Opinion: Why does Donald Trump’s connection to LIV Golf matter to federal prosecutors?

Several weeks ago, the federal prosecutor investigating former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents quietly subpoenaed some of the former president’s business records.

At least one of those subpoenas asked for information about Trump’s financial alliance with upstart LIV Golf, which just happens to be bankrolled by Saudi Arabia.

It’s not entirely clear yet why the specially appointed federal counsel, Jack Smith, wants to examine Trump’s ties to LIV Golf — or to the tour’s financial backer, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is controlled by the Saudi royal family.

Smith has not commented on these latest subpoenas, which were first reported by The New York Times. Equally mum is U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who assigned Smith to the task of investigating Trump’s decision to take a stash of top-secret documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida when he left the White House in January 2021.

But an important question looms large here: Are Trump’s business plans — in this case, his post-presidential financial deals with the Saudis and LIV Golf — tied to the former president’s strange decision not only to take top-secret documents but to insist that he had the right to hold on to them?

It appears that Smith is taking a hard look at that connection.

One of the great mysteries of the so-called “documents case” is what motivated Trump to take top secret files from the White House.

What were Trump’s motives?

Did Trump just want some interesting souvenirs? Was he a pack rat? Was he so disorganized that he merely scooped up all manner of files at the White House and tossed them into boxes to sort out later? Was Trump planning to write his memoirs — and were the 15 boxes of top-secret documents crucial to that story? Or did Trump plan to use these documents in some way, perhaps in his future business dealings that involved other nations and their rulers?

Trump has falsely claimed that the files were his to take. (Sorry, Mr. Trump, they belong to the U.S. government.) And to make things even weirder, Trump also said falsely that he could declassify any secrets anytime he wanted as president — and that he had a standing order to his staff to do exactly that. (Again, sorry, Mr. Trump. You can’t just wave a finger and declassify America’s secrets.)

So what’s the motive here?

Setting aside the possibility that Trump was just a proud pack rat or planned to write a memoir with those files, did the former president see some sort of business advantage to holding on to top-secret documents? In other words, was Trump planning to entice would-be investors with promises to tell secrets?

Such a question is, by itself, outlandish — so bizarre that it seems fictional and the stuff of some sort of half-baked spy novel. But this is Trump. This is the same man who, in his role as president, picked up a White House phone and told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he wanted dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for providing weapons to protect Ukraine from a possible Russian invasion.

In the Mafia, that sort of deal-making is called extortion. With Trump, it brought about his first impeachment.

As if that’s not bad enough, let’s not forget Trump’s all-too-friendly demeanor with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid reports that Trump was looking ahead to his post-presidency and a possible deal in Russia to build a version of Trump Tower in Moscow. Was the presidency just another chapter in Trump’s “Art of the Deal”? Sadly, that question has followed him like a subpoena.

Perhaps complicating this matter even more is the news, first reported by CNN, that federal investigators now have a recording of Trump bragging during a meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club in July 2021 about having a top-secret military plan for the U.S. military to attack Iran. Why did Trump keep such a document after he left the White House? What did he plan to do with it? And if he spoke about the plan at his golf club, would he tell the Israelis? How about the Saudis?

Trump promised to disconnect himself from his real estate empire when he became president. But that promise fizzled — or, at least, became cloudy. Exhibit A is Trump’s hotel in downtown Washington, a short walk from the White House, where all manner of foreign dignitaries and other political players were encouraged to stay.

The recent federal subpoenas by the special counsel targeted the Trump Organization’s licensing of real estate and other development ventures in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, China, France, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. In fairness to Trump, there is no evidence that the former president engaged in any deal-making during his presidency. Nor is there any evidence yet that Trump used the secret documents in business deals. But since leaving the White House — while also claiming he was cheated out of a second term — Trump and his family have been quite active, especially in Saudi Arabia.

The same Saudi fund that financed the LIV Golf tournament handed $2 billion to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to invest even though Kushner is not exactly known as the wolf — or wizard — of Wall Street. And a Saudi-based real estate company struck a deal to license the Trump name to a hotel, golf and housing complex to be constructed in Oman.

Remember LIV last summer?

And then, there is LIV Golf.

To understand the importance of LIV to Trump and why this is so controversial, let’s turn back the clock to last summer.

LIV Golf wanted to make a splash. The upstart golf league billed itself as the hip alternative to the prim-and-proper PGA golf tour, which controlled not only most of the world’s professional golfers but the millions of dollars in prize money at a string of legendary tournaments.

LIV proclaimed that golf should not be conducted like a prayer service, with whispering TV analysts and crowds of onlookers who essentially took a vow of silence when they stood along fairways and around putting greens to watch their favorite golfers try to push a ball into a hole.

LIV played rock music over loudspeakers the size of small cars. Crowds were encouraged to cheer. Players chatted with the crowds and with each other. Prize money was plentiful and guaranteed for players. It was one, big happy fest.

If all this seems interesting — and, on paper, at least, it was — there was a catch. The entire LIV operation was funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, reportedly worth up to $620 billion. The fund was controlled by the Saudi royal family, notably Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

We all know that Saudi Arabia’s royals are not exactly model citizens when it comes to human rights. Under the mask of religion, the kingdom has mistreated women, gay people and dissidents of all stripes. For other law-breakers, to be arrested in Saudi Arabia was to enter a system of Kafka-like courts, where records are kept secret — if they are kept at all — and the ultimate punishment is to have your head lopped off in a public square by a sword-wielding executioner.

Then there was the Saudi government itself and its spy services.

While Trump was president, America’s own intelligence services directly linked bin Salman and a team of thugs from the Saudi spy agency to the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident, Washington Post columnist and U.S. resident who had been critical of his homeland.

Not long after the Khashoggi revelations, the FBI began releasing a stream of documents connecting Saudi officials — including the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. — to the 9/11 terror attacks.

It needs to be said that the FBI documents that have been made public are not completely conclusive. But they raise major questions about whether Saudi officials were all too willing to provide logistical and financial help, along with advice, to the team of 19 hijackers who pulled off the deadliest terror attack ever on U.S. soil. And those documents cry out for answers — from the Saudis and from U.S. intelligence services.

So far, Saudi Arabia has treated these questions like insults, dragging its feet on cooperating with U.S. investigators or attorneys representing thousands of 9/11 victims and their relatives who filed a massive federal lawsuit against the kingdom. U.S. officials are starting to open up, but they have a long way to go.

The delays by Saudi Arabia and U.S. authorities in coming clean on the full story behind the 9/11 attacks are so extensive that we may never know the truth. Or, if we do, it may take decades.

Such was the heavy cloud that hung over Trump last summer when he proudly staged a LIV Golf tournament at his course in Bedminster, New Jersey. Months later, Trump hosted another LIV Golf tournament at a course he owns in Florida.

Trump has declined to say how much the LIV league paid to use his courses.

Criticized by 9/11 victims and their relatives in New Jersey who staged two protests, Trump went into his own linguistic rope-a-dope. When pushed for answers by the media, he defended Saudi Arabia, claiming the LIV investment was “great for golf” and “fantastic for golf.” Then, to make things even more cloudy, the man who once occupied the Oval Office said that “nobody has gotten to the bottom of 9/11.”

Nobody, Mr. Trump?

Maybe you ought to take a look at some of the FBI documents that point to phone calls and contacts by Saudi officials with the 9/11 hijackers.

In August, LIV Golf will return to Trump’s course in Bedminster. In October, LIV will be back at his course in Florida. And, let’s not forget, just in time for this past Memorial Day, the LIV tour made a stop at Trump’s course in Northern Virginia.

Critics say Saudi Arabia is trying to use money to soften its image — a publicity game called “sport washing.” By paying for a golf league, Saudi Arabia hopes to wash the blood from its collective hands for its abuses.

As for Trump, he has his deal. For the man who once occupied the Oval Office and who wants to move in again, that seems enough for now.

Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed non-fiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

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