Read Joe Exotic’s Desperate Letter Pleading for Trump to Help Mexican Jail Fiancé Jorge: 'All Immigrants Aren’t Bad People'
In the letter, Joe claimed he is innocent.
Nov. 11 2024, Published 11:08 a.m. ET
Caged Tiger King Joe Exotic has written an impassioned plea to Donald Trump to pardon his Mexican illegal immigrant lover so they can marry behind bars and start a new life together in the USA.
Joe, real name Joseph Maldonado, has fallen in love with Jorge Marquez Flores, 33, behind the razorwire of FMC Fort Worth, Texas, RadarOnline can reveal.
But 61-year-old Joe, who could win his freedom next year after new evidence in his murder-for-hire case surfaced, is concerned that fiance Flores could be deported back to Mexico when his sentence ends in mid-2025.
Exotic has written an impassioned plea to Trump to pardon his Mexican illegal immigrant lover.
Flores, 33, of Mexico, was jailed for being an illegal alien and being in a car with other illegal people from Mexico.
In a letter written by Exotic before the election result and handed to us, he addressed both Trump and current President Joe Biden, saying: "Jorge needs help from either Biden or whoever wins on November 5th, 2024.
"President Biden has the means and the power to pardon Jorge and grant him asylum before he leaves office, and if Harris wins, she will have the same power to provide the help Jorge needs to stay in America and build a life with Joe Exotic.
"Now, if Trump wins, what then? It might be the best scenario if Trump wins because, one, Jorge has no drug problem or record of doing anything wrong other than coming to America to escape the abuse.
The 'Tiger King' star is still fighting to receive a pardon while serving his 21-year sentence.
"However, Trump needs to realize that not all immigrants are bad people. In fact, Melania Trump was an immigrant from Slovenia and was not an American citizen until a year after getting married to Donald Trump."
Exotic wrote that he hoped Trump "will instill some empathy" in the fact that he and Flores "might deserve the same chance to make a life in America together". If not, Extotic was "ready to go to Mexico and live out his life with Jorge".
"Living in America and being kept in federal prison when the Department of Justice has the evidence that I am innocent doesn't give me much of a bright outlook for this country anyway," he wrote.
"I wish someone who is President or wins the Presidency would do the right thing and pardon me so I could move past this nightmare that my own country has caused me for the last seven years of my life."
Joe Exotic, real name Joseph Allen Maldonado, believes he can still have successful career even if he's considered a 'felon' the rest of his life.
Revealing his new love last month, Exotic said on X: "Meet Jorge Marquez he is 33. He is so amazing and is from Mexico. Now, the quest of getting married in prison and getting him asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out. Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago."
Exotic rose to fame on the hit Netflix documentary series Tiger King, which followed the rivalry between his zoo and a big cat sanctuary run by Carole Baskin.
He is serving a 21-year prison sentence after trying to hire two different men to kill Baskin, who had accused him of treating his animals poorly.
Maldonado was convicted for a murder-to-hire plot against animal rights activist, and his rival, Carole Baskin.
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Prosecutors said Exotic had offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill his rival, telling them: "Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off."
Exotic has always denied the accusations, and his lawyers said he was not being serious.
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