Dan Snyder Selling? Commanders Attorney Fires Back on 'Smear Campaign' & Washington Ownership - EXCLUSIVE Part 1
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Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder continues to be under siege - with the latest attacks coming from Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay - all as part of a "smear campaign'' intended to force Snyder to sell the NFL franchise, team attorney John Brownlee tells us in an exclusive interview.
Snyder, the team tells is, is being attacked via a "two-year misinformation campaign to coerce the sale of the team, which will continue to be unsuccessful.''
In the first of our four-part series based on our communications with Brownlee, the attorney defends Snyder against both a recent "ESPN article ... rife with malicious falsehoods'' and against what Brownlee calls "a well-funded, well-orchestrated and well-documented (smear) campaign.''
The issue, which centers on accusations that Snyder has mismanaged the franchise in a variety of ways, reached another level on Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings in New York, where Irsay called for the Washington owner's removal.
Said Irsay: “We have to act. He needs to be removed.”
It is the position of Brownlee and the Commanders that this is simply a continuation of "the previous smear campaign efforts,'' with the attorney citing a New York Times article from December 2020 that mentions the utilization of "burner phones, profane text messages, accusations of leaks of credible and fabricated information to the news media, and threats of extortion, according to transcripts of phone calls, text messages and emails found in court filings and other documents ...''
Brownlee goes on to note that the Times wrote that following a Washington Post expose on Snyder and the team, other "less reputable outlets'' wrote stories that, for instance, "falsely linked (Snyder) to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”
Brownlee tells us that in his efforts to make sure the media's reporting is accurate, "We provided corrections to ESPN, which were largely ignored.''
Added Brownlee: "There has been a campaign against Dan for several years now aimed at mudding the waters around his ownership of the team.''
And on Tuesday evening, one more official response from the Commanders, this one directed at Irsay: “It is highly inappropriate, but not surprising, that Mr. Irsay opted to make statements publicly based on falsehoods in the media,” a Commanders spokesperson said. “It is unfortunate that Mr. Irsay decided to go public with his statement today, while an investigation is in process, and the team has had no opportunity to formally respond to allegations. The Commanders have made remarkable progress over the past two years. We are confident that, when he has an opportunity to see the actual evidence in this case, Mr. Irsay will conclude that there is no reason for the Snyders to consider selling the franchise.
"And they won't.''
In Part 2 of our exclusive interview session, Brownlee and the Commanders dispute in detail the accusation that Snyder has been "digging up dirt'' on Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and others.
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