Report -- Letter details 2009 sexual assault allegations against Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder

WASHINGTON — Details of sexual assault allegations made against Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder in 2009 were reported Tuesday by the Washington Post, which obtained a letter by an attorney working for the team.

A woman accused Snyder of sexually harassing and assaulting her on a team plane in 2009, and she was later paid $1.6 million by the team to settle her claims. The woman's allegations and settlement were previously reported by the Post in December 2020, but specific details of the allegations were not disclosed.

The settlement had been previously revealed in legal filings related to more recent investigations of the team. The woman agreed not to sue the team or publicly disclose her allegations as part of the settlement.

Snyder denied the woman's allegations, according to the attorney's letter, and a team investigation accused her of making up the claims in an attempt to extort him.

The contents of the letter were disclosed a day before a scheduled hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which is investigating the Washington team's workplace culture. Snyder has declined an invitation by the committee to testify, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was scheduled to testify remotely.

The NFL fined the team $10 million, and Snyder stepped away from its day-to-day operations after an investigation by attorney Beth Wilkinson revealed a workplace culture that was abusive to women. But the league declined to release a written report of Wilkinson's findings.

The committee has since uncovered an allegation of sexual harassment by Snyder. A former team employee told the committee that Snyder groped her at a team dinner and tried to force her into his limousine, claims that Snyder denied.

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