'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic on Trump, Biden pardons: 'You forgot me...again'
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(The Hill) – “Tiger King’s” Joe Exotic is knocking President Trump and former President Biden for not issuing him a pardon, saying he’d have a better chance of a commuted sentence if he “broke in the [Capitol]” or was “related to the Bidens.”

“You forgot me…again,” Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado, said via an image directed to Trump and posted on his Instagram account on Tuesday.

“If I was a crack dealer, maybe if I broke in the capital [sic] or even have been related to the Bidens. I might have gotten some relief on being in prison innocent,” the ex-zoo owner said.

In the last minutes of his presidency on Monday, Biden granted blanket pardons to some members of his family.

Later on Monday, in one of his first moves as commander in chief, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 rioters charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. 

“Hell the guy who killed 2 FBI Agents even got [sic] a pardon today,” Exotic said, apparently a reference to Biden commuting the life sentence of Native American activist Leonard Peltier on Monday. 

“I can’t even get a new trial based on admitted perjury testimony,” he added. 

Exotic has long been attempting to obtain a pardon from Biden and Trump, dating back to the 47th president’s first term in office.

In 2020, Trump said he would “take a look” at the case, in response to a question from a journalist. 

The 61-year-old “Tiger King” star has been serving a 22-year federal prison sentence since 2020 for his role in a murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin, who also appeared in the Netflix documentary series. In 2022, a federal judge resentenced Exotic to 21 years in prison. 

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