| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
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| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
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| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
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| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
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| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
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| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
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| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
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| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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Leavitt lied, Welch tells Wallace
By Lisa Riley Roche
Deseret News staff writer
In an interview with "60 Minutes" scheduled to air Sunday — the same day the 2002 Winter Games come to a close — Tom Welch said Gov. Mike Leavitt lied when he denied knowing about the cash and gifts given out during Salt Lake's Olympic bid.
There's no new information revealed in the story, but because this is the former Olympic leader's first in-depth television interview about the bribery scandal, it could rekindle interest in what had become a largely forgotten chapter in Utah's Olympic history.
"It would be unfortunate if a story such as this took away from the remarkable spotlight that's been on our state," the governor's spokeswoman, Natalie Gochnour, said. "I think that the success of the Games is speaking for itself."
The 13-minute piece is the lead story on Sunday's "60 Minutes" program, set to air at 6 p.m. Sunday on KUTV. NBC's coverage of the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Games also begins at 6 p.m. on KSL.
Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney said he doesn't expect the program to have any impact on the public's perception of the Games. "Everybody knows about the scandal," Romney said.
According to a transcript released Friday by the CBS network's premier news program, interviewer Mike Wallace asked Welch if he was calling the governor a liar. "I guess I am," Welch answered. "Mike Leavitt didn't tell the truth."
Leavitt told Wallace in a separate interview done earlier this week in Salt Lake City that, "Tom's wrong if he thinks I knew. I was not involved in the management of the bid. Chose not to be."
The governor said "it was clear. The bid effort crossed the line."
Welch said he did nothing wrong, as he has since allegations surfaced in late 1998 that Salt Lake bidders tried to buy the votes of the International Olympic Committee with more than $1 million in cash and gifts.
The governor is described as saying he does not think that Welch or his No. 2, Dave Johnson, did anything criminal and that he wishes the U.S. Justice Department had stayed out of it.
"Frankly, I believe if this had not been made a criminal matter, that this community would have pulled together, would have healed and it would have moved forward long ago," Leavitt said. "The Justice Department made it impossible for this community to move forward until it was over. And regrettably, it is still not over."
Although U.S. District Judge David Sam dismissed the conspiracy, fraud and racketeering charges filed against Welch and Johnson, an appeal by federal prosecutors is still pending.
Gochnour said the story accurately reflected the governor's "truthful and candid" interview with the program but that he did not want to discuss it further. "We just don't want to be in a position where we're retaliating. We're trying to take the high ground here."
Wallace begins the story, called "Scapegoat," by telling viewers that even though the Games end tonight, "there is one event still to be judged: Does Tom Welch get a gold meal, or does he go to prison?"
He calls it an open secret that IOC members "have long voted for the city that gives them the most persuasive gifts, and Tom Welch won the Games for his home town by heaping items of great value upon key IOC members."
Also featured in the story is Andrew Young, who helped bring the 1996 Summer Games to Atlanta. Young, a former mayor of Atlanta, said he didn't consider what was done a bribe. He said Welch "probably did much less" than other cities bidding for the Olympics.
"We heard rumors of IOC members receiving automobiles," Young said, but "from our competing countries," not Salt Lake City or Atlanta. He said what happened "wasn't a Salt Lake scandal and it wasn't a Tom Welch scandal."
Instead, Young called it a scandal of the global economy. "I think what happens is that when you get involved with poor countries and poor people and you are very, very rich . . . you will find some ways to help them."
Welch has said he agreed to do the interview only if it would not air before the competition at the Games ended. He said Friday he never intended for the interview to "have any effect on the Games. I hope the people of Utah will watch the closing ceremonies."
A spokesman for the CBS program, Kevin Tedesco, said no deals were made. He said the network timed the segment to capitalize on the interest in Salt Lake's Olympics.
"It just makes the most sense to run it now. It wouldn't be nearly as good or interesting a story either, well, before or after the Games," Tedesco said. He said it was not unusual for the network to release a transcript of a story that has not yet aired.
E-MAIL: lisa@desnews.com
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February 23, 2002
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