President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to entertainment executive Timothy Leiweke on Thursday, allegedly mere weeks after a round of golf at Mar-a-Lago with Leiweke’s attorney, former prosecutor and former Republican congressman Trey Gowdy.
Following 18 holes in Florida on November 16, Trump allegedly asked Gowdy if there was anything he could help him with, people familiar with the discussions told the Wall Street Journal in an article published Saturday.
That’s when Gowdy reportedly brought up that he felt Leiweke was being mistreated in his case, brought upon him by Trump’s own Justice Department’s push for fair ticket pricing.
Three weeks after the alleged golf outing, Trump pardoned Leiweke.
“I am extremely grateful that the president allowed me to raise that issue with him, and he is the president, and whatever decision was made after that, he was elected to make, I was not,” Gowdy told the WSJ in an interview.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the outlet: “President Trump is the final decider on any pardon or commutation and is exercising his constitutional authority to issue them as he deems necessary.”
The Independent has also contacted the White House for comment.
Trump’s pardon undermines his Justice Department’s criminal case against Leiweke for allegedly rigging a $375 million University of Texas basketball arena bid. It also hinders a related civil case targeting competition and pricing in live events.
Leiweke was charged in June with allegedly rigging the bidding process for the $375 million University of Texas’s Moody Center arena. He pleaded not guilty.
Leiweke had faced up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for allegedly conspiring to steer the arena contract to his company.
Leiweke was accused of offering business to a company co-founded by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to stop it from bidding on arena rights, with Live Nation CEO Irving Azoff, his Oak View Group co-founder, acting as an intermediary.
Gowdy reportedly urged Trump to pressure the Justice Department to grant a nonprosecution deal similar to one given to Live Nation CEO Irving Azoff.
Azoff, who co-founded Oak View Group with Leiweke, served as an intermediary for the rival company.
After receiving the pardon, Leiweke thanked Trump for his support with a phone call, the WSJ reports. In an interview, he said he doesn’t understand why he was charged and added that he plans to start a new company and purchase a sports team.
“I’m going to do it again,” Leiweke said, according to the outlet. “I’m not dead yet.”
Gowdy represented South Carolina’s 4th District from 2011 to 2019 and rose to prominence as chairman of the House Benghazi Committee. He left Congress in 2018 and has worked as an attorney, Fox News contributor, and public-policy advocate. He also had a 3.4 golf handicap in 2023, according to Golf Digest.
Freed from prosecution, Leiweke initially declined Wednesday to assist the Justice Department, invoking his right against self-incrimination during a deposition in a broader civil case against Live Nation, the WSJ reports. He plans to cooperate once a judge formally dismisses the criminal case against him, according to the newspaper’s sources.
Concert ticket prices in the U.S. have soared over the past decade, prompting the Justice Department to use antitrust measures to lower them. Last year, it filed a 128-page lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, accusing the merged company of stifling competition, retaliating against rivals, and inflating ticket prices.
Live Nation maintains it does not hold a monopoly, saying artists and teams set ticket costs.
