Washington Attorney General Karl Racine announced on Thursday that his office will be filing a consumer protection lawsuit against the Washington Commanders and owner Dan Snyder for lying to the District of Columbia about allegations of a “hostile work environment.”
Racine said defendants named in the lawsuit, including Snyder, the Commanders team, the NFL, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, caused “very real and very serious harm” by repeatedly lying and denying knowing anything about instances of alleged sexual misconduct or harassment.
The lawsuit, under the district’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act, is suing the defendants for toxic workplace culture, particularly toward women, that was covered up to “protect their profits and their image,” Racine said during a press conference on Thursday.
BREAKING: My office is suing Commanders owner Dan Snyder, the Commanders, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and the NFL for colluding to deceive District residents—the heart of the Commanders’ fanbase—about an investigation into toxic workplace culture.
— AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) November 10, 2022
“In fact, the evidence shows that Mr. Snyder was not only aware of the toxic culture within his organization, he encouraged it, and he participated in it,” Racine said.
The attorney general said his office has been working on this investigation since the fall of 2021, interviewing numerous witnesses, including former team employees who witnessed and experienced the misconduct. Snyder was fined $10 million by the NFL last year on charges that he maintained an unwelcome workplace, and the House Oversight and Reform Committee led by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) later opened a subsequent investigation into allegations that the team tolerated misconduct against its employees.
Racine also announced in April that his office would investigate whether the Commanders engaged in a “troubling pattern of financial conduct” after a former employee alleged the team withheld security deposits and hid money meant to be distributed throughout the NFL. Racine said updates on the financial misconduct allegations would be given next week.
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The attorney general’s office found evidence that Snyder’s “high level of personal control” allowed him to dictate several decisions, whether it be choosing cheerleaders’ photos for the Commanders’ calendar or telling employees to “create voyeuristic videos of partially clad cheerleaders” from footage that the women allegedly did not know about, Racine said.
Racine added that Snyder dismissed reports of sexual misconduct and harassment that were brought to him, at one point even firing a cheerleader who reported sexual misconduct to “minimize distractions from the players.”
“Mr. Schneider made public statements claiming he was unaware of these allegations until they surfaced in the media. He also claimed he had been too hands-off as an owner and allowed others to have day-to-day control over the team,” Racine said. “These attempts to deflect attention away from himself and blame others do not stand the test of scrutiny.”
The Commanders have maintained they have committed no wrongdoing, instead releasing a statement on Wednesday blasting Racine for rising crime in Washington.
“Less than three months ago, a 23-year-old player on our team was shot multiple times, in broad daylight,” the statement said. “Despite the out-of-control violent crime in DC, today the Washington Commanders learned for the first time on Twitter that the D.C. Attorney General will be holding a press conference to ‘make a major announcement’ related to the organization tomorrow.”
The statement added that the Commanders have “fully cooperated” with the office’s investigation for a year, and a lawyer as recently as Monday met with Racine, who allegedly “did not suggest at that time that he intended to take action.”
“It is unfortunate that, in his final days in office, Mr. Racine appears more interested in splashy headlines, based on offbeat legal theories, rather than doing the hard work of making the streets safe for our citizens, including bringing to justice the people who shot one of our players,” the Commanders said.
The attorney general’s office is also suing the NFL and Goodell for leading fans to believe that the organization’s separate investigation was “independent of Mr. Snyder’s influences.”
Racine said Snyder and the NFL entered a secret agreement that the public was unaware of, allowing Snyder to influence the evidence shared with the public and the eventual outcome of the “independent” investigation.
“We were led to believe that Mr. Schneider would not interfere with the ‘independent’ investigation — he did,” Racine said. “We were led to believe that the public would not be left out of the process — we were. We were led to believe real change would happen — we’re still waiting.”
The D.C. Attorney General’s Office will not be able to bring down criminal charges because the instances of misconduct occurred in Maryland and Virginia and it therefore does not have jurisdiction, Racine said. Over the last six years, the office has brought back $225 million in restitution after winning cases under the Consumer Protection Procedures Act. Damages for the lawsuit announced on Thursday have not yet been calculated, Racine said.
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This latest development comes at a crucial time for the Commanders as Snyder considers selling the team, announcing last week he hired Bank of America to “consider potential transactions” regarding team ownership. Racine said the lawsuit will continue, even if Snyder sells the team before the case is settled.
“I am repulsed by the conduct at issue,” Racine said. “The idea of intimidating victims, the idea of trying to scare them into backing down their allegations, is outrageous. And it calls on all of us to do what we can to bring accountability.”
