ESPN Story Says Donald Trump Intervened to Stop Arlen Specter's "Spygate" Investigation
So here’s a totally random story that we did not expect to come out in May of 2021.
It was published by ESPN, titled “Son, ghostwriter of late senator say Trump intervened to stop probe of Patriots’ Spygate scandal,” and written by Don Van Natta, Jr. and Seth Wickersham.
Not sure how much you remember from this particular instance of New England Patriots cheating, since they’ve cheated so much over the years and it all blends together, but they were accused of videotaping opponents and learning plays and stealing signals and all of that. Arlen Specter, then a United States Senator representing Pennsylvania, launched an investigation and believed that Roger Goodell and the NFL were obstructing him. That effort ultimately came to an end in 2008, without a Senate hearing.
From the article:
But recently and unexpectedly, there’s been movement in the quest. Follow-up conversations with the people closest to Arlen Specter — his oldest son, Shanin, a Philadelphia personal injury and medical malpractice attorney, and Charles Robbins, Specter’s trusted longtime communications aide and the ghostwriter of two Specter memoirs — revealed this: The man who dangled campaign cash if Specter were to drop the Spygate inquiry was none other than Donald J. Trump.
Not only that: Trump had told Specter he was acting on behalf of Robert Kraft.
Kraft and Trump, both responding to ESPN through spokesmen, denied involvement in any effort to influence Specter’s investigation.
“This is completely false,” said Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump. “We have no idea what you’re talking about.” Miller declined to answer a series of follow-up questions. A Patriots spokesman said Kraft “never asked Donald Trump to talk to Arlen Specter on his behalf.”
“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.
It’s certainly interesting. There were a lot of people out there who felt like the Patriots may have cheated against the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Spygate didn’t become a thing until 2007, but Steve Spagnuolo said he thought New England’s dirty behavior took place well before that, explaining it this way on 97.5 the Fanatic:
“I remember through the course of the game (former Eagles defensive coordinator) Jim Johnson saying, ‘They’re getting our signals. They know we’re blitzing…try to hide it.’ I remember distinctly thinking, ‘I don’t think so, Jim. Just concentrate on calling the game.’ In hindsight, he was right. When you go back and look at that tape, it was evident to us…We believe that Tom (Brady) knew when we were pressuring him because he certainly got the ball out pretty quick.”
Spagnuolo said the biggest thing the Eagles learned then was “make sure you have two signal-callers, not one signal-caller, because they may have all your signals.”
Yeah, the Pats were always cheating bastards. Bunch of bums.
Anyway, good story. It’s worth a read if you’ve got 10 minutes this morning.