A lengthy investigation by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White substantiated claims that outgoing Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder sexually harassed a former employee and that the team deliberately underreported revenues to the NFL, the league announced Thursday.
The NFL said in a statement that Snyder will pay the league $60 million “in resolution of Ms. White’s findings and all outstanding matters.”
“The conduct substantiated in Ms. White’s findings has no place in the NFL,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “We strive for workplaces that are safe, respectful and professional. What Ms. Johnston experienced is inappropriate and contrary to the NFL’s values.”
A Commanders spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The long-awaited release of the report came more than 17 months after the NFL tabbed White, who also previously served as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to investigate Snyder and the Commanders in February 2022.
It also came mere minutes after NFL owners voted unanimously to approve Snyder’s sale of the Commanders to an ownership group led by Josh Harris. The deal is worth $6.05 billion.
At the crux of White’s report are allegations delivered in public testimony on Capitol Hill by former team employee Tiffani Johnston. Johnston, a former cheerleader and marketing employee for the Commanders, told members of the House Oversight Committee that Snyder had made “sexual advances” on her during a networking event – including placing his hand on her thigh under a table, then later trying to usher her into his limousine. Snyder denied Johnston’s claims, calling them “outright lies.”
The NFL nevertheless decided to investigate the matter – marking the second time in 20 months that it hired an outside lawyer to look into Washington’s football team and its owner.
And in Thursday’s report, which spans 23 pages, White’s team said it was able to sustain those allegations.
It cited testimony from four witnesses, who recalled Johnston telling them about the incident shortly thereafter, among other corroborating evidence.
“We spoke to Ms. Johnston several times and found her to be highly credible,” the report states.
White’s team also substantiated a separate set of allegations related to the company’s finances, which emerged from the Congressional investigation.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, Democrats on the Congressional committee detailed testimony from former Commanders sales executive Jason Friedman, who said the team kept “two sets of books” for financial accounting and withheld or concealed ticket revenue from the NFL.
Thursday’s report states that White’s team found evidence to corroborate those allegations, as well.
“Primarily because of the Club’s failures to cooperate in producing requested relevant documents, as well as the unwillingness of certain former senior executives to be interviewed, we were unable to determine the precise amount of underreported revenues, or the extent of Mr. Snyder’s knowledge and involvement in the Club’s improper revenue shielding schemes,” the report states.
“It is clear, however, that the Club intentionally underreported some amount of shareable revenue and did so in deliberate violation of the League’s revenue sharing rules, frequently by improperly classifying NFL revenues as non-shareable revenues from special events, such as concerts, college football games, or soccer games.”
The White report follows a separate league investigation that concluded in 2021 and determined that, under Snyder’s leadership, the workplace culture had been “highly unprofessional,” especially for female employees. The team was fined $10 million as a result of that probe, which was not documented or detailed in a written report.
The myriad investigations led to increased pressure on Snyder, who purchased the team in 1999. In a dramatic step, one fellow owner – Jim Irsay of the Indianapolis Colts – even indicated last year that the probes could lead to Snyder’s ouster. And that effectively proved to be the case.
Snyder announced late last year that he intended to sell the team, eventually reaching a deal with a new ownership group led by Harris, the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia 76ers owner.