President Donald Trump issued a “full and unconditional” pardon for a business executive whom his own Department of Justice charged with a felony in July.
Trump issued the pardon of Oak View Group co-founder Tim Leiweke without a public statement. It’s unclear why he pardoned Leiweke, though he is represented by Trump ally and former Rep. Trey Gowdy.
Gowdy lobbied the administration to drop the case against Leiweke or grant him clemency, CNN reported.
A federal grand jury indicted Leiweke of “orchestrating a conspiracy to rig the bidding process for an arena at a public university in Austin, Texas,” in July. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, which carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
The DOJ said Leiweke conspired with Legends Hospitality to rig the bidding process.
“As outlined in the indictment, the Defendant rigged a bidding process to benefit his own company and deprived a public university and taxpayers of the benefits of competitive bidding,” Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division said then. “The Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners will continue to hold executives who cheat to avoid competition accountable.”
Leiweke praised Trump for the pardon, saying, “This has been a long and difficult journey for my wife, my daughter, and me. The President has given us a new lease on life, with which we will be grateful and good stewards.”
Following Leiweke’s indictment, he resigned from Oak View Group. OVG said the company was “happy” Leiweke could put the indictment behind him.
“We are happy for Tim that he can now put this matter behind him,” a spokesperson for the venue management company said in a statement on Wednesday. “OVG has remained steadfastly focused on delivering exceptional outcomes for our clients under the leadership of our CEO, Chris Granger.”
OVG previously agreed to pay $15 million in penalties in connection with the allegations against Leiweke, the DOJ said.
Leiweke ran the NBA’s Denver Nuggets as the organization’s president from 1991 to 1995 before co-founding OVG in 2015.
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Leiweke previously criticized Trump as a “con man” and praised former Vice President Mike Pence in deleted social media posts.
The president also recently issued pardons to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife for bribery charges and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández for his drug trafficking charges.
