Now that the wildly eccentric zookeeper Joe Exotic has become a household name due to the phenomenally popular Netflix docuseries “Tiger King,” the buzz has centered on whether or not he could receive a presidential pardon. Donald Trump Jr. has floated the possibility, albeit with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
As the Netflix show chronicles in detail, Joe Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was sentenced to 22 years in jail after an Oklahoma jury convicted him in 2019 of animal cruelty and contracting a hitman to kill his chief rival, animal rights activist Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue (the hitman did not go through with the act). Though not conclusively proving it one way or the other, the documentary postulated he may have been set up by his business partner, Jeff Lowe. In a recent Facebook post, Exotic publicly asked Trump to grant him a presidential pardon, arguing that key witnesses lied under oath and that prosecutors simply wanted to get a win with no regard for the truth.
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