The story about Donald Trump, Arlen Specter, and the Patriots that set the internet ablaze
Trump in 2008 reportedly told then-U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter “there’d be a lot of money in Palm Beach” if he dropped his push to examine the Patriots' "Spygate" scandal.
by Chris Brennan
Published May 27, 2021, 2:18 p.m. ET
The ESPN story had been online less than 24 hours. Shanin Specter was astonished as the calls and emails were still pouring in Thursday. Hatred of Donald Trump, he surmised, was driving it all. It didn’t help that the New England Patriots were in the mix, too. The gist: Trump in 2008 reportedly told Specter’s father, then-U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, “there’d be a lot of money in Palm Beach” if he dropped his push to examine the NFL’s controversial handling of the Patriots’ 2007 “Spygate” scandal.
Shanin Specter told ESPN and Clout his father informed him in 2008 that Trump was a messenger for Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Arlen Specter died in 2012, four years before Trump was elected president. “If Trump was dead and my father was living this wouldn’t be a story,” Specter said. “I’ve gotten emails from across the country, thanking me for speaking out. I didn’t speak out. A reporter called and asked me some questions.”
Specter still recalls how angry his father was at Trump’s offer. He scoffed at denials by the Patriots and a Trump adviser. “I just never thought it was that big of a deal,” said Specter, cofounder of the powerhouse personal-injury law firm Kline & Specter. “Stuff like this happens in Washington all the time. It wasn’t the only time my father felt someone had crossed the line with him in conversations about his official business and mixing in campaign contributions.”
Still, his father was disappointed in Trump, a friend since the 1980s. And he wondered if the improper videotaping of coaching signals by the Patriots in a New York Jets game also played a role in the Eagles’ Super Bowl loss to the Patriots in 2005.
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