Former employees of the NFL team now referred to as the Washington Commanders are publicly detailing allegations of sexual harassment against the club and owner Dan Snyder at a roundtable discussion with the House Oversight Committee.
Snyder is accused of sexually harassing one female employee by touching her leg during a dinner and later pressuring her to get into his limousine. Others claim he witnessed male employees sexually harassing female subordinates.
‘Mr. Snyder was sitting there . . . a couple of others,’ a female former employee, referred to as Denise, told HBO ahead of Thursday’s testimony. ‘One of my friends, she went to pick up something that he had dropped and, I can’t even say the word gentleman, one of the guys sitting there groped her butt as she went to pick it up innocently. And Snyder chuckled and took a puff of his cigar.
‘And then probably seven minutes later another man brushed his arm against my breast,’ she continued. ‘And a few minutes later another man said, ”Hey, meet me in this suite back here in the corner,” the examples are just endless. And that’s in Snyder’s owner’s suite… Snyder’s right there. It’s happening.’
Denise also claimed to have witnessed a married player expose himself at her office desk — something he allegedly did to other women — and said she was later told she ‘wasn’t a team player’ because she refused to sleep with a team business partner to facilitate a deal for the club.
The women previously testified in the NFL’s 10-month probe into sexual harassment and hostile workplace claims against the team, which was fined $10 million as a result of the investigation that ended in July of 2021. The team is valued at $4.2 billion, according to Forbes.
Snyder relinquished day-to-day control of the franchise to his wife and co-CEO Tanya following the inquiry, but has been spared further embarrassment because the NFL has refused to release its findings or any employee testimony, citing privacy concerns of those who testified anonymously.
Attorneys for the former employees and even members of congress have repeatedly called on the NFL to release its findings and the testimony. Several of the accusers are sitting down with the House Oversight Committee for a roundtable discussion about the allegations on Thursday morning.
Melaine Coburn, left, and Megan Imbert, former employees of the Washington Commanders, speaking to members of the media in the parking lot of FedEx Field before the start of an NFL football game, Monday, November 29, 2021, in Landover, Maryland. Coburn and Imbert are calling for NFL Commissioner and NFL to release a written report of the findings of the independent investigation into sexual harassment and abuse by the Washington Commanders. The two are scheduled to take part in a congressional roundtable discussion on Thursday
Dan and Tanya Snyder, co-owner and co-CEOs of the Washington Commanders, pose for photos after unveiling their NFL football team’s new identity, Wednesday. Snyder relinquished day-to-day control of the franchise to Tanya following the NFL’s sexual harassment inquiry, but has been spared further embarrassment because the NFL has refused to release its findings or any employee testimony, citing privacy concerns of those who testified anonymously
Several former Washington Commanders employees are calling on the NFL to release its report into sexual harassment allegations against the team, including (back row, left to right) Tiffani Mattingly Johnston, Melanie Coburn, and Tonya Haines, as well as (front row, left to right) Carly Walko, Donald Wells, and Kelley Halpern
Snyder, himself, was accused of grabbing a female employee’s leg at a team dinner and then pressuring her to get into his limousine, which she refused.
‘I was strategically placed right next to Dan Snyder,’ said former employee Tiffani Mattingly Johnston. ‘Anyway, I was eating dinner, having conversations. All of a sudden, Dan Snyder’s hand is on my leg.
‘And it was one of those moments where, as I’m trying to maintain a conversation, I just think to myself, ‘OK, you can kinda make a big deal of this and make a scene or you can silently just move his hand from your leg.’
‘And so that’s what I decided to do. I literally put my hand on his hand, put it back over towards him, and then continued on with my conversation. And he said nothing. I said nothing.’
Johnston said Snyder approached her again after the dinner.
‘Dan comes up behind me and puts his arm around my back,’ Johnston continued. ‘And he’s like, ‘Oh, hey. Why don’t you just get in my limo and then I’ll take you back to your car?’
‘He’s pushing me towards his limo,’ she said. ‘And he kept pushing it, kept pushing it. I just remember his attorney at the time walks up to him and says, ‘Dan. Dan. Very, very bad idea. And I mean bad idea.” When he was distracted looking at the lawyer, I kind of got from out of Dan Snyder’s arm and went over to the other sidewalk — or went beyond his limo and — and hailed a cab.
‘Because in my head, I’m thinking, ‘He truly believes I’m gonna get in this limo and do God knows what with him.’
Johnston did not identify the specific lawyer who intervened.
A team spokesperson did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
In her testimony, Melanie Coburn put much of the blame on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (right), whom she says deliberately prevented the release of the report: ‘The NFL is now complicit in this scandal. Its commissioner, Roger Goodell, asked the investigator to give an oral report so he can’t corroborate the victim’s claims and there’s nothing official for the public to react to. Ten months, more than 120 witnesses and nothing. Roger Goodell’s claim that he was trying to protect us is outrageous and cowardly. The public optics of him caring are appealing. Goodell betrayed every woman who suffered harassment and abuse at the Washington Football Team’
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (right), a New York Democrat who is chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (left), an Illinois Democrat and chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, called on the NFL to release its findings
This has been a busy week for the club, which changed its name to Commanders on Wednesday nearly two years after dropping ‘Redskins,’ a term that is offensive to many Native Americans.
One former employee, Megan Imbert, said the team and league are using the victims to shield Snyder and the club from public embarrassment.
‘We’ve been used as the excuse as to why they’re not releasing information,’ Imbert said. ‘So it’s really troubling. And it really makes you wonder, how corrupt is the situation and what was actually shared for the investigation?’
‘We quit wondering weeks ago. We assume the NFL is hiding something huge. The league wouldn’t be going to these lengths to hide the evidence if it wasn’t.
‘Hopefully, Congress will get to the truth.’
Redskins cheerleaders seen dancing as part of a 2004 event, where Tiffany Bacon Scourby claims Snyder suggested she spend some time with a close friend of his in a nearby hotel room
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat who is chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat and chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, have been calling for the NFL to release its findings since October.
Maloney and Krishnamoorthi’s doubled down on their demands following a Washington Post report in December, which claimed that Snyder sought to prevent former employees from speaking to the NFL’s independent investigator Beth Wilkinson.
The report describes a pattern of intimidation by private investigators as well as various legal tactics ostensibly aimed at publicly identifying leakers. Additionally, one of the 57-year-old billionaire’s attorneys is accused of trying to buy the silence of a woman who accused Snyder of sexual misconduct in 2009.
‘While Mr. Snyder publicly stated that he wanted independent investigators to ferret out the truth, today’s reporting suggests that he was privately trying to obstruct the efforts of the very investigator he hired in an effort to conceal damaging information,’ Maloney said in a news release issued by the Oversight Committee’s majority staff.
‘These disturbing revelations have only strengthened the Committee’s commitment to uncovering the truth in this matter.’
Allegations against team employees ranged from inappropriate comments to the creation of a lewd behind-the-scenes video from a cheerleader calendar shoot in 2008, according to a 2020 Washington Post report. The Post report cited former employee Emily Applegate (pictured) and 14 mostly anonymous women, many of whom claimed they were left unsupported by an understaffed human resources department
Maloney and Krishnamoorthi sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on October 21 seeking all documents and communication related to the probe.
On November 5, the pair of representatives urged the NFL and the Washington Football Team in a letter to release individuals from non-disclosure agreements that would prevent them from discussing sexual harassment and workplace issues at the club.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league received the letter and shared the committee’s ‘concern that all workplaces should be free from any form of harassment and discrimination.’
He added: ‘We look forward to speaking to her office soon.’
A former cheerleader named Tiffany Bacon Scourby told the Washington Post that Snyder suggested that she join his ‘close friend’ in a hotel room in 2004 so they ‘could get to know each other’
Wilkinson, a prominent attorney, was originally hired by the Washington Football Team (WFT) in 2020 to investigate the hostile workplace allegations against the club. The NFL took control of the investigation soon thereafter and Wilkinson began reporting to Goodell’s office until the probe was concluded in July of 2021.
As a result of the investigation, the team was fined $10 million, and Snyder temporarily stepped away from day-to-day control of the franchise in favor of his wife, Tanya.
Allegations against team employees ranged from inappropriate comments to the creation of a lewd behind-the-scenes video from a cheerleader calendar shoot in 2008, according to a 2020 Washington Post report. The Post report cited former employee Emily Applegate and 14 mostly anonymous women, many of whom claimed they were left unsupported by an understaffed human resources department.
A former cheerleader named Tiffany Bacon Scourby told the Washington Post that Snyder suggested that she join his ‘close friend’ in a hotel room in 2004 so they ‘could get to know each other.’
He was also accused of warning the team’s cheerleading director to ensure the dancers are ‘skinny with big tits’ or he would ‘f***ing kill him.’
Snyder has denied both of these claims.
Nearly all of the accused employees have left the team or were dismissed.
The team was not stripped of any draft picks as part of the league’s discipline stemming from lawyer Beth Wilkinson’s investigation that began last summer. The investigation revealed that ownership and senior officials paid little attention to sexual harassment and other workplace issues. One NFL attorney described it as a culture of fear. Wilkinson (pictured) was initially hired by the team before the NFL took over the investigation, which ended in July
Although the NFL did not release the findings of that investigation, citing privacy issues, one revelation did surface in December of 2020 when the Washington Post reported that Snyder had previously settled a sexual misconduct claim for $1.6 million in 2009.
The specifics of the accusation are not clear, but the incident allegedly occurred on Snyder’s private plane returning from the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. References to the allegation also surfaced in separate court filings, which have been reviewed by DailyMail.com.
The woman reported her allegations to the team’s general counsel at the time, David Donovan, who led an investigation that exonerated Snyder and accused the woman of lying about her accusations, according to The Post.
Later, she sued the club and eventually agreed to a confidential $1.6 million settlement.
Wilkinson reportedly attempted to interview Snyder’s 2009 accuser as part of her probe.
But although Snyder pledged he would cooperate with Wilkinson’s probe, the accuser’s attorney, Brendan Sullivan, reportedly alleged that the billionaire attempted buy his client’s silence in 2020. Sullivan made the claim in a letter that was later included in a court filing, according to The Post.
And when Snyder’s attorneys reportedly learned that the woman still intended to speak to investigators, Donovan sued Wilkinson in federal court in an effort to bar her from speaking to NFL officials about the settlement.
As reported by the Washington Post, Snyder sought to prevent former employees from speaking to independent investigator Beth Wilkinson (left), a prominent attorney who was originally hired by the Washington Football Team (WFT) in 2020 to investigate the hostile workplace claims against the club
Sullivan declined to comment on the case when contacted by DailyMail.com. Wilkinson also declined to speak with the Washington Post.
Snyder’s attorneys have issued a denial.
‘Untrue,’ said A. Scott Bolden of the law firm Reed Smith, which represents Snyder. ‘It did not happen. Absolutely no effort was made by me or any Reed Smith lawyers to dissuade anyone from speaking with Beth Wilkinson or otherwise cooperating with her investigation, nor was any money offered to anyone not to cooperate. Anyone suggesting something to the contrary is lying.’
Snyder’s attorneys also filed petitions in federal court in an apparent attempt to publicly identify former employees who spoke to the Washington Post in 2020.
According to the Post, one judge suggested that Snyder was trying to ‘burden and harass’ former employees who were speaking to the media.
Furthermore, Snyder’s private investigators contacted former employees or their friends and relatives, which many saw as an act of intimidation, according to The Post.
Melanie Coburn, a former employee of the Washington Football Team, speaks to reporters during the NFL football owners meeting in New York on October 26. Coburn, who worked with the team’s cheerleaders for 14 years, claims that WFT private investigators questioned her about former club president Bruce Allen – Snyder’s perceived enemy who was fired in Washington after a 3-13 season in 2019.
A similar accusation surfaced in October, when former WFT employee Melanie Coburn told Fox News that Snyder’s private investigators questioned her about former club president Bruce Allen – the owner’s perceived enemy who was fired in Washington in 2019 following a 3-13 season.
‘He sent over a dozen private investigators to my colleagues’ homes across the country … to show up on cheerleaders’ doorstops and ask them what their relationship with Bruce Allen was,’ Coburn said.
Allen was the recipient of infamous racist and homophobic emails from longtime NFL coach and television analyst Jon Gruden – messages that surfaced in the NFL’s hostile workplace probe into the WFT.
Bruce Allen, the recipient of Gruden’s emails, was fired in Washington in 2019 following a 3-13 season. Since then, he and team owner Daniel Snyder have battled each other in court over severance pay and Snyder’s claim that Allen spread false information about him to a website
The 58-year-old Gruden resigned as Las Vegas Raiders head coach in October after the emails he sent to Allen between 2011 and 2018 appeared in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
In the messages, which Gruden sent when he worked as an on-air analyst for ESPN, the decorated coach used a racist trope to describe players’ union executive director DeMaurice Smith, an African American, and called commissioner Goodell a ‘f*****.’
There has been speculation that the emails were leaked by the Snyder or his employees.
NBC’s Peter King, a veteran NFL reporter, wrote that ‘several smart people in the league think the leaks come from the Snyder camp’ and that reporting has since been matched by the Washington Post.
Coburn, who worked with the team’s cheerleaders for 14 years, also claimed Snyder leaked the emails in an effort to push blame for the team’s sexual harassment scandal onto Allen.
‘I believe Dan Snyder leaked these emails,’ Coburn told Fox News on October 19. ‘I believe he’s trying to put all the blame on Bruce Allen.’
‘I feel like he’s trying to pin everything on Bruce, right, and place all the blame for all of the bad culture on him, which just isn’t true.’
Snyder’s attorney, Jordan Siev, denied Coburn’s accusations in a statement to DailyMail.com.
‘Any suggestion by Ms. Coburn that anyone associated with the Washington Football Team was behind any leaks concerning Jon Gruden is categorically false and part of a pattern of misinformation being spread by Ms. Coburn,’ Siev said.
Allen did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Jon Gruden’s racist, homophobic, and misogynistic messages were included among 650,000 emails in the NFL’s 10-month probe into hostile workplace and sexual harassment allegations against the Washington Football Team (WFT). As a result of the investigation that ended in July, the club was fined $10 million and Dan agreed to cede day-to-day control of the franchise to Tanya. The 58-year-old Gruden resigned earlier this month after the emails he sent to then-WFT president Bruce Allen between 2011 and 2018 surfaced in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal
If Coburn’s claim is correct, this wouldn’t be the first time Snyder shared a portion of these emails.
Redacted versions of some of Gruden’s emails were also filed in federal court last June as part of Snyder’s efforts to compel Allen to produce discovery in a separate defamation lawsuit filed in India against a tabloid website. Several of the emails included in that court filing and reviewed by DailyMail.com are among the messages leaked to the Times.
Snyder was attempting to prove Allen was involved in a plot to falsely connect him to disgraced investor Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who committed suicide in prison in 2019.
His motion directing discovery from Allen in the case was dropped in April.
The two have also been at odds over over several issues, including Allen’s severance, which Snyder was forced to pay in full in 2020.
In October, an NFL spokesman denied to DailyMail.com that the league was trying to protect Snyder, but according to The Post, former team employees took notice that the leaked emails spared the billionaire any embarrassment while serving to damage Allen’s reputation.
WASHINGTON COMMANDERS SEXUAL HARASSMENT FALLOUT:
Majority owner Dan Snyder: A former cheerleader named Tiffany Bacon Scourby told the Washington Post that Snyder suggested that she join his ‘close friend’ in a hotel room in 2004 so they ‘could get to know each other.’ In February of 2022, more former employees publicized allegations against Snyder. One woman, referred to as Denise, told HBO that she saw Snyder laughing and puffing on a cigar while watching a male executive grope a female employee’s backside in his private suite at FedEx Field. Another former employee, Tiffani Mattingly Johnston, said Snyder put his hand on her knee once at a dinner and later pressured her to get into his limousine, which she refused. The billionaire is also accused of belittling executives, according to three members of the executive staff. Specifically, he’s accused of mocking an employee named Dennis Greene for being a college cheerleader, once allegedly ordering him to do cartwheels for his amusement. Snyder has privately settled one sexual harassment allegation, according to The New York Times and Washington Post. Snyder remains the team’s official owner, but has stepped away from day-to-day involvement with the club and made his wife Tanya co-CEO as the league imposed a $10 million fine.
Dan Snyder (left) still owns the Washington Football Team, but has ceded day-to-day control of the franchise following the NFL’s investigation into sexual harassment claims against the club. He has since accused now-former team president Bruce Allen (right) of conspiring to spread false information about him to an Indian website
Chief operating officer Mitch Gershman: Former team employee Emily Applegate said he would routinely compliment her body while also regularly berating her for insignificant problems, like printer malfunctions. Her allegations were supported by two other female former employees. When contacted, Gershman told The Post, ‘I barely even remember who she is,’ adding that he ‘would apologize to anyone who thought I was verbally abusive.’ Gershman left the team in 2015.
Team president Bruce Allen: Although Allen was not accused of sexual harassment or verbal abuse, Applegate claims he must have known about her problems because ‘he sat 30 feet away from me… and saw me sobbing at my desk several times a week.’ The brother of former Virginia Governor and US Senator George Allen, Bruce found himself at the center of Jon Gruden’s email controversy in October of 2021 when the now-former Raiders coach’s racist, homophobic messages were mysteriously leaked to the media. Allen also received racist and sexist emails from Jon Gruden, which surfaced during the NFL’s sexual harassment investigation and were leaked to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Ultimately the emails led to Gruden’s dismissal as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Bruce Allen was fired after the 2019 season, when Washington went 3-13.
Former Washington Redskins director of pro personnel Alex Santos
Director of pro personnel Alex Santos: Six former employees and two reporters who covered the team told the Washington Post that Santos made inappropriate remarks to them about their appearances. He also asked them if they were interested in him romantically. In 2019, he allegedly pinched Rhiannon Walker, a reporter for The Athletic, and told her she had ‘an ass like a wagon.’ This resulted in an internal investigation. Another reporter, the Ringer’s Nora Princiotti, also accused Santos of harassing her. Santos, who declined to speak with The Post, was fired in July of 2020.
Team radio play-by-play announcer Larry Michael: Seven former employees told The Post that ‘the voice of the Washington Redskins’ frequently talked openly about female co-workers looks, often making sexually disparaging remarks. He was once caught on a ‘hot mic’ in 2018 discussing the looks of one intern, six sources told The Post. He is also accused of ordering employees to edit together a video of lewd behind-the-scenes outtakes from a 2008 calendar shoot. Michael, who declined to speak with The Post, retired after 16 seasons in July of 2020.
Former radio announcer Larry Michael (left) and former assistant director of pro personnel Richard Mann II (right)
Assistant director of pro personnel Richard Mann II: In a text message obtained by The Post, Mann told a female colleague that he and other men in the office debated whether she had plastic surgery on her breasts. He also warned another female coworker to expect an ‘inappropriate hug’ from him, adding, ‘don’t worry that will be a stapler in my pocket, nothing else.’ Mann declined to speak with The Post after being fired in July of 2020.
Former president of business operations Dennis Greene
President of business operations Dennis Greene: Five former employees told The Post that Greene asked female sales staffers to wear revealing outfits and flirt with wealthy season ticket holders and suite holders. Greene worked for the club for 17 years until 2018, when it was revealed that he had sold access to team cheerleaders at a bikini photo shoot in Costa Rica as part of a ticket package. According to a New York Times investigation, the 2013 calendar shoot did not involve any sex, but team officials did worry the cheerleaders by taking their passports. Some cheerleaders say they were required to be topless, although the shoot did not include any nudity. After a 14-hour shoot one day, nine of the 36 cheerleaders were reportedly asked to escort suite holders to a local nightclub. Several of the women began to cry, according to the Times. Greene declined to comment and has not worked for the team since he resigned in 2018.
