So Congressman, again,
thank you so much for taking the time.
Appreciate you joining us to talk
about this very important issue and
one that of course goes to the heart
of so many things here in the DC area.
You and I have talked off
and on since October,
when your subcommittee and the
House Oversight Committee first got
involved in Washington football
and the NFL and NFL investigation,
and I know that there's been
a lot of back and forth.
We want documents we're going to give
you some things broadly at this point,
could you just characterize?
The the extent of the NFL's
cooperation or lack thereof.
They have been cooperating to some extent.
They've been producing
documents on a rolling basis,
and it's revealed certain information,
but we still haven't received the
bulk of documents that form the I
guess the the the the the documents
that were examined by Miss Wilkinson,
the NFL's attorney,
and we want to see those documents so
that we know you know what was actually
examined as part of the investigation.
Apparently she looked at 10s,
if not hundreds of thousands of documents
in that particular investigation.
As you know, she was asked to
not to document what she found,
but to report it orally,
which is highly suspicious.
So has the NFL. I obviously there's
been a lot of back and forth.
Has the NFL given you or anyone on the
committee and explanation as to why
they have not given you what you wanted?
And do you have any expectation that you'll
eventually get what you've asked for?
We have an expectation they are,
I think, reviewing these documents
and hopefully they will produce them.
But at this point we haven't
received them or all of them,
and so we need to get them so
that we can actually proceed
with our investigation as well.
So I was kind of.
I was kind of probing you there for an
adjective and you sort of describing the
extent of their cooperation, would you?
I don't want to put words in your
mouth that they've been dodgy.
Is it just a bunch of lawyer back and forth?
How would you characterize it?
I think it's ruling, but we
need it to be rolling faster.
Gotcha, OK? Let's set up this
roundtable discussion for this
coming Thursday. Overall, what is?
What is the intent of this discussion?
Well, the intent is to hear the
stories of various individuals who
have come forward to talk about
their claims of sexual harassment
at the Washington football team.
It turns out there are a lot of
people that unfortunately were
sexually harassed or witnessed.
This harassment,
and so we want to hear the stories.
Was anyone from the NFL or currently
employed by the Washington football team
invited or asked to join this as well?
Is that something that you would want?
Well, we we actually have asked
for anyone and everyone to come
forward with information and
these particular people did.
I suppose what I what I mean to say is.
Was there any ask of you
know officials at the NFL?
Anyone at management levels from
the NFL or Washington football team?
Is it important that they
answer questions at any point
in a in a in a public forum?
Oh absolutely, and I, I expect
that will happen as well.
So then is this?
Is this the precursor to a hearing?
I know that we're deliberately not
calling what's happening next Thursday
hearing it's a roundtable discussion.
Would, would you say that it's a precursor?
Well, we want to hear what the stories
are and then we want to also see
what more documents were produced.
But I expect that you know a lot of
people are going to have to answer some
questions about what is raised next week.
In mid December you came out very
strongly saying, and I'm quoting here.
Dan Snyder will stop at nothing.
This is stemming on reporting from the
Washington Post that apparently he hired
an investigator and then actively tried
to interfere in that investigation.
Based on that, is it difficult to
expect the Washington football to
be forthcoming about anything that
may have happened in the past?
Well, I think that the information
is actually coming out in different
ways from different people,
and I think the real question
is whether the Washington
football team in the NFL want to.
Be the ones that actually express
their side of the story.
If they have one, or whether it's just
going to continually get told by others.
As I said before,
there are more documents coming out.
There are more witnesses coming out,
and I think that it would be who've
both the NFL and the Washington football
team to come forward themselves
and be more forthcoming with what
happened in this investigation.
Have you formed an opinion about Dan Snyder?
Based on all of the information
that you've received thus far?
Everything that you know.
I don't know Mr Snyder,
but what I have learned
from this investigation and,
uh, public reports is very
disturbing at this point,
and I think that it's fair to say that
he has a lot of explaining to do.
A couple more things here, you know.
I've been doing this job for
for more than 20 years as a
full time journalist and I I,
I'm hard pressed to believe
in a lot of coincidences.
Can you talk to me about the
timing of this discussion?
Literally coming a day after
the the Washington football team
unveils its its new its new name.
But we happen to be in session
next week and I think that folks
thought it made sense to have it
next week when we're in session.
Given how many people have come forward
and are ready to tell their stories,
and so it's happening, obviously.
The same week that they are
making their announcement,
but you know we're going to be having a
slightly different discussion during our.
During our roundtable briefing.
So you're saying there's
nothing to read into that?
Well, as you can tell, there's a lot
going on in the NFL all the time.
As my Chicago Bears just hired a new
football coach and I'm following that
news like everything else. At this point,
fair enough, Sir.
One last question for you,
the end of the release that was
put out by oversight yesterday,
indicated that additional
witnesses may be included other
than the five that were listed.
I'm curious.
If for former quarterback Robert Griffin,
the third may be one of those witnesses,
or if anyone in the committee
has has reached him.
The reason I asked is he's writing this.
Tell all book and one of the things
he's supposedly talking about in this
book is his experience with sexual
harassment at Washington football.
I can't get into who else might be attending,
but I think it's fair to say that others
have expressed an interest in attending,
and so we're we're meeting with them,
talking to them and seeing
if their information would
be relevant to this hearing.