Further investigation on the toxic workplace culture at the Washington Commanders revealed a series of emails between higher ups sharing explicit images.
Per Eric Flack of WUSA in Washington, the Republican Party response to the House Oversight Committee report includes emails sent between former Washington general manager Bruce Allen and ex-NFL head coach Jon Gruden.
The images of emails sent between a number of people included attachments that included nude photos of cheerleaders under the subject line ‘For the d***heads only’.
Two emails presented in the Republican response to the House Oversight Committee’s report
The GOP response to this could be part of a greater effort to shift the narrative away from Snyder and toward Allen to prevent a forced sale and stopping one specific person from purchasing the Commanders.
‘Although I have yet to read through all 210 pages of the response, it appears through the emails, naked photos and released testimony from Snyder and former team exec Brian Lafemina Republicans are making the case Bruce Allen was the source of the toxicity, not Dan Snyder,’ Flack posited.
‘And then this: Republicans allege Democrat led investigation was elaborate scheme to get Dan Snyder to sell Commanders to Jeff Bezos. ‘hours after the news breaking of a possible future sale, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was reported to be interested in purchasing the team.’ (more)
”Bezos is also owner of Washington Post, whose negative coverage…has been a key driver of investigation. It appears…entire effort may have had removal of unfavored owner and installation of the owner of a left-leaning newspaper sympathetic to the Democratic party.”
Former team president Bruce Allen (right in 2018) also testified that Snyder discussed using private investigators to accumulate information about NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in an effort to gain leverage over the league as it investigated himself and the team. Furthermore, Allen claimed he was followed by Snyder’s private investigators. Snyder (left) has enlisted an investment bank to help him look into selling the NFL franchise
The official report from the House Oversight Committee says that Snyder purposely leaked these emails to support that claim from the Republicans that he wasn’t the source of the toxic culture.
‘By June 2021, Mr. Snyder went one step further he identified for the NFL “specific inappropriate Bruce Allen e-mails” to bolster the claims that Mr. Allen was to blame for the toxic workplace culture,’ the report read.
‘Public reports indicate that, although the NFL found Mr. Allen’s e-mails troubling, it determined that they were “outside the scope if the original probe into the Washington Football Team.” Approximately four months later, in October 2021, Mr. Allen learned that many of the “inappropriate” e-mails obtained by Mr. Snyder from his Commanders e-mail account had been leaked to the Wall Street Journal.
The House Oversight Committee says Snyder leaked emails in order to cast Allen in bad light
‘According to Mr. Allen, when he called NFL’s counsel, Lisa Friel, to complain, she indicated that the Commanders were responsible for the leak, stating “We didn’t do it at the league office. It came out of their side.”‘
In addition to emails targeting Allen, messages sent by Gruden led to him losing his job as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
When the leak occurred, emails from Gruden revealed content that was racist, sexist, and homophobic.
Publicizing their findings before the Republicans take over Congress next month, the Committee’s Democrats also accused the 58-year-old billionaire or his staff of leaking racially derogatory, years-old emails from former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden (pictured), who was subsequently fired by that team. According to testimony by former Commanders team president Bruce Allen, the recipient of the emails, Snyder made the leak to ‘send a message’ to Allen, one of Snyder’s perceived enemies
Snyder was directly involved in the misconduct, the Committee claims, saying he inappropriately touched a former employee at a dinner and once requested a staff-produced video ‘of sexually suggestive footage of cheerleaders.’ Snyder previously denied the claims.
The 58-year-old billionaire allegedly interfered in NFL and Committee probes stemming from 2020 allegations of rampant sexual harassment by executives.
Specifically, Snyder is accused of offering hush money to witnesses, intimidating others with the help of private investigators, ‘blocking the production of documents,’ and refusing to release former employees from non-disclosure agreements.
Ex-Commanders employee Tiffani Johnston told Congress’ Oversight Committee that Snyder once groped her thigh during a team dinner and pushed her toward his limousine with his hand on her lower back. Snyder has denied the allegation
While prominent Washington DC attorney Beth Wilkinson’s firm handled the NFL’s probe, Snyder also conducted his own ‘shadow investigation,’ casting ‘him as the victim of a defamation campaign.’
The shadow investigation was done, in part, to ‘deflect responsibility for the team’s toxic work culture,’ according to the congressional report.
And when he did testify to the committee, according to the report, Snyder was evasive and misleading, claiming more than 100 times that he had no memory of certain details.
‘For example, although Mr. Snyder admitted to using private investigators, he testified that he was ”unaware” whom his investigators approached and did not ”remember” having conversations with his counsel about the individuals targeted,’ read the report.
Daniel Snyder made misleading statements to congress when he testified as part of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s investigation into sexual harassment and hostile workplace allegations against the NFL’s Washington Commanders , according to a damning and wide-ranging report released Thursday
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