Snyder said in the lawsuit that Schar threatened to release information if Snyder did not sell the team.
The request was made a day after The Washington Post reported that the Washington Football Team paid a former employee $ 1.6 million in 2009 to resolve a sexual misconduct complaint she made against Snyder. Details of the alleged incident and settlement were also reported by The New York Times.
Both the Washington Football Team and the NFL declined to comment.
“I was the subject of an extortion campaign by Claimant Dwight Schar based on the threat of leaking information about the unsubstantiated allegations for which, despite knowing that no evidence of wrongdoing was found after an investigation by a respected law firm, the Claimant Schar, however, threatened to disclose to discredit and embarrass my family, but the insurer decided to settle, “said Snyder in the process.
Snyder also said that he is “fighting on various fronts for interests that go beyond me, including the team I love, as well as my family, and can swear to this Court that the accusations that I leaked information to the press are false. “
“I firmly believe that the Claimants’ motion and supplementary filing and the news articles they generated are the latest in the effort to extort me,” said Snyder. The request was made in the United States district court in Maryland, where Snyder is being sued by minority owners Schar, Fred Smith and Robert Rothman, who want to sell their team shares.
CNN contacted Schar’s lawyers for comment.
The team said in a statement in July that it hired a lawyer from an outside law firm “to conduct a full independent review of this whole matter and help the team set new standards for employees for the future”.
Two of the employees mentioned in the reports retired or were dismissed when news of the allegations was made public.
Snyder was not directly involved in the July investigation and denied knowledge of the charges, saying in a statement obtained by CNN that the behavior “had no place in our franchise or society”. However, he was criticized by former employees for what they saw as enabling a team culture where inappropriate behavior was allowed, according to the Post’s report.
Kevin Dotson of CNN contributed to this report.