According to new reporting from the Washington Post, owner Daniel Snyder was accused by an employee of the Washington NFL franchise in 2009 of sexual assault and harassment. The organization settled the matter months later for $1.6 million.
The reporting emerges as Snyder and the Washington franchise is facing a congressional investigation into workplace behavior. Snyder was invited to testify before a House congressional committee regarding the investigation but declined, stating that he was traveling overseas.
The fact that the organization settled this matter is not new, but the allegations against Snyder are new developments. According to a letter sent by an attorney for the team to the woman’s lawyer in 2009, the female employee “…accused Snyder of asking her for sex, groping her and attempting to remove her clothes.”
According to the letter, the woman “alleged the assault occurred in a private, partitioned area at the back of one of the team’s private planes during a return flight from a work trip to Las Vegas.”
According to the Washington Post, the letter also makes no mention of NFL involvement in the team investigation. At that time, the league’s personal conduct policy required investigations of sexual assault allegations to be overseen by the league office, with Commissioner Roger Goodell determining any discipline if appropriate.
The team’s investigation in 2009, according to the letter, was overseen by then-general counsel David Donovan. Donovan reported to Snyder himself as part of the team’s organizational structure.
Donovan later filed suit against D.C. attorney Beth Wilkerson, who led the league’s later investigation into the franchise’s workplace environment. Wilkerson interviewed the 2009 accuser as a part of her investigation. Donovan filed suit against Wilkerson, seeking to prohibit her from disclosing anything about the 2009 investigation in her report to the NFL. The lawsuit was dropped, but Wilkerson’s conclusions are still confidential due to Commissioner Goodell’s decision not to release any report of her findings.
You can be sure that the House Oversight Committee will ask the Commissioner about that — and more — on Wednesday.
During the hearing Snyder has declined to attend.