Washington Commander-in-Chief Dan Snyder again declined to appear at a U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing set for this Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET.
Snyder’s attorney, Karen Patton Seymour, sent a letter to House Oversight and Reform Committee leaders on Monday informing the committee of Snyder’s decision.
“Mr. Snyder’s business dispute was scheduled long before and cannot be rescheduled,” Seymour told ESPN.com. “Furthermore, the suggestion in your letter that Mr. Snyder may testify remotely does not address my concern that a virtual appearance does not sufficiently protect Mr. Snyder’s interest in having his attorney physically present with him.”
Seymour added: “The Snyders and the team remain fully prepared to cooperate with the Committee and are eager to share the cultural transformation made by the commanders if the Committee is interested in obtaining this information in a manner consistent with due process and equity protections. “
The notice was in response to a letter Friday from President Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., urging Snyder to testify at Wednesday’s hearing.
“If Mr. Snyder were really committed to cooperating with the committee’s investigation, he would have accepted the committee’s invitation to testify about the toxic culture of the commanders’ workplace,” the committee said Monday in a statement from Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network. “As the president’s letter made clear, the committee has been more than complacent, even allowing Mr Snyder to testify at a distance from France. His refusal to testify sends an unmistakable signal that Mr Snyder has something to hide and is afraid to be clear.to the American public and addressing the major protection concerns of workers facing the NFL.The committee will not be deterred in its investigation to find out the truth of the evil work conduct to Washington commanders “.
Congress invited Snyder and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on June 1 to attend the hearing, which is part of their investigation into the team’s workplace behavior.
Pelissero reported last week that Goodell accepted the committee’s invitation and will testify virtually Wednesday. That same day, Snyder responded to Congress with a letter from his lawyer, stating that Snyder “has a long-standing business dispute related to the commanders and is out of the country on the first and only date the Committee has proposed for the ‘audience’.
Congress began an investigation into the Washington franchise’s misconduct in October 2021 after the league failed to publish a report detailing the findings of an independent investigation into the matter.