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- Mar 1, 2002
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Son, ghostwriter of late senator say Trump intervened to stop Spygate probe
The NFL tried to combat the Specter inquiry with public statements from teams that were the primary victims of New England's spying, saying the league had done its due diligence. It wasn't working.
But there was one man, a mutual friend of Specter and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who believed that he could make the investigation go away. He was a famous businessman and reality television star who routinely threw money at politicians to try to curry favor, whether it worked or not. He had been a generous political patron of Specter's for two decades.
One day in early 2008, Specter had dinner with the man in Palm Beach at his palatial club, not far from Kraft's Florida home. A phone call followed. The friend offered Specter what the senator felt was tantamount to a bribe: "If you laid off the Patriots, there'd be a lot of money in Palm Beach."
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.
The NFL tried to combat the Specter inquiry with public statements from teams that were the primary victims of New England's spying, saying the league had done its due diligence. It wasn't working.
But there was one man, a mutual friend of Specter and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who believed that he could make the investigation go away. He was a famous businessman and reality television star who routinely threw money at politicians to try to curry favor, whether it worked or not. He had been a generous political patron of Specter's for two decades.
One day in early 2008, Specter had dinner with the man in Palm Beach at his palatial club, not far from Kraft's Florida home. A phone call followed. The friend offered Specter what the senator felt was tantamount to a bribe: "If you laid off the Patriots, there'd be a lot of money in Palm Beach."
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.