Tiger King Joe Exotic pleads for Trump pardon after husband deported

Joe Exotic – star of the 2020 Netflix true crime documentary Tiger King – is publicly pleading for Donald Trump to pardon him from federal prison after his husband was deported to Mexico.

“It’s really past time to have one of your people watch Tiger King Season 2, where they all admitted to perjury and a plot to kill me on world television and let me out,” Exotic, whose name is Joseph Allen Maldonado, wrote late on Sunday on social media to the president whom he has politically supported. “I know that you are not fond of my lifestyle, but I supported you just allow me go to Mexico with my husband.”

Exotic’s husband, Jorge Marquez Flores, had been jailed in Texas over immigration issues. He was released on Friday – but then deported to Mexico.

Referring to members of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Exotic’s post to Trump said, “The Ice agents didn’t understand why he got sent back so fast. He had a hearing scheduled for tomorrow.”

Exotic’s post urged Trump, “Just let me go to Mexico and you can keep Carole Baskin,” with whom Exotic feuded on the Netflix show that vaulted him to fame.

Exotic, 62, is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence in Oklahoma after being convicted in a murder-for-hire plot against Baskin, an activist and big cat rescuer. He was sentenced in January 2020.

He had initially been given 22 years, but the punishment was reduced in 2022 by a year in response to his pleas for leniency as he began early-stage prostate cancer treatment. The cancer reportedly went in remission in July 2022 but had come back earlier this year.

Exotic wed Marquez, 33, in October after the pair met in prison. It was Exotic’s fifth marriage.

He had posted earlier this year on social media that his husband would self-deport and he would go to Mexico if Trump fulfilled Exotic’s pleas for a pardon.

When asked in April 2020 during his first presidency whether he would pardon Exotic, Trump replied: “I’ll take a look.”