LIV Golf retains Washington D.C. lobbying firm to shield Yasir Al-Rumayyan amid congressional probe: Report

LIV Golf has reportedly retained one of the major Washington, DC, lobbying firms to shield the Public Investment Fund's Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan from speaking publicly amid the US Congressional probe.

As per a report published in Politico, Akin Gump Strauss & Feld, a high-powered D.C. lobbying firm, is representing the PIF amid the Congressional probe into the Saudi-backed circuit.

For the uninitiated, on June 6, PIF and PGA announced they would join forces and form a common entity. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who is chairing the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has been vocal about the controversial PGA-PIF deal in the past.

Blumenthal had invited PGA Tour chiefs Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and LIV CEO Greg Norman for testimony from Al-Rumayyan in June. While Price and Dunne appeared in front of the Senate, LIV's representatives were unavailable.

Raphael Prober, a lawyer at Akin Gump, argued that Alr-Rumayyan shouldn't be forced to participate in the forthcoming hearings, which are part of an extensive investigation into PIF's past, current, and future ventures.

Prober wrote in the letter, as per Politico:

“An unprecedented effort by the Subcommittee to compel [Al-Rumayyan’s] appearance and testimony would not only disrupt the delicate balance of foreign relations and international diplomacy but would also compromise the prerogatives of the Executive Branch.”

Prober's letter, dated August but filed with the Justice Department on August 30, states that he has been in touch with the probing committee since June 28, and the PIF prefers to share the information through an 'appropriate representative of the PIF.' The letter also claims that negotiations are still in process, and the deal has yet to be formalized.

Prober has also expressed concern that some of the information regarding PIF’s U.S. investments is subject to immunity for a foreign representative.

He wrote as per Politico:

"The information requested is subject to multiple Saudi laws protecting its confidentiality, very much akin to laws protecting the sensitive information and deliberative processes of the United States government and its instrumentalities."

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When will the LIV Golf- PGA Tour deal be finalized?

The negotiations between LIV Golf, PGA Tour, and DP World Tour are still ongoing, and they are expected to finalize the deal before the deadline of December 31.

Last week at the FedEx Cup, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan shared some details regarding the deal. He said the negotiations were still ongoing and that they were expecting to reach a common point by the end of the year.

He was quoted as saying via the PGA Tour:

"There are frequent talks. Tyler and Ron Price, who did a tremendous job in my absence, are leading conversations with the team from PIF."

"I would just say, given the fact that there's frequency of talks, including Keith Pelley from DP World Tour, we're probably right where I would expect that we would be. But there's - yeah, so that's - there's an intensity and there's an urgency and there's a lot of work, good work, that's being done"