Trump just pardoned Tim Leiweke, the former head of MLSE, in a major conspiracy case
Tim Leiweke ran Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment for years. After leaving MLSE, he moved on to the Oak View Group, a company that works on arena projects, including the refurbishment of the old Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, which is now known as the TD Coliseum.
Then Leiweke had issues over the Moody Center, a US$338 million dollar arena in Austin, Texas. A federal grand jury accused him of “orchestrating a conspiracy” when it came to the bidding process for the project. I quote from the US attorney who brought the case: “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.”
If convicted, he faced a $1 million fine and ten years in prison. He pleaded not guilty. His name was removed from the Oak View website. Meanwhile, Oak View paid US$15 million in penalties.
But as far as Leiweke goes, he’s off the hook. He was pardoned by Donald Trump on Tuesday (December 2), even though Leiweke has been very critical of Trump on social media. He once called Trump the world’s “single greatest conman.” He was also a fan of Mike Pence for standing up to Trump on January 6. Those posts have been deleted.
Was this expected? Nope. But he did have a Trey Gowdy, a lawyer and Trump ally, on his side. And Trump seems to be an easy touch when it comes to handing out pardons. What do you expect from a president who just pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez who was sent to jail for 45 years for conspiring to smuggle 360 tonnes of coke into the US.
