Joe Exotic Is So Desperate To Get Out Of Prison, He's Now Bothering Karoline Leavitt

Joe Exotic really wants to get out of prison. One of the stars of the Netflix documentary "Tiger King," Exotic (whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado) took to social media in hopes of getting press secretary Karoline Leavitt's attention. After Leavitt uploaded a photo to Instagram that was taken at the U.S. Open in New York City in September 2025, Exotic popped up in the comments section with a clear message. "Good times please don't forget about me. The Tiger King conmen all admitted to perjury why am I still in here?" he asked. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Exotic didn't receive the response he had wanted. In fact, he didn't receive any response at all.

The former reality star is currently serving a 21-year sentence for two counts of murder for hire and 17 counts of wildlife-related federal crimes, including violating the Endangered Species Act. In November 2021, he revealed he'd been diagnosed with an "aggressive" form of prostate cancer. "Please don't make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free," he told a judge during his resentencing hearing in 2022, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The court appearance came following Exotic's appeal. His sentence was reduced from 22 years to 21 years, despite his pleas for leniency. In the time since, Exotic has not stopped trying to get himself out of prison. Aside from posting to social media, he's also formally asked not one, but two presidents to issue him a pardon.

After being jailed in 2019, Joe Exotic has spent the past several years trying to receive a presidential pardon. He first asked Donald Trump for a pardon during the POTUS' first term. Then, he asked Joe Biden for a pardon, issuing a statement of sorts after learning that Biden had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden. "You know how many thousands of people — normal taxpaying citizens — that are in federal prison for gun charges and tax evasion charges that don't have the blessing of their daddy being president of the United States in order to keep getting out of trouble?" Exotic said, according to KOCO, an ABC News affiliate in Oklahoma City. 

When Trump took office again in 2025, Exotic decided to try for another pardon. The plea came in May 2025, after his husband was deported to Mexico. "Rough day getting around. The ICE agents didn't understand why he got sent back so fast. He had s hearing scheduled for tomorrow. @realdonaldtrum just let me go to Mexico and you can keep Carole Baskin. I'm exhausted trying to figure out why you won't listen to the evidence [sic]," Exotic wrote on X. 

Exotic is incarcerated at Federal Medical Center Fort Worth in Texas.