June 8, 2001

The Olympic bribery scandal heats up again before the trial, as defendant Tom Welch fires a blast at Governor Leavitt, and demands an apology.

Eyewitness News has obtained a copy of a letter from the attorney for Tom Welch, sent Friday to Goveror Leavitt. It demands a retraction, and an apology, and sets the stage for more confrontations as the Olympic bribery trial draws near.

News Specialist John Daley has the exclusive story.

This all started last weekend with revelations that a former Olympic accountant had informed the Governor's staff about the now notorious scholarship program, a year before the scandal broke.

In response, the Governor's office sent out a press release, again implying Welch and co-defendant Dave Johnson were the sole masterminds of the scandal.

Now, Welch is firing back.

Prosecutors say former Salt Lake leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson cheated to win the Olympics. But Welch and Johnson say they're being singled out for actions that many others participated in.

And now, Welch is directly accusing the Governor of joining in a campaign to make Welch and Johnson the scapegoats.

Last Sunday, a Salt Lake Tribune article detailed the actions of a former SLOC accountant who says he tried to alert the Governor's office about scholarships from Olympic organizers to the children of IOC members a year before the scandal broke, only to be brushed aside, and told Tom Welch would be blamed if the payments ever became public.

The Governor clearly doesn't relish talking about the allegations. This week he declined to stop and be interviewed about the article. But while walking up the Capitol steps, he denounced the story as "gossip."

Governor Mike Leavitt: "'I THOUGHT IT WAS GOSSIP."

The Govenor's office did issue a press release reiterating the governor's repeated denial that he knew anything before the scandal broke.

The statement read, "No information was provided by SLOC officers and employees on inappropriate payments to IOC members or their families. Inappropriate payments were mislabeled and hidden in SLOC financial statements."

While the press release doesn't mention Welch and Johnson by name, Welch is demanding satisfaction.

Welch lawyer William Taylor scolds the governor, saying, "This statement refers to Mr. Welch and accuses him of a crime. It is slander per se, and it is false.Your public dissemination of this statement, particularly on the eve of my client's trial, on charges of which he is entirely innocent, was reckless and intentionally harmful."

It goes on to accuse the govenor of participating "in a concerted effort to make Mr. Welch a scapegoat for the Olympics scandal."

We reached the governor's spokeswoman late Friday evening.

She said the letter from Welch's lawyer has been referred to the Governor's legal counsel. She says Mr. Leavitt stands by his earlier statements and has no intention of making an apology, a retraction, or any further comments.