Carole Baskin is "thankful" that former President Donald Trump did not grant Joe Exotic a pardon. Exotic's legal team was pressing Trump to grant the Tiger King star a presidential pardon for nearly a year. Exotic himself handwrote a letter to Kim Kardashian, pleading with her to talk to the former president about getting him out of prison. Exotic is currently serving a 22-year sentence for an attempted murder for hire plot to kill his nemesis, Big Cat Rescue CEO Baskin. He was also charged with federal charges of animal abuse.
In new interview, Carole Baskin says she is "thankful" that Donald Trump did not pardon Joe Exotic. "If I understand the notice I got from the prison system, he's already gotten another month added to his sentence by not obeying prison rules," she revealed. Baskin added, "If Joe really had a change of heart, he could do what Mario Tabraue did to lessen his 100 year drug trafficking conviction to 12 years by turning state's evidence against the other animal exploiters."
As for Joe Exotic, he is reportedly disappointed in Donald Trump for not pardoning him. Team Tiger's organizer, Eric Love, says "We are as disappointed that the President did not sign Joe's pardon, as we were confident yesterday that he would." Love and his team were persistent on getting their information to Trump, which included a 257-page document, detailing everything that that Tiger King star is going through in prison, which allegedly includes sexual abuse. In the end, Trump didn't have room on his 143-person roster of pardons for Exotic. Rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black were able to make the list.
Eric Love was so confident that Tiger King was going to receive a pardon that he had a stretch limo parked and ready to go. Love and the Team Tiger crew even had the hair and makeup ready to roll for an official press conference. "We have it queued up and ready to go. As soon as we get the word, we're going to execute that video to the White House and thank them," Love said yesterday. However, things didn't work out for Exotic and Team Tiger. "It is the President's Constitutional right to Pardon and we have to accept and respect his use of discretion. Our mission is just and continues," Exotic's lawyer, Francisco Hernandez said.
Former President Donald Trump previously said he would "look into" Joe Exotic's pardon after admitting he had not heard of Netflix's Tiger King. Carole Baskin says, "I think only Joe's team and the media were ever even thinking about a pardon for Joe." In the end, she believes that all of the pardon talk was to take away from the animal abuse charges. "Tigers are the world's favorite animal and Joe Schreibvogel Maldonado Passage is right where he belongs: in a cage." TMZ was one of the first outlets to report on Trump ignoring Joe Exotic's pardon request.