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Roger Goodell Says Dan Snyder Didn't Interfere with NFL's Investigation into WFT
December 16, 2021
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell responded to a report from the Washington Post's Will Hobson and Liz Clarke on Tuesday that outlined various ways Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder allegedly attempted to obstruct the NFL's investigation into the organization.
Goodell told reporters there was no interference in the investigation.
"We went through a very lengthy period of investigation and discussions," he said. "The one thing I can say with a 100 percent assurance is that it didn't interfere with the work that our investigator did. We were able to access all the people that she wanted to access, have multiple conversations with those people. There's always a little bit of a tug and a pull with particularly lawyers and law firms. That's something that I think we were able to overcome and make sure that we came to the right conclusion."
Per Hobson and Clarke's report, Snyder's attorneys allegedly offered a woman who had accused the WFT owner of sexual harassment in 2009—who had settled with Snyder to the tune of $1.6 million—additional hush money if she would refuse to speak to attorney Beth Wilkinson, who was leading the NFL's investigation into workplace misconduct and sexual harassment in Washington.
Snyder's attorneys have denied the accusations.
Per the Post's report, Snyder's laywers "filed petitions in federal court seeking, in part, to identify former employees who had spoken to The Post—an effort one federal judge suggested was intended 'to burden and harass' former employees who had spoken to reporters."
Private investigators hired by Snyder allegedly "showed up uninvited at the homes of several former employees or contacted their friends and relatives, according to these former employees or their attorneys—acts many of them viewed as intimidation aimed at discouraging former employees from participating in the NFL’s investigation."
The NFL has not publicly released the findings of its investigation into the WFT, which resulted in a $10 million fine.
However, political pressure has continued to ramp up against the NFL, with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) requesting that the league hand over evidence regarding Snyder's potential interference into the investigation on Tuesday.
"The question is why, why did they go to that length to try to silence that witness and what else did they do to put the kibosh on this investigation and how did they do that?" Krishnamoorthi told reporters.