Joe Exotic, one of the people featured in Netflix's Tiger King, asked Kim Kardashian in a letter if she would help him attain a presidential pardon. Exotic is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for conspiring to kill Carol Baskin, another participant in the docuseries, among other charges. Tiger King lit up the internet earlier this year when it premiered on Netflix in the early days of coronavirus lockdowns. The show has since spurred multiple projects based on the series.
Kardashian has made her love for the show known. The reality star dressed up as people from Tiger King the show for Halloween, and she also tweeted about the show when it premiered. Kardashian has also dabbled in criminal justice reform. Controversy erupted when the star revealed she had been working with Donald Trump to reform America's criminal justice system. She has also worked to attain pardons in several cases.
According to ET Canada, they've obtained a letter that Exotic wrote to Kardashian. In the letter, Exotic asks for her help in getting him a presidential pardon before the end of Trump's term. Exotic is currently incarcerated in Fort Worth, Texas. He hopes that the letter will reach Kardashian, and she will use her previous connections with Trump to attain a pardon. Read an excerpt from the letter below:
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. 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.
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. No one even has to know you did it.
Kardashian caught a lot of flak for being willing to work with Trump, but the relationship did lead to several pardons. It is typical for an outgoing president to issue a slew of pardons at the conclusion of his term, and with Trump on the way out the door, more are expected to come. While Kardashian has yet to publicly respond to the letter, it's likely she received it. If not, she's sure to hear about it now.
If Trump did choose to pardon Exotic at the behest of Kardashian, the move would put the cherry on top of what has already been an unimaginably insane year. It would also be a bit of reality television insanity playing out in real life. All three figures were or are attached to major reality television shows. President-elect Joe Biden is unlikely to pardon a figure like Exotic, so Trump could be his last shot at a pardon or at least a commutation. The Tiger King star has been outspoken from prison about the effect the show has had on his reputation, and it looks like that won't be ending anytime soon.
Source: ET Canada