Saints hire former FBI director to investigate wiretapping, bounty scandal

New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson has hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to investigate the teams wire tapping and bounty scandal allegations. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson has hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to conduct an independent investigation into the teams wiretapping allegations and the bounty program, said team spokesman Greg Bensel, according to a report from Mike Florio of NBCSports.com:

“Serious allegations have been made about our organization this off-season; we take these allegations very seriously,” Bensel said via email.  “As a result, we have hired the Freeh Group, founded by former director of the FBI and former federal judge Louis Freeh.  Mr. Benson moved quickly to hire them and has spared no expense to get to the bottom of these allegations. We have given the Freeh Group complete access to our team and all of the individuals who have been associated with this news story.”

According to the report, Freeh was retained in April and will first look at the wiretapping allegations and then the bounty controversy. Freeh is no stranger to investigating scandals in sports; last year, he was hired by Penn State to investigate the years of alleged cover-ups for Jerry Sandusky and has since conducted over 400 interviews with people involved in the case.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will begin hearing appeals on June 18 from four players on the Saints suspended because of their involvement in the teams bounty scandal.