Daniel Snyder is gone, but not forgotten.
Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, has sent a letter to the current chair of the committee urging referral of the former Commanders owner to the Department of Justice.
Via Mark Maske of the Washington Post, Raskin wants Snyder to be investigated for potentially lying to Congress during his July 2022 deposition testimony.
The claim focuses on Snyder’s position regarding misconduct allegations made by former Commanders employee Tiffani Johnston, who claimed that Snyder touched her leg without consent during a work-related dinner and that he later tried to get her into his vehicle.
Snyder testified both that he had no recollection whatsoever of the evening in question, and the alleged misconduct did not occur. (It’s difficult to reconcile having no recollection of the evening with a specific recollection that something did or didn’t happen.)
“Mr. Snyder’s statements under oath to this Committee, claiming Ms. Johnston’s allegations ‘didn’t happen’ and were ‘not true,’ as well as his assertion that ‘the whole claim is not true’ are inconsistent with the findings of Ms. White’s investigation,” Raskin wrote in an eight-page letter to Representative James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the committee. “Mr. Snyder’s testimony to the Committee suggests a deliberate effort to provide false testimony in an effort to obstruct a Congressional investigation. These false statements are particularly troubling given that they appear to be part of a pattern of obstruction and misrepresentation that included Mr. Snyder’s efforts to smear Mr. [Jason] Friedman and his characterization of Ms. Johnston’s account as ‘outright lies,’ as well as his efforts to interfere with a prior investigation conducted by Beth Wilkinson.”
Raskin relies heavily on the report generated by Mary Jo White, who investigated Snyder and the Commanders after Johnston made his misconduct claims in a congressional hearing. White found that Johnston’s allegations were “sustained,” a less direct way of saying she thinks Synder did it.
White also found that the Commanders redirected money from ticket sales that should have been shared with the league. As previously explained, that finding could spark a separate prosecution of Snyder and others.
Comer likely won’t make the referral. The Republicans on the Committee constantly complained about the investigation, and it became clear that, once the Republicans reclaimed control of the House of Representatives, the investigation would be over.
With or without a referral, a prosecutor with competent jurisdiction could investigate and potentially prosecute Snyder.
