WASHINGTON — Twelve Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday questioning his handling of a domestic violence incident involving former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.

“Given the important role the NFL and the other major professional sports leagues can play in shaping public perceptions concerning domestic violence, it would appear to be in the public interest to have the highest level of transparency associated with reviews of potential misconduct,” said the letter, signed by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and 11 other Democrats. Conyers is the senior Democrat on the Judiciary panel.

The letter notes Goodell’s statements in media interviews that the league did not see until Monday a highly publicized video of Rice punching his then-fiancee on an elevator in an Atlantic City casino. The letter says Goodell and the NFL have not stated how aggressively the league sought to obtain the video and how law enforcement agencies responded.

Nor has the NFL explained whether it sought a copy of the video from the casino, Rice’s attorney or anyone else, the letter said.

Goodell initially suspended Rice for two games following the February incident, but the Ravens released Rice on Monday and the NFL suspended him indefinitely after the website TMZ released video of the incident on Monday.

Goodell told CBS on Tuesday that “no one in the NFL, to my knowledge” had seen a new video of what happened on the elevator until it was posted online.

“We assumed that there was a video. We asked for video. But we were never granted that opportunity,” Goodell said.

Two videos, one released by TMZ Sports and another shown later to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official, show Rice punching fiancee Janay Palmer – she is now his wife – and knocking her unconscious. The videos show more detail than an initial video released by TMZ in July that showed Rice dragging Palmer from an elevator.

Goodell has previously said he “didn’t get it right” with Rice and the league set up new penalties for domestic violence: a six-game suspension for a first offense, at least a year for a second.

“We welcome your recent willingness to change the NFL’s policies regarding issues of domestic violence,” the lawmakers said in their letter, “and we also believe other major professional sports leagues should consider making their policies public and reviews transparent as well.”

Other lawmakers signing the letter were Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Hakeem Jeffries of New York; Luis Gutierrez of Illinois; Zoe Lofgren, Judy Chu and Karen Bass of California; Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas; Cedric Richmond of Louisiana; Hank Johnson of Georgia; Steve Cohen of Tennessee; and Suzan DelBene of Washington state.