Lisa Banks is one of the attorneys representing many of the women involved in litigation about Daniel Snyder over misdeeds during his time as Commanders owner – and when she joined Craig Hoffman on Thursday,
“I think it’s less an article than a novella,” Banks joked, “but I think it’s tremendous. The reporting is amazing, its eye opening in some respects but I think for people like me, who have been immersed in this saga, it doesn’t come as all that much of a surprise. The report confirmed what we suspected all along,t hat Snyder was intimately involved in determining exactly hat was going to happen to him as a result of Beth Wilkinson’s investigation, which was to say not much.”
Par for the course, it seems?
“What we quickly have come to understand is that Roger Goodell treats owners differently than he treats players, coaches, or executives, because he works for and at the pleasure of the owners, and he has almost 64 million reasons to make them happy,” Banks said. “That includes Snyder, even if he has to hold his nose in doing it. So, it didn’t surprise me that we have confirmed what I and my clients had long suspected, that Snyder was involved in this punishment, even if we knew back then because they never really used the word suspension in that carefully-crafted press release.
Whether it was because Goodell wanted to protect the owners or Snyder had some dirt, I don’t know, but it could’ve been all of that.”
What about that latter point, the so-called “blackmail powerpoint” Snyder may have shown Goodell – does that possibly open up the league to any legal culpability for having Banks’ clients participate in investigations under a false pretense?
“Absolutely that could lead to legal action, and I’ve raised that issue directly with the NFL that we feel our clients were misled about what would happen,” Banks said. “They took great risk in coming forward to talk with Beth Wilkinson, and many of them still worked for the organization at that time, so they were all afraid of retaliation. Everyone assumed, including Beth Wilkinson, that she’s do her investigation and write a report, and some version of those findings would be released; we were all surprised when it didn’t happen, but it could lead to legal action.”
Banks didn’t think that ‘blackmail powerpoint’ strategy was ‘peculiar for this particular group, whose M.O. is to discredit and embarrass anyone who comes forward to make allegations’ – mentioning how several of her clients were indeed targeted by the team after coming forward, and even she herself may have been part of that presentation.
With that, the Commanders are in a similar spot now with the Mary Jo White investigation, and Banks told Hoffman that she and her clients got promises from White and the NFL that the findings would be made public to be assured the same thing didn’t happen again – and if it does, there will be blood.
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“If we see some watered-down, truncated, whitewashed report that comes out, or no report at all, that will likely lead to direct legal action,” Banks said. “There are definite promises made, and someone relies on a promise broken to their detriment. It’s almost a quasi-contractual theory, a common law claim instead of a statutory claim, but we believe that if after making those promises, and my clients acting in reliance on them, if they suffer harm as a result, that would be actionable, and we would consider and pursue any legal action available.”
Banks is still ‘cautiously optimistic’ the legitimate White report will come out, and that will be ‘good enough for my clients who have wanted transparency all along.’ But did the latest bombshell change anything about their mission?
“It’s the same mission ahead – our goals don’t change, and even though this report confirmed a number of things, there were things we knew or suspected,” Banks said. “Some of this was no surprise. This whole saga has been a clown show, and no one seems to be able to make a decision that doesn’t blow up in their face. I think one of the interesting things is that the article showed that whoever leaked these emails, it blew up spectacularly for all parties involved – especially Snyder, for whom without this, he might still have the team. But we still move towards our goal of transparency and accountability for all those involved.”
But wait, what about the WaPo report of a last-minute negotiation or saber-rattling with Snyder and people getting nervous about the sale actually happening next week?
“Until the ink is dry on the full agreement, anything can happen, so the devil is in the details,” Banks said. “We knew indemnification and the Mary Jo White report had been in negotiations; I don’t know if the ESPN reporting or something relating to this threw a monkey wrench into it, because everyone is very concerned about indemnification. I have every reason to believe they’ll work it out and figure a path forward, but these are difficult issues.”
Listen to the entire powerful conversation between Hoffman and Banks above!
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