President Donald Trump issued a full pardon this week for Tim Leiweke, former CEO of Oak View Group, the company in talks to develop a new LSU arena who was charged with rigging bids for a similar deal at the University of Texas.

Federal prosecutors accused Leiweke of "orchestrating a conspiracy to rig the bidding process" at the Moody Center in Austin — an arena project LSU officials hope to emulate in Baton Rouge.

Prior to Trump's pardon, which is dated Tuesday, Leiweke had a final pretrial conference scheduled for April for the federal criminal case against him in Texas. Leiweke entered a plea of not guilty in that case.

Records obtained by The Advocate and The Times-Picayune last year showed that Oak View Group and ASM Global were the two finalists for the proposed arena that of

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