NFL’s Commanders Raise Questions About Financial Ties Between Liberal Activists and Oversight Committee Democrats – Washington Free Beacon

The Washington Commanders are elevating questions in regards to the nexus between the legislation and public relations corporations representing former crew staff and the Democrats on the Home Oversight Committee who launched an investigation final yr into the crew’s office tradition.

Legal professionals for the franchise advised in a letter to the Home Oversight Committee final week that the legislation agency Katz Banks Kumin LLP—finest identified for its illustration of Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford—and the general public relations agency SKDK might have a “monetary stake within the final result of the investigation.”

It’s a fragile means of claiming this: Each Debra Katz and Lisa Banks are donors to members of the Oversight Committee, together with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), whose investigation into the Washington Commanders is in flip offering their agency with numerous enterprise. Equally, Democrats on the committee have a comfortable relationship with SKDK, which runs communications campaigns for Democratic politicians and left-wing organizations—and which is offering these companies for the previous Commanders staff. 

It’s not the one optics downside the investigation has run into: Oversight Committee member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D., Sick.) abruptly canceled a fundraiser within the spring that was set to be hosted by a outstanding Democratic household behind a marketing campaign to boycott the Commanders. The lobbyists and would-be hosts, Tom and Mike Manatos, touted Krishnamoorthi as their finest shot at “eliminating Snyder,” a reference to Commanders proprietor Dan Snyder.

Final week’s letter from the crew’s authorized counsel is the most recent salvo in one in every of Washington’s most weird congressional investigations. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) launched the probe final October, after the Commanders paid a $10 million tremendous to the NFL following an investigation into office situations on the franchise. Republicans have questioned why a congressional committee tasked with investigating waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal authorities is investigating a personal sports activities franchise.

In line with the crew’s legal professionals on the agency Holland & Knight, Home Democrats have been “uninterested” in receiving proof they are saying would debunk the allegations made by two Katz Banks purchasers, former Commanders cheerleader Melanie Coburn and former crew vp of gross sales Jason Friedman. The legal professionals provided to share proof that contradicts their claims of a poisonous office in an Oct. 5 letter however mentioned they haven’t heard again from the committee. They mentioned Katz Banks responded to the letter as a substitute, elevating extra questions in regards to the relationship with the committee.

“Primarily based on the truth that the one response to our letter got here from Katz Banks, and never from you, it seems that this non-public legislation agency is now performing because the de facto authorized counsel for the Committee,” the legal professionals wrote to Maloney, the co-chair of the Oversight Committee panel.

“The agency’s protracted involvement on this investigation raises vital questions in regards to the supply of the agency’s funding and/or its monetary stake within the final result of the investigation,” the legal professionals mentioned.

The Oversight Committee didn’t reply to a request for remark.