PGA Tour officials pushed to oust Greg Norman as the CEO and commissioner of the LIV Golf League during the tour’s negotiations with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which proposed that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy own LIV teams, according to documents released by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The documents released by the subcommittee, which began a hearing Tuesday regarding the planned alliance, also suggested that McIlroy met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November.

McIlroy, who as a member of the PGA Tour’s policy board has a vote on whether the proposed partnership will ultimately go through, had not publicly disclosed his meeting with Al-Rumayyan.

A May 25 side letter to the framework agreement proposed by the PGA Tour called for Norman and Performance54, a London-based marketing and consultant group that took control of the LIV Golf League’s management this season, to step down once the proposed partnership is finalized. According to the subcommittee, its inquiry “has not yet revealed whether this side agreement was ever executed” by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley and Al-Rumayyan.

Monahan’s draft of talking points for the policy board while announcing the deal noted that “Norman will be assigned to an advisory role determined by the PIF when the PGA Tour becomes the manager of the LIV Tour.”

Norman, a two-time Open winner, has told his staff and players that the LIV Golf League is a standalone entity and that he is planning to play in 2024 and beyond.

As part of its investigation, the subcommittee uncovered a series of emails sent between PGA Tour policy board chairman Ed Herlihy and board member Jimmy Dunne on May 15, with Herlihy telling Dunne, “Jimmy, I raised the idea with Jay [Monahan] of you overseeing LIV going forward. He really liked it.” Dunne replied, “You and me,” to which Herlihy responded, “Definitely.”

A LIV Golf official told ESPN that it was the league’s understanding that the side letter wasn’t signed and that PIF officials rejected the idea of removing Norman and Performance54.

The announced merger is being heavily scrutinized by the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, which was already examining the PGA Tour’s alleged monopolistic business practices. Human rights groups and survivors and families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks also have criticized the PGA Tour for doing business with the Saudi Arabian monarchy.

“Today’s hearing is about much more than the game of golf,” subcommittee chairman Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in his opening remarks during Tuesday’s hearing. “It’s about how a brutal, repressive regime can buy influence — indeed even take over — a cherished American institution simply to cleanse its public image.”