The NFL and its Washington franchise agreed in September 2020 not to share information from the investigation into the team’s front office culture without mutual consent, according to a document made public by a House committee Friday.

The so-called “Common Interest Agreement” between the league and the team — then known as the Washington Football Team and since rebranded the Washington Commanders — notes that the parties “share common legal interests” amid the investigation by attorney Beth Wilkinson.

“Parties further agree that their exchange of any such information and communications does not constitute a waiver of any applicable confidentiality, privilege, or work product claim that may otherwise be asserted as to information and communications exchanged,” the document later states.

In a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Friday, two top Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee suggested the letter could mean “that either the WFT or the NFL could try to bury the findings of the investigation.”

“This arrangement calls into question whether the WFT played a role in blocking the public release of the findings of Ms. Wilkinson’s investigation — and in particular whether [owner Dan] Snyder … may have been able to prevent the release of information that implicated him personally,” wrote committee Chairman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.).

The NFL commissioned the probe after dozens of women told the Washington Post in the summer of 2020 that they had experienced sexual harassment and verbal abuse while employed by the team formerly known as the Washington Redskins.

The release of the documents by committee Democrats followed a roundtable hearing in which six former team employees laid out allegations against Snyder as well as damning descriptions of a depraved environment inside one of the NFL’s most valuable franchises. 

One witness, former cheerleader and team marketing manager Tiffani Johnston, recalled Snyder touching her inner thigh under the table at a team dinner and attempting to coax her into his limo following the gathering — a move he allegedly abandoned after his attorney told him it was a “bad idea.”

In July of last year, the NFL fined Washington $10 million following the months-long investigation by Wilkinson. However, it has yet to release a written report detailing the attorney’s findings, with Goodell citing concerns about the “security, privacy, and anonymity” of those who spoke to investigators.

In their letter, Maloney and Krishnamoorthi charged that Goodell “personally directed that Ms. Wilkinson was to present her findings to you orally rather than provide a written report.

“This new information raises doubts about the NFL’s purported commitment to independence, transparency, and integrity in addressing workplace misconduct at the WFT,” they added.

The lawmakers have given the NFL until Feb. 14 — the day after Super Bowl LVI — to produce Wilkinson’s full findings, along with 2,100 documents from the investigation they say are held by the league and other documents held by an unnamed third party.

The committee further noted the NFL had withdrawn from the common interest agreement late last year, which the House members suggested marked an attempt to create a “legal limbo” preventing the handover of key documents.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement Friday that the league, rather than the Commanders, would determine what information from the investigation could be released.

“The committee has requested many documents which are clearly protected by the attorney-client privilege or are attorney work product,” McCarthy said. “The league, and not the team, has and will determine which information it is in a position to produce.”

In a separate statement, Snyder attorney Jordan Siev questioned Johnston’s motives for speaking out at Thursday’s hearing. Siev alleged that Johnston left the team “through a thankful and cheery resignation note more than 13 years ago,” and had declined to be interviewed by Wilkinson before making her “false” allegations.

“Regarding today’s letter from the Committee to the NFL,” Siev continued, “neither Mr. Snyder nor the team has ever done anything to block the committee from receiving any documents it has requested from the NFL that are not expressly protected by attorney-client privilege or attorney work product.

“Finally,” the attorney concluded, “all non-privileged emails are being provided to the committee shortly.”

With Post wires