In February of 2019, 77-year-old Robert Kraft, the owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots, went to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, FL, about 17 miles from Mar-a-Lago. The Orchids of Asia Day Spa is about the same distance from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, which is slightly more relevant.

On his visit, Robert Kraft solicited sex from one of the workers and left without incident. Little did he know that the Jupiter Police Department was investigating the spa and had placed hidden cameras inside and outside. Over time, the amassed surveillance videos were used to identify customers by their license plates and cross-checked against the footage. Kraft was among 25 people facing charges in connection with a crackdown on human trafficking and spa sex acts. Kraft was facing two counts, indicating that police have evidence placing him inside the spa on two separate occasions.

The Jupiter Police Department held a press conference in which it described a “months-long” investigation into spas across several Florida counties. The initial press conference indicated the police had found evidence of sex trafficking, including some underage girls. The case would be turned over to the State Attorney's Office for the 15th Judicial Circuit.

Kraft was unmarried at the time. His wife, Myra, died eight years earlier from ovarian cancer. He’d dated actress/model Ricki Noel Lander for six years, beginning about a year after Myra’s passing. Lander worked primarily for Ford Models and was not associated with the modeling agencies associated with Jeffrey Epstein, John Casablancas, Jean-Luc Brunel, or Donald Trump. Their relationship ended before Kraft visited the Orchids of Asis Day Spa. Lander was 38 years Kraft’s junior. Within months of either way of Kraft’s spa visits, Kraft began seeing Dr. Dana Blumberg, whom he married in October of 2022. Blumberg is 33 years younger than Kraft. They are married to this day.

Leading up to the 2026 Super Bowl, Kraft’s name kept coming up in the news and not always in a good way. The Patriots were an unexpected participant, having finished 4–13 in each of the previous regular seasons and widely missing the playoffs. In the 2025 season, the Patriots were 14–3, a record criticized for the weakest schedule of all playoff teams, given their poor performance the previous year. The Patriots arguably overachieved, helped by Denver losing their starting quarterback, Bo Nix, due to an injury on the last play of their previous playoff game. Still, the Patriots were in the Super Bowl, which was great news for the franchise, which had been floundering.

On the bad news front, Kraft had become eligible for the first time for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Kraft was a first‑time finalist in the contributor category, but he did not receive the 40 of 50 votes required for induction. Contributors and coaches are evaluated differently from players, making the process more political and less standardized. This category has a steeper path to induction, and voters can only select a limited number of finalists.

Voters reportedly didn’t vote for Kraft because of previous scandals, including Spygate (2007), Deflategate (2015), and what newspapers graciously refer to as Kraft’s 2019 Florida legal case, without typically referring to prostitution. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has a long, well‑documented history of voters using off‑field behavior, legal trouble, or perceived moral failings as reasons to delay or deny induction. Examples include Terrell Owens, Darren Sharper, Art Modell, and Bill Belichick. We may never know if Kraft’s involvement with trafficked women played a role in his denial, but I’d like to think so.

Another bump in Kraft’s very bad week was his name popping up in the most recent Epstein file dump. Epstein wasn’t accused of any dealings with Epstein’s victims, but in correspondence with a third party. One of the unsealed documents shows Epstein suggesting that Kraft should hire one of Epstein’s own attorneys. In one email, Epstein mentioned that Kraft had a “past issue” that might come to light. The documents do not specify what Epstein meant. The attorney Epstein wanted referred to Kraft for local assistance. Jack Goldberger did end up working for Kraft and ultimately got him off.

The way Kraft got off raises many questions. Kraft was on video engaging in a sex act he solicited. What seemed an open-and-shut case was thrown out, along with the cases of all the men, because the video surveillance was ruled an unconstitutional Fourth Amendment violation. I’d always believed there was no right of privacy when engaged in the commission of a crime. Soliciting prostitution and engaging in the paid sex act in Florida are crimes, but the men walked.

The women involved didn’t fare so well. Somehow, there was no proof of sex trafficking or underage girls as the Jupiter Police Department stated in their press conference after a several-month investigation. All the women had their names, ages, and home addresses included in the public record, along with their mug shots. Most were charged with prostitution and unlicensed massage practice. The female managers were charged with deriving support from prostitution. Most of the women were Chinese nationals, and some received ICE detention and were deported. All the trafficking charges disappeared, and no hint remained of underage girls. The State Attorney’s office handling the Kraft case was the same office that initially handled the Jeffrey Epstein prosecution in Florida.

In the Epstein case, State Attorney Barry Krischer pushed for a weak plea deal. Krischer’s office drafted a lenient state plea agreement that would have charged Epstein with a single misdemeanor, required no jail time, and allowed him to avoid registering as a sex offender.

Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter was so outraged that he formally asked the FBI to take over, accusing the State Attorney of mishandling the case. Once the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office (Southern District of Florida) stepped in, the state prosecutors were no longer in control.

Federal prosecutors then negotiated the infamous Non‑Prosecution Agreement (NPA) with Epstein’s lawyers — secretly, and without notifying the victims. The NPA shut down the federal investigation, blocked any future federal charges, limited state prosecution options, and notably granted immunity to “co‑conspirators.”

Having your name come up in the Epstein files and having to relive the 2019 prostitution charges in the media was bad, but a Super Bowl victory would have made the negative coverage go away. Unfortunately, Kraft’s Patriots came out flat and, despite some moments on defense, were never in the game. Kraft did what owners do at Super Bowls: he hosted pre-game parties and had guests in his booth. Cameras showed him scowling throughout the game, as by halftime, there seemed to be little hope for a Patriots win.

Kraft was the biggest loser at the Super Bowl, not only for his team's weak performance but also for bringing up of an episode he thought he had put behind him, possibly leading to his exclusion from the Football Hall of Fame, and now there’s his ties to the Epstein files.

Kraft’s team was victorious in the 2019 Super Bowl, after which he found himself in a Florida massage parlor seeking a happy finish. If that’s what he does after winning, I wonder what he does after a big loss? It seems that if you're wealthy and connected enough, crimes against women are likely to go unpunished, except for blaming the women themselves. Robert Kraft, like Jeffrey Epstein, was a good friend of Donald Trump. When Trump was asked about Kraft being charged, he said:

“He’s proclaimed his innocence totally… [I’m] very surprised to see it.”

I guess that settles it.