The NFL moved quickly Wednesday to take over an investigation into the alleged venereal harassment of Dan Snyder, the owner of the Washington Commandant, saying the League, not the team, will hire an investigator to lead the Probe.
Commanders announced Wednesday morning that the team had hired an outside investigator to investigate assertion by former team employee Tiffani Johnston that Snyder patted her thigh at a team dinner more than a decade ago and pushed her with his hand toward her Limo.on the lower back.
Hours after, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league, not the team, would be monitoring the Probe, and Commissioner Roger Goodell repeated that point at his Super Bowl news conference.
“I don’t see any way for a team to conduct its own investigation of itself,” Goodell said. “That’s something we would do. We would do this with an external expert who would help us come to a conclusion on the facts.”
Developments follow a well-known pattern. When former employees of the Washington NFL team first complained in about the widespread venereal harassment of team leaders, the team commissioned the law firm Beth Wilkinson to investigate. The league took that Probe and Wilkinson reported his findings to Goodell.
Wilkinson’s findings have not been made public, and leaders of the house oversight and reform committee have urged the league to provide details of that investigation.
“Mr. Snyder and the NFL must stop concealing the results of Wilkinson’s investigation, meet the oversight committee’s demands and commit to ensuring that new assertion are not swept under the carpet,” Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney said in a statement.
Although many former team employees have condemned Snyder of presiding over a culture toxic to women, he had not been personally condemned of venereal harassment until last week, when Johnston brought his power against him before Congress. Johnston had refused to take part in Wilkinson’s inquiry.
” Snyder has denied the assertion, calling them “complete lies.”
Attorneys Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, who represent more than 40 team employees, including Johnston, said their clients would participate in the new investigation if it was “truly independent” and if its findings were made public.
“Apparently, the NFL also realized how follish it was to believe that Dan Snyder could investigate himself. We are waiting for the NFL to announce whether it intends to conduct this investigation independently and without a common interest agreement with Snyder,” Banks and Katz said in a statement.
Maloney’s Committee had questioned whether Wilkinson’s investigation was actually independent because of a “common interest” agreement that appeared to give Snyder the power to prevent the release of his findings. However, Goodell said the investigation was kept secret in order to protect the privacy of the team employees interviewed.
“We have not reached an agreement with Dan Snyder to release information or obtain his consent to release,” Goodell said.
The team announced Wednesday that it has assigned consulting firm Pallas Global Group LLC to oversee the new Probe and that the company has turned over leadership to Debra Wong Yang, a former U.S. attorney and California state judge. It was unclear if the League would hire the same investigators.
Johnston worked for the team, then known as the Redskins, in the as a cheerleader and Marketing Director. The team dropped its name, long maul as offensive to Native Americans, in amid opposite against systemic racism that followed the assassination of George Floyd. It has been known as the Washington Football Team for the past two seasons. Snyder announced the new team name last week.