WASHINGTON — Attorneys for the Washington Commanders sent a scathing letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Thursday with a goal of ensuring their views and concerns about the investigation are highlighted, the lawyers told WUSA9 Friday.
"We thought that as this Congress is coming to a close here, I think the elections are about a month. And then, of course, it will end in January that if they are in fact, going to put out a report that it was important that they have our views of some things," John Brownlee legal council said. "It certainly hasn't been an effort to get to the truth. They haven't talked to any members of the Commander's organization right when you think about that, this is an investigation about the leadership within the commanders. And yet they haven't talked to any current employee of the Commanders."
Snyder has been accused of not protecting women in the workplace including hiding a 2009 settlement with a former team employee who accused him of sexual assault.
In the letter, the legal team outlined a series of grievances, including the investigation into the franchise not being "fair, thorough, or bipartisan."
The council claims that the committee has only interviewed "about 20" individuals including Jason Friedman and former team president and General Manager, Bruce Allen.
"I think if you look for Bruce Allen, for example, some of the email tracks that he has with Jon Gruden was just reprehensible, and yet this committee has embraced him as one of their own and coddled him as a witness and not challenged his credibility one bit," Brownlee explained. "So, anyway, we were troubled by that and wanting to let them know."
Allen and Snyder were long-time friends and colleagues, whose offices were feet apart. In 2014, Snyder said in a team statement "I think the world of Bruce Allen."
When asked how fans watching this investigation should believe that Snyder had no knowledge of the toxic environment that was being led under his leadership, Brownlee said you didn't really know until the investigation unfolded and the team was able to look at his emails.
"I mean, he gave an appearance of being one type of person but when you see those emails, and I know you've looked at them, they give you a very different picture," he explained. "I mean just the type of language that they use, how they made fun of people."
Last weekend the Commanders posted a photo of Snyder with Cowboys head coach Jerry Jones. Which occurred one week after the Washington Post published a story detailing NFL team owners were shifting their sentiment of Snyder's ownership.
"I would be careful believing that story. I think Tonya and Dan Snyder, have a firm hold on the team. They're committed to the team that committed to this community they're committed to doing everything that they can build a winning franchise," Brownlee told WUSA in response to questions about NFL owners' feelings. "We recognize this these are valuable franchises. There's a lot of people who probably want them. So you're gonna have a lot of anonymous sources saying a lot of different things."
When asked if there was any chance Snyder would consider selling the team to leave the controversy behind and allow the franchise to focus on football, Brownlee answered said that isn't going to happen.
"No, and again, I think that one, I think they are committed to it. I would also say there's no reason to."
Thursday the House Committee told WUSA9 that the Commanders "continue to try to block releasing documents" but they will not be deterred in their investigation. They previously referred information uncovered during their investigation to the FEC.
Even if the House committee does wrap its investigation, the NFL has an ongoing investigation into Snyder.