AMARTÍNEZ, HOST:
There are new allegations against the owner of the Washington Football Team, Daniel Snyder. After accusations of workplace misconduct, Snyder said he'd cooperate with an internal investigation launched by the National Football League. That was last year. The Washington Post reports his actions suggest otherwise. It alleges Snyder went to great lengths to silence a woman who accused him of sexual misconduct back in 2009. Will Hobson is one of The Washington Post reporters who broke this story. Will, in terms of Dan Snyder's actions, what exactly did you find?
WILL HOBSON: The lawyer for this woman - who had already settled for $1.6 million a sexual misconduct claim against Mr. Snyder - alleges that Mr. Snyder's lawyers attempted to pay her more money if she agreed not to speak with the NFL's investigator.
MARTÍNEZ: And also that Snyder hired investigators - right? - to interfere with the NFL's investigation?
HOBSON: That was separate from this.
MARTÍNEZ: OK.
HOBSON: Mr. Snyder also had private investigators that were contacting sources for our journalism and other people he suspected of being sources for our stories.
MARTÍNEZ: So he - wow, so that's kind of incredible. Has there been any reaction from Daniel Snyder on this so far?
HOBSON: His attorney has - one of his attorneys has denied the allegation of attempting to give more money to this woman to prevent her from speaking to the league. They have not addressed any of the other allegations in the story.
MARTÍNEZ: Wondering - owners in different team sports have been - had the team stripped, removed from them for a lot of reasons. At the end of all of this, do you think that this could mean that Snyder has the Washington Football Team taken from him in some way? Or is there enough there to force him out or slap on the wrist? What do you think might happen next there?
HOBSON: I mean, there's a tremendously high bar for - in the NFL for forcing an owner to sell the team. Basically, the only precedent I'm aware of involves federal criminal charges against a part-owner. So at that point - at this point, I would view it as highly unlikely.
MARTÍNEZ: What is the NFL saying? I know that, you know, they're part of an investigation on all this, but have any owners or the league or Roger Goodell, the commissioner, said anything about this so far?
HOBSON: Roger Goodell addressed it yesterday and said that any attempts to interfere with the league's investigation ultimately didn't interfere. So he didn't really deny that there was an attempt to obstruct the investigation. He just said that any attempts that were made didn't actually materially affect the investigation. I think it's also important to note that we don't know what this investigation found because Commissioner Goodell decided to keep any report confidential and under wraps.
MARTÍNEZ: And this is going even back to Jon Gruden and all of the relevations (ph) that were found as a result of emails from before he came back to be the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. I mean, is the NFL - I mean, I know that they can be seen as a Teflon league, Will, in a lot of ways, but is the NFL going through some kind of reckoning period right now with all this?
HOBSON: I mean, with regard to those emails, the NFL still has not really answered how those emails came to be released to journalists. Those are emails that were produced as part of the league's investigation. And yeah, so as for - with regard to a reckoning, there are members of Congress who are trying to get more records from the NFL. And I think the answer to that question is just how aggressive those members of Congress will ultimately end up being.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, Will Hobson is national sports reporter for The Washington Post. Will, thanks a lot.
MARTÍNEZ: Thanks, guys.
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