ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith has claimed in a wild rant that Thursday’s NBA gambling bust is part of Donald Trump’s revenge plot and was done in part to distract from protests against the president.
While some have accused Trump of taking revenge on his perceived enemies, which included the recent indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and Trump’s ex-national security adviser John Bolton, Smith has taken it a step further by attempting to tie the president to the takedown of a criminal enterprise.
On Thursday, more than 30 people, including Miami Heat star Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and several alleged mobsters, were arrested in connection with FBI investigations into insider sports betting and rigged poker games.
Authorities say the schemes defrauded victims out of tens of millions of dollars.
Shortly after FBI Director Kash Patel gave a press conference in New York City announcing the massive bust, Smith suggested on his show First Take Trump was somehow connected.
“Trump has a long, long history connected to the world of sports because he had those casinos. Where do you think folks were coming half the time? I’m not talking about individuals, I’m talking about the culture. When people want to go to a casino, when people wanna gamble, when people wanna party, or whatever the case may be, this was his kind of connection to that,” Smith said.
Smith then went on another tangent about how the president may target the women’s national basketball league next to distract from the recent anti-Trump protests that have been spreading across the country.
“Don’t be surprised if the WNBA is next on his list, because when you’ve got all of these protests that have been going out there and people have been protesting against him and what have you, this man is coming,” he said.
Responding to Smith’s comments on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle Thursday night, Patel said, “I decide which arrests to conduct and which not to conduct. That may be the single dumbest thing I’ve ever heard out of anyone in modern history, and I live most of my time in Washington, D.C.”
The Independent has reached out to the White House, the FBI and the Justice Department for comment.
Smith mentioned his suspicions about Trump-appointed Patel’s press conference earlier Thursday.
“We’ve seen accusations before. We’ve seen athletes get in trouble with the law before. You don’t see the director of the FBI having a press conference. It’s not coincidental. It’s not an accident. It’s a statement, and it’s a warning that more is coming,” he said.
Smith added, “In his eyes, folks tried to throw [Trump] in jail. In his eyes, he’s innocent and ‘they’re trying to put me behind bars. I’m getting everybody.’ He’s not playing.”
Trump was indicted four times before his second term. He has claimed he is innocent and the cases were politically motivated.
The president has come out mostly unscathed, as two of the indictments, involving federal election interference and the mishandling of classified documents, were dismissed; one involving the falsification of business records resulted in no fines or jail time and one involving election interference in Georgia is currently in limbo.
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