NFL says league, not team, will oversee probe of claims against Daniel Snyder

“Last week, the League stated that we will review and consider Ms. Johnston’s allegations as we would any others regarding workplace conduct at the Washington Commanders,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday. “The League, not the team, will conduct an independent investigation and will be retaining an investigator to determine the facts shortly.”

Hours earlier, the Commanders announced that they appointed two former assistant U.S. attorneys, Bonnie Jonas and Tiffany Moller of Pallas Global Group, to oversee an investigation led by Debra Wong Yang, a former California state judge and current partner at the Los Angeles-based firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

“The Team is committed to a thorough and independent investigation of Ms. Johnston’s allegation, and pledges full cooperation with the investigation,” the team said in its news release.

According to a person familiar with the league’s plans, the league was blindsided by the team’s announcement Wednesday morning. That person said the NFL intends for there to be only one investigation, which will be run by the league.

The league has left open the possibility of disciplinary measures, if warranted.

“I do not see any way that the team can do its own investigation of itself,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a leaguewide news conference Wednesday. “That’s something we would do. We’d do it with an outside expert that would be able to help us come to the conclusion of what the facts were and what really, truly happened, so that we can make the right decision from there.”

Lisa Banks, one of the attorneys representing Johnston and more than three dozen other former team employees, said her clients would not participate in the team-sponsored investigation but would talk to the NFL’s investigators “if the investigation is truly independent, and the NFL commits to make the findings public.”

“Apparently the NFL also recognized how absurd it was to think Dan Snyder could investigate himself,” Lisa Banks, one of the attorneys representing Johnston and more than three dozen other former team employees, said in a statement Wednesday. “We await communication from the NFL about whether it intends to undertake this investigation independently, and without any common interest agreement with Snyder.”

This marks the second time the NFL has trumped Snyder’s investigative efforts. The team had previously launched an investigation in July 2020, after The Washington Post reported on dozens of women’s experiences of being sexually harassed, demeaned and degraded by team officials. Snyder initially hired high-profile attorney Beth Wilkinson to investigate the franchise, but seven weeks later, the NFL took over the investigation.

The new probe stems from allegations that weren’t covered in that initial investigation. At a Feb. 3 congressional roundtable on the franchise’s workplace culture, Johnston described years of sexual harassment from executives. She accused Snyder of making unwanted sexual advances during a work dinner, saying the owner put his hand on her thigh and pressed…