The District of Columbia is bringing a lawsuit against the Washington Commanders, their owner Daniel Snyder, the NFL, and league Commissioner Roger Goodell.
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced the lawsuit at a press conference on Thursday.
“We’re here today to talk about the Washington Commanders,” Racine said. “For years, the team and its owner have caused very real and very serious harm and then lied about it to dodge accountability and to continue to rake in profits.”
“So far, they seem to have gotten away with it, but that stops today,” Racine continued. “Today, we’re filing a consumer protection lawsuit, a civil lawsuit… for colluding to deceive residents of the District of Columbia about their investigation into a toxic workplace culture that impacted employees, especially women.
“You can’t lie to D.C. residents in order to protect your image and profits and get away with it. No matter who you are.” Racine added, “Even if you’re the National Football League.”
Racine said his office has been “carefully and thoroughly” investigating the franchise since last fall over allegations of “sexual harassment and workplace misconduct, and the circumstances around the NFL’s so-called ‘independent investigation’ into these allegations.”
The attorney general said he plans to subpoena Snyder and former employees, promising accountability and transparency. His office has already interviewed about a dozen witnesses so far, Racine said,
Racine alleged that while the league and the franchise promised an independent investigation, “Snyder waged an interference campaign to cover up years of harassment,” and “the NFL let him do it, betraying fans’ trust by enabling Snyder to have a say at the end of the investigation into him and the Commanders.”
Racine accused Snyder of misleading the public about attorney Beth Wilkinson’s investigation into the Commanders’ workplace culture, of which the NFL released only part of the findings.
Racine said that while Snyder publicly denied involvement in the investigation, Goodell and the league conspired with him to sweep the allegations under the rug to protect their profits.
“In reality, the Commanders and the National Football League secretly entered into an agreement about the investigation that the public didn’t know about,” Racine said. “This agreement enabled information about the investigation to be shared with Mr. Snyder and gave him the keys to determine what could and what could not be shared with the public.
“Furthermore,” he added, “the National Football League turned a blind eye about the investigation to Mr. Snyder’s attempts at preventing victims and witnesses from talking to investigators. The NFL even ignored Mr. Snyder’s attempts to buy the silence of victims and witnesses through additional settlements and of course Non-Disclosure Agreements.
“When the 10-month investigation was complete, the National Football League effectively buried findings,” Racine claimed. “The fans received a whopping seven sentences, mostly reiterating what they already knew.”
While not specifying the damages he’s seeking, Racine said the law provides for fines of up to $5,000 per lie.
Goodell has said that the league did not release the entirety of Wilkinson’s findings “because of promises of confidentiality made to witnesses.” The NFL fined the franchise $10 million and ordered Snyder’s wife and co-owner Tanya to “oversee the Commanders’ daily operations for an unspecified period” due to Wilkinson’s findings.
Responding to the lawsuit, Commanders counsel John Brownlee and Stuart Nash said:
“Over two years ago, Dan and Tanya Snyder acknowledged that an unacceptable workplace culture had existed within their organization for several years and they have apologized many times for allowing that to happen. We agree with AG Racine on one thing: the public needs to know the truth. Although the lawsuit repeats a lot of innuendo, half-truths and lies, we welcome this opportunity to defend the organization — for the first time — in a court of law and to establish, once and for all, what is fact and what is fiction.”
NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said, “We reject the legally unsound and factually baseless allegations made today by the D.C. Attorney General against the NFL and Commissioner Goodell and will vigorously defend against those claims.”
The NFL has been cooperating with the D.C. Attorney General’s Office and has sent it more than 1.6 million pages of documents, a league source told ESPN.
The Commanders are being investigated on several fronts, including by the attorney general of Virginia, Congress, and separate reviews by the league and the D.C. attorney general.
The NFL and Goodell have said that the findings of a second investigation conducted by attorney Mary Jo White on behalf of the league “will be released publicly.”
Another parallel review by D.C.’s Attorney General’s Office is looking into the team’s finances and the alleged withholding of money from season-ticket holders.
The Snyders announced last week they hired Bank of America Securities to look into selling part or all of the team. A team spokesperson said it was “exploring all options” regarding the organization that Forbes values at $5.6 billion.
