WASHINGTON – A woman accused Washington Commander-in-Chief Dan Snyder of sexually assaulting and assaulting her on a team plane in 2009, and the team later paid the woman 1.6 millions of dollars to resolve their claims, according to a document obtained by the Washington Post.
The Post reported on Tuesday that it had obtained a letter from a lawyer working for the team detailing the woman’s allegations while arguing that her claims were not credible. The $ 1.6 million deal had previously been revealed in legal documents related to the team’s most recent investigations, but details of the woman’s allegations were not disclosed. The woman agreed not to sue the team or publicly disclose her allegations as part of the deal.
Snyder denied the woman’s allegations, according to the letter, and an investigation by the team accused her of inventing the allegations in an attempt to extort him.
The contents of the letter were revealed a day before a hearing scheduled by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which investigates the workplace culture of the Washington team. Snyder declined an invitation from the committee to testify, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had to testify at a distance.
Dan SnyderAP
The NFL fined the team $ 10 million and Snyder stepped down from his day-to-day operations after an investigation by attorney Beth Wilkinson revealed a work culture that was abusive to women. But the league refused to publish a written report on Wilkinson’s findings.
Since then, the committee has uncovered a report of sexual harassment by Snyder. Former team employee Tiffani Johnston told the committee that Snyder palpated her at a team dinner and tried to force her into her limousine, Snyder denied.
This triggered a new investigation by the NFL-led team led by Mary Jo White, a former U.S. attorney and chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. White is also investigating allegations of financial irregularities by a former vice president of sales for the team. The NFL has said White’s findings will be made public.
The letter obtained by the Post was written by Howard Shapiro, a lawyer in the WilmerHale law firm, who had helped the team investigate the woman’s allegations. Shapiro wrote that the woman’s claims were “consciously false.” He declined to comment on the Post.
According to the letter, the woman accused Snyder of asking her for sex, touching her and trying to take off her clothes in a private, divided area in the back of a team plane during a return flight. from a trip to Las Vegas.
The letter said none of the other passengers on the flight supported the woman’s account. Others said the back door of the plane was open for most of the flight and that other passengers and flight attendants were frequently present in this section, according to the letter.