Pursuing Pardon, Steinbrenner Aided F.B.I.

[Blue_Tires]

George Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ principal owner, cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on national security cases and was willing to let it stage an organized-crime raid at Yankee Stadium, according to documents released Monday by the F.B.I, less than a year after Steinbrenner’s death.

His help to the F.B.I. in the 1970s and ’80s helped lead to his receiving a pardon from President Reagan in 1989 for a conviction for illegal contributions to Richard M. Nixon’s 1972 presidential re-election campaign.

Steinbrenner had been denied a pardon in 1979.

There are no details of what assistance Steinbrenner provided, or the role he played, in his pardon petition or in an F.B.I. memorandum. Both were heavily redacted before release.

The petition said he was first contacted in late 1976 or 1977 by the F.B.I. about a “matter of vital interest” to the agency. Steinbrenner agreed to help “without hesitation”; during the course of the three-year investigation, calls for an undercover agent were received at Steinbrenner’s office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/sports/baseball/10steinbrenner.html?_r=2&hp

[Yavin4]

1. Maybe The Wilpons Should Take Note n/t