President Trump has pardoned former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Junior who in 1998 pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony when he paid 400-thousand dollars to former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards. Former U-S Attorney Jim Letten prosecuted the case and says DeBartolo deserves to be pardoned because he was a victim in Edwards’s illegal plan to sell a riverboat casino license.
“He actually plead guilty to the same facts that made him a victim of extortion,” said DeBartolo.
DeBartolo avoided prison time but was fined one-million dollars and suspended by the NFL for a year. After helping the 49ers win five Super Bowls, he stepped down as owner in 1997 and also ended his pursuit of the riverboat gambling license in Louisiana. Letten knew this day might happen.
“Among all of the witnesses that I’ve ever dealt with and there have been hundreds, I can’t think of any who more readily accepted responsibility or who had a lot less culpability,” said Letten.
Edwards is also glad to see the federal conviction erased from DeBartolo’s record because the U.S. Attorney’s office forced DeBartolo to lie.
“If he would have told the truth none of us would have this problem,” said Edwards.
DeBartolo testified against Edwards in the corruption trial that resulted in the former four-term governor spending 8.5 years in federal prison. Edwards says prosecutors needed DeBartolo’s false testimony in order to convict him.
“He got scared because they were going to take away his football team and all kinds of things,” said Edwards.
