Trump Tried To Pay To Make Pats' Spygate Problem Go Away: Report

FOXBOROUGH, MA — Donald Trump offered U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter campaign cash in 2008 to stop his probe into the Patriots' spygate scandal, the late senator's son and a trusted aide told ESPN.

ESPN had been chasing the rumor since at least 2017, but only recently did Specter's oldest son Shanin, a Philadelphia personal injury and medical malpractice attorney, and Charles Robbins, Specter's communications aide and the ghostwriter of two Specter memoirs, confirm that Trump had approached Specter.

"My father told me that Trump was acting as a messenger for Kraft," Shanin Specter said, referring to Patriots owner Robert Kraft. "The offer was Kraft assistance with campaign contributions. … My father said it was Kraft’s offer, not someone else’s."

In 2008, Specter called for an independent investigation to determine how many games the Patriots had illegally videotaped, how deeply the videotaping of opposing coaches’ signals affected the integrity of their games, and why the NFL had destroyed all evidence after concluding its own investigation. He also threatened to file legislation that would have ended the National Football League's antitrust exemption.

Kraft and Trump denied the allegations through spokesmen, according to the Boston Herald. "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," a Patriots spokesman said.

"This is completely false," Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told ESPN. "We have no idea what you’re talking about."

For more on this story, see ESPN.