Washington owner Daniel Snyder is currently on a winning streak that he’d surely love his football team to emulate.
It’s now two in a row for Snyder. On Thursday, he secured the right to seek discovery relating to potential connections between the website that published a pair of false articles linking him to Jeffrey Epstein and other companies and individuals that potentially (key word, potentially) could establish a link back to Washington minority owner Dwight Schar. On Friday, Snyder won a contested effort to gather evidence from former Washington employee Mary Ellen Blair and Comstock, a company owned partially by Schar.
Snyder hopes to expose a deliberate effort to smear him through the paid placement of the Epstein articles on meaww.com, and to show that bribes were offered and/or paid to get current or former employees to say bad things about him. The discovery efforts launched in two separate jurisdictions are related to a defamation case pending in India. (Not Indiana. India.)
“We are delighted with the Magistrate Judge’s ruling today that Dan Snyder can proceed with discovery against both Mary Ellen Blair and Comstock,” attorney Joe Tacopina said in a statement provided to PFT. “The Magistrate Judge expressly found that the requests are not a ‘fishing expedition’ as claimed, and we look forward to receiving the requested discovery and finding out why Comstock and Blair are fighting to prevent this evidence from coming out if they have nothing to hide.”
Blair filed an opposition to the effort, claiming that the court filings were simply an effort to make false statements about her without exposure to potential defamation liability for Snyder, and to intimidate her and others from speaking out.
The ruling means only that Snyder now has leave to pursue the information through traditional efforts in civil litigation, including the taking of sworn testimony via deposition and the gathering of documents and other tangible evidence. Snyder wants to show a connection between Blair and Comstock, in an effort to ultimately prove (apparently) that Schar has been trying to discredit Snyder, presumably in the hopes of forcing him to sell his majority interest in the team.