President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon entertainment titan Tim Leiweke this week may have been sparked by a recent “round of golf” with Leiweke’s attorney, who reportedly brought up his client’s case to the president between swings, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
Leiweke was indicted in July related to a felony charge for attempting to rig the bid for a $375 million basketball arena in Texas, bragging to his colleagues at the time that he had been “very clever” at having “scared” other bidders away from the project, an admission that prosecutors felt ran afoul of antitrust laws.
But in November, Trump would host former GOP lawmaker Trey Gowdy – one of Leiweke’s attorneys – for a round of golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, which the Journal learned of from “people familiar with the matter.” Gowdy would later recall the event in his own words.
“In an interview, Gowdy said that after playing a round of golf at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 16, Trump asked Gowdy if there was anything he needed,” the Journal’s report reads.
“Gowdy, a former prosecutor who had a 3.4 golf handicap in 2023, according to Golf Digest, brought up his client’s case, first asking for help getting a meeting with one of the federal prosecutors handling it. Leiweke had been treated unfairly, Gowdy told Trump in later conversations, pointing to the other immunity agreements.”
Gowdy would go on to advocate for Leiweke to be issued a nonprosecution deal, to which Trump ultimately did one better by issuing Leiweke a full pardon.
Leiweke apparently had a phone call with Trump after being issued the pardon, the Journal reported, in which he thanked the president, and in spite of a senior Trump antitrust official, Omeed Assefi, claiming the case against Leiweke to have been “airtight” just a month prior.
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