Known as the "Tiger King", Joe Exotic is serving a long prison sentence. But US President Donald Trump should now pardon him.
Joseph Maldonado-Passage (57), better known under his pseudonym Joe Exotic, has officially requested a pardon from US President Donald Trump (74). The US broadcaster CBS published excerpts from the handwritten letter in which Joe Exotic Trump names his "hero" among other things. The self-proclaimed "Tiger King" is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for attempted murder.
The main argument of Joe Exotic for a pardon is: Before all the fame, he was just a "gay, gun-bearing redneck in Oklahoma" who did not get a "fair trial". His parents and his whole life were stolen from him by criminals who "got everything", the 57-year-old continued.
Trump should forego waiting
In addition, Maldonado-Passage asks that Donald Trump should waive the legally required five-year waiting period for a pardon. "Allow me to make you proud, to make America proud, to make the world proud. Please be my hero," writes Joe Exotic at the end.
As CBS further reports, Trump had already announced before the letter that he would "take a look at" the matter.
The eight-part documentary "Tiger King" (German title: "Big cats and their predators"), broadcast for the first time in March 2020, is about Joe Exotic, who ran a private zoo with big cats in the USA, and his feud with the relentless animal activist Carole Baskin ( 59). At the end of the first season, Baskin prevailed: Joe Exotic was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the attempted murder of his rival. Baskin got her archenemy's animal enclosure assigned by a court order.