‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic was jailed for trying to have an animal rights activist murdered. (Netflix)
Representatives for Joe Exotic reportedly ran up a $10,000 bill at one of Donald Trump’s hotels, as part of a campaign to persuade the president to pardon him.
Joe Exotic and his representatives have been running an extensive campaign to get Donald Trump to pardon the Tiger King star.
Exotic was convicted in 2019 on two counts of murder-for-hire for plotting to kill his nemesis and Big Cat Rescue owner Carole Baskin, as well as eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act.
He was sentenced to 22 years in prison on 22 January last year.
According to his representative Eric Love, Exotic’s legal team has been corresponding with officials in Washington DC in connection with arranging a pardon from Trump.
His representatives have been chasing a pardon since April, 2020, when in a coronavirus briefing Trump suggested that he would “take a look” into the Oklahoma zoo owner’s case.
But part of their campaign for a pardon also included spending thousands of dollars in a Trump-owned hotel in an attempt to get the president’s attention, according to the New York Times.
An anonymous organiser told the publication that Exotic’s team had spent around $10,000 during a visit to the Trump International Hotel in Washington.
This month, Republican Florida congressman Matt Gaetz appeared on Fox News to say that he thinks Trump should pardon Exotic, as well as himself, before he leaves office in January.
Gaetz suggested the president should self-pardon to combat “radical left bloodlust”, and added: “President Trump should pardon Michael Flynn, he should pardon the Thanksgiving turkey, he should pardon everyone, from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic if he has to.”
He continued: “Because you see from the radical left a bloodlust that will only be quenched if they come after the people who worked so hard to animate the Trump administration with the policies and the vigour and the effectiveness that delivered for the American people, so I think the president ought to wield that pardon power effectively and robustly.”