NFL Orders Investigation into Rice Case; Former FBI Director to Oversee

The former director of the FBI will conduct an investigation into the handling of the Ray Rice case, the NFL announced Wednesday.

The decision came after the Associated Press reported that a law enforcement official had sent a video of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice assaulting his then-fiancee inside an Atlantic City elevator, and its receipt was confirmed from an NFL office in April.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had previously said that nobody to his knowledge in the NFL had seen the video that TMZ Sports released Monday showing what happened in the elevator—that Rice knocked out his then-fiancee (they have since married) on Feb. 15.

The Associated Press was given access to a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number in which a woman confirmed receipt of the video and said: “You’re right; it’s terrible,”according to the report.

Goodell said in a letter Wednesday to NFL executives that as long as Rice is in a pretrial intervention program for the third-degree assault charge he faces in New Jersey, the evidence involved in the case is not accessible to the public. He added that the NFL’s “longstanding policy” has been “to cooperate with law enforcement and take no action to interfere with the criminal justice system.”

Wrote Goodell: “...we did not see video of what took place inside the elevator until it was publicly released on Monday. When the new video evidence became available, we acted promptly and imposed an indefinite suspension on Mr. Rice.” Rice was also cut from the Ravens.

The NFL issuing the following statement Wednesday in response to the Associated Press report: “We have no knowledge of this. We are not aware of anyone in our office who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday. We will look into it.”

Now looking into it is former FBI director Robert Mueller III, according to ESPN. Mueller was the director of the FBI from 2001 to 2013.

Giants owner John Mara and Steelers owner Art Rooney, who are both attorneys, will oversee the investigation, according to CBS Sports, which said there was no timeline for the findings, but the NFL’s most recent independent investigation took approximately three months. That case involved harassment among Miami Dolphins players.

Photo: Robert Mueller III. Credit: FBI.

Related:

• Ravens Owner Steve Bisciotti: ‘Seeing That Video Changed Everything’
• Baltimore Ravens to Offer Ray Rice Jersey Exchange
• Janay Rice, Wife Of Ray Rice, Responds To ‘Horrible Nightmare’
• ‘I Have to Be Strong’: Ray Rice Speaks Out
• New Video of Ray Rice Shows What Happened Inside Elevator
• NFL Enacts Tougher Domestic Violence Penalties After Ray Rice Criticism
• NFL Officials Make Decision on Ray Rice Suspension
• Rice Admitted to Pre-Trial Intervention Program
• Ray Rice Pleads Not Guilty, Deal Pending
• Day After Ray Rice Indicted on Assault Charge, He Weds Fiancée
• Baltimore Ravens Running Back Ray Rice Faces New Criminal Charge
• Ray Rice Arrested in Atlantic City