Trump will 'take a look' at 'Tiger King' Joe Exotic's pardon request
'Tiger King' subject Joe Exotic seeks presidential pardon in Facebook post
President Trump said he’ll “take a look” at a request for a pardon from “Tiger King” Joseph “Joe Exotic” Maldonado-Passage.
The president made the remark when asked by a reporter during a White House coronavirus task force briefing Wednesday. More than 400,000 Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and more than 14,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus.
President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 8, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
NETFLIX’S ‘TIGER KING’ JOE EXOTIC SEEKS PRESIDENTIAL PARDON
While Trump said he’d look into the matter, he admitted that he “know[s] nothing about” the subject of Netflix’s quarantine hit docuseries on the unusual lives of private zoo owners and workers.
“Is that Joe Exotic?” he asked.
Maldonado-Passage is, spoiler alert, serving a 22-year prison sentence for hiring a would-be hitman to kill an animal activist who was critical of his zoo.
Joe Exotic pictured with a tiger. (Netflix)
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“My trial was not about the truth, it was about the win for the prosecutors,” Maldonado-Passage wrote in a Facebook post vying for Trump’s attention last month. “Why do I say this? Because I can prove every lie and the U.S Attorneys office had that proof.”
The former zoo owner’s efforts were rekindled this week when Donald Trump Jr. joked on a radio show, saying he’d lobby his father to pardon Joe Exotic.
“I can generally be for this just for the meme,” Trump Jr. said on the program, SiriusXM’s “Jim Norton and Sam Roberts” show.
While Joe Exotic’s efforts are gaining attention, “Tiger King” has been an even bigger success for Netflix. More than 34 million people watched the show in the first 10 days after it was released on March 20, Adweek reported, citing Nielsen data. The only other Netflix show to draw more views was the third season of its hit nostalgia horror show “Stranger Things.”