Comment The office of D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) said Thursday that it has filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Washington governor Daniel Snyder, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell, accusing them of conspiracy to defraud and mislead. customers on a survey of the team’s workplace to maintain the franchise’s fan base in pursuit of revenue. “In the face of public outrage over detailed and extensive allegations of sexual misconduct and a persistently hostile work environment at the Group, Defendants made a series of public statements to convince District consumers that this dysfunctional and misogynistic behavior was limited and that they were cooperating fully with an independent investigation,” the lawsuit states. “These statements were false and calculated to mislead consumers into continuing to financially support the Group without believing they were endorsing such misconduct.” DC Attorney General Karl Racine (D) accused the Commanders, Snyder, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell of colluding to mislead DC residents. (Video: Reuters) The suit was filed in the civil division of the D.C. Superior Court. It claims the team and the league violated the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Act by “publicly misrepresenting, omitting and obscuring material facts.” Racine’s office said it is seeking “financial penalties under the CPPA for each incident in which the Governors, Mr. Snyder, the NFL and Commissioner Goodell lied to District residents dating back to July 2020,” adding that the defendants “could face millions of dollars in penalties.” Svrluga: The Commanders’ greatest threat, as always, comes from within the house Racine’s office said it will also seek a court order to force the NFL to release the findings of an earlier investigation, conducted by attorney Beth Wilkinson, into the team’s workplace. “The OAG’s thorough investigation revealed that the Governors, the NFL and their executives, Mr. Snyder and Commissioner Goodell, worked to prevent District residents from learning the truth and continue to benefit,” said the Racine in a statement. “They publicly promised to cooperate fully with an independent investigation into the toxic work environment and sexual harassment within the Commanders organization and promised results that fans could trust. But behind the scenes, Mr. Snyder waged an intervention campaign to cover up years of harassment. And the NFL let him do it, betraying the trust of the fans by allowing Mr. Snyder to have a say at the end of the investigation into him and the Governors.” The governors said Wednesday in a statement that Racine “appears to be more interested in making outrageous headlines, based on outlandish legal theories, than doing the hard work of making the streets safe,” and cited the Washington shooting of Brian Robinson Jr. . rookie running back for the team. Later in the evening, Chairman of the Governors Jason Wright said in a statement that the group should have kept the two issues separate. DC Attorney General Plans to Take Action Against Daniel Snyder, Commanders The action comes as Racine prepares to step down and stems from an investigation that began in the fall of 2021. Snyder and the Governors are also being investigated by the NFL, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the office of Jason S. .Miares (R), Virginia attorney general. In addition, investigators with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia have interviewed witnesses about allegations of financial wrongdoing involving the group, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. The group has denied any financial wrongdoing. Racine’s office does not have criminal authority over the matter. Racine said his office “interviewed numerous witnesses, including former Commanders employees who experienced and witnessed harassment” and “reviewed thousands of internal documents produced by the Commanders and the NFL, including emails.” The lawsuit states that it “seeks Washington Governors, Snyder, the NFL and Commissioner Goodell to be held accountable for public statements, ambiguities and omissions that tended to mislead District consumers in the form of injunctive relief, civil penalties and restitution.” Goodell and the association said they did not release Wilkinson’s findings because of promises of confidentiality given to the witnesses. The NFL said in July 2021 that, based on those findings, the team was fined $10 million, and Snyder’s wife, Tanya Snyder, co-CEO of the franchise, would oversee the day-to-day operations of the Commanders for an unspecified period of time. The NFL and Goodell said the findings of an ongoing investigation being conducted by attorney Mary Jo White will be made public. Wednesday’s statement from the Commanders’ spokesman said: “Less than three months ago, a 23-year-old player on our team was shot multiple times, in broad daylight. Despite rampant violent crime in D.C., today Washington Commanders first learned on Twitter that the D.C. Attorney General will hold a press conference to “make an important announcement” about the organization tomorrow. That statement caught the attention of Robinson’s agent, Ryan Williams of Athletes First, who tweeted Wednesday night: “Until an hour ago, the Commanders handled Brian Robinson’s situation with such care, honesty and order. And I was so grateful for it all. While I know there are some great people in this building, whoever is behind this statement is not one of them.” The Commanders responded with a statement from Wright, in which he said the team’s attorneys had “justifiable frustration” with Racine that “should have been separate and apart from the report” of the shooting. D.C. police have arrested two teenage suspects — a 17-year-old and later a 15-year-old — in connection with the Aug. 28 shooting during an attempted robbery along Northeast Washington’s H Street commercial strip. The 17-year-old was charged as a juvenile with assault with intent to rob while armed. The 15-year-old, who was 14 at the time of the incident, faces armed robbery charges. Police said Friday they were still looking for a third suspect who led the two teenagers away from the attack. Daniel Snyder is considering selling the Washington Governors “The Commanders have cooperated fully with the AG’s investigation for nearly a year,” the team’s spokesman said in an earlier statement Wednesday. “As recently as Monday, a lawyer for the team met with the attorney general who did not suggest at the time that he intended to take any action and, in fact, revealed fundamental misunderstandings of the underlying facts. It is unfortunate that, in his final days in office, Mr. Racine seems more interested in making scary headlines based on outlandish legal theories than doing the hard work of making our roads safe for our citizens, including bringing to justice the people who shot one of our players.” Because DC is not a state, adult felony prosecutions in the city are handled by the US attorney’s office, not the attorney general’s office. Racine announced last year that he would not seek a third term. D.C. attorney Brian Schwalb was tapped Tuesday to succeed him. Schwalb won a three-way race in June, backed by Racine, for the Democratic nomination and was unopposed in Tuesday’s election. The office includes more than 700 attorneys and staff members and is responsible for enforcing DC law through criminal and civil means. As the District’s first elected attorney general, Racine’s tenure has been marked by lawsuits and actions, large and small, that lie within the limited confines of his office. Locally, Racine has gone after negligent landlords and unscrupulous businesses, with an emphasis on protecting tenants and consumers. Attorneys Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, who represent more than 40 former team employees, said in a statement Wednesday: “Today’s civil complaint … is further evidence of what we’ve known for some time: that both the Commanders and the NFL have engaged in deception and lies designed to hide the group’s decades of sexual harassment and abuse, which has affected not only the victims of that abuse, but also consumers in the District of Columbia. The filing of this complaint also marks an important step in validating the experiences of the brave women and men who have come forward to share their experiences and in achieving, for the first time, a level of transparency about the extent of the misconduct.” The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Commanders announced last week that Daniel and Tanya Snyder had hired an investment bank to “look into potential transactions” related to the franchise. The Commanders did not say whether the Snyders are considering selling the entire franchise or a minority stake. A team spokesman said at the time: “We are exploring all options.” Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy, said Wednesday that the league is not involved in the process of selling the Commanders at this point and has no expectation of whether Snyder will sell all or part of the franchise. “I would refer you to the club for information on…
