He even served as a human shield of sorts, absorbing the wrath of disgruntled fans who might have turned on Snyder instead of launching a “Fire Bruce Allen” campaign.
On Thursday, 16 months after he was fired as Snyder’s longest-running team president, Allen found himself in Snyder’s legal crosshairs, accused in federal court of having information about — and possibly having a role in spreading — false and disparaging stories about him.
Snyder is not suing Allen but is asking the court, via discovery and deposition, to force Allen to disclose emails, texts and other communication that Snyder believes would connect Allen to media outlets and third parties that sought to “disparage and defame” him.
The discovery action is related to the $10 million defamation suit Snyder filed in July against an India-based website, MEAWW.com, that falsely linked him without evidence to convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
News of the 17-page filing, made in California federal court Thursday, was first reported by the Athletic. Allen, who now lives in California, did not respond to a request for comment.
As evidence for Snyder’s pursuit of Allen, the filing cites the fact that Allen spoke by phone with Baltimore-based investor John Moag 87 times, “totaling an astonishing 1,237 minutes (nearly 21 hours),” between Jan. 9, 2020 and Nov. 18, 2020. That information was gleaned from Snyder’s earlier legal action against Moag, who then represented the three Washington Football Team co-owners seeking to sell their collective 40 percent stake in the team. Snyder ultimately bought out the investors himself.
The filing notes that Allen’s communications with Moag began soon after he was fired as Washington’s president and continued through July, when the Indian website published its defamatory articles and The Washington Post published the first of two stories about widespread sexual harassment and mistreatment in the franchise under Snyder’s watch.
As further evidence of Allen’s potential role, the filing notes that Allen’s name was not mentioned in the articles.
“Notably, despite [Allen’s] prominent position and hands-on role in running the Team during the time period discussed in many of these negative articles, [Allen] name rarely, if ever, was mentioned in these articles — and was completely absent from the Defamatory Articles at issues in the Indian Action,” the filing states. “This glaring omission raises further questions about [Allen’s] possible role in and/or knowledge of the creation, solicitation, drafting and publication of the Defamatory Articles.”
Snyder has used this legal strategy — asking federal courts to force action from former employees and others he suspects of conspiring to defame him — eight times since August 2020. His previous targets have included two former executive assistants, the wife of former Washington general manager Scot McCloughan and a Colorado-based agent.
