Trump Tried To Bribe A Senator To Drop Probe Of Patriots' Spygate Scandal: ESPN Report

A new report from ESPN, a unit of Walt Disney Co DIS, claims former President Donald Trump attempted to bring a former U.S. senator to drop the 2007 "Spygate" probe of the New England Patriots.

What Happened: Spygate was the name given to an incident involving the Sept. 9, 2007, game between the Patriots and the New York Jets, in which the Patriots were discovered videotaping their opponent's defensive coaches' signals from an unauthorized location on their sideline. The NFL fined Patriots head coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and the team $250,000, and the team lost their original first-round selection berth in the 2008 NFL Draft.

On May 14, 2008, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) announced he wanted to conduct an independent investigation into the Patriots' videotaping practices. His plan was publicly questioned by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who claimed the Senate "should be focusing on the real problems that Americans are struggling with," and Specter withdrew his proposed probe one month later.

But in the new ESPN article, the late senator's son Shanin Specter, a Philadelphia attorney, and Charles Robbins, the senator's communications aide and the ghostwriter of two Specter autobiographies, claimed Trump offered Specter a substantial donation to his campaign fund if he dropped his planned Spygate probe. Specter and Robbins added that Trump told the senator he was acting on behalf of Robert Kraft, the Patriots owner.

Spokespersons for both Trump and Kraft denied that any attempt was made to influence Specter's investigation.

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What's Next: The ESPN story was greeted on Twitter TWTR with a strong degree of flippancy.

Russ Walker, a journalist with LancasterOnline.com, tweeted, "Arlen Specter, Robert Kraft, Donald Trump, Spygate, NFL. This story has everything."

C.J. Hoyt, news director at FOX59 and CBS4 in Indianapolis, sarcastically observed, "Wow... Donald Trump helping out his buddies Tom Brady and Robert Kraft!"

James Dator, senior staff writer at SBNation.com, recalled another Kraft scandal by wisecracking, "I'm stunned. Robert Kraft doesn't seem like a man who would offer cash for favors."

And the Twitter account LiberacesWraith criticized Trump and raised another sports scandal by tweeting, "So he'll go to bat for Robert Kraft but won't stick his neck out to get Pete Rose in the HOF? How did this guy get 71 million votes?

(Photo of Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Creative Commons.)