The House Committee for Oversight and Reform released its final report on its investigation into Dan Snyder and the Commanders franchise on Thursday, finding that the owner provided “misleading” testimony and made moves to obstruct investigations into the team and his own conduct. The report also states the NFL itself “buried” Beth Wilkinson’s report and findings on the club.
The Cowboys are one of the Commanders’ heated rivals on the field, but off it, Jerry Jones has been one of the owners most willing to come to Snyder’s defense. That was the case during an appearance on 105.3 The Fan on Friday, when he railed against what he says is political bias in the Democrat-led House Committee’s report, as well as an unnamed “woman attorney” that he claims is “on a campaign … to stop having [workplace] settlements.”
“First of all, I hope our fans see how politically biased this report is,” Jones said during Friday’s appearance. “This report doesn’t even come out if the Republicans were in Congress. It’s that stupid. And, so, my point is there’s biasness [sic] all the way through. There are stories behind the stories.”
Jones proceeded to insinuate the issues came to light because minority owners of the Commanders attempted to oust Snyder. Snyder’s buyout of those partners came in March 2021. While the Washington Post exposé into the toxic culture within the franchise was published in July 2020, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D., N.Y.), chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D., Ill.) sent their initial letter to Roger Goodell requesting findings on the league investigation into the franchise in October 2021.
“The facts are that Mr. Snyder’s minority partners really went out a long way to try and make him sell,” Jones said. “He ended up buying them out, but a lot of this is that. A lot of the testimony, I was involved firsthand. I was among the handful of owners that looked at all of the transcripts, that looked at all of the messages, that looked at all of the data. This attorney is on a campaign, the woman attorney, to stop having settlements when you have workplace settlements. That’s another issue, but that’s a part of why this has the front that it has.”
Thursday’s 79-page report, titled “How the NFL and the Washington Commanders Covered Up Decades of Sexual Misconduct,” ends the more than yearlong investigation by the committee into workplace misconduct and sexual harassment allegations within Snyder’s franchise.
Congress got involved after the NFL hired Wilkinson to investigate the franchise for claims of sexual misconduct and financial impropriety. The league never released a written accounting of Wilkinson’s findings to the public, saying that she delivered oral reports to the league. Washington was fined $10 million after the Wilkinson investigation.
Goodell said the decision to withhold Wilkinson’s report was made to protect the anonymity of the witnesses and women who reported sexual misconduct by Snyder and others within the franchise. However, the committee found that this was not the same process used by the league in previous instances of sexual misconduct within the league.
Snyder testified remotely in a 10-hour deposition after weeks of negotiations over the terms of the interview with the committee. He declined the committee’s invitation to appear at the June 22 hearing on Capitol Hill, during which Goodell testified remotely. Snyder’s attorney subsequently refused to accept electronic service of a subpoena, spending significant time on a yacht internationally during the back-and-forth.
While Jones continues to back Snyder, not all NFL owners have done the same in recent weeks. In October, Colts owner Jim Irsay said that Snyder should be removed from his position and that he believed there was enough support among his fellow owners to make it happen. Weeks later, the Commanders confirmed that Dan and Tanya Snyder, his wife and co-owner, hired Bank of America to help potentially sell pieces of the team or the entire franchise.
After Thursday’s report was made public, Commanders attorneys John Brownlee and Stuart Nash released a statement on the findings:
“Today’s report does not advance public knowledge of the Washington Commanders workplace in any way,” the statement read. “The team is proud of the progress it has made in recent years in establishing a welcoming and inclusive workplace, and it looks forward to future success, both on and off the field.”
