Former President Donald Trump reportedly took steps to block a 2008 federal investigation into the New England Patriot’s illegal video surveillance program known as “Spygate.”
Shanin Specter, the eldest son of late-Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, and Charles Robbins, a longtime aide and ghostwriter for the senator’s 2012 memoir, Life Among the Cannibals, both told ESPN that Trump, a close friend of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, floated campaign donations on Kraft’s behalf to Specter, should the known-Philadelphia Eagles fan drop the aforementioned investigation.
The incident itself is referenced in Specter’s memoir, which reads, “On the signal stealing, a mutual friend had told me that ‘if I laid off the Patriots, there’d be a lot of money in Palm Beach.’ And I replied, ‘I couldn’t care less.'”
Though the passage doesn’t specifically name Trump, Shanin Specter told ESPN that it was the 45th president.
“My father told me that Trump was acting as a messenger for Kraft,” he claimed. “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.”
The younger Specter added that his “father would tell me these things when they occurred” and that the pair discussed the Kraft-Trump offer “in the wake of the conversation and his anger about it.”
“He was pissed,” Specter continued. “He felt as if it were tantamount to a bribe solicitation, though the case law on this subject says it isn’t.”
ESPN noted that Trump had donated to Specter’s various campaigns for roughly two decades before the offer.
Both the Patriots and Trump offered ESPN full-throated denials of Specter’s claim.
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“This is completely false,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller added in a statement. “We have no idea what you’re talking about.”
A Patriots representative added that “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.”
