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'Tiger King' Star Joe Exotic Claims New Health Issues In Plea For Biden To Issue Him A Pardon

'Tiger King' Star Joe Exotic Claims New Health Issues In Plea For Biden To Issue Him A Pardon
Netflix, T.J. Kirkpatrick-Pool/Getty Images

"Joe Exotic" from the popular Netflix docuseries Tiger King, made a desperate plea for a pardon from President Joe Biden after the Trump Administration failed him.

He was so certain Trump would grant him a pardon his lawyers had a limo waiting and a party planned.


Joe, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, claimed in a lengthy Twitter thread his PSA count results came back high for prostate cancer.

He stated signing the pardon "that Trump left behind" would enable him to get proper care.

The former zoo operator and tiger breeder was sentenced to 22 years in prison after hiring a hitman to murder Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin—a very open critic of his—and for violating federal wildlife laws.

On Friday, Exotic shared his precancer diagnosis from medical records obtained by his lawyer.

"John Phillips has received my medical records from FMC Fort Worth and my PSA count came back very high for prostate cancer."
"The prison has approved testing to verify what stage it is in. My body is tired, I have lost a tremendous amount of weight, the mouth sores are out of control, I throw up more than I eat."

He continued:

"I don't want anyone's pity, what I need is when John Phillips gets the evidence he is working on, I need the world to help him get President Biden, VP Harris and the Attorney General to listen to the evidence and see that it's not just city cops out of control with corruption, but his very own Department of Justice and make this right and sign that pardon that Trump left behind so I can go home and get proper medical care and proper food."


On Saturday, Exotic said he had appointments scheduled to meet with an oncologist and a urologist, in addition to having a colonoscopy and endoscopy.

Taking to Twitter, Exotic claimed his previous request for clemency from Trump was denied because he was "too innocent and too GAY."

He added:

"I only mattered to Don Jr. when he needed to make a comment about me to boost his social media post."
"Boy were we all stupid to believe he actually stood for Equal Justice? His corrupt friends all come first."

Several people close to Exotic apprised sympathetic fans of the popular Netflix show of Exotic's unfavorable behavior not seen in the series.

Rick Kirkham, who was working on his own documentary featuring Exotic until the footage was mysteriously destroyed in a fire, said the famed zookeeper was "pure evil."

Kirkham told The Daily Beast:

"He enjoyed seeing people and animals hurt. He enjoyed it. He got off on it."

Social media users had plenty to say about Exotic's update from prison.

Some showed compassion...


...while some were less than sympathetic.



Baskin publicly slammed Exotic for the treatment of his animals and won a million-dollar civil judgment against him in 2011.

In response to her winning the civil suit, Baskin received numerous threats from Exotic on various social media platforms starting in 2012.

Five years later, he organized a murder-for-hire plot against Baskin that failed and he subsequently offered to pay someone else $10,000 to kill his outspoken critic.

This time, however, the person he contacted was an undercover FBI agent. 

When Baskin discovered Trump rejected Exotic's plea for clemency, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm taking a deep breath because I feel such a sense of relief. From the very time that he was sentenced, I have worried about there being a presidential pardon that could undo all of the hard work that went into bringing this person to justice," she told Fox News.

She added at the time of Biden's inauguration:

"When today at noon a new President was sworn in, I felt like I was finally safe from that threat."

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