A Commanders spokesperson released a statement regarding the press conference from the Washington D.C. attorney general, and used the shooting of Brian Robinson to deflect from it.
The Washington Commanders are no strangers to being involved in controversy, as they are the subject of numerous investigations. Last week, the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia opened up a criminal investigation into the organization over allegations of financial improprieties.
On Wednesday, the office of D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine released a statement, revealing that they will be making an announcement regarding the Commanders on Thursday.
Hours later, a Commanders spokesperson released a statement responding to the announcement from Racine. In said statement, they used running back Brian Robinson’s shooting prior to the season as a way to deflect from Racine’s scheduled press conference.
The statement can be read below, courtesy of ESPN’s John Keim.
Commanders use Brian Robinson’s shooting to deflect from D.C. Attorney General press conference
“Less than three months ago, a 23-year-old player on our team was shot multiple times, in broad daylight,” the statement read. “Despite the out-of-control violent crime in D.C., today the Washington Commanders learned for the first time on Twitter that the D.C. Attorney General will be holding a press conference to “make a major announcement” related to the organization tomorrow.”
The statement continued to decry Racine’s investigation, saying that they did cooperate and claimed a lawyer met with him on Monday and did not indicate that they would take action. From there, the spokesperson said Racine “appears more interested in making splashy headlines, based on offbeat legal theories, rather than doing the hard work of making the streets safe for our citizens, including bringing to justice the people who shot one of our players.”
This statement spread across social media from the Commanders beat reporters who received it. One person who did catch wind of this was Robinson’s agent, Ryan Williams, who said that the Commanders handled his client’s situation well “up until an hour ago.” Then, Williams said, “although I know there are some great humans in that building, whoever is hiding behind this statement is not one of them.”
Back in August, Robinson was shot in the right leg during an attempted robbery, and has since recovered. In early October, Robinson was cleared to play, and made his NFL debut back in Week 5 against the Tennessee Titans.
Two teens were recently arrested for their involvement in the shooting, charged with assault with intent to rob while armed.
The Attorney General’s press conference on Thursday will be one worth monitoring. The Commanders tried to deflect from it, but caught the backlash from using Robinson’s shooting as a way to deflect from the presser.