The saga of Tiger King subject Joe Exotic and his attempts to secure a presidential pardon continue. Last week we learned that he was still trying to make sure it happens before President Donald Trump leaves office at the start of 2021, and Exotic has set his sights on a new avenue of making sure the president sees his case as he wrote a letter to Kim Kardashian West hoping to get her help. ET brings word of the letter Exotic wrote to West, who previously lobbied for clemency for a woman from Tennessee with Trump and was successful in her crusade. Exotic is hoping for something similar.
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“I know you have never met me and may never want to however I do believe that you hold the values of our justice system dear to your heart,” Exotic’s letter reads in part. “I am writing you this letter not as Joe Exotic but as the person Joseph Maldonado-Passage, asking you to please help me by just taking 10 minutes out of your life and placing a call to President Trump to look at my 257 page pardon it’s all the evidence I’m innocent and ask him to sign my pardon so I can return home to [my husband] Dillon [Passage] and my father.”
It continues, “I have lost 57 years of work, my zoo, my animals, my mother has died, my dad is dying and I’ve been taken away from my husband who I love dearly. Everyone is so busy making movies, getting interviews, selling stuff and dressing up like me that everyone forgot I’m a real live person in prison and kept from even telling my own story for something I didn’t do….Will you please help me with just a phone call? No one even has to know you did it.”
The letter, which was dated November 4, notes that people out in the world are “dressing up like” Exotic while he remains in prison, and as ET notes Kim Kardashian West herself was one of these such people. Back in October she posted a photo on Instagram where she was dressed by Exotic’s nemesis Carole Baskin with her friend Jonathan Cheban appearing as Exotic and three of her children dressed as tigers.
The former “zoo keeper” turned wannabe politician and now infamous Netflix character was found guilty earlier this year on 17 counts of animal abuse and two counts of murder-for-hire, having attempted to pay Allen Glover to kill Baskin, the owner of Big Cat Rescue who had spent years trying to shut down Exotic’s private zoo.
President Trump was previously made aware of Exotic and his hopes for a pardon. New York Post reporter Steven Nelson asked the president about this during a coronavirus task force press briefing in April, as the President’s son previously opined on asking his father to pardon Exotic. In response, the president previously said: “I know nothing about it…I’ll take a look.”
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is streaming now on Netflix.
