Daniel Snyder’s latest lawsuit could have significant implications

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Washington owner Daniel Snyder once filed a lawsuit against the Washington City Paper that the New York Times described as “odd.” His latest lawsuit, depending on how it unfolds, could eventually make that one look like a garden-variety landlord-tenant dispute on The Peoples Court.

The eventual path depends on the evidence. Snyder either will show that someone with plenty of money and influence (potentially, one of his limited partners) tried to engineer Snyder’s downfall or will come off as paranoid and reckless, throwing money down a legal dry hole while also creating the impression that he’s trying to keep current and former employees from talking about him to the media.

“We know someone’s behind these slanderous and, quite frankly, despicable articles that were published,” lawyer Joe Tacopina told the Washington Post. “We need to understand who’s behind this with certainty. . . . We want our proof.”

As noted earlier today, the initial trail of bread crumbs seems to be pointing, potentially, to Dwight Schar, one of Snyder’s limited partners. Tacopina stopped short of directly pointing a finger at Schar, even though Monday’s filing does so indirectly, by suggesting that former Washington employee Mary Ellen Blair, the target for now of Snyder’s accusations, lives in a luxury apartment owned by Comstock, a company for which Schar’s daughter, Tracy, works. Tracy Schar also serves on the Comstock board of directors.

“We want to be able to depose Mary Ellen Blair, and get documents . . . before we go mentioning anyone by name. . . . But it’s just a matter of time before this house of cards comes down,” Tacopina told the Post.

Even though Tacopina didn’t name names, Tracy Schar has responded to the suggestion that she, as a conduit for her father, provided benefits of some sort to Mary Ellen Blair.

“Any insinuation that Ms. Blair has received special treatment for any reason is patently false,” Denise Pattakos, a spokeswoman for Tracy Schar, told the Post. “Any allegations or disparagement of Comstock is just spin designed to deflect from public reports of extremely disturbing behavior overseen by Mr. Snyder in his tenure as the majority owner of the Washington Football Team.”

So that’s the daughter of one of Snyder’s limited partners taking aim at Snyder for “deflect[ing] from public reports of extremely disturbing behavior overseen by Mr. Snyder in his tenure as the majority owner of the Washington Football Team.” This underscores the reality that significant tension exists between Snyder and Schar, and it makes even more reasonable the notion that Snyder is trying to figure out whether Schar had a hand in instigating current or former employees to talk to reporters about Snyder.

However it plays out, we’ve never seen anything like this, at least not in recent years. And if Snyder can prove that Schar had a role in instigating the publication of false information about Snyder, the NFL surely would get involved.