The House Oversight Committee held a hearing last week in its investigation into the Washington Commanders workplace culture and allegations against owner Dan Snyder for sexual harassment and misconduct.
While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified virtually, Snyder declined invitations from the Committee to appear. His lawyer cited Snyder was out of the country for business matters.
The Committee’s chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) vowed to issue Snyder a subpoena to have him provide a deposition this week. However, Snyder has not accepted the subpoena despite efforts from the Committee.
According to the Washington Times’ Matthew Paras, the Committee asked Snyder’s attorney to accept the subpoena on the owner’s behalf. She rejected the requests, saying she is not authorized to accept the subpoena.
The two sides have been in discussions to hammer out the specifics on the matter. Snyder’s attorney still has concerns of her client having a due process and on Friday requested a call for Monday to address her concerns.
It’s unclear if the call happened. But, the Committee’s spokesperson released a statement Monday afternoon saying Snyder is evading the subpoena.
“Mr. Snyder has so far refused to accept service of the Committee’s subpoena. While the Committee has been, and remains, willing to consider reasonable accommodations requested by witnesses, we will not tolerate attempts to evade service of a duly authorized subpoena or seek special treatment not afforded to other witnesses who testified in this matter. The Committee will not be deter from obtaining Mr. Snyder’s testimony, and we remain committed to ensuring transparency about the toxic workplace culture at the Washington Commanders and the NFL’s inadequate response.”
The Committee found Snyder ran a ‘shadow investigation’ to discredit employees. Former Commanders Chief Operating Officer David Pauken provided a number of instances damaging to Snyder as he testified during last week’s hearing.
The Committee’s investigation comes after the first of two NFL investigations into the Commanders that started in July 2020. The league did not publicly share the findings of Beth Wilkinson’s report. Washington was fined $10 million. Meanwhile, Snyder stepped down from day-to-day responsibilities of the team.
When asked by the Committee last week why he didn’t remove Snyder from ownership, Goodell replied, “I don’t have authority to remove him.”
According to NFL bylaws, a team owner can only be removed by a three-quarters majority vote of fellow team owners.
