Joe Exotic, Who Wants a Trump Pardon, Reacts to Todd & Julie Chrisley News

Amanda Bell May 28, 2025, 10:24 am

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Tiger King Joe Exotic Netflix — Netflix

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Perhaps predictably, Joe Exotic (full name Joseph Maldonado-Passage) is now peeved that Donald Trump issued a pardon for Todd and Julie Chrisley. The Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness star reacted to the news with a lengthy screed shared on his X (formerly Twitter) account.

In a statement shared on the social media site, he wrote, “I have never been more disappointed in my life that President Trump is pardoning all of these people that have actually committed crimes and yet the President leaves me in here as an innocent man even after all the government witnesses admitted to perjury on world television in Season 2 of Tiger King. The government’s ‘so-called’ hitman even took the producers of Tiger King and my lawyer John Phillips to the zoo and showed them where he hid a murder weapon in the woods and told him how they planned to kill me if putting me in prison didn’t work to steal my zoo.”

Breaking news world wide.#News @Telemundo @TelemundoNews @FoxNews @OKCFOX @fox pic.twitter.com/2V42qRJEun

— Joe Exotic (@joe_exotic) May 28, 2025

Joe Exotic was convicted in federal court in 2018 for a murder-for-hire scheme, among other charges, after being accused of hiring a man named Allen Glover to travel to Florida and murder Carole Baskin, a big cat enthusiast who’d been openly critical of Joe Exotic’s tiger park. He was sentenced to 22 years for the crime in 2020 and was re-sentenced to 21 years in prison in 2022. (He’d requested leniency after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.)

The former zoo owner-turned-reality star has been very vocal about his desire for a pardon from Trump over the last few years. In 2021, at the end of Trump’s first term, his lawyers reportedly expected him to be among Trump’s pardonees on his way out of the Oval Office and even booked a stretch limousine to await his exit from the prison. Though Trump said in 2020 he’d consider the case, that pardon did not come. Joe Exotic’s pleas for a pardon have continued in Trump’s second term.

Trump Pardons Todd & Julie Chrisley, Calls Daughter Savannah to Drop News (VIDEO)

His social media reaction to the Chrisleys’ pardons continued with lengthy messages about why he should’ve received a similar presidential pardon, denying the allegations for which he was convicted.

“Donald J. Trump please restore freedom for Joe Exotic so he can go back to doing good in the world,” the message read. “Joe Exotic did not hurt anyone. Joe Exotic did not pay anyone. Joe Exotic had no plans to hurt anyone. Joe Exotic has suffered seven years behind bars being isolated, abused, and treated in ways no American should ever endure. Joe Exotic has no prior criminal record and is not a danger to society.”

He went on to call the criminal case that was successfully lodged against him a case of “entrapment” using informants who were “felons and fraudsters” and claimed that his health was suffering in prison: “He is battling advanced cancer and it’s critical he receives better nutrition and medical care,” the social media message said.

Donald J. Trump please restore freedom for Joe Exotic so he can go back to doing good in the world.

Joe Exotic did not hurt anyone.
Joe Exotic did not pay anyone.
Joe Exotic had no plans to hurt anyone.
Joe Exotic has suffered seven years behind bars being isolated, abused, and…

— Joe Exotic (@joe_exotic) May 27, 2025

Trump’s decision to pardon Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were known for their reality series Chrisley Knows Best, came down on Tuesday (May 27). The two had been serving separate sentences after being convicted of conspiring to defraud banks and tax evasion.

Others who have been pardoned by Trump in the past include those convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich who’d been convicted of corruption charges, and a Virginia sheriff who’d been convicted of accepting bribes.