Tiffany Coburn Until We re Together Again
Vi erstwhile employees of Washington's NFL franchise levied new allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against squad possessor Dan Snyder Th — with 1 claiming the possessor instructed the team's video department to splice together a sexually suggestive video of cheerleaders exposing their private areas.
In a roughly ii-hr long roundtable hearing with the Firm Committee on Oversight and Reform, former cheerleaders Melanie Coburn and Tiffani Johnston recounted their own experiences with Snyder, accusing the possessor of ruling "past fearfulness."
According to Coburn, Snyder had the final say over who made the cheerleading squad and fired women despite their skill "because they weren't the prettiest, in his stance."
"An NFL owner who hired and fired employees based solely on their looks, it's despicable," she said.
Coburn also recalled taking an "awards trip" with several of her colleagues to Snyder's home in Aspen, Colo., where she alleged a co-worker was pressured to drink alcohol "despite existence a recovering addict." When the party returned to Snyder'due south house, Coburn said she was told to go to the basement and stay there.
"I later learned from a colleague, who was there, that information technology was because the men had invited prostitutes back," Coburn said.
Johnston accused Snyder of inappropriately touching her at a team dinner, where he placed his paw on her inner thigh under the table. That same evening, she alleged, he attempted to coax her into his limo until his attorney said information technology was a "bad idea."
"The next day, I learned when I told a senior co-worker almost Dan Snyder's sexual accelerate that I should 'not repeat the story to anyone outside this role door,'" Johnston recalled. "That was when I as well learned there was no ane to become to about Dan Snyder's advance, no path to written report the incident."
Johnston likewise accused Snyder of requesting a photograph of her taken from a lingerie agenda photoshoot earlier her private areas could exist retouched.
Brad Baker, a former video production managing director for the team — then known equally the Washington Redskins, and so rebranded the Washington Football Team, followed by the Washington Commanders — recalled Snyder ordering employees in 2008 to edit cheerleader agenda photoshoot footage to create a "Expert $.25" video featuring nude images of the women.
"While passing through the editing suite, I saw several images on both the editing monitor and the monitor of our tape deck that featured the cheerleaders posing for their photoshoot," Baker said. "Merely information technology was similar outtakes, and their breasts and pubic areas were exposed."
"It became crystal articulate that my worst suspicions were true," Baker added. "The video department had been told to edit together lewd footage of the cheerleaders at the request of Dan Snyder."
Coburn, who claimed she was harassed upward to 200 times during her time with the team, said she and her colleagues had "trusted" team personnel to "capture the footage and keep information technology safety."
"Picayune did we know, they were zooming in on private parts and keeping cameras rolling during costume changes," he said. "I've cried with the women in these videos, equally they explained the horror of seeing themselves in what is essentially a soft porn video soundtrack to Dan Snyder's favorite bands."
When asked if the perpetrators have been removed from the system, Johnston firmly replied, "absolutely not."
"It all started from the top with Dan Snyder," she said.
Later in the hearing, Johnston was asked about Snyder's previous claim that he was unaware of the allegations until they surfaced in media reports in 2020.
"Based on what you know, Miss Johnston, is that argument true or faux?" asked Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economical and Consumer Policy.
"Completely false," Johnston said.
"And why do y'all say that?" Krishnamoorthi followed up.
"He was involved in everything, every minor detail, every major detail of every single mean solar day at the office," she responded.
"And he was, of course, involved in the sexual harassment of you lot?" the congressman clarified.
"Absolutely."
Throughout the roundtable, multiple former employees said the issues in Washington were part of a larger problem within the National Football game League, which has not yet released its written report on the investigation into the accusations.
Baker and Emily Applegate, a former marketing coordinator for the team, slammed the NFL for making public a 200-plus page report in the "Deflategate" scandal involving legendary quarterback Tom Brady, but not showing the same transparancy about their allegations.
"Two decades of sexual harassment concludes with null," Applegate said. "The NFL is showing us their complete lack of respect for women, for their employees, and for the culture of our country."
Applegate as well defendant NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell of working with Snyder to cover up the allegations.
"Roger Goodell has proven once over again, he is unequipped to handle important issues inside the NFL. He has mishandled social justice problems, domestic violence issues, and at present sexual harassment problems," she said. "Worst of all, in that location have been so many good people that have become collateral damage while these two men embrace up two decades of sexual harassment."
The roundtable likewise featured testimonials from Ana Nunez, a former concern development coordinator and Rachel Engleson, a former intern who rose to become the team'south director of marketing and client relations.
In her testimony, Engleson claimed that there was not a unmarried day in which she didn't experience or fear sexual harassment during her eight years with the organization.
"It was just a pervasive role of the culture and unavoidable rite of passage existence a woman who worked there," she said.
Nunez echoed that sentiment, telling the committee that when she became a victim and tried to report it, "no ane did anything nearly it."
"I won't describe every instance of sexual harassment I experienced during my time there because it was almost a part of my everyday feel," she said, before revealing she was sexually harrassed by 2 senior-level employees.
"[I] executive had a reputation for making inappropriate comments well-nigh female person colleagues, attire, and their bodies just equally he did with me, but he was so high upwardly in the organisation that we were afraid to say anything," Nunez added. "He did this in front end of everyone and no ane seemed to care."
Several members of the committee, including Rep. Byron Donalds, called on the NFL to release the report, but questioned Congress's role in handling the accusations.
"Nosotros have to make certain that we don't become the arbiters of deciding what is how these things are going to be handled inside individual institutions," said Donalds (R-Fla.).
"If Congress decides that they're going to engage themselves in the actions of every business organization or every community, regardless of whatever our powers actually are under the Us Constitution, then we actually limit the authority of Congress, and we actually undo the authority that we are here to actually wield nether the US Constitution."
Krishnamoorthi responded that Donalds was "admittedly wrong" to call sexual harrassment allegations in "one of the almost prominent workplaces" in the US non worthy of congressional oversight.
"The issue of sexual harassment is absolutely within the purview of this committee. And I'm and so grateful for you coming here and sharing your stories again, and information technology's very painful," he told the six former employees.
Snyder has owned the team since 1999 and is regarded equally one of the worst owners in the NFL, if not all of professional sports. In July of last year, the NFL fined the organization $10 million following an investigation into its culture that was trigged by a Washington Mail service report.
He responded to the allegations later on Thursday, saying he has "acknowledged and apologized multiple times in the past for the misconduct which took place at the Team."
"I apologize once again today for this comport, and fully support the people who have been victimized and accept come forward to tell their stories," Snyder said in a statement. "In response to learning about incidents like these in 2020, the Team, on its own, undertook to revamp its policies, procedures and personnel."
Snyder claimed that "real change" has happened inside the organization in the part xviii months and called Thursday's accusations "outright lies."
"While past comport at the Team was unacceptable, the allegations leveled confronting me personally in today's roundtable – many of which are well over 13 years old – are outright lies. I unequivocally deny having participated in whatever such carry, at whatsoever time and with respect to any person," he said.
"[Wife] Tanya and I volition not exist distracted by those with a contrary agenda from standing with the positive personnel and cultural changes that have been made at the Team over the past 18 months, and those that we go along to make both on and off the field," he continued.
Ane day before the roundtable, other former employees of the football game squad came forward on HBO'south "Real Sports Podcast" with additional allegations, accusing Snyder of turning a blind eye to harassment or abusing his employees himself.
"Mr. Snyder was sitting there … a couple of others," one former employee who went past the name "Denise" said. "One of my friends, she went to pick upwardly something that he had dropped and, I can't even say the discussion gentleman, 1 of the guys sitting there groped her butt every bit she went to option information technology upwardly innocently. And Snyder chuckled and took a puff of his cigar. . . . So probably vii minutes afterwards another man, you know, brushed his arm against my breast. And a few minutes afterwards some other man said, 'Hey, meet me in this suite back here in the corner.'
"The examples are simply — they're countless," added "Denise." "And that's in Snyder'due south– that'south in the possessor's suite. That's — Snyder's right there. It's happening."
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Source: https://nypost.com/2022/02/03/dan-snyder-hit-with-6-new-sexual-harassment-abuse-claims/
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