The former 'Dancing with the Stars' contestant feels 'such a sense of relief' after the 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness' star missed out Trump's last-minute pardon.
- Jan 22, 2021
AceShowbiz - Carole Baskin is "relieved" "Tiger King" star Joe Exotic missed out on a last-minute pardon from outgoing U.S. president Donald Trump
The former zookeeper, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for a number of offences, including a murder-for-hire plot against his big cat sanctuary rival Baskin.
His lawyers reached out to Trump last year (20) in an effort to secure Exotic's early release, and despite the fact that his name was missing from a long list of people he was pardoning on Tuesday (19Jan21) - his final day in office - his team remained confident that he would be granted one just before Joe Biden was inaugurated as the new President of the United States.
However, a pardon failed to come through for Exotic, with Baskin telling Fox News that she, for one, was happy about that.
"I'm taking a deep breath because I feel such a sense of relief," she said. "From the very time that he was sentenced I have worried about there being a presidential pardon that could undo all of the hard work that went into bringing this person to justice. When today at noon a new president was sworn in, I felt like I was finally safe from that threat."
"He absolutely belongs behind bars."
Exotic also reacted to the snub in a post on his Twitter page, writing, "I was too innocent and too GAY to deserve a Pardon from Trump... Boy were we all stupid to believe he actually stood for Equal Justice? His corrupt friends all come first."
Rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black were among the 143 people Trump issued pardons or sentence commutations to in the final hours of his presidency.
