Commanders owner Dan Snyder interfered with NFL probe: panel

Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder conducted a “shadow investigation” to interfere with the NFL’s probe into alleged misconduct and sexual harassment at the team’s offices, a congressional committee revealed Wednesday.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform released a memo detailing the findings of its eight-month probe into how the team and the NFL handled the allegations.

Snyder’s lawyers used his shadow investigation to create a 100-slide dossier on the alleged victims who had made “credible public accusations of harassment” against the team, the committee’s report said.

The report also said Snyder and his lawyers sent private investigators to the homes of ex-cheerleaders and allegedly offered them “hush money” to stop them cooperating with the NFL’s probe.

The memo was released ahead of an 11 a.m. committee hearing during which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was set to testify. Snyder refused to participate in the hearing, telling the committee earlier this week he would be in France on business.

Congress had launched its investigation into the Commanders’ workplace culture in October after the NFL declined to release its findings about the independent review it had carried out on the team.

That investigation, which resulted in the Commanders — formerly known as the Washington Redskins – being fined $10 million, was sparked by a Washington Post report in 2020 that detailed allegations from dozens of women who claimed they had been sexually harassed or verbally abused while working for the team.

More allegations emerged during a roundtable discussion held by the committee in February, including accusations that Goodell helped cover up the misconduct.

Six ex-employees also leveled new allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against Snyder during that roundtable, including one who said the owner instructed his video department to create a sexually suggestive video of cheerleaders exposing their private areas.

Snyder, who has owned the team since 1999, called the February allegations “outright lies.”