Tom Welch, the formerly indicted ex-head of the Salt Lake City Olympic bid, tells Mike Wallace that Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt knew all about the favours Welch doled out to IOC officials.
In an interview Sunday night on “60 Minutes” Wallace asked Welch if he was calling Leavitt a liar. Welch replied “I guess I am. Mike Leavitt didn’t tell the truth”.
But Leavitt said Welch is wrong, although he expressed sympathy for Welch and disdain for the U.S. government’s prosecution of him.
According to a report by The Salt Lake Tribune, although the interview on “60 Minutes offers no new evidence that Leavitt and other bid leaders knew more than they claim, it gives Welch an opportunity to explain to a national television audience why the bid committee had a never-say-no policy when it came to satisfying IOC members,
Meanwhile, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, one of the primary architects of Atlanta’s successful 1996 Summer Olympics campaign called Welch a “first-rate fellow”. He said Salt Lake City probably gave much less to get the Games than other bid cities.
