Joe Exotic’s team has limo, beauty crew ready for presidential pardon
By Lee Brown - New York Post
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Joe Exotic’s legal team is so confident the “Tiger King” star will get a pardon from President Trump on Tuesday that they have a limo parked near his prison — and hair and makeup at the ready.
“This time tomorrow, we’re going to be celebrating,” Eric Love, who is leading Exotic’s bid for freedom, told Metro.co.uk in an interview Monday afternoon.
“We have good reason to believe it will come through,” he said of a presidential pardon for the Netflix star, who is serving 22 years for trying to hire a hitman to kill zookeeper rival Carole Baskin.
“We’re confident enough we already have a limousine parked about half a mile from the prison. We are really in action mode right now,” he said of a stretch limo near the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth in Texas.
Once word of a pardon comes through, the driver will pick up the legal team as well as a team for the flamboyant star’s hair, makeup and wardrobe, Love told The Sun in a separate interview.
“We are not going to have any cameras with us. It’s going to be a very private moment,” Love said — but purely because Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, wants to be glammed up first.
“Joe is a very flamboyant person — Joe is a colorful personality. And if you look at someone when they’ve been incarcerated, they don’t look like that when they’re coming out,” Love told The Sun.
“So Joe’s got to have that platinum done, and well that’s what we got — hair, wardrobe and makeup. We’ve got the best in the business,” he said.
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Telling Metro that the “Tiger King” star’s hair was “the first order of business,” Love said they would then “probably go and get some pizzas, steak, maybe a McRib.” They then plan to house him in a ranch just outside of Fort Worth.
Love said they believe Trump will issue the high-profile pardon in part to “take most of the limelight away from president-elect Joe Biden” — and said they already have a thank you video recorded.
“We have it queued up and ready to go,” Love told Metro. “As soon as we get the word, we’re going to execute that video to the White House and thank them.”
Maldonado-Passage is a year into his sentence.
Trump previously said he will “take a look” at the pardon request.
Joe Exotic fails to receive pardon from Trump as team waits with limo for his release
Zac Ntim - Insider
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The "Tiger King" star Joe Exotic failed to secure a pardon as part of a clemency list released in President Donald Trump's final hours in office.
Just a day earlier, the 57-year-old's legal team told the British publication Metro that it was so confident the former zookeeper would receive a pardon that it had a limo waiting near his prison in Texas to take him home.
Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is serving a 22-year prison sentence after being convicted of plotting to murder his "Tiger King" rival Carole Baskin, as well as several counts of animal abuse.
Trump issued more than 140 pardons and commutations late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning as one of his final acts as president. The list of recipients included the rapper Lil Wayne, who received a pardon; the rapper Kodak Black, whose sentence was commuted; and Trump's former advisor Steve Bannon, who received a pardon.
Eric Love, the private investigator who is leading Maldonado-Passage's legal team, appeared to still have hope that an even-later pardon would be announced — Trump's term lasts until noon Wednesday. On Tuesday night, Love tweeted: "We are still waiting on the pardon."
On Monday, Love had told Metro: "This time tomorrow, we're going to be celebrating. We have good reason to believe it will come through. We're confident enough we already have a limousine parked about half a mile from the prison. We are really in action mode right now."
He continued: "I've got makeup, wardrobe, the whole unit that will come up. The first thing Joe wants to do he wants his hair done. He hasn't had his hair done in 2 1/2 years. That's the first order of business. Then we'll probably go and get some pizzas, steak, maybe a McRib."
In response to the possibility of a pardon, Baskin, who assumed control of Maldonado-Passage's old zoo in Oklahoma when he was convicted, told Insider via an email statement: "There is no benefit, other than a feeble attempt to deflect attention, for anyone to pardon someone who walked up to five tigers and shot them in the head in order to clear cage space for the circus, who was going to pay him to board their tigers during the off season."
She added: "Tigers are the world's favorite animal and Joe Schreibvogel Maldonado Passage is right where he belongs."
Editor's note: This article was updated Wednesday morning to reflect Joe Exotic's omission from President Donald Trump's latest clemency list.
Joe Exotic: I’m ‘too innocent and too gay’ for a Trump pardon
by Jacquelyn Gray - Crime Online
“Tiger King” breakout star Joe Exotic is speaking out after President Donald Trump declined to pardon him before leaving office.
Exotic, 57, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, tweeted that his sexual orientation and indisputable innocence resulted in him being excluded from the list of last-minute pardons. Exotic is serving a 22-year federal prison sentence in Texas for his role in a murder-for-hire plot against his rival, Carole Baskin, 59. He was also convicted of wildlife violations.
The “Tiger King” star also accused Donald Trump Jr. of calling attention to his case to boost his social media presence. The former president’s son told a SiriusXM radio show in April that Exotic’s prison sentence was “aggressive,” according to The Los Angeles Times.
Exotic applied for a pardon in September. Reports indicated that he had a limo and glam squad on standby in case he was released on Wednesday. However, he tweeted that he did not rent them nor were they his idea.
Before Wednesday’s announcement, Exotic’s legal team reportedly said they were “very confident” the jailed star would be pardoned. Rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black were among Trump’s list of last-minute pardons.
During the popular Netflix series, Exotic accused Baskin of being involved in the 1997 disappearance of her husband, Don Lewis, who was last seen leaving their home in Tampa, Florida.
Baskin has repeatedly denied involvement in her husband’s disappearance. Hillsborough County police have said Baskin is not considered a suspect.
