Competing reports have been issued regarding the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of the Washington Commanders. Before turning to the report from the party that controls the Committee through the end of the year, there’s one more significant nugget in the Republican response, beyond the effort to place blame on former team executive Bruce Allen.
The GOP version of the report accuses the Committee of investigating the Commanders in order to get owner Daniel Snyder out, and to get Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in.
“Committee Democrats’ investigation has had one goal since its inception: force Team owner Dan Snyder to give up the Team,” the GOP report explains. “In the last month, as news organizations reported that the Snyder family was working with a financial institution to consider possible financial transactions related to the Team, including its possible sale, a long-running theory about what could have prompted Committee Democrats’ investigation was given more credence. Within hours of the news breaking of a possible future sale, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was reported to be interested in purchasing the team; Bezos has long been rumored to be interested in purchasing the team. Bezos is also the owner of The Washington Post, whose negative coverage of Dan Snyder has been a key driver of Committee Democrats’ investigation. Given the targeted, predetermined nature of Committee Democrats’ investigation of the Team and its owner, it appears that the entire effort may have had as its goal the removal of an unfavored owner and the installation of the owner of a left-leaning newspaper sympathetic to the Democratic party.”
During an October interview on #PFTPM, Commanders outside counsel John Brownlee was asked to identifies the parties behind the alleged “smear campaign” of Snyder. Brownlee did not mention Bezos or the Post.
Let’s take all of this to the next level. Did Snyder announce that he’s considering selling the team simply to smoke out Bezos, so that the theory that Bezos is trying to force Snyder out would have credence?
If Snyder doesn’t sell after all, maybe that will be the reason for it.