Woody Johnson

In January 2000, Johnson purchased the Jets for $635 million, at the time the third-highest price for a professional sports team and the highest for a New York professional sports team.[5] Johnson outbid the offer of $612 million placed by Charles Dolan, the owner of the Madison Square Garden, New York Knicks, and New York Rangers.[5][6] Forbes valued the team at $3.2 billion as of September 2019.[7]

After buying the Jets, Johnson announced plans to move them to the proposed West Side Stadium in Manhattan. However, after the project's defeat in 2005, Johnson announced the Jets would move to a new Meadowlands Stadium as an equal partner with the Giants. The new stadium opened on April 10, 2010, with naming rights being acquired by MetLife.

Johnson was a member of the eight-man NFL search committee to choose a successor to Paul Tagliabue as NFL commissioner.[8][9]

Johnson's brother Christopher took over as CEO and acting owner in 2017, while Woody Johnson served a four-year term as US Ambassador to the United Kingdom.[10] In January 2021, Christopher stated that Woody would return as principal owner and chairman of the Jets, after the end of his term as ambassador.[11] Christopher is expected to become vice-chairman of the Jets.[12]

Johnson is the chairman and chief executive of The Johnson Company, Inc., a private investment firm.[13] In August 2006, Johnson was asked to testify before the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations regarding his participation in a tax avoidance scheme. A Senate report said that Johnson, along with others, was able to buy, for relatively small fees, roughly $2 billion in capital losses that they used to erase taxable gains they garnered from stock sales. The U.S. Treasury lost an estimated $300 million in revenue as a result. In a statement, Johnson said he had been advised by his lawyers in 2000 that the transaction "was consistent with the Tax Code." After the Internal Revenue Service challenged that view in 2003, Johnson in 2006 settled with the IRS and agreed to pay 100 percent of the tax due plus interest.[14]

Johnson was the committee president of the Pre-Commissioning Unit for the San Antonio-class ship USS New York.[15]

Johnson has given more than $1 million to various Republican candidates and committees. In May 2008, he orchestrated a fundraiser in New York City that brought in $7 million in a single evening for John McCain's presidential campaign, by far the largest amount collected up to that point by a campaign that had been struggling to raise money. Johnson also provided significant funding to 2008 Republican National Convention host committee; from a $10 million shortfall, Johnson contributed personally and solicited friends to assist in covering the convention deficit.[16] In 2011, Johnson endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries.[17] In September 2013, Johnson hosted a fundraiser for the Republican National Committee (RNC) at his home in New York City.[18]

By 2016, Johnson had known Donald Trump for about 30 years, with the two men having social connections.[19] Nevertheless, in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Johnson initially endorsed Jeb Bush over Trump.[19] In June 2015, Johnson was named the national finance chairman for Bush's campaign.[20] On several occasions, Trump singled out Johnson in a speech attacking Bush for accepting "special interest" money from donors.[19][21] In May 2016, after Trump became the presumptive nominee, Johnson endorsed Trump for president.[22][19][1] He met with Trump at Trump Tower and was named one of the RNC's six finance vice chairmen, responsible for an effort to raise $1 billion on behalf of Trump's campaign.[19][21]

Johnson had by August 2019 donated $1.5 million to Trump's campaign and inaugural committee.[23] In February 2020, Johnson gave $575,000 to a fundraising committee for Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, and $355,000 to the RNC.[24] In May 2020, he gave $1 million to America First Action, Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC.[24]

On January 19, 2017, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he planned to nominate Johnson to become United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.[25][26] On June 22, 2017, Trump nominated Johnson for the position.[27][28][29] Prior to becoming ambassador, he had no diplomatic experience.[1] Following a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee,[30] Johnson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 3, 2017,[31] by voice vote.[28] He was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on August 21, 2017, in the Oval Office. Johnson presented his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II on November 8, 2017.[32]

In March 2019, Johnson wrote an article in the Daily Telegraph saying that chlorinated chicken was a "public safety no-brainer" and that health fears over hormone-fed beef were "myths".[33] This came after he urged the UK to open up to the US agriculture market after the British exit from the European Union and ignore the "smear campaign" of those with "their own protectionist agenda".[34] Johnson was criticized by several British agriculture standard boards, such as the Red Tractor Assurance whose CEO, Jim Moseley stated the UK's food standards were "now under threat from ... the United States food lobby".[35][34] Minette Batters, president of the UK National Farmers Union, agreed with Johnson's claims that chlorine-rinsed chicken was safe for consumption, but stated that factors such as animal welfare and environmental protection also had to be considered.[36] Batters commented that accepting US agricultural products produced in ways that would be illegal in the UK would "put British producers out of business". The US National Farmers Union maintained that US methods of meat production were "safe", describing criticism as "fear-mongering".[33]

In 2020, Johnson was investigated by the State Department inspector general over allegations that he made sexist and racist comments to embassy staff. He had been reported to have held official meetings at men-only clubs in London, which meant that female staff members would not be able to attend.[37][24] According to the New York Times, half a dozen current and former embassy employees said that Johnson made Black and female staff members uncomfortable by making remarks about their appearances or race.[38] One diplomat said he made disparaging remarks about Black History Month.[39]

The inspector general's report, issued in August 2020, found that Johnson "sometimes made inappropriate or insensitive comments on topics generally considered Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)-sensitive, such as religion, sex, or color" that could "create an offensive working environment" and violate EEO (antidiscrimination) laws.[40] The report also found morale problems at the embassy attributable to Johnson's conduct, including his suggestions that embassy employees were disloyal to Trump, questioning of embassy staff's motives, and suggestions that he would remove embassy staff from their jobs for raising concerns.[40] The report found that "This caused staff to grow wary of providing him with their best judgment."[40] The inspector general's office recommended that the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and Office of Civil Rights coordinate an investigation into Johnson's conduct, "and based on the results of the review, take appropriate action"; however, the department's leadership indicated that they would not open any "formal assessment" and indicated that Johnson had instead watched a State Department video on workplace harassment.[40] Johnson denied that he had "treated employees with disrespect or discriminated in any way."[40]

In February 2018, Johnson as ambassador sought to have the lucrative British Open golf tournament moved to Trump's Turnberry Golf Resort in Scotland, raising the idea with Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell.[1] The New York Times reported, and the former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in London Lewis Lukens later confirmed, that Trump had asked Johnson to seek British government influence in obtaining the Open for Turnberry.[1][41] At the time Lukens warned Johnson not to raise the question with the UK government, saying that an attempt to further the president's personal financial interests in this way would be unethical and probably illegal. Johnson did so anyway, unsuccessfully.[1][41] In a subsequent interview, Lukens stated: "The ambassador came back from a meeting at the White House, the very next morning he came and talked to me, said the President wants me to do this. Who should I talk to, how should I go about doing it? I said, 'You can't, you shouldn't do it. This is unethical, probably illegal.' A couple weeks later, he asked again, I gave him the same answer. And then he went and had a meeting with a British minister responsible for Scotland and made the request, or made the suggestion at least."[41]

In a statement, the British government said that Johnson "made no request of Mr. Mundell regarding the British Open or any other sporting event"; the statement did not say whether Johnson had raised the subject of Turnberry.[1] Johnson did not deny the episode, saying only that he complied with "the ethical rules and requirements of my office"; Trump denied that he had ever spoken to Johnson "about Turnberry."[42] Lukens documented his concerns to State Department officials. Johnson forced out Lukens several months later, before the scheduled end of his tenure in London.[1] The report that Johnson used his position as ambassador to promote the president's personal business interests sparked an inquiry by the State Department inspector general's office.[24] In an interview in August 2020, Lukens said that the inspector general's report had "screeched to a halt" without a public report being issued, which Lukens described as highly unusual.[41]