The Washington Commanders have agreed to pay D.C. $1 million to settle a 2022 lawsuit that accused the team’s previous owner, Daniel Snyder, of misleading fans about an investigation into sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
The settlement - in which the Commanders and Snyder admitted no fault - came together because the involved parties “wish to resolve this dispute amicably, without the time, cost, and inconvenience of litigation,” the agreement said.
The resolution of the years-old lawsuit comes as the city’s relations with the team have gone from frosty under Snyder to cozy under new ownership. Snyder sold the team to Josh Harris in 2023, and last year, District of Columbia Democratic Mayor Muriel E. Bowser announced a $3.7 billion deal with the organization to build a football stadium and housing and retail at the long-languishing RFK site. As part of the stadium deal approved by the D.C. Council, the team will receive more than $1 billion in D.C. taxpayer funds and more than $1 billion in city tax breaks - a level of public funding applauded by supporters as a smart investment and derided by critics as a giveaway to billionaires.
Snyder and the Commanders did not respond to requests for comment on the settlement.
In 2020, The Washington Post reported on the accounts of 15 women who said they were sexually harassed during their time working for the team. The allegations spanned most of Snyder’s decades-long tenure as team owner and prompted the team to hire an attorney to conduct an investigation of the matter. Then, The Post reported, despite prior promises to cooperate with that investigation, Snyder’s attorneys tried to prevent the investigator from speaking to a woman who had made a sexual misconduct allegation against him. Snyder and his attorney denied attempting to silence the accuser.
Former D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine filed the lawsuit in 2022 under the city’s consumer protection law, alleging that Snyder interfered with investigations into the team’s toxic workplace and lied about his role in a culture of sexual harassment. As a result, the attorney general’s office alleged, Snyder misled D.C. consumers who bought tickets and merchandise. The lawsuit also named the team, the NFL and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as defendants.
The defendants denied the allegations in the lawsuit, calling them factually baseless. At the time, the team’s lawyers argued that the Snyders had acknowledged mistakes and apologized for overseeing an “unacceptable” workplace culture.
The lawsuit had not entered discovery. It had instead been in a legal holding pattern for years as the parties awaited a judge’s decision about whether it belonged in federal or local court. By the time the judge made the decision to place the case in D.C. Superior Court, it had been years since the case’s filing and Snyder was long-removed from the organization.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a news release announcing the settlement that the football team, after years under its new leadership, had undergone a significant culture change.
“The Commanders’ current owners have commendably opened a new chapter in the team’s history, committing to ensure all employees are protected from abuse and treated with dignity,” he said. “Every business operating in the District has an obligation to provide honest information to its customers, and the Commanders’ loyal fanbase deserves no less. I want to thank the victims for coming forward to tell their stories – without their bravery, none of this would have come to light.”