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No-go for Joe Exotic: Trump pardon list omits ‘Tiger King’

Jan 20, 2021, 7:29 AM

Tiger King NFT tiger king 2...

Joseph Maldonado-Passage aka Joe Exotic and one of his cats in the Netflix docuseries "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness." Credit: NETFLIX/Courtesy of NETFLIX

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — One name missing in President Donald Trump’s last-minute list of pardons is “Tiger King” Joe Exotic.

His team was so confident in a pardon that they’d readied a celebratory limousine and a hair and wardrobe team to whisk away the zookeeper-turned-reality-TV-star, who is now serving a 22-year federal prison sentence in Texas. But he wasn’t on the list announced Wednesday morning.

Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in federal prison for violating federal wildlife laws and for his role in a failed murder-for-hire plot targeting his chief rival, Carole Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida. Baskin was not harmed.

Full list of pardons and commutations granted by President Donald Trump 

Maldonado-Passage, who has maintained his innocence, was also sentenced for killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records. A jury convicted him in April 2019.

In his pardon application filed in September, Maldonado-Passage’s attorneys argued that he was “railroaded and betrayed” by others. Maldonado-Passage, 57, is scheduled to be released from custody in 2037, but his attorneys said in the application that “he will likely die in prison” because of health concerns.

Maldonado-Passage’s legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday.

The blond mullet-wearing zookeeper, known for his expletive-laden rants on YouTube and a failed 2018 Oklahoma gubernatorial campaign, was prominently featured in the popular Netflix documentary “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.”


Carole Baskin, foe of the Netflix ‘Tiger King’ awarded Joe Exotic’s zoo

Carole Baskin of ‘Tiger King’ fame sued for defamation

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No-go for Joe Exotic: Trump pardon list omits ‘Tiger King’