Washington Football Team owner Dan Snyder has filed a $10 million lawsuit against a media outlet based in India over “utterly untrue” sex trafficking stories.
According to court documents obtained by The Hill in a piece published Friday, the 55-year-old owner is suing the parent company of MEAWW.com after Snyder’s legal team said the outlet published an article suggesting that an upcoming report would link the NFL owner with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (RELATED: NFL Hall Of Fame Coach Tony Dungy Says He Won’t Say Redskins Name On-Air)
Dan Snyder Files $10 Million Lawsuit Over False ‘Sex Trafficking’ Stories https://t.co/frsvzuQsIl
— TMZ (@TMZ) August 7, 2020
The owner’s legal team said the story on the website was based off anonymous Reddit posts, including one that suggested, “[Snyder] is getting [arrested] for sex trafficking. He was on [Jeffrey] Epstein’s list too.” (RELATED: Over A Dozen Women Accuse Washington Redskins Team Employees Of Sexual Harassment)
Another Reddit post included in the article on the website charged that Snyder was considering renaming the Washington Football Team, “The Washington Epsteins.”
In court documents, the owner’s legal team said the original piece was aggregated in “at least 22 stories which have generated over 160 million impressions.”
Snyder called the stories, “utterly untrue” with no “legitimate journalistic basis whatsoever.”
The MEAWW.com has since taken down the stories.
As previously reported, an article last month in the Washington Post involved sexual harassment allegations by more than a dozen women against former employees with the Washington Football Team.
According to the report:
The Post reported in mid-July that 15 women who once worked for the team had alleged experiencing sexual harassment and verbal abuse by former scouts and those close to Snyder.
Dan Snyder: pic.twitter.com/xlRD1c23UD
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 17, 2020
“The behavior described in yesterday’s Washington Post article has no place in our franchise or society,” Snyder shared at the time of the report. “This story has strengthened my commitment to setting a new culture and standard for our team, a process that began with the hiring of Coach [Ron] Rivera earlier this year.”