Here's a bit that will stir some interest - refusal to cooperate fully
As noted, there was a significant exception to the cooperation provided by the
Patriots. Although we requested a follow-up interview of Jim McNally after our initial
interview, counsel for the Patriots refused our request. We offered to conduct the interview at
any time or location that would be convenient for McNally, and explained—both in writing and
in-person during other meetings—that our follow-up questions would be limited to subject
matter directly relevant to the investigation that was developed following our initial interview
with McNally. McNally was one of the earliest Patriots personnel interviewed by our
investigative team and a number of important follow-up questions had arisen based on
subsequent interviews and information discovered after our initial interview of McNally.
Counsel for the Patriots, however, declined to produce McNally, and communicated an
unwillingness even to advise McNally of our request for a follow-up interview. We do not know
definitively whether McNally was, in fact, informed of our request. The investigative process
would have benefited from further questioning of McNally on certain topics, and we believe that
the actions of the Patriots and their counsel in this regard are inconsistent both with the club‟s
public pronouncements of full cooperation with the investigation and its obligations under
Section 2 of the Policy on Integrity of the Game & Enforcement of Competitive Rules.3
The
3 We made written requests to counsel for the Patriots on February 28, March 2, 3, 9 and 17 for a follow-up
interview with McNally. Counsel for the Patriots repeatedly refused to make McNally available for a reinterview
claiming, among other things, that McNally lived more than an hour away and already had missed
work at his full-time job to attend earlier interviews. In addition, counsel for the Patriots asked that we provide 29
findings set forth herein are nevertheless supported firmly and thoroughly by the evidence and
information available to us during the course of our work.