‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic pleads Trump for pardon and to ‘right this monumental injustice’ in hype video
Joe Exotic is stopping at nothing to secure that presidential pardon from POTUS and to that end, his legal team has made a video to beg President Donald Trump to get him out of prison.
The video in question was obtained by TMZ, which claimed that not only was Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, not guilty of the crimes that he had been convicted of, but he was actually framed by someone else.
Exotic was convicted of two counts of murder-for-hire to kill a rival animal rights activist, Carole Baskin, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act and sentenced to 22 years in prison in January. His life's journey and what led to the charges being brought against him were documented in a hit Netflix docu-series 'Tiger King' which released on March 20.
The clip showed Exotic's team had painted a large bus, which was seen emblazoned with the words “Team King” and “President Trump please pardon Joe Exotic”. “A team the size of Texas has been assembled to handle the case of Joe Exotic,” Francisco Hernandez, an attorney in Texas, said in the video, adding that they intended to prove Eotic's innocence.
Eric Love, of Bedford, Texas, claims to be Exotic’s executive manager and “lead investigator”. “We’ve built an army of attorneys to assist in the appeal process and right this monumental injustice,” Love said.
His team has already appealed Exotic's conviction and has also filed a $94 malicious prosecution lawsuit against United States Federal Wildlife Service, the United States Department of Interior, and former business partner Jeff Lowe, People Magazine reported.
Furthermore, Exotic's team had requested a judge to throw out the testimony of Allan Glover, who testified he was hired to kill Carole Baskin on Exotic's orders. The team has argued that Glover had a longstanding feud with Exotic and that the testimony against him was "payback." No charges were brought against Glover as he claimed that he never had any intention of going through with the hit.
However, the chances of a release from prison do not look bright for Exotic. When Trump was asked during a press conference back in April if he had watched the 'Tiger King' documentary and whether he would consider a pardon for the lead man, the POTUS said that he had no clue what the case was about and jokingly asked the reporters if they were in favor of Exotic being pardoned. “Would you recommend a pardon” Trump said, adding, “I don’t think you would.”
Nevertheless, he said that he would "take a look" at the case.
Since he has been kept in coronavirus isolation in FMC Fort Worth, as a precautionary measure, his husband Dillon Passage said in an interview on the SiriusXM series 'Andy Cohen Live' that Exotic hasn’t been able to watch the series while incarcerated. However, he added that his husband had been “ecstatic” over the reaction from viewers and the fact that he “was getting hundreds and hundreds of emails to his jail mail.”