Joe Exotic’s legal team to ask Trump to pardon convicted zookeeper as they prepare case to prove Netflix star was ‘wrongly convicted’
Joe Exotic’s lawyers are preparing to send his case to President Trump in an attempt to get the convicted zookeeper pardoned.
The star of Netflix docuseries Tiger King is currently behind bars in Fort Worth, Texas, serving a 22-year sentence for a murder-for-hire plot.
And now his legal team are preparing a case file claiming Exotic was wrongly convicted, according to TMZ.
Plea to be free: Lawyers working for Joe Exotic, who is currently in prison serving a 22-year sentence for a murder-for-hire plot, are about to send his case to President Trump to ask for the Netflix star to be pardoned
Joe has plenty of supporters behind his cause, as an image obtained by the website showed some of his team posed by an open top coach wrapped in graphics which read ‘President Trump Please Pardon Joe Exotic’ and ‘Team Tiger’.
Last month Trump said he would take a look at pardoning Joe Exotic after Donald Trump Jr. spoke on SiriusXM and called Exotic’s sentence ‘aggressive’ after watching the documentary series in two sittings.
Now, I don’t even know exactly what he was charged with … I watched the show, but it was like, I don’t know exactly what he was guilty of or wasn’t,’ Trump Jr. said. ‘It doesn’t seem like he was totally innocent of anything. But when they’re saying, “We’re putting this guy away for 30 years,” I’m saying that seems sort of aggressive.’
He has the power: Exotic’s his legal team are preparing a case file to send to the White House claiming Exotic was wrongly convicted, according to TMZ
When a reporter at the White House brought up his son’s comments, Trump commented, ‘Which son? It must be Don. I had a feeling it was Don,’ the president said.
The show follows three main zoo owners including Exotic and Carole Baskin, the woman who owns Tampa, Florida’s Big Cat Rescue.
It was Baskin that Exotic allegedly was plotting to kill.
She had become a thorn in his side by pushing lawmakers to vote in favor of the Big Cat Public Safety Act, which would make it harder for individuals to own tigers and lions and would put an end to cub-petting, which was a business model used by Exotic.
Exotic was put behind bars for a murder-for-hire plot involving Carole Baskin (pictured) who owns a tiger and lion sanctuary in Tampa, Florida
Accused of animal cruelty: In April 2019 Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, was convicted of two counts of murder-for-hire, eight violations of the Lacey Act and on nine violations of the Endangered Species Act
In April 2019 Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, was convicted of two counts of murder-for-hire, eight violations of the Lacey Act and on nine violations of the Endangered Species Act.
‘I know nothing about it,’ Trump admitted, asking the reporter who posed the question, The New York Post’s Steven Nelson, to describe Exotic’s crimes.
Trump then said he’d take a look.
Since ‘Tiger King’ became a hit, Exotic and Baskin have become household names.
The show also details how Baskin’s first husband disappeared, a case that has been reopened by authorities since the airing of the episodes.
Exotic, on the show, claimed Baskin fed her husband to a Tiger.
Last month Trump told reporters that he hadn’t seen the Netflix hit ‘Tiger King’ but he’d look into a pardon for the main character, zookeeper Joe Exotic