New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has denied allegations he and Donald Trump attempted to pay a US senator money in order to drop an investigation into a cheating scandal involving the team.
According to a report published on Wednesday by ESPN, Trump met with late senator Arlen Specter in 2008 and offered him “money in Palm Beach” if he dropped his investigation into the Spygate scandal, in which the Patriots were disciplined by the NFL for filming a rival team’s coaching signals. Trump had not started his political career at the time and was well-known as the star of reality show The Apprentice. ESPN says Trump was acting on behalf of Kraft, a claim those close to the former president and the team deny.
“This [report] is completely false,” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, told ESPN when asked about the story. “We have no idea what you’re talking about.”
A spokesman for the Patriots also denied the allegations to ESPN. “Mr Kraft is not aware of any involvement of Trump on this topic and he did not have any other engagement with Specter or his staff,” the spokesman said via email.
Specter was senator for Pennsylvania at the time and ran as a Democrat and Republican during his political career. He was also a personal friend of Trump. Trump himself has been on friendly terms with several prominent members of the Patriots including Kraft, head coach Bill Belichick and former quarterback Tom Brady. Both Brady and Belichick have distanced themselves from Trump recently. In January, following the US Capitol invasion, Belichick turned down Trump’s offer of the presidential medal of freedom.
The bulk of the allegations behind ESPN’s story come from Specter’s son, Shanin. He says the reference to money was for campaign contributions rather than cash. “My father told me that Trump was acting as a messenger for Kraft,” Shanin Specter told ESPN. “But I’m equally sure the reference to money in Palm Beach was campaign contributions, not cash. The offer was Kraft assistance with campaign contributions. ... My father said it was Kraft’s offer, not someone else’s.”
Specter eventually ended the investigation himself after he failed to gain support from fellow senators and due to his own ill health after being diagnosed with cancer and starting chemotherapy.
The NFL conducted its own investigation into Spygate and fined Belichick and the Patriots a total of $750,000 as well as docking them a first-round pick in the 2008 draft.
