The NFL’s investigation into allegations of workplace sexual harassment at the Washington Football Team uncovered a confidential settlement from a decade ago, court records show, and an emergency motion filed Monday said team owner Daniel Snyder plans to intervene in a legal dispute over which details surrounding the settlement can become public.
The name of the complainant in the settlement, that person’s job and the nature of the allegations have not been made public, but the available records show lawyer Beth Wilkinson, who is leading the league’s probe into the team’s workplace, encountering resistance from the team’s former lawyer.
David P. Donovan, who served as the team’s general counsel from 2005 to 2011, sued Wilkinson last month in federal court in Virginia to stop her from disclosing information pertaining to a 2009 confidential agreement to which Donovan is a party. In the suit filed Nov. 9, Donovan sought to keep private all court records, including any public notice of the lawsuit itself, arguing that making the proceedings public would “undermine public confidence in the enforceability of confidential agreements between private parties.” That request was denied Nov. 17.
Donovan dropped the suit Nov. 23, but Wilkinson’s lawyers urged the court to decide which documents in the case could be unsealed “so the public can understand what [Donovan] is trying to accomplish through this lawsuit and how it relates to the investigation writ-large.”
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Court records over what information should be redacted from the public record refer to the agreement as a “settlement” and make reference to the characterization of “the nature of misconduct.”
After Wilkinson submitted some redacted filings to the court, Donovan filed an emergency motion Monday, seeking to delay those disclosures, saying Snyder and the team intend to intervene in the case for the purpose of “asserting privilege and privacy or related interests over information that is under seal.” U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis granted the motion Monday afternoon.
Snyder has pledged to cooperate with the investigation and to release current and former employees from nondisclosure agreements for the purposes of talking to investigators.
Donovan declined to comment. Wilkinson and her attorneys also did not reply to requests for comment. Washington Football Team spokeswoman Julie A. Jensen did not respond to requests for comment. Snyder did not reply to requests for comment sent to a public relations representative and an attorney he has hired. The NFL also did not respond to a request for comment.
The existence of the 2009 settlement might never have entered the public record had Donovan not sought an injunction against Wilkinson from the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. Wilkinson filed sealed affidavits in support of her motions from three people, including Lisa Friel, the NFL’s special counsel for investigations. Friel did not respond to a request for comment
“Simply because parties don’t like allegations don’t mean those allegations are sealable,” Davis told Donovan’s lawyers at a Nov. 20 hearing, according to a transcript requested by The Washington Post after news of the dispute was reported by Law360.com. “The fact that these details may come out, your client shouldn’t file a federal lawsuit.”
Wilkinson was scheduled to interview Snyder on Nov. 18, court records show.
In his court filings, Donovan describes himself as a “party” to the settlement, though it’s unclear whether Donovan simply negotiated the deal or was involved in another way.
Donovan, who also served as the team’s chief operating officer for three years, was a partner in the WilmerHale law firm on and off for more than 25 years until his retirement in 2018.
Davis laid out a complicated set of rules describing which court documents would be made public and which words in those documents would be redacted. According to his Nov. 25 ruling, the phrases “settlement” and “settlement agreement,” the name of the “complainant,” that person’s title and “references to the matter giving rise to allegations” should be redacted. Other requests to block information from the public were denied.
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Wilkinson was hired by Snyder to conduct an “independent” investigation, following a July report by The Post in which 15 women said they were sexually harassed while working for the team. A month later, another 25 women made similar claims in another Post report, which also described lewd videos produced by the team from outtakes of cheerleader calendar shoots in 2008 and 2010.
