Netflix
Joe Exotic, a.k.a the 2020 viral sensation “Tiger King”, has been, as the kids say, going through it. While President Trump has spent his first few days in office doling out a wide range of pardons, including to the creator of Silk Road, Joe Exotic, real name Joseph Allen Maldonado, hasn’t been one of them.
The 61-year-old Joe Exotic is currently being held at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas after being charged and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, violation of the Lacey Act, and violation of the Endangered Species Act. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2019 (the court reduced his sentence by one year in 2022).
Since Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States on Monday, Exotic has posted on his Instagram multiple times complaining about the fact that Trump has not given him a pardon.
“If I was a crack dealer, maybe if I broke in the capital or even have been related to the Bidens. I might have gotten some relief on being in prison innocent. Hell the guy who killed 2 FBI Agents even hot a pardon today. I can’t even get a new trial based on admitted perjury testimony,” he captioned one post.
“Everyone tag @realdonaldtrump to please put me in line soon as all the evidence now shows I am innocent. He called Ross’s mom to tell her. He can’t call mine as she died in the 7 years I’ve been in prison for something I didn’t do. I think 7 years and loosing everything I everything worked for is punishment enough for something they all admitted to perjury over,” he pleaded in another.
Exotic achieved viral fame in 2020 when a true crime docuseries about his criminal exploits was released on Netflix on March 20, 2020. Given the time at which it was released, Tiger King became a singular viral sensation, giving Exotic a level of notoriety he did not have previously.
The series tracked Exotic, a controversial and eccentric big cat collector, and Carole Baskin, the owner of Big Cat Rescue who accused Exotic of abusing and exploiting wild animals whom Exotic paid a hitman to kill.