Prominent ESPN baseball writer Jeff Passan had bizarre, viral exchange with the father of conservative firebrand Jacob Wohl on Wednesday.
Passan's fiery response to David Wohl was trending after the former Trump campaign surrogate questioned Passan's reporting on the DWI arrest of acting Mets general manager Zack Scott, which Passan said came after a charity fundraiser at team owner Steve Cohen's residence in Connecticut.
Wohl said Passan was "desperately trying to smear Cohen" because he had "nothing else to do."
Passan then alluded to the legal troubles of 23-year-old Jacob Wohl, David's polarizing son who, along with a co-defendant, is facing felony charges in at least two states -- Ohio and Michigan -- and a proposed $5 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission over alleged robocalls that prosecutors say they set up with the aim of suppressing minority voters.
"I suppose whatever I have to do is better than what you have to do," Passan replied, "which is visit your son in jail."
David Wohl appeared to threaten defamation litigation in a followup tweet. The usually mild-mannered Passan's post was approaching 10,000 retweets and 50,000 likes by Wednesday night.
As part of his conservative activism, David Wohl has appeared fairly regularly on cable news programs as a pro-Trump voice. Prior to his arrest, his son was a prominent voice in conservative circles on social media, and was previously reported to have plotted to frame a slew of liberal lawmakers and officials in salacious sex scandals.
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