By Steve Kelly
The Washington Post just reported that the WFT paid $1.6 million to settle sexual misconduct allegations against owner Daniel Snyder.
Snyder has been under attack by three men who own a combined 40% of the team – Robert Rothman, Dwight Schar and Fred Smith, and in court filings released Friday their investment advisor, influential Baltimore banker John Moag, texted Snyder during a sales process that has turned acrimonious.
“If you continue your game, you know what I know and what I have never spoken about. And you know it has nothing to do about the media s*** … it’s the more serious s***.
“If you want to get to a clean conclusion, let me know. If you want a s*** show, we are on for that too.”
Reached by the Post over the weekend, Moag declined to share what he might know, telling the paper:
“Dan knows what it’s about. I’ll leave it at that.”
The Post published a series of exposés about the team’s culture under Snyder’s ownership this summer, though Snyder himself was not directly accused of sexually assaulting employees.
That led to an investigation the NFL commissioned that is being conducted by Washington attorney Beth Wilkinson.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that settlement is an allegation of sexual harassment against Snyder by a former employee of the team.
The Times said the woman accused Snyder of accosting her on an April 2009 flight on Snyder’s private plane, but the claim could not be substantiated by an outside investigator, and she was fired for lying to the team’s lawyers.
The article reported that the woman was nevertheless paid a financial settlement in the interest of avoiding a public lawsuit.
The Post reported today that the settlement was for $1.6 million.
Information about that lawsuit was obtained by Schar, according to depositions in the case, though it is unclear if that is what Moag was referring to in his text.
The legal fight between the owners has rocked the NFL, which has procedures in place to keep infighting away from the public eye.
As the fight has spilled into the courtroom, it has attracted the interest of the nation’s two most prominent newspapers, the Post and Times, which have both reported extensively on the feud, and even on each other’s reporting.
Sunday’s Times report connected the Post’s reporting on the topic with one of Schar’s assistants, Mary Ellen Blair.
The newspaper reported that according to sealed court filings, Blair “dialed or received 123 calls from telephone numbers associated with The Washington Post.”
It is unclear how that information was gathered, but Snyder has retained his own legal team, public relations team and reportedly his own private investigators to look into the case.
The Post reported Tuesday that attorneys for Rothman, Schar and Smith filed in court Monday, accusing “Mr. Snyder or his agents” to be the source of information in the Times report, which they believe painted Snyder in a favorable light and downplayed the seriousness of the allegations.
Wilkinson’s report is likely to dictate the next steps, when it is released. She interviewed Snyder extensively on Nov. 18 as part of that process.
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