Read the Republican Response to the Report

frequent. Congress should not use its tools to go after private actors simply for political gain or purposes. In the letter to NFL announcing their investigation, Chairwoman Maloney stated: “The Committee is seeking to fully understand this [the Team’s] workplace conduct and the league’s response.”¹ Yet, this investigation has not in any way sought to “fully” understand the Team’s workplace conduct. Rather, this investigation has relied on uncorroborated allegations while ignoring, and even actively trying to avoid learning the inconvenient truths.

Committee Democrats’ investigation has had one goal since its inception: force Team owner Dan Snyder to give up the Team. In the last month, as news organizations reported that the Snyder family was working with a financial institution to consider possible financial transactions related to the Team, including its possible sale, a long-running theory about what could have prompted Committee Democrats’ investigation was given more credence.² Within hours of the news breaking of a possible future sale, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was reported to be interested in purchasing the team; Bezos has long been rumored to be interested in purchasing the team.³ Bezos is also the owner of The Washington Post, whose negative coverage of Dan Snyder has been a key driver of Committee Democrats’ investigation. Given the targeted, predetermined nature of Committee Democrats’ investigation of the Team and its owner, it appears that the entire effort may have had as its goal the removal of an unfavored owner and the installation of the owner of a left-leaning newspaper sympathetic to the Democratic party.

Committee Democrats have leaned on unsubstantiated allegations as fact to propel their investigation.

Committee Democrats have relied on unsubstantiated allegations as evidence of wrongdoing. For example, on March 14, 2022, the Committee interviewed a former disgruntled employee, Jason Friedman, who levied many baseless accusations. Among those accusations were the Team hid revenue owed to the NFL in the revenue sharing agreement and the Commanders maintained two sets of books to conceal profits. At no point did Committee Democrats further investigate these serious claims. They did not send a document request to the Team. They did not ask former or current Team executives for more information on the allegations. Committee Democrats chose to rely on a single source one who did not work in the Team’s accounting department and did not have access to the financial books. Instead, Committee Democrats sent his claims to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), copying several states’ Attorneys General.5 In other words, Committee Democrats used the words of a single disgruntled employee, who had a history of his own workplace misconduct related to

Letter from Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman, H. Comm. on Oversight & Reform, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, Member, H. Comm. on Oversight & Reform, to Roger Goodell, Commissioner, Nat’l Football League (Oct. 21, 2022).

2

Mike Fisher, ‘Save Us Jeff Bezos!’ A Dan Snyder Sale of Washington Commanders to Amazon Billionaire – Easy Fix?, FAN NATION (Nov. 2, 2022).

3 Mark Maske, Niki Jhabvala & Liz Clark, Jeff Bezos interested in bidding on Commanders, possibly with Jay-Z, THE WASH. POST (Nov. 3, 2022).

4 Letter from Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman, H. Comm. On Oversight & Reform, to Lisa M. Khan, Chair, Fed. Trade Commission (Apr. 12, 2022).

5 Id. At the time of this report, the Commanders have entered into a settlement with the MD AG’s office related to the accusation that the team inappropriately withheld security deposits. The specifics of the settlement are not known.

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