Capitol Hill enters the fight over LIV Golf’s Saudi Arabia ties

The politics of LIV Golf, the upstart circuit backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund, are moving to the forefront as its next event tees off at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey. The current president, Joe Biden, recently returned from a controversial trip to Saudi Arabia. The former president, Donald Trump, is hosting the event after telling golfers they should “take the money” and play for LIV, which he said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal has generated favourable publicity worth “billions of dollars” for the Saudis.

On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, there is growing criticism from lawmakers over Saudi Arabia’s incursion into professional golf. And as the PGA Tour faces both a DOJ probe and a competitive threat from LIV, which continues to peel off big-name players, some of its staunchest supporters are elected officials who want to halt LIV’s efforts.

Lawmakers have raised questions about the Justice Department’s interest in whether the PGA Tour violated antitrust law in its response to the rival circuit — and said the agency should be asking instead whether LIV Golf’s hires have violated a law requiring agents of foreign governments to register their efforts.

“My problem is, you have a billion dollars of Saudi money coming in and essentially buying off some of the participants in the PGA Tour with a direct goal of essentially breaking the back of the Tour,” said Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican. ‘I’m just saying: ‘Really? Really? You’re going to focus on the PGA Tour?’ ”

“I do think it would be appropriate for the Justice Department to be looking at Saudi Arabia,” he added.

LIV Golf says the Foreign Agents Registration Act doesn’t apply because it’s a commercial enterprise, and it isn’t advocating for anything political.

“LIV is about the sport of golf. FARA doesn’t apply,” a LIV spokesperson said in a statement. “Our work is about sports, and we will continue to focus on our business, which is to grow the game of golf.”

The argument over what LIV is about is likely to continue through all of its showdown with the PGA Tour, which could spill over into the courts, Congress, and certainly public opinion.

The Tour and its congressional supporters have already put a heavy focus on LIV’s Saudi connection, establishing political pressure that could ultimately play into any legal battle between the two entities.

The PGA Tour has said it expects to triumph in the DOJ’s investigation as it did with a similar inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission in the mid-1990s. In that instance, the PGA Tour had called on powerful lawmakers to push for the investigation to be shut down, and it was.

LIV Golf has relished the chance to win an antitrust case against the PGA Tour, telling players for months it believes it has the law on its side. People familiar with LIV’s thinking also say they believe the ability of lawmakers to openly exert pressure on government investigations has waned significantly in the three decades since the FTC battle.

Both sides have been exploring in recent weeks whether to arm themselves with additional lobbying and public affairs firepower for what could become a prolonged fight, according to people familiar with each entity’s thinking.

This White House said it considered Saudi Arabia to be “a strategic partner” ahead of President Biden’s recent visit to the region, which followed a period of tension over human rights issues and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump made Saudi Arabia his first overseas trip as president in a sign of warm relations that generally lasted through his term.

But tensions over the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia cut across party lines, too, with Democrats and Republicans sceptical of LIV and hammering the kingdom over Khashoggi; allegations of human rights violations; the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which most of the hijackers were Saudi nationals; and the death of an Oregon high-school student in a hit-and-run by a Saudi national who then fled the country.

“It’s a transparent attempt by the Saudis to use sports to whitewash their human rights record and bad image in the United States, and we shouldn’t have any part of it,” said Rep. Tom Malinowski (D., N.J.,), whose district includes Bedminster, which is an hour away from Ground Zero.

“No amount of golf will make Americans forget Saudi Arabia’s brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, or the aid it gave to the man accused of killing Fallon Smart in southeast Portland,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, where the last LIV Tournament took place, in a statement.

Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks. LIV Golf and the players participating have broadly denied the allegations of “sportswashing” — the notion that the venture is a mechanism to improve Saudi Arabia’s global reputation.

Some lawmakers began attacking Saudi golf months before the first LIV event teed off.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) wrote a letter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan last August to tell him that “players should be aware of the complications that would come from a golf league sponsored by the Saudi Government.”

“I am concerned that the actions of the Saudi Government, particularly in the area of human rights, will become centre stage if the Saudi golf league is formed. While Saudi Arabia has been a valuable ally, the country has received many accusations regarding the suppression of free speech, assembly, and extrajudicial violence,” Graham’s letter said.

Trump has emerged as the rare high-profile politician who has thrown his support behind LIV. In an interview Monday with the Journal, he said LIV has been “great” for Saudi Arabia’s image.

“I think it’s going to be an incredible investment from that standpoint, and that’s more valuable than lots of other things because you can’t buy that — even with billions of dollars,” Trump said.

Trump’s relationship with the golf establishment has been strained in recent years, including the decision by the PGA of America to take the 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump Bedminster shortly after the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol.

Trump and his family also have business ties to the Saudis. Trump’s courses are set to host two LIV events in 2022, both this one and another at Trump National Doral Miami. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, has a private-equity fund with $2 billion from the Saudi Public Investment Fund — the same entity that is backing LIV.

-The Wall Street Journal