By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
The sometimes cantankerous and bigger than life N.Y. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner cooperated with the FBI on national security cases and other matters in the 1970s and 1980s, which helped him land a pardon from President Reagan in 1989, the New York Times reported.
His pardon was for a conviction for illegal contributions to President Nixon’s presidential election campaign. He was initially denied a pardon in 1979, the Times reported.
The Times reported that “it is not surprising that Steinbrenner helped the F.B.I., to help his case for a pardon but perhaps also to demonstrate his avowed patriotism. But clearly, he wanted a pardon.” He was fined $15,000 for his conviction, but served no time.
Steinbrenner died in July 2010.
The Times reported that in his “first pardon application in 1979, Steinbrenner wrote that his conviction prevented him from voting, affected his business, led to his suspension from baseball, and limited his participation in civic and charitable activities where his ‘status as a felon’ could embarrass those groups.”
Besides helping with national security matters, he once showed his willingness to let authorities use Yankee Stadium as a roundup point for arrests in a crackdown on organized crime gambling, the Times reported. But cold weather prompted a change in venue.
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