Dozens of employees of the Washington Commanders were harmed for more than two decades because of a “toxic work culture” in which sexual harassment and bullying were pervasive, according to a scathing report released Thursday by the House Oversight Committee.
The title of the report is “Conduct Detrimental: How the NFL and the Washington Commanders Covered Up Decades of Sexual Misconduct.”
“The results of the Committee’s investigation, as laid out in this report, are clear: sexual harassment, bullying, and other toxic conduct pervaded the workplace at the Washington Commanders and were perpetuated by a culture of fear instilled by the Team’s owner” Daniel Snyder, the report said.
The report mentions attorney Beth Wilkinson, who Snyder initially commissioned to investigate the team’s workplace environment, a probe which was later taken over by the NFL.
“The NFL, through the investigation conducted by Ms. Wilkinson, was aware that Mr. Snyder and other Team executives not only failed to stop this misconduct but engaged in it themselves. The League also knew that Mr. Snyder and the Commanders organization used a variety of tactics to intimidate, surveil, and pay off whistleblowers and to influence and obstruct Ms. Wilkinson’s work. Rather than seek real accountability, the NFL aligned its legal interests with Mr. Snyder’s, failed to curtail his abusive tactics, and buried the investigation’s findings. The Committee’s investigation demonstrates the urgent need for workplace reform,” the report said.
The NFL and Washington Commanders were not immediately reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
The committee launched the investigation in October 2021 after the NFL failed to release detailed findings from Wilkinson’s investigation, the report said.
Over 12 months, the committee conducted interviews and depositions, held a roundtable with former employees who experienced sexual harassment and assault while working for the Commanders, and convened a hearing at which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified, the report said.
Snyder, who owned the team over the two-decade span, according to the report, obstructed the committee’s investigation.
“Mr. Snyder was invited to testify at a public hearing but refused to appear and then sought to avoid service of a subpoena while abroad with his yacht,” the report said. “Mr. Snyder ultimately sat for a private deposition but failed to provide full and complete testimony. Over the course of the deposition, he claimed more than 100 times that he could not recall the answers to the Committee’s questions, including basic inquiries about his role as Team owner and multiple allegations of misconduct. Mr. Snyder also gave misleading testimony about his efforts to interfere with the Wilkinson Investigation.”
Snyder sexually harassed female subordinates for years and even had secret “soft porn” videos made of cheerleaders, former employees told a congressional committee in February.
The allegations were made by six former employees of the Washington, D.C., NFL franchise during a House Oversight Committee roundtable on toxic workplace culture.
Former employee Tiffani Johnston made new allegations against Snyder on Thursday, saying he placed his hand on her thigh without her consent at a team dinner and that he pushed her toward his limousine with his hand on her lower back.
“He left his hand on the middle of my thigh until I physically removed it,” Johnston said.
Describing the incident outside Snyder’s limousine, she said: “The only reason Dan Snyder removed his hand from my back and stopped pushing me towards his limo was because his attorney intervened and said, ‘Dan, Dan, this is a bad idea.’ … I learned that I should remove myself from Dan’s grip while his attorney was distracting him.”
Former marketing director Melanie Coburn and one-time video production manager Brad Baker both repeated the allegation that Snyder had secret videos made for him, called “The Good Bits,” from footage taken at cheerleader shoots.
“We trusted the production team to capture footage and keep it safe. Little did we know, they were zooming in on private parts and keeping cameras rolling during costume changes,” Coburn told lawmakers in her prepared remarks.
Representatives for the team, renamed the Commanders released a statement from Snyder on Thursday denying the allegations from the hearing.
“I have acknowledged and apologized multiple times in the past for the misconduct which took place at the Team and the harm suffered by some of our valued employees,” Snyder said. “I apologize again today for this conduct, and fully support the people who have been victimized and have come forward to tell their stories.”
“While past conduct at the Team was unacceptable, the allegations leveled against me personally in today’s roundtable — many of which are well over 13 years old — are outright lies,” he continued. “I unequivocally deny having participated in any such conduct, at any time and with respect to any person.”
Complaints about the team’s treatment of female employees first surfaced in 2020. Snyder commissioned an investigation by attorney Beth Wilkinson’s firm into the team’s workplace environment that was taken over by the NFL.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
