So much for Trump's promise to crack down on corruption in the ticketing and concert industry to help bring down prices for American fans. This week, he pardoned a sports executive in one of his Justice Department’s big battles against the industry, Tim Leiweke. Via the Wall St. Journal:
Trump decided on the pardon after Republican former Rep. Trey Gowdy raised the case with him following a round of golf, according to people familiar with the matter. Leiweke had faced charges of rigging the bid for a $375 million basketball arena that was later built for the University of Texas. He had pleaded not guilty.
The pardon wiped away a case that Trump’s antitrust chief had said fleeced Texas taxpayers. It also revealed the risky strategy prosecutors chose to pursue in granting immunity to Leiweke’s partners and focusing on Leiweke alone.
Leiweke was expected to be a witness in the government’s big civil case designed to improve competition and pricing in concerts and sports, and his indictment was the only criminal case targeting how the live-events industry works.
The investigation had ensnared some of the most powerful names in entertainment and sports: Live Nation Entertainment; its former chairman, Irving Azoff, who is a music mogul and Democratic donor; and his business partner Leiweke, who turned a once-barren part of Los Angeles into a gleaming entertainment district now anchored by the Los Angeles Lakers. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also made an appearance.
Prosecutors alleged that Leiweke promised business to a company co-founded by Jones to keep that firm from competing to develop the arena in Austin, Texas. Azoff, too, was an intermediary with the rival firm. The case didn’t mention that Jones had any direct involvement.
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