Robert Kraft Tried To Stop Mike Vrabel-dianna Russini Photos From Publishing, Per Report

The Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel story has a new detail involving Robert Kraft.

Per In Touch Weekly, cited by Pro Football Talk, the New England Patriots attempted to stop the New York Post from publishing the photos of Russini and Vrabel at the adults-only Ambiente resort in Sedona, Arizona, before they ran. According to the report, the Post gave Vrabel a longer response window than industry norms typically allow, and Kraft used that extended timeframe to apply pressure on the reporter and the paper.

“Robert Kraft intervened and had his honchos pressure The Post before they published and tried to kill the story,” a source exclusively tells In Touch. “The Post gave Vrabel a longer time to respond than what is considered industry norms, and Kraft took advantage of that extended timeframe to put pressure on the reporter and the newspaper. A notorious crisis strategist made the call but was unsuccessful in neutering the story.”

That’s now the second reference to a crisis manager to emerge in recent days. ESPN’s Ben Strauss reported Friday that when a Post reporter approached Russini at her home in Bergen County, New Jersey, and told her the paper had the photos, Russini immediately contacted a crisis communications expert and began coordinating with Vrabel on how to respond. Per Strauss, the Post was open to changing the story’s tone or not running it at all if Russini and Vrabel could produce compelling evidence — photographs or text messages establishing the presence of other friends at the resort — to support their account. They could not. The Post published on a Tuesday evening, and the photos showed Vrabel and Russini holding hands with their fingers interlocked, hugging, and sitting side by side in a hot tub at the Ambiente, an adults-only resort in Sedona, two weeks before the NFL’s annual meetings in Phoenix.

What followed was a story that kept finding new ways to stay alive. The Athletic’s executive editor Steven Ginsberg initially moved to get ahead of it, telling Page Six the photos were “misleading” and “lacked essential context,” which staffers inside both The Athletic and The New York Times later called “unnecessarily messy,” “reckless,” and “premature,” given that the organization had already quietly begun an internal investigation into the very situation Ginsberg was publicly dismissing. The Athletic pulled Russini from reporting duties and asked her to provide evidence supporting her version of events. Per three sources cited by Strauss, she was unable to produce sufficient evidence. She resigned this past week, writing that she had covered the NFL with professionalism and dedication throughout her career and refused to let the situation define her.

I submitted my letter of resignation to The Athletic. Everything I have to say about it is below. pic.twitter.com/401nrtbEsj

— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) April 14, 2026

Vrabel has not addressed the situation publicly since his initial statement to Page Six, in which he called the photos “completely innocent” and said the situation didn’t deserve a response. He skipped the Patriots’ pre-draft press conference, with VP of player personnel Eliot Wolf taking questions in his place. The NFL confirmed it is not investigating Vrabel for any potential violations of the league’s personal conduct policy.

While the Patriots have maintained it’s business as usual, In Touch’s reporting puts Kraft directly in the suppression effort, which raises questions about what the team knew before publication, when they knew it, and what exactly a “notorious crisis strategist” told the New York Post on Robert Kraft’s behalf that wasn’t enough to kill the story.

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