Earlier this month, Vice President Mike Pence abruptly canceled a trip to New Hampshire. The news created concern and speculation regarding the Vice President’s sudden decision to stay in D.C. The truth has now emerged, and it has a bizarre connection to a former NFL player.
According to Politico.com, Pence scuttled the trip because he would have encountered former NFL offensive lineman Jeff Hatch, who as it turns out was under investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for arranging for the movement of $100,000 in fentanyl from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. Hatch, who until recently worked for an opiod addiction treatment center that Pence was scheduled to visit, pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday. Hatch faces up to four years in prison.
According to court records obtained by Politico.com, authorities claimed that Hatch made a telephone call on July 25, 2017 in order to arrange the retrieval of the drug from a supplier in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He allegedly brought the fentanyl to New Hampshire, and he then gave smaller amounts of it it couriers.
Hatch pleaded guilty to using a telephone to help commit a crime, and he’ll receive a lenient sentence in exchange for his assistance in the pursuit of other drug dealers higher in the “food chain.”
Erroneous claims of an “emergency callback” raised questions about the reasons for Pence’s cancellation of the July 2 trip. President Donald Trump told reporters on July 5, “There was a very interesting problem that they had in New Hampshire I can’t tell you about it.” The President added that the reason will be become known within a couple of weeks.
In the end, the cancellation happened because of the admitted misconduct of a man who entered the NFL as a third-round pick of the Giants in 2002 and who started four games in 2003.