NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell – Owner Dan Snyder did not obstruct the investigation of the Washington Soccer Team
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday from the league’s owners meetings in Irving, Texas, that Washington football team Owner Dan Snyder did not obstruct an investigation into his franchise last year.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Snyder tried to prevent attorney Beth Wilkinson from interviewing a woman who accused the owner of sexual misconduct in 2009. The woman was ultimately paid $1, 6 million dollars.
But Goodell told reporters that Snyder’s efforts “did not interfere with the work our investigator did.”
Members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, who pushed the NFL to release documents related to the investigation now want more answers from the NFL about Snyder’s reported efforts.
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois), who serves on the committee, told ESPN that what was reported was “deeply disturbing and it continues to compel us to investigate the situation.” They want more from the NFL, he said.
Krishnamoorthi, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, said: “They created the documents; they did it on a regular basis. “But what we learned yesterday just shows the need for more information from them. … I want them to increase the volume and nature of the documents.”
The Post reported that Wilkinson became aware of the 2009 allegation shortly after she began her investigation into the franchise last year. According to the Post, when Wilkinson tried to interview the team’s former employee, Snyder’s attorneys worked to prevent that from happening.
The team reached an agreement with the woman, who threatened to sue the Washington owner, according to the Post. The alleged sexual misconduct took place on Snyder’s private jet. The New York Times reported last year that a copy of the settlement did not detail the allegations, and neither Snyder nor the team admitted wrongdoing.
The Post article said that an unidentified insurer handled the case. The newspaper also reported that Snyder’s lawyers had offered the woman more money to maintain her silence. According to the story, the woman’s attorney wrote a letter to Snyder’s attorneys that was filed in federal court in an attempt to prevent Wilkinson from speaking to her.
“The question is why, why did they go to that extent to try to silence that witness and what else did they do to bring the kibosh into this investigation and how did they do it?” Krishnamoorthi said.
He added that he did not know if the Post’s story made it more likely that there would be congressional hearings on the matter, as many staffers had predicted.
“It depends on how cooperative they are,” Krishnamoorthi said of the NFL. “Here’s my situation: This information is going to come out one way or another. We’re seeing people giving these documents and information to the press… so it’s getting out. that, and the question is do they want to come up with it themselves and explain what happened or will it happen some other way?”
An NFL spokesman said, “We continue to respond to the committee. We will decline to comment further out of respect for the committee and its process.”
