On Thursday, former FBI director Robert Mueller released his independent report into whether the NFL had obtained the elevator video of Ray Rice hitting his then-fiancee Janay Palmer prior to its public release and what information was available to the NFL at the time of the incident.
While the entire report can be read here, the press release which was published alongside it provided the relevant findings:
“We found no evidence that anyone at the NFL had or saw the in-elevator video before it was publicly shown. We also found no evidence that a woman at the NFL acknowledged receipt of that video in a voicemail message on April 9, 2014.
“We concluded there was substantial information about the incident – even without the in-elevator video – indicating the need for a more thorough investigation. The NFL should have done more with the information it had, and should have taken additional steps to obtain all available information about the February 15 incident.”
The report directly contradicts earlier reports that the NFL had received the tape before it was publicly released by TMZ.
The decision to hire Mueller to run the independent investigation was criticized by some in the media due to Mueller being a partner at a law firm with close ties to the NFL, including Baltimore Ravens president Richard Cass.
