Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder promised to cooperate with an NFL probe into his team’s rampant culture of sexual harassment alleged by several of his former employees last year. But he has secretly waged a behind-the-scenes campaign to interfere with the investigation, according to The Washington Post. The newspaper found that Snyder systematically used lawyers and private investigators to intimidate, sue, and silence accusers, including a woman who had accused Snyder himself of harassment. The woman, who had reached a confidential $1.6 million settlement with Snyder in 2009, was offered more money in exchange for “noncooperation” with investigating attorney Beth Wilkinson, Wilkinson said in a court filing.
Some former employees who spoke to the Post described being followed by private investigators working on Snyder’s behalf, who showed up at their homes or contacted the employees’ friends and relatives. The employees said the private investigators seemed to be trying to intimidate them out of participating in the NFL’s probe. Possibly in part due to Snyder’s machinations, according to the Post, the NFL never issued a public report of Wilkinson’s findings. “I think Beth Wilkinson intended to write one all along,” an attorney for several former employees said. “But [NFL commissioner] Roger Goodell and the NFL chose to bury whatever she found.”
Read it at The Washington Post
