Panel Finds Daniel Snyder Interfered With Sexual Harassment Investigation

As the N.F.L. was investigating his team for widespread workplace misconduct, Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder directed a “shadow investigation” to interfere with and undermine its findings, a Congressional committee found.

At Snyder’s behest, his legal team used private investigators to harass and intimidate witnesses, and created a 100-page dossier targeting victims, witnesses and journalists who had shared “credible public accusations of harassment” against the team.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform released a 29-page memo on Wednesday that detailed the findings of its eight-month probe into how the Commanders and the N.F.L. handled claims of rampant sexual harassment of the team’s female employees. The report came ahead of a hearing where the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, was expected to appear and face questioning. Snyder declined two requests to appear, citing a “longstanding business conflict.”

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, the chairwoman of the committee, wrote that it uncovered evidence that Snyder sought to discredit those who had made claims against the team and to create “an exculpatory narrative” that Snyder was not to blame for the misconduct, which was alleged to have taken place from 2006 to 2019, almost the entire tenure of his ownership.

To that end, Snyder and his lawyers also gathered thousands of emails from Bruce Allen, who was the team’s president from 2009 to 2019, in an effort to pass responsibility for the creation of a toxic work environment, and sought to influence the N.F.L. investigation through direct access to the league and Beth Wilkinson, the lawyer who led the league’s probe, per the memo.

Snyder’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The N.F.L. was aware of Snyder’s actions, the memo said, “but failed to take meaningful steps to prevent them.” Wilkinson’s probe led the league to impose a $10 million team fine on Snyder and had him step back from the club’s day-to-day operations, but the N.F.L. did not ask Wilkinson to prepare a written report, a decision that has drawn scrutiny both from elected officials and former team employees who participated in the investigation.

Goodell will tell the committee today that the league had “compelling reasons” to limit the Wilkinson report to an oral briefing, namely to preserve the confidentiality of its participants. “We have been open and direct about the fact that the workplace culture at the Commanders was not only unprofessional, but toxic for far too long,” Goodell said in prepared testimony.

The committee, which said its intention was both to examine failings by the Commanders and the N.F.L. and to strengthen workplace protections for all employees, will present its findings at Wednesday’s hearing. The N.F.L. launched a second investigation into the Commanders earlier this year, in response to a new allegation of sexual harassment made against Snyder in a February congressional roundtable. Goodell has said that the findings of that investigation, led by lawyer Mary Jo White, will be made public.

The committee’s memo also cites additional examples of Snyder’s direct role in creating a workplace that Goodell acknowledged was marked by widespread disrespect and harassment. The team’s former chief operating officer told the committee that Snyder “refused to take action” against a coach who allegedly groped a public relations employee and fired female staffers who engaged in consensual relationships with male football operations employees, while the men kept their jobs.