Tiger King star Joe Exotic has asked Donald Trump to pardon him, release him from prison and bring him into his government.
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The 61-year-old former zoo owner, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 21-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas on charges of animal abuse and two counts of murder for hire.
But now, he has written a letter, as reported by RadarOnline, to the president-elect, pleading for him to take his case under review.
“A lot of people went to bat for you in 2021 who have been living in hell ever since then,” he wrote. “Everyone hopes you keep the promises you made during your campaign, which include pardoning everyone sooner than later in January 2025.
Will Joe Exotic ever leave prison? CREDIT: Netflix
“Some of those very people have been stuck in solitary confinement, forced to live like rats, have killed themselves in prison, or have died. Some, like myself, have fought like hell to hang on, hoping for you to win this election,” he added.
Exotic was jailed in 2019 and is currently set to be released in 2036, but he hopes to be released next year after his legal team filed an appeal for a retrial based on newly discovered evidence.
Exotic added that he would like a role at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, a federal government agency in the Department of the Interior, singling out its former director, Daniel M. Ashe, who is now CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
“It is time to bring some honesty to this department because the former director, Dan Ash [sic], only looked out for himself and his position within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. (He used his federal position to put me out of business and in prison to benefit his non-profit, the AZA.)”
“Hundreds of millions of dollars are being wasted within this department, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was written to protect the animals and their habitats on our lands. It was not meant to be used to create illegal monopolies, as it has been in the past, allowing only certain people to profit from this Act and putting their competitors out of business.”
It comes days after Exotic announced his engagement to Jorge Marquez, a prison mate 28 years his junior. “Meet Jorge Marquez he is 33,” he wrote. “He is so amazing and is from Mexico”.
“Now, the quest of getting married in prison and getting him asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out. Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago.”
This is Exotic’s third prison engagement in three years. In 2022, he began a relationship with another inmate named John Graham, but things soon ended after Graham was released from prison. In the same year, Exotic started a relationship with Seth Posey, but they also split shortly after becoming engaged.
Back in February, Exotic publicly expressed his attraction to Machine Gun Kelly and suggested he would woo his crush with “a tiger and a bit of meth”.
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