a toxic work culture within his organization and worked closely with the NFL to monitor and ultimately , burying findings from a formal internal investigation, according to the findings of a Democratic-led US House committee released Wednesday.

The US House of Representatives Oversight Committee released a 29-page memo on its findings, backed by more than 600 pages of depositions, the morning that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to do. proof.

Among other allegations described in the memo, the commission’s eight-month investigation found evidence that Snyder used subpoena power afforded to parties involved in the lawsuits. overseas to obtain correspondence from former president Bruce Allen and other former employees. The goal, according to the memo, was to build a case for the NFL that Allen was to blame for the team’s toxic work environment and that former employees were conspiring to disparage him.

The committee said Snyder used an agreement of mutual interest between the Commanders and the NFL to “try to navigate” the independent investigation into the group led by attorney Beth Wilkinson and to discredit the whistleblowers, including those cited in reports published by The Washington Post, by providing the NFL and Wilkinson with “derogatory information about them.”

Snyder has repeatedly declined to appear at Wednesday’s hearing, telling the committee he will be out of the country on business.

When asked for comment Wednesday, the NFL provided a copy of Goodell’s prepared remarks to the committee, in which he repeated his assertion that “the Washington workplace is unprofessional and unprofessional. acceptable in many respects”, and “the workplace in Commanders today does not correspond to the workplace described for this committee.”

Representatives for Snyder and the Commanders were not immediately available for comment to ESPN on Wednesday. A spokesman for Republican member of the committee, James Comer (R-Kentucky), who is outspoken about Congress not getting involved in the Commander’s investigation, declined to comment on the memo. on Wednesday.

According to the memo, written by committee chair Carolyn Maloney (D-New York), Snyder and his attorneys compiled a “100-page filing” in November 2020 that “appears to be based on text messages, emails, phone and call logs. transcripts and social media posts of nearly 50 individuals.”

Snyder’s attorneys presented 100 slides, which also included information about Washington Post journalists, to the NFL and Wilkinson’s team, according to the memo, with the goal of “creating an explanatory story to tell the story.” presented to the NFL showed that he was not responsible for the Commanders’ Toxic Work Environment but was instead the victim of a coordinated smear campaign.”

In the memo, the commission’s investigators detailed how Snyder’s attorneys obtained certain personal information used in the filing. In 2020, Snyder filed a libel suit against Media Entertainment Arts Worldwide, based in India. As part of that lawsuit, Snyder used “a powerful litigation tool available to foreign parties to litigation to coerce phone records, emails, and other documents from former employees.” and other individuals,” according to the memo.

“A close examination of Mr. Snyder [petitions] shows that his focus is not on discovering the sources of MEAWW articles but on the people behind the Washington Post articles,” the memo reads.

Commission investigators listed several former employees who received subpoenas, as well as Jessica McCloughan, the wife of former Superintendent of Command Scot McCloughan. The committee’s investigators highlighted how a federal judge ruled the McCloughan document requests “go beyond anything related to articles defaming MEAWW.”

The judge found the subpoena attempt to be “unwarranted, unnecessarily intrusive” and “probably not a genuine attempt to obtain evidence to support the claims in Action of Negroes”. red, rather than an attempt to burden and harass individuals previously associated with the Washington Football Group who may have acted as a source for The Washington Post.”

Snyder state commission investigators also “targeted” Allen with the lawsuit filed in Arizona, where Snyder’s attorneys told the court documents would reveal Allen as the source for reports reported by The Washington Post. out. Investigators noted that Snyder’s attorneys collected 400,000 emails from Allen’s inactive Commander email account and provided them to the NFL and Wilkinson.

NFL representatives told committee staffers that Snyder’s attorneys “identified the Bruce Allen emails that were inappropriate specifically to attempt to demonstrate that Bruce Allen created a toxic environment at Command Washington”, prompting the NFL to “targeted review” of Allen’s emails, thereby leading to an examination of “troublesome exchanges between Mr. Allen, former Raiders Coach Jon Gruden, and [NFL lawyer] Jeff Pash, “according to the memo. Those emails led to Gruden’s firing after they were leaked to the media last year.

The memo says that the NFL received at least 16 briefings from Wilkinson’s law firm about her findings between August 2020 and June 2021, including at least four. in writing and Goodell was “reported personally” at least twice. “We have not received a written report of Ms. Wilkinson’s findings,” Goodell said in his prepared remarks.

The memo also details allegations from David Pauken, the Command’s chief executive from 2001 to 2006, who told the committee that Snyder knew about sexual harassment of female employees but refused to act, personally made the decision to fire female employees who engaged in consensual relationships with male employees and cheerleaders who were subjected to gender and disparagement.

According to the committee’s memo, “Pauken testified that Mr Snyder was responsible for the excessively sexually suggestive nature of the show’s cheerleading and mocking Mr. Pauken for going against his vision.”

In his testimony before Congress, Pauken said he was uncomfortable with “the way the NFL sexualizes cheerleaders.” Pauken testified that Snyder, along with another team executive, pushed the team to offer sponsors and room owners access to fan photo sessions as a “saleable experience.” Okay”.

“I never allowed that,” Pauken testified.

Pauken also describes how Snyder repeatedly questioned Pauken’s sexuality by asking Pauken if he “liked girls.” In his post, Pauken explains, “Anyone who likes girls likes cheerleaders, and if you don’t like cheerleaders, if you’re not comfortable with cheerleaders, you probably don’t like girls. That’s me. understand where he’s going. that.”

Pauken also described how Snyder “objected to the Commander’s cheerleaders and made vulgar comments about their appearance,” according to the committee’s memo. When summoned to Snyder’s box before a match, Pauken testified how Snyder remarked to a friend, “Do you think Dave is gay?” to which the friend replied, “Yes, he must be gay.”

According to Pauken’s statement, Snyder “would say, yes, he has to be gay. It’s as ugly as these cheerleaders. Pauken, are you gay? You have to be gay. How can you have a cheerleader that looks like this?”

The committee found evidence that Snyder ordered the firing of two cheerleaders for “having an affair” with former soccer player Chris Cooley, according to the memo. Pauken testified that when he learned of the relationships, he shared them with Snyder, who made the decision to fire both cheerleaders.

“The female employee was fired, the male employee – there were no consequences other than that he was restricted from having additional sex with the cheerleaders,” according to Pauken’s statement.

The committee’s memo reads, “Snyder’s decision was part of a pattern of dismissal of female employees who had consensual sexual relationships with male members of the team’s football governing body to ‘reduce distraction, temptation for the players.’

In his testimony, Pauken also told committee investigators that when Snyder learned that a member of the team’s coaching staff had been spying on a public relations officer, Snyder refused to take action against him. coach and instead directed the watched employee to “stay away from the coach.”

Pauken told the committee: “I know how important things are to [Snyder]. This is a new coach and we are not going to break that new coach. And so we will solve the problem as best we can. “

Another former executive, Brian Lafemina, told investigators on the committee that in 2018 a subordinate reported feeling uncomfortable around Larry Michael, former “Voice of the Washington” Commanders”, after Michael kissed her forehead, touched her on the cheek, and commented on her appearance.

Lafemina testified that when he told Snyder, he replied, “Larry is a nice person and that Larry won’t hurt anyone.”

Committee employees said in their memo that Michael had been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple employees over the years and, according to documents the NFL presented to the committee, was arrested. met on a video making lewd remarks about a Commanding trainee.

Michael resigned shortly after the Washington Post first reported on the allegations against him in 2020.

The committee memo also shared details of the removal of Jason Friedman, a former employee who accused the team of financial incompetence in his testimony and sent a letter to Congress saying he had witnessed Snyder try to push another former employee, Tiffani Johnston, into a waiting limo. after Snyder put his hand on her thigh under the dinner table at work about 13 years ago.

Friedman told congressional investigators that the team’s culture “glorifies drinking and promiscuity” and that Snyder personally “pressured employees to drink excessively,” according to the memo.

Friedman testified: “People are afraid of losing their jobs because they’ve seen so many other people lose their jobs.