On behalf of the New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, former president Donald Trump is accused of offering “a lot of money” in order to drop a probe into the team’s Spygate scandal.
This information has been reported by an ESPN report that both Trump and Kraft denied on Wednesday.
Arlen Specter, US Senator, called for a deeper investigation since the Patriots were caught recording New York Jets coaches’ hand signals, which is a violation of NFL rules. It was a recording in order for them to gain insight and a heads up of what they would call for their plays in the future.
Specter was hoping to discover the “pervasiveness” of the Patriots’ spying under Belichick who had coached New England to the Super Bowl win just three years prior the death of an outspoken Eagles fan who passed away in 2012.
Specter investigated the case even further, wanting to know if the illegal recordings had affected the integrity of Patriot games.
He also wondered why the NFL had destroyed the evidence when they had been caught. The Patriots had been affected with a $250,000 fine, being stripped of a first-round pick back in 2008, and Belichick was fined with $500,000.
Specter’s son, Shanin, tells ESPN that after the call, he claimed that he thought Trump had been offering more campaign contributions instead of solely being involved with offering money.
Specter’s son comments that “Trump was acting as a messenger for Kraft. I’m equally sure the reference to money in Palm Beach was campaign contributions, not cash…. Mr. Kraft is not aware of any involvement of Trump on this topic and he did not have any other engagement. It’s completely false.”
Kraft has been friends with Trump for years, donating $1 million to the former president’s inaugural fund. They were at odds when NFL players’ had rights to protest inequality and racist police brutality with the event of people kneeling during the national anthem.
Kraft had conversations with Trump every week for a year in order to console him after his wife, Myra, had died in 2011.
Kraft’s charges on the video evidence had been dropped since they were inadmissible in court. He did release a public apology, saying that he has “hurt and disappointed my family, my close friends, my co-workers, our fans and many others who rightfully hold me to a higher standard.”