Daniel Snyder’s attorney proclaims that Tiffani Johnston’s allegations are false.
Commanders owner Daniel Snyder’s legal representative John Brownlee explained his perspective as a guest Thursday on Pro Football Talk hosted by Mike Florio.
Citing that Johnston has shifted her timeline, results in questioning the integrity of her allegations. He also stated at first she did not say where this had transpired and later that it was a restaurant in DC. He also questioned her honesty in stating she had not told anyone about it, yet Brownlee claims they have her declaring in a Facebook post a year earlier, other employees had also been guilty of sexual harassment towards her.
Brownlee of (Holland and Knight) explained he has been hired to assess former employee and cheerleader Tiffani Johnston’s allegations of Snyder’s inappropriate behavior towards her personally.
Secondly, Brownlee conveyed he is also investigating allegations made by former employee Jason Friedman. He believes he has found discrepancies in Friedman’s testimony as well.
“We feel pretty good about where we are,” regarding the evidences related to these allegations against Snyder.
Brownlee also confirmed Mary Jo White hired by the NFL to investigate, has not yet interviewed Snyder. He also reminded Florio that Snyder’s deposition before Congress lasted 11 hours and that Snyder answered every question.
Regarding the ESPN story from two weeks ago against Snyder, Brownlee responded, the sources were anonymous, allegations false, and two weeks later, there has been no corroborating evidence presented.
Concerning allegations Snyder has hired investigators to dig up dirt on other NFL owners, Brownlee said he has yet to see the slightest evidence of this being true.
Florio pointed to Snyder’s letter to fellow NFL owners last week, citing Snyder’s use of “malice,” suggesting it may indicate future litigation by Snyder against ESPN because of that story.
Brownlee pointed out that Snyder prevailed against allegations he had been associated with Jeffrey Epstein, had been paying off NFL officials, and doing drugs. Washington fans may recall as a result, Dwight Schar was banned from future NFL ownership.
Florio questioned that if all of this is a big smear campaign against Snyder, then who is behind this effort? Brownlee pointed to Congress wanting Snyder to sell the team when the NFL is not within their jurisdiction and the Katz and Banks law firm that has represented some of the cheerleaders and employees of the team in the past.
Brownlee did concede that the Washington workplace was a toxic environment a few years ago, the investigation revealing such. He also clarified that Snyder was not officially suspended, agreeing to remove himself from the day-to-day operations until November 1. Thus Tanya Snyder has been the primary representative and voice of the team during the interim.
Florio inquired regarding the emails given to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Brownlee stated he had in fact viewed those emails between Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen, calling them “shocking, quite disappointing.”
He also adamantly denied Daniel Snyder had sent those emails. “I have zero evidence that anyone connected with the team did this, zero.” Brownlee also cited that after the NFL’s Beth Wilkinson investigation and decision; it would have been against the team’s interest for anyone with the team to go back and leak those emails.
Johnston alleges Snyder at a dinner, inappropriately placed his hand on her leg and that following the dinner also attempted to pull her into an automobile with him.