House panel calls on NFL to produce evidence of Washington Football Team owner’s interference in probe

The House Oversight and Reform Committee has called on the NFL to produce evidence of Washington Football Team (WFT) owner Dan Snyder’s reported interference in the league’s investigation of the team. 

Committee members Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) made their request to the league in a statement on Tuesday.

“It has become clear that Dan Snyder’s words and actions regarding the investigation into the Washington Football Team do not align,” Maloney said in the statement. 

“While Mr. Snyder publicly stated that he wanted independent investigators to ferret out the truth, today’s reporting suggests that he was privately trying to obstruct the efforts of the very investigator he hired in an effort to conceal damaging information,” Maloney continued. 

“These disturbing revelations have only strengthened the Committee’s commitment to uncovering the truth in this matter.  The NFL must honor Commissioner Goodell’s promise to cooperate with Congress and fully comply with the Committee’s request for documents,” Maloney added, referring to the commissioner of the football league, Roger Goodell. 

BREAKING: Chairs @RepMaloney and @CongressmanRaja called on @NFL to immediately produce to @OversightDems all evidence of WFT owner Dan Snyder’s interference in the investigation into the WFT’s hostile workplace culture. https://t.co/IDAzyuAFrV

— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) December 15, 2021

This comes after The Washington Post reported that Snyder, who has owned the team since 1999, sent private investigators and attorneys to the residences of potential witnesses in an attempt to interfere with the league’s investigation of the team’s workplace misconduct report

Krishnamoorthi said The Post’s latest report showed that Snyder “actively fought to undermine NFL’s investigation into WFT’s hostile workplace culture.”

“Snyder will stop at nothing. To get to the bottom of this story, NFL must immediately turn over all evidence of Snyder’s interference and the other documents we requested over a month ago,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement. 

In the last two months, Krishnamoorthi and Maloney sent letters to the NFL and WFT urging them to release attorney Beth Wilkinson’s full report on the team’s workplace misconduct investigation. 

The Washington Football Team has been the center of controversy for the league in the past few months. 

Former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden resigned from his position last month after emails from the NFL’s initial investigation of WFT showed him using racist, homophobic and misogynistic language. 

The leaked email chain, which spans from 2011 to 2018, involved then-WFT president Bruce Allen and Gruden, who was employed by ESPN as a lead broadcaster for Monday Night Football. 

Gruden, who reached a settlement with his former team on his departure, recently sued the NFL over the leaked emails that led to his resignation. 

The league fined the Washington Football Team $10 million in July following its investigation and required team executives to be trained in topics such as bullying and unconscious bias.

The Hill has reached out to the NFL and Washington Football Team for comment.