Barber: Why did Trump pardon Eddie DeBartolo Jr.?

President Donald Trump granted Edward DeBartolo Jr. executive clemency on Tuesday, expunging a 22-year-old criminal charge from the record of the former 49ers team owner. The news was received with warmth and gratitude by many in the Niners fold.

“You know what, we all make mistakes and today the president cleared that mistake from him,” Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Charles Haley told reporters at the White House when the news was announced.

“Great News For A Good Man With A Great Heart,” former offensive lineman Jesse Sapolu tweeted.

But the legal U-turn left me with a question: Why?

Why should that red mark be invisible on Eddie DeBartolo’s record? Is there any doubt that he did the crime?

In 1998, DeBartolo pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony when he paid $400,000 to former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards in exchange for a riverboat gambling license. It would be ludicrous to see DeBartolo as the mastermind of the plot. He was little more than a well-heeled pawn in a long, multi-layered grift. But he did pay that bribe. He fully admitted it.

Even those supportive old 49ers aren’t disputing that. Their reaction seems to rest upon everything DeBartolo did when he wasn’t in a backroom with Edwin Edwards - his generosity as a business owner, his passion for the game of football, his loyalty to former employees through the years.

“I think with Eddie and what he has accomplished, what he has done on the football field, off the football field, a lot of charity work, so we talked about that,” Jerry Rice said. He added, “I take my hat off for Donald Trump and what he did.”

Again: Why?

Why should DeBartolo’s charity work or Super Bowl championships have anything to do with his criminal record? Michael Vick has risen above his animal-cruelty sentence to become a valued teammate and the founder of exemplary charitable foundations; it doesn’t erase what he did to those dogs.

Let’s be honest here. Donald Trump didn’t pardon DeBartolo because he wanted to overturn a wrongful conviction. He did it because DeBartolo is a Trump supporter, and this president divides everyone on the planet into two camps (probably separated by a “beautiful wall” in his mind): You’re for him, or you’re against him.

DeBartolo is for him. On Jan. 19, 2017, the former team owner and his wife co-hosted a pre-Inauguration Day party, through Jim Brown’s Amer-I-Can program. The party took place at the law offices of K&L Gates; a year later, Matthew Prinn, a director of business development for that firm, would be charged with leaving obscene threats on the voicemail of a university professor who had criticized Trump and his supporters.

Bombastic former basketball coach Bobby Knight and retired NFL linebacker Ray Lewis were advertised as special guests at the inauguration party. One of the honorees was Michael Cohen, the Trump attorney currently serving time for campaign finance irregularities, tax evasion and perjury.

So that’s why Trump pardoned DeBartolo on Tuesday. It was a favor for one of his rich friends, not a restoration of justice.

I actually have another question, though. Does Eddie DeBartolo even want this?

He probably does, because the conviction was a real embarrassment for him. But consider the rogues’ gallery he joined with this clemency.

Previous Trump pardons had included Joe Arpaio, who as sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona was too busy housing convicts in tents (when the outside temperature was 118 degrees) to investigate rape cases; Scooter Libby, the Dick Cheney lapdog who endangered the life of CIA agent Valerie Plame by leaking her identity; and a number of war criminals including Eddie Gallagher, the Navy SEAL who posed with the dead body of a teenage captive he had killed with a hunting knife and was described by one platoon mate as “freaking evil.”

Oh, and joining DeBartolo on Tuesday? Disgraced former Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich and 1980s junk-bond icon Michael Milken. I’m still checking on John Wilkes Booth and Al Capone.

Clearly, Trump’s pardons have either been acts of political patronage or simple pokes in the eye of liberal detractors he knows will be outraged by little things like murdering Iraqi civilians.

Well, congratulations, Eddie D. You’re in the club!

DeBartolo’s criminal penalties were small. He didn’t do any jail time. He served two years of probation and paid a fine of $1 million. I’m not sure what DeBartolo’s net worth was in 1998. Forbes currently puts it at $2.6 billion.

The real fallout from the bribery scandal was DeBartolo’s loss of the 49ers, of course. The NFL suspended him for a year, and he eventually ceded control of the team to his sister, Denise DeBartolo York, and her husband, John York. Eddie has always insisted that the 49ers weren’t wrested from him, but he probably saw the writing on the wall. Regaining the reins was going to be a tough fight.

Clemency does nothing to rewrite that story for DeBartolo. There have been many times in the past 20 years when 49ers fans have openly pined for his leadership (and bank account). This is not one of those times. His nephew, 49ers CEO Jed York, has bounced back from the scorn he brought upon himself by firing Jim Harbaugh in 2015. York hired one of football’s brightest young minds in Kyle Shanahan, and recently presided over a Super Bowl appearance.

Things are good in Santa Clara. The faithful are perfectly happy with York. And anyway, DeBartolo, now 73, has expressed little interest in owning the team again. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016, eight years after he became a member of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. He comes to Levi’s Stadium for special occasions, and is greeted warmly.

DeBartolo’s good name has already been restored. It’s a pity he is now lumped in with so many bad names.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.