The mystery surrounding Vice President Mike Pence’s abrupt cancellation of a New Hampshire trip in early July has finally been solved, according to a report from Politico.
Pence was suddenly summoned back to the White House when he was informed not that there was a problem in Washington, D.C., but in New Hampshire. Former NFL player Jeff Hatch, with whom Pence was likely to meet while attending a scheduled event at the Granite Recovery Center to discuss the national opioid crisis, was under federal investigation for transporting over $100,000 worth of fentanyl from Massachusetts to New Hampshire.
News media did not know what to make of the situation when officials for the vice president announced on July 2 that Pence’s scheduled trip to New Hampshire to participate in a roundtable discussion about the opioid crisis was canceled just moments before he was scheduled to fly to Manchester. An explanation was not immediately provided, but both Pence’s team and the White House confirmed that there was no emergency.
Rumors swirled that Pence’s unexpected change of plan was related to a Russian submarine fire that had occurred that same day, but President Trump reiterated that there was no need for concern, saying, “You’ll know in about two weeks. There was a very interesting problem that they had in New Hampshire.”
Information about Hatch’s investigation and its relation to Pence’s rerouting became clear Monday after Hatch pleaded guilty to drug charges in a federal court Friday. Hatch, who played offensive tackle for the New York Giants in 2002 and 2003, has been public about his struggle with alcohol and opioid addiction in the past, which he claims ended his football career.
Federal documents released Friday revealed that Hatch was caught with over 1,500 grams of fentanyl in 2017. He was charged with intent to distribute.
