Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder, through his lawyer, offered two dates to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee later this month, according to a letter sent to Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney on Thursday.
Snyder’s attorney, Karen Patton Seymour, wrote to Maloney, a New York Democrat, and offered July 28 or July 29 as dates that the embattled billionaire could testify remotely before the committee that has been investigating the Commanders’ workplace culture since last fall.
However, according to the letter, the committee previously offered July 6 or July 8 for the longtime Washington owner to testify. However, Seymour wrote that she was “unavailable” for those days. Seymour added that she has “not heard anything” from the committee since a phone call on June 30 to discuss the conflicts out of country that she and Snyder both say they have.
“Unfortunately, despite Mr. Snyder’s good faith efforts to cooperate with the Committee by proposing two dates for a voluntary appearance, the discussions thus far with the Committee’s staff have not been fruitful, and I remain concerned that the Committee is not proceeding in a manner that sufficiently respects Mr. Snyder’s right to fundamentally fair treatment,” Seymour wrote.
The July 29 date that Seymour offered is the final day the House is in session before the August recess.
“We remain committed to securing Mr. Snyder’s testimony on the toxic work environment at the Washington Commanders following his failure to appear voluntarily at the Committee’s hearing and his continued refusal to allow his attorney to accept service of a subpoena,” a committee spokesperson wrote in an email statement Thursday. “We are continuing to negotiate with his counsel to ensure the Committee can obtain the full and complete testimony we need, and we are reviewing her latest correspondence.”
Seymour wrote that Snyder, 57, will be in Israel “for much of July” to hold a ceremony for the one-year anniversary of his mother’s death. She added that his trip “cannot be rescheduled,” which is why he would be testifying virtually, should the committee accept one of the two proposed dates.
“In an effort to accommodate the Committee’s interest in speaking to him promptly, however, I informed the Committee’s staff that, on the assumption that our due process concerns could be resolved, Mr. Snyder could make himself available for a voluntary appearance by Zoom on July 28 or 29 — notwithstanding that he would still be in Israel with his family at that time — and that I would travel to Israel to represent him,” Seymour wrote.
The letter Thursday comes about two weeks after Maloney said during NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s testimony before the committee that she was going to subpoena Snyder.
“Rather than show up and take responsibility for his actions, he chose to skip town,” Maloney said before the committee on June 22. “Apparently, Mr. Snyder is in France, where he has docked his luxury yacht near a resort town. That should tell you just how much respect he has for women in the workplace.”
Two days later, the committee asked Seymour to accept service of the subpoena on Snyder’s behalf — a request she declined because she said she wasn’t authorized to do so.
Matthew Paras contributed to this report.
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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