Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder informed the House Oversight and Reform Committee that he won’t appear at next week’s hearing on the team’s workplace misconduct.
Snyder, through his lawyer, sent a four-page letter Wednesday to the committee to explain the decision.
Earlier this month, House Democrats, who began investigating Washington and the NFL last fall, requested that Snyder and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appear at a June 22 hearing “to answer the questions they have dodged for the last seven months.”
The NFL commissioner confirmed Wednesday that he will appear at the hearing.
The committee gave the two men until June 6 to respond and when that deadline passed, a spokesperson from the panel said the parties were “in communication” regarding their appearance.
“The Committee intends to move forward with this hearing,” a committee spokesperson said Wednesday. “We are currently reviewing Mr. Snyder’s letter and will respond.”
In the letter, obtained by The Washington Times, Snyder attorney Karen Patton Seymour wrote that the embattled billionaire would be willing to testify, but has had “a longstanding Commanders-related business conflict and is out of the country on the first and only date” the committee proposed for the hearing.
Further, Seymour raised issues with the format of the hearing — specifically regarding the topics that would be discussed. She had requested, she wrote in the letter, a list of topics and copies of documents that members of the committee planned to introduce in the hearing.
“Although the Committee indicated that the hearing would be “focused on” the historical workplace culture issues, I was informed that the Committee would not provide any assurance that the questions directed to Mr. Snyder would be limited to those issues, given the wide latitude granted to members to ask questions beyond the topics identified by the Committee,” Seymour wrote. “The Committee also declined to provide any additional information about the nature and scope of its investigation, including the identity of any other witnesses that have testified about the team and/or my client, whether any such witnesses have made allegations about the team and/or my client, and the substance of any such allegations.”
The committee, she wrote, rejected the requests.
Over the course of the months-long probe, the committee has unearthed previously unrevealed allegations against Snyder and the Washington Commanders.
Tiffani Johnston, a former cheerleader and marketing employee, told members of Congress in February that Snyder inappropriately touched her thigh underneath a dinner table and later tried to coax her into a limo.
A month later, in a private session, former employee Jason Friedman accused the team of intentionally withholding security deposit refunds due to season-ticket holders, among other financial wrongdoings. That testimony prompted the committee to ask the Federal Trade Commission to look into the charges.
Snyder and the Commanders strongly denied the new allegations, but the accusations were enough to convince the NFL, as well as the attorney general in Virginia and his counterpart in the District, to announce new investigations into the franchise.
“Mr. Snyder has no way of knowing what other nonpublic allegations may have been made against him before this Committee,” Seymour wrote. “It goes against fundamental notions of fairness and due process to decline to provide such basic information that would enable a witness to defend himself or even respond fully during a public hearing, particularly in light of pending investigations addressing similar allegations.”
Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, attorneys who represent Johnston, Friedman and other former Washington employees, said they and their clients were “disappointed but not surprised” that Snyder planned to not attend.
“We fully expect the Committee will issue a subpoena to compel Mr. Snyder to appear,” Banks and Katz said in a statement. “It is time that Mr. Snyder learns that he is not above the law.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Illinois Democrat leading the committee, previously indicated to ESPN that “all options would on the table” if Snyder and Goodell declined to appear, including subpoenas.
Krishnamoorthi said earlier this month that the committee had already been “stonewalled” by nondisclosure agreements and other tools.
He called on Snyder to appear to answer questions about Washington’s workplace misconduct and the league’s handling of it.
Maloney said in early June the hearing would also focus on “how Congress can act to prevent employers from silencing victims of workplace misconduct and ensure that what happened at the Commanders organization does not happen again.”
Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who is the ranking member of the committee, again accused Democrats of targeting a private company and running a one-sided investigation — saying in a statement that the probe “continues to be an egregious waste of taxpayer-funded resources.
Democrats have defended the probe, arguing that they’re examining workplace concerns across an industry.
“Despite months of Mr. Snyder’s cooperation, the Oversight Committee refused to afford the same respect and courtesy by declining multiple reasonable requests surrounding a potential appearance by Mr. Snyder,” a source close to Snyder said in a statement.
“Mr. Snyder remains willing to continue cooperating with the Committee but is unable to attend the June 22 hearing given the Committee’s disregard for due process.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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