Commanders owner offers to testify before House panel in late July

Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder offered to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee at a later date in July in relation to the panel’s investigation into the workplace misconduct allegations against the team. 

In a letter sent on Thursday to committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Snyder’s attorney Karen Patton Seymour told the committee that she hasn’t heard back from them since a June 30 phone conversation, in which they discussed her client’s conflicts on the dates the panel proposed Snyder appear for a deposition.

According to Seymour, the committee proposed that Snyder should testify on July 6 or 8, while she put forward July 28 and 29 as the best possible dates for her client to be interviewed before the House panel. 

Snyder declined to appear at the committee’s public hearing on workplace misconduct allegations against his team last month, citing business conflicts. Maloney said during the hearing that she would issue a subpoena for Snyder to testify.

Last week, the committee accused Snyder of evading its subpoena. An oversight panel spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill at the time that it would 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.” 

“Mr. Snyder has not refused to appear for a deposition. The Committee offered only one date – June 30 – and Mr. Snyder’s attorney is out of the country and unavailable on that date,” a spokesperson for Snyder said in a statement at the time. “Mr. Snyder’s lawyer has provided alternative dates to the Committee and looks forward to finding a path forward for Mr. Snyder’s further cooperation and to address remaining due process concerns.”

In her letter, Seymour called the committee’s accusations that Snyder attempted to evade its subpoena and sought special treatment “inaccurate” and “unfair” and said that they will detract from Snyder’s family’s observance of his mother’s first yahrzeit, a Jewish tradition of commemorating the anniversary of a loved one’s death. 

“I therefore respectfully request that you inform me as promptly as possible whether the Committee is willing to consider Mr. Snyder’s offer to voluntarily appear before the Committee on July 28 or 29,” Seymour wrote to Maloney. 

In a statement to The Hill, a House Oversight Committee spokesperson said the panel is still committed to securing Snyder’s testimony for their investigation into the team, noting that they have been negotiating with Snyder’s legal counsel on the matter as well. 

“We remain committed to securing Mr. Snyder’s testimony on the toxic work environment at the Washington Commanders following his failure to appear voluntarily at the Committee’s hearing and his continued refusal to allow his attorney to accept service of a subpoena,” the committee spokesperson told The Hill. “We are continuing to negotiate with his counsel to ensure the Committee can obtain the full and complete testimony we need, and we are reviewing her latest correspondence.”

The committee’s investigation into the Washington, D.C.-based NFL franchise first launched last October, after an email chain between former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and then-Commanders team president Bruce Allen, which contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic language and was part of the NFL’s initial investigation into the team, was leaked to the public. 

The league launched its second probe into the team earlier this year after former team cheerleader and employee Tiffani Johnston testified at the panel’s roundtable hearing that Snyder, who has owned the Commanders since 1999, had sexually harassed her during a work-related dinner.