Commanders' Daniel Snyder to Be Subpoenaed to Testify for House Committee Next Week
June 22, 2022
After refusing multiple requests to testify before Congress, Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder will be subpoenaed to appear in front of the House Oversight Committee.
Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney announced Wednesday that Snyder will be subpoenaed to testify next week.
Per NFL.com's Judy Battista, the subpoena's purpose is to "compel testimony in a deposition" amid the committee's investigation into allegations of a toxic Commanders workplace culture.
Snyder previously declined to testify in a letter issued by his attorney, Karen Patton Seymour, on June 15 because of a "longstanding Commanders-related business conflict" that would take him out of the United States.
Maloney wrote in a letter issued to Seymour last Friday that the committee offered to accommodate Snyder's business conflict by allowing him to appear virtually.
The hearing is the latest in a series of off-field issues for the franchise in recent years.
In a 2018 report by Juliet Macur for the New York Times, five former cheerleaders made allegations of sexual harassment involving Commanders team sponsors and suite holders during a 2013 trip to Costa Rica for a swimsuit calendar photo shoot.
In a July 2020 report from Will Hobson and Liz Clarke of the Washington Post, 17 women, including 15 former team employees, said they were sexually harassed by Commanders staffers.
The allegations included receiving sexual comments and being pressured to wear revealing clothing, and the women said the team's human resources department were unsupportive when issues were raised.
Two months later, a new Washington Post report from Hobson, Clarke, Beth Reinhard and Dalton Bennett included allegations from 25 additional women.
Former Washington cheerleader Tiffany Bacon Scourby said on the record that Snyder suggested she join his longtime friend, Anthony Roberts, in a hotel room to "get to know each other better."
The NFL took the lead on an investigation into the allegations around the Commanders workplace in September 2020.
In February, Tiffani Johnston, a former marketing and events coordinator for the team, told a congressional committee that she was "strategically" placed next to Snyder at a work dinner event "not to discuss business, but to allow him, Dan Snyder, to place his hand on my thigh under the table." Johnston also said Snyder later tried to push her toward his limo.
The Commanders announced Feb. 9 they had hired a law firm to conduct an independent investigation into Johnston's allegations. The league stepped in to run the investigation instead.
The league had already commissioned an investigation into the team from Beth Wilkinson around the release of the Washington Post reports. While that report has now finished, the league was criticized for not making the findings public.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who did attend Wednesday's hearing and provided testimony, said the findings from the latest league investigation will be released publicly.
Wednesday's hearing came after a sexual assault allegation against Snyder came to light Tuesday. Hobson obtained a document showing a woman who accused Snyder of sexually harassing and assaulting her on a team plane in 2009 was paid a $1.6 million settlement in exchange for confidentiality. Snyder denied the allegations at the time, according to a letter from a team attorney.
On Wednesday, the House Committee released a report that said Snyder conducted a "shadow investigation" in an attempt to discredit accusers and shift the blame for allegations of the team's toxic workplace culture.