Daniel Snyder 2009 Sexual Assault Allegation Detailed in ‘Washington Post’ Report

Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images

In 2020, the Washington Post reported that Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder reached a $1.6 million confidential settlement with a female employee who accused him of sexual misconduct in 2009.

On Tuesday, more details of that settlement were revealed.

The woman said Snyder sexually harassed and assaulted her on one of the team’s private planes on a return flight from a business trip to Las Vegas, according to legal correspondence sent by a team lawyer to the woman’s lawyer in 2009, per Will Hobson of the Washington Post.

During the flight, the woman said Snyder “asked her for sex, groped her and attempted to pull off her clothing before she stopped the assault and pushed him away.”

The correspondence said that Snyder denied the accusations, and an internal team investigation said that the woman fabricated her story in an effort to extort the Commanders owner. Despite coming to that conclusion, the team agreed to a confidential settlement with the woman.

Tiffani Johnston, a former Commanders cheerleader and marketing manager, has also publicly accused Snyder of sexual harassment.

The NFL investigated the Commanders organization after widespread accusations of sexual harassment were made against male members of the team’s leadership, and the NFL ultimately fined the team $10 million in July 2021 but has not publicly revealed its findings.

That prompted the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee to request NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell release the findings of that investigation. Snyder has refused to testify at an Oversight Committee’s hearing week amid its investigation into the organization and its workplace culture.

The committee is also investigating the organization for potential financial irregularities after former team executive, Jason Friedman, accused the team of keeping “two sets of books.” One set of books allegedly was comprised of ticket revenue that wasn’t accurately reported to the NFL as a means of bypassing the league’s revenue-sharing system.