Allegations towards Commanders owner Dan Snyder have come out, together with an effort to undermine testimony, homophobic remarks, and a sexual assault case.
The Washington Post has been at the forefront of exploring the poisonous office tradition that Dan Snyder’s Washington soccer workforce cultivated over years: a office that allowed the sexual harassment of feminine staff and the secret distribution of a lewd video of Washington cheerleaders.
That was solely the starting of scandal for Washington, a workforce that has since rebranded from its longtime racist identify — one which Snyder fought laborious to carry onto — to turn out to be the Commanders as of this February. Snyder has endeavored to clear his identify after every scandal, even naming spouse Tanya Snyder as his co-CEO after the sexual harassment allegations started pouring in, however the Snyder scenario has solely gotten frequently worse. The extra Washington Post exposés that come out, the extra the public learns about the depth of Snyder’s position in the poisonous setting he cultivated over many years in D.C.
Now, Snyder is the topic of a Congressional probe and is at the moment being investigated by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Snyder has been subpoenaed to point out up in courtroom and has failed to take action as of but, and so has NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Instead, Snyder despatched an inner memo to the Commanders group with the topic line, “A Reminder of Two Years of Progress.”
At each alternative, the reviews on Snyder point out that he has not solely tried to cowl up any wrongdoing, however he has actively shifted blame to others. With that in thoughts, listed here are three key takeaways from the headlines surrounding Dan Snyder.
3. Dan Snyder launched a “shadow investigation” to discredit Beth Wilkinson’s probe
As the findings of the Congressional probe are at the moment being heard earlier than the U.S. House Oversight Committee,
According to (*3*), the U.S. House Oversight Committee “released a 29-page memo on its findings, supported by more than 600 pages of depositions.” Per these accounts, the Committee concluded the following:
“Snyder used subpoena authority available to parties involved in overseas lawsuits to obtain correspondence from former president Bruce Allen and other former employees. The goal, according to the memo, was to build a case to the NFL that Allen was to blame for the team’s toxic workplace environment, and that former employees were conspiring to disparage Snyder.”
Not solely did Dan Snyder attempt to pin the whole lot incorrect with the Washington office on Bruce Allen, however Snyder tried to govern an unbiased investigation led by legal professional Beth Wilkinson. Ironically, in an effort to fight the “smear campaign” he believed others carried out towards him, Snyder tried to disparage those that got here out towards him in the Post.
“The committee says Snyder used a common-interest agreement between the Commanders and the NFL to ‘attempt to steer the direction’ of the independent investigation into the team led by attorney Beth Wilkinson and to discredit the people accusing him, including those cited in reports published by The Washington Post, by providing the NFL and Wilkinson with ‘derogatory information about them.’”
2. Former Washington COO David Pauken confronted sexist, homophobic remarks from Dan Snyder for refusing to sexualize cheerleaders
Thompson’s ESPN report consists of a number of quotes from David Pauken, who was the chief working officer for the Commanders from 2001 to 2006. Pauken testified that he was uncomfortable with “the way the NFL sexualizes cheerleaders”, however Snyder’s conduct took that to an unbelievable diploma. According to Pauken, Snyder wished to promote entry to cheerleader picture shoots in order that sponsors and suite holders had a possibility to gawk at them for a worth. Pauken declined.
Because Pauken didn’t need to sexualize cheerleaders, Snyder started making snide assumptions about Pauken’s sexuality.
“Anybody who likes girls likes cheerleaders, and if you don’t, if you’re uncomfortable with the cheerleaders, maybe you don’t like girls,” Pauken stated throughout his testimony as he described the means Snyder spoke to him.
Once, Snyder blatantly requested his good friend, “Do you think Dave [Pauken] is gay?” The good friend replied that he thought he was.
According to Pauken, Snyder would say issues like, “Yeah, he has to be gay. As ugly as these cheerleaders are. Pauken, are you gay? You must be gay. How could you have a cheerleading squad that looks like this?”
Pauken additionally testified to 2 cases wherein Snyder disproportionately punished feminine staff whereas male staff remained unscathed. In one occasion, Snyder fired two cheerleaders for having a consensual sexual relationship with a Washington participant. Nothing occurred to the participant. Per the memo, Snyder wished to “minimize distractions, temptations for players.”
In one other occasion, Snyder realized {that a} man on the workforce’s teaching workers groped a girl on the public relations workforce. Instead of discipling the coach for sexual harassment, Snyder instructed the worker who had been groped to “stay away from the coach.”
Testimony additionally confirmed that Larry Michael sexually harassed Washington staff, which Snyder ignored.
1. Dan Snyder was accused of sexual assault in 2009
A day earlier than the Congressional hearing on Wednesday, an investigative report by the Washington Post’s Will Hobson revealed that Dan Snyder was accused of sexual assault in 2009. The Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala shared the article and included key particulars on the case, equivalent to the indisputable fact that the investigation into the girl’s claims was overseen by David Donovan, the identical legal professional who sued Beth Wilkinson to maintain the 2009 incident out of the 2020 investigation into Snyder.
While the Post reported the 2009 incident two years in the past, the particulars had been unknown. According to Hobson’s latest report, Snyder requested the former feminine worker “for sex, groping her and attempting to remove her clothes.” The alleged incident reportedly passed off aboard a workforce airplane, and a $1.6 million settlement was ultimately reached between Snyder and the former worker. Per the phrases of the settlement, the girl was not allowed to publicly disclose the allegations or sue Snyder for his conduct.
Unsurprisingly, Snyder has additionally claimed that that is one other try to smear his identify and popularity, and a workforce investigation concluded that the girl was making an attempt to extort Snyder at the time. Attorney Howard Shapiro additionally talked about that the girl “wore revealing clothing and flirted with other men on the trip to Las Vegas” in an effort to discredit her accusation.
From 2009 to 2022, there are widespread, constant accounts that Snyder and his associates have exploited and sexualized — and when advances are rejected, shamed and blamed — girls in the Washington group.
While the NFL is an unique billionaire’s membership, the whole lot that Snyder has accomplished is lastly coming to mild, and there could also be grounds to wrestle his Washington ownership away from him. In a league that’s identified for its poor observe file with regard to sexual harassment and assault allegations, the Congressional hearing could lastly be sufficient to oust Snyder in spite of everything these years.
