Jimmy Dunne’s most emotional testimony during Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the framework deal between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had nothing to do with golf.
Dunne, who joined the PGA Tour’s policy board last year, and PGA Tour Chief Operating Officer Ron Price sat before the Senate subcommittee to defend its deal with the PIF, which owns LIV Golf. Late in the hearings, Dunne was asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who chairs the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, whether he had anything to say to the 9/11 Families attending the hearing.
“Senator, I will say now, what I said on September 12, of ’01, what I said to my children growing up … anyone remotely involved, anyone tangentially involved, anyone who profited, we should pursue them with extreme prejudice, to the full extent, to the complete capacity,” Dunne said.
“If someone does a crime, you go after them. For this crime, it’s death,” Dunne added before pausing to collect his emotions.
Dunne, the president of Seminole Golf Club, is credited by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan for sealing the deal that led to the Tour and LIV Golf joining forces.
Dunne, 65, is vice-chairman and senior managing principal of Piper Sandler, an investment bank and financial services company heavily involved in mergers and acquisitions.
Piper Sandler’s offices were on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center when terrorists attacked the U.S. 22 years ago. While Dunne was playing golf that day trying to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Amateur, a decision he once said saved his life, 66 people from his firm died.
Of the 19 hijackers who commanded that planes that killed nearly 3,000 people in four locations, 15 were Saudis.
Dunne has worked with the 9/11 families and once said “if someone can find someone who unequivocally was involved with (9/11), I’ll kill them myself.”
While explaining his role in the deal in which the PIF will contribute more than $1 billion to a new entity that will be controlled by the PGA Tour, Dunne has repeated that those involved in LIV Golf, including Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, had nothing to do with 9/11. It was Dunne who initiated the contact with Al-Rumayyan to get the talks started.
“I honestly believe that our government with both President Bush, President Obama, our military and our brilliant, brilliant (Navy) Seals, did their job and anyone that is involved with that has answered justice,” Dunne said.
Dunne added he will not discriminate against anyone because they believe in the same religion or look like those attackers, something he has taught his children.
“It’s been incredibly important to them to understand that because someone has the same skin color, or the same religion, as the criminals that were involved in 9/11, that doesn’t mean we hate them,” Dunne said. “That we’re raised in the United States of America that has different values. And we look at things differently.”
Dunne relayed a story in which one of his sons said he “never, ever heard me say one negative remark about any Middle Easterner, any Muslim, religion, anything like that,” and I’m very proud of that.
“I believe that our Special Services did their job. And I’m grateful to them. But I will refuse to describe a whole other people because they had common religion or skin color. I’m not doing that under any condition.”
Survivors of the 9/11 attacks along with members of 9/11 Families United, family members of those who were killed in the attacks, have held several protests over LIV Golf. They were outraged over the PGA Tour’s deal with the PIF, calling the Tour “paid Saudi shills.”
A group from 9/11 Families United attended Tuesday’s hearing wearing red caps that read “9/11 JUSTICE.” One of those presented Dunne with papers as he was talking detailing Saudi Arabia’s role in the attacks.
Members of the group have asked for a meeting with Dunne, and he has accepted.