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The office of D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) said Thursday that it filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Washington chiefs Daniel Snyder, the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell, accusing them of ·illusion to mislead and mislead customers about an investigation of the team’s workplace to keep the franchise’s fan base in search of income.
“In the face of public outrage over detailed and widespread allegations of sexual misconduct and a persistently hostile work environment for the team, defendants made a series of public statements to convince District consumers that this dysfunctional and misogynistic conduct was limited and that they were fully cooperating with an independent investigation,” the lawsuit says. “These statements were false and calculated to mislead consumers into continuing to financially support the team without thinking they were supporting this misconduct.”
DC Attorney General Karl Racine (D) has accused the Commanders, Snyder, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell of colluding to mislead DC residents. (Video: Reuters)
The lawsuit was filed in the DC Superior Court Civil Division. It alleges that the team and the league violated the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act with “public misrepresentations, omissions and ambiguities of material facts.” Racine’s office said it is seeking “financial penalties under the CPPA for each incident in which the commanders, Mr. Snyder, the NFL and Commissioner Goodell lied to district residents since July 2020,” and adding that the defendants “could face millions.” dollars in penalties”.
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Racine’s office said it will also seek a court order to force the NFL to release the findings of a previous investigation, conducted by attorney Beth Wilkinson, into the team’s workplace.
“The OAG’s thorough investigation revealed that the commanders, the NFL and its executives, Mr. Snyder and Commissioner Goodell, worked to prevent District residents from knowing the truth and continue to benefit,” Racine said in a statement. “They publicly promised to fully cooperate with an independent investigation into the toxic work environment and sexual harassment within the Commanders organization and promised results fans could trust. But behind the scenes, Mr. Snyder run a campaign of interference to cover up years of harassment.. And the NFL let him do it, betraying the trust of fans by allowing Mr. Snyder to have a say in the end of the investigation into him and the Chiefs.
The commanders said in a statement Wednesday that Racine “seems more interested in making brazen headlines, based on offbeat legal theories, than doing the hard work of making the streets safe,” citing the August shooting in Washington of Brian Robinson Jr., a rookie running back on the team. Later in the evening, Chiefs president Jason Wright said in a statement that the team should have kept the two issues separate.
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The action comes as Racine prepares to leave office, and is the result of an investigation that began in the fall of 2021. Snyder and the commanders are also being investigated by the NFL, the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the office of Jason S. Miyares. (R), Attorney General of Virginia.
Additionally, investigators from the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia have interviewed witnesses about allegations of financial improprieties involving the team, according to several people familiar with the situation. The team has denied any financial irregularities.
Racine’s office does not have criminal enforcement authority in the matter.
Racine said his office “interviewed numerous witnesses, including former Chiefs employees who experienced and witnessed harassment” and “reviewed thousands of internal documents produced by the Chiefs and the NFL, including emails.”
The lawsuit says it “seeks Washington Commanders, Snyder, the NFL and Commissioner Goodell to be held liable for public statements, ambiguities and omissions tending to mislead District consumers in the form of injunctive relief, civil penalties and restitution.”
Goodell and the league have said they did not release Wilkinson’s findings because of promises of confidentiality made to witnesses. The NFL said in July 2021 that based on those findings, the team was being fined $10 million, and Snyder’s wife, franchise co-CEO Tanya Snyder, would oversee day-to-day operations for the captains. for an unspecified period.
The NFL and Goodell have 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 violent crime out of control in DC, today the Commanders of Washington first learned on Twitter that the D.C. Attorney General will hold a press conference to “make a major announcement” related to the organization tomorrow.”
That statement caught the attention of Robinson’s agent, Ryan Williams of Athletes First, who wrote on Twitter Wednesday evening: “Until an hour ago, the commanders handled the Brian Robinson situation with such care, sincerity and class. And I was very grateful for all of that. While I know there are some great humans in this building, whoever is hiding behind that statement is not one of them.”
The commanders responded with a statement from Wright in which he said the team’s lawyers had “legitimate frustrations” with Racine that “should have been separate and apart from reference” to the shooting.
D.C. police 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 on the H Street shopping strip in Northeast Washington. The 17-year-old was charged as a minor 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 drove the two teenagers away from the attack.
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“The commanders have cooperated fully with the AG’s investigation for nearly a year,” the team’s spokesman said in a statement earlier Wednesday. “As recently as Monday, an attorney for the team met with the attorney general who at the time did not suggest any action and in fact revealed fundamental misunderstandings of the underlying facts. It is unfortunate that, in his recent days in office, Mr. Racine seems more interested in making cheeky headlines based on offbeat legal theories than doing the hard work of making the streets safe for our citizens, including bringing people to justice. he 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 instead of 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, with Racine’s endorsement, 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 fall within the confines of the limited scope of his office. Locally, Racine has gone after negligent landlords and unscrupulous businesses, focusing on protecting tenants and consumers.
But it has also made bigger changes. In recent years, he has pursued cases against Facebook, Amazon, the Roman Catholic clergy in DC and President Donald Trump. He filed a federal lawsuit against the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers after the Jan. 6 uprising and recently partnered with the attorneys general of California and Illinois to stop the Albertsons grocery chain, which owns Safeway, from paying 4,000 million dollars to shareholders before a proposed merger with grocer Kroger.
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 proof of what we’ve known for some time: that both the captains and the NFL have engaged in deception and lies designed to cover up the team’s decades of sexual harassment and abuse, affecting not only the victims of that abuse, but the consumers of the District of Columbia as well The filing of this complaint is also an important step in validating the experiences of the brave women and men who came forward to share their experiences and to achieve, for the first time, a level of transparency in the scope of the mala conduct”.
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 “consider possible transactions” related to the franchise. The commanders did not specify whether the Snyders are considering selling the entire franchise or a minority stake. At the time, a team spokesman said: “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 time and has no expectation as to whether Snyder will sell all or part of the franchise
“I would refer you to the club for information on…