Ex-Washington Football Team cheerleader and marketing director accuses owner Dan Snyder of leaking Jon Gruden's emails to 'pin' club's sexual harassment scandal on former president Bruce Allen
- Melanie Coburn, a former Washington Football Team employee, has accused club owner Dan Snyder of leaking the emails that led to Jon Gruden's resignation
- Gruden resigned as head coach of the Raiders last week after the emails he sent to then-WFT president Bruce Allen between 2011 and 2018 surfaced in the media
- Gruden is seen using racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language to Allen
- Gruden's messages were included among 650,000 emails as part of the NFL's investigation into sexual harassment allegations against the team
- The probe ended in July, resulting in a $10 million fine for the club and Snyder ceding day-to-day control of the franchise to his wife, Tanya
- Coburn claims Snyder leaked the emails as part of his ongoing feud with Allen
- She said Snyder is trying to pin the team's sexual harassment scandal on the former WFT president, who was fired in 2019 after a 3-13 campaign
- If she's correct, it wouldn't be the first time Snyder has shared Allen's emails. He previously included some of the leaked emails in a separate court filing in April
- Through his attorney, Snyder denied leaking the emails. The NFL has also denied being the source of the leaks. Allen did not respond to requests for comment
Melanie Coburn, a former Washington Football Team cheerleader and marketing director, has accused club owner Dan Snyder of leaking Jon Gruden's racist, homophobic, and misogynistic emails that led to his resignation as Las Vegas Raiders head coach last week.
Gruden's messages were included among 650,000 emails as part of the NFL's investigation into hostile workplace and sexual harassment allegations against the Washington Football Team (WFT) — a probe that ended in July, resulting in a $10 million fine for the club and Snyder ceding day-to-day control of the franchise to his wife, Tanya.
Gruden resigned as head coach of the Raiders last week after the emails he sent to then-WFT president Bruce Allen between 2011 and 2018 surfaced in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. An ESPN analyst at the time of the emails, Gruden used derogatory language to refer to league figures like commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL players' union executive director DeMaurice Smith.
The NFL has denied sharing the Gruden emails to either newspaper.
Now Coburn, who worked with the team's cheerleaders for 14 years, claims Snyder leaked the emails in an effort to push blame for the team's sexual harassment scandal onto Allen.
'I believe Dan Snyder leaked these emails,' Coburn told Fox News. 'I believe he's trying to put all the blame on Bruce Allen.'

Washington Football Team owner Dan Snyder (left) has been accused of leaking Jon Gruden's emails to the media in an effort to push blame for the club's sexual harassment scandal onto former team president Bruce Allen. Gruden's messages were included among 650,000 emails as part of the NFL's investigation into hostile workplace and sexual harassment allegations against the Washington Football Team (WFT) — a probe that ended in July, resulting in a $10 million fine for the club and Snyder ceding day-to-day control of the franchise to his wife, Tanya (right)


Melanie Coburn (left), a former Washington Football Team cheerleader, has accused club owner Dan Snyder of leaking Jon Gruden's racist, homophobic, and misogynistic emails that led to his resignation as Las Vegas Raiders head coach last week. Coburn, who worked with the team's cheerleaders for 14 years, claims Snyder leaked the emails in an effort to push blame for the team's sexual harassment scandal onto former WFT GM Bruce Allen (right)

Jon Gruden (pictured) resigned as head coach of the Raiders last week after the emails he sent to then-WFT president Bruce Allen between 2011 and 2018 surfaced in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. An ESPN analyst at the time of the emails, Gruden used derogatory language to refer to league figures like commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL players' union executive director DeMaurice Smith
According to Coburn, private investigators working for Snyder spoke to former team cheerleaders to question them about Allen, who was fired in Washington after a 3-13 season in 2019.
'He sent over a dozen private investigators to my colleagues' homes across the country … to show up on cheerleaders' doorstops and ask them what their relationship with Bruce Allen was,' Coburn said.
'I feel like he's trying to pin everything on Bruce, right, and place all the blame for all of the bad culture on him, which just isn't true.'
Snyder's attorney, Jordan Siev, denied Coburn's accusations in a statement to DailyMail.com.
'Any suggestion by Ms. Coburn that anyone associated with the Washington Football Team was behind any leaks concerning Jon Gruden is categorically false and part of a pattern of misinformation being spread by Ms. Coburn,' Siev said.
Allen did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
If Coburn's claim is correct, this wouldn't be the first time Snyder has shared some of these emails.
Redacted versions of some of Gruden's emails were also filed in federal court last June as part of Snyder's efforts to compel Allen to produce discovery in a separate defamation lawsuit filed in India against a tabloid website. Several of the emails included in that court filing and reviewed by DailyMail.com are among the messages leaked to the Times.
Snyder was attempting to prove Allen was involved in a plot to falsely connect him to disgraced investor Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who committed suicide in prison in 2019.
Snyder's motion directing discovery from Allen in the case was dropped in April.
The two have also been at odds over Allen's severance, which Snyder was forced to pay in full in 2020.

Redacted versions of some of Gruden's emails were also filed in federal court last June as part of Snyder's efforts to compel Allen to produce discovery in a separate lawsuit. Several emails included in the court filing and reviewed by DailyMail.com are referenced by the Times

NFL players' union chief DeMaurice Smith wants to see more internal team emails to uncover the pervasiveness of racism around the league after Jon Gruden was caught using a racist trope to describe Smith in a 2011 email that surfaced last week

Gruden stepped down after The New York Times reported that Gruden frequently used misogynistic and homophobic language directed at commissioner Roger Goodell (pictured) and others in the NFL
Other emails between Gruden and Allen, which were not included in Snyder's court filing, appear to reference the team's sexual harassment issues.
One email leaked to the Times reportedly included photos of women wearing only bikini bottoms, including one photo of two Washington team cheerleaders. The origin of the cheerleader photographs is significant because complaints made by the WFT dancers were at the center of the NFL's investigation into the club's workplace culture.
Allegations against team employees ranged from inappropriate comments to the creation of a semi-nude behind-the-scenes video from a cheerleader calendar shoot in 2008, according to a 2020 Washington Post report.
Snyder, himself, was accused of making inappropriate comments to one cheerleader, but has denied the claim; and last December, the Post reported that Snyder paid $1.6 million in 2009 to settle a sexual misconduct allegation against himself.
This year, the team offered settlements to some former employees who previously accused WFT coworkers of sexual harassment, according to the Post.
The NFL has refused to release other emails from the investigation into the WFT, but Coburn and others continue to demand the league open its probe into the club.
'We know that that is a very, very small fraction of the 650,000 emails that we know they have access to,' Coburn said. 'These emails were also a result of the investigation that we participated in -- over 150 of us former employees of the Washington Football Team. Countless hours, lots of trauma relived, lots of emotions and anxiety and yet the only person to take fall for these terrible wrongdoings was a coach of another team.'
Lisa Banks, an attorney for the 40 former WFT employees involved in the investigation, agreed with a CNN interviewer on Wednesday that Gruden has been a 'fall guy' for the league.
'Obviously what [Gruden] did and what he wrote was terrible, and he probably deserves to lose his job, but it's telling that the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders is the only one to lose their job after a 10-month investigation into the Washington Football Team and its culture,' Banks told CNN.
After nearly a year of demanding the NFL to release its report, Banks said she believes that damning information about the WFT has yet to be revealed.
'Based on my knowledge and based on my 40 clients and what they provided to the investigators, I know that there's a lot of damning information about the Washington Football Team and about its owner,' she said. 'And I'm sure that there was going to be embarrassing information in that report and for whatever reason, the league decided that it was going to protect the owner and ignore the women.'
In an emailed response to DailyMail.com, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy flatly denied the accusation that the league is covering for Snyder: 'We are not.'

The NFL is facing increased demands from the NFL players' union and attorneys representing former Washington Football Team employees to release the findings of its 10-month investigation into sexual harassment and hostile workplace allegations against club. The league has, thus far, refused to release any material from its investigation, citing confidentiality concerns. Leaked emails from the probe resulted in Jon Gruden stepping down as Las Vegas Raiders head coach on Monday. Gruden, who was an ESPN television analyst when the emails were sent between 2011 and 2018, wrote racist, misogynistic and homophobic insults about league figures in the messages to then-WFT executive Bruce Allen. Lisa Banks (right), an attorney for the 40 former WFT employees involved in the investigation, agreed with a CNN interviewer on Wednesday that Gruden has been a 'fall guy' for the league