President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would consider pardoning Joe Exotic, of Tiger King fame. In the world of entertainment, Joe Exotic has been experiencing the heights of his newfound fame since the release of the seven-part Netflix docuseries, which has led all of the Tiger King participants into the global spotlight since its release on March 20. He has been enjoying that fame from inside of a prison, however, as the series showed him being sent away for 22 years for animal abuse and murder for hire charges.
Since the release of the series, Joe Exotic has continued to publicly maintain his innocence and clamor for his release from a Fort Worth prison. The evidence in the docuseries is compelling evidence in favor of his guilt, but he still believes there is a path for him to be sprung from his prison cell. One potential way for him to be freed is through a presidential pardon, an idea Donald Trump Jr. recently joked about during an appearance on a SiriusXM radio show.
Donald Trump has now weighed in on Joe Exotic's prisoner status. A New York Post reporter posed a question to the president during a press briefing on Wednesday evening, although it was a little off-topic, since the briefing was centered around the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, Trump couldn't resist polling the rest of the room about whether or not Tiger King's Joe Exotic should be pardoned, before saying he would "take a look" at the possibility. The moment from the press briefing was captured on video and can be seen below via Caleb Hull:
Joe Exotic has had a rough go of it in prison so far. The Tiger King story seems to be not just exploding in his absence, but also continuing, with another of the series' perceived protagonists, Jeff Lowe, claiming there's another episode on the way. Joe Exotic has had to defend his animal rights record and also swear off pursuing his arch nemesis, Carole Baskin, down the road. Additionally, he has been placed in quarantine within the prison in an attempt to prevent further exposure to the coronavirus, a countrywide issue for packed prisons.
Prisoner pardons likely aren't at the top of the priority list for Donald Trump, not with a global pandemic to slow and an election just a few months away. But thanks to a question from a journalist, Joe Exotic has a place in the mind of the president, increasing the likelihood the Tiger King star goes free one day.
Source: Caleb Hull