The Internet Is Obsessed With Joe Exotic Potentially Getting A Presidential Pardon From Donald Trump

'If Joe Exotic gets a presidential pardon, I will be fully convinced this year is a social experiment or computer simulation.'

Updated on2nd December 2020 at 1.29pm

Since Tiger King took over our TVs last Spring – yes, I know it feels like a 2018 fever dream but we were actually introduced to Joe Exotic and Carol Baskin’s feud just eight months ago – the internet has been obsessed with Joe Exotic’s 22-year prison sentence for his role in a murder-for-hire plot and animal abuse.

Now, the man convicted of two counts of hiring someone to murder Carole Baskin (and eight counts of falsifying wildlife records plus nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act by killing five tigers and for selling tigers across state lines, just FYI) could potentially receive a presidential pardon from Donald Trump – that’s if his lawyers have anything to do with it.

According to ABC News, Exotic’s lawyers have increased petitions to the president for a pardon of his conviction after Trump pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn last week. Allies and lawyers are now campaigning for his attention to other cases hoping he will pardon a number of people before leaving the White House on the 20th January.

‘We've heard from the Tiger King,’ a White House source told ABC News. ‘You wouldn't believe the amount of calls, some insane, we've gotten.’ According to the New York Post, as well as direct appeals to Trump and Jared Kushner, representatives of Exotic have been trying to get the presidents attention through Fox TV appearances and even racking up a $10,000 (£7,500) bill at the Trump International Hotel in Washington.

‘We are waiting on the pen to hit the paper, we think we are very, very close,’ Eric Love, an attorney for Joe Exotic, also told them about a potential presidential pardon.

Back in April, Trump didn’t seem particularly impressed by Exotic in an interview with the New York Post. He referred to Exotic as a ‘strange guy’ but said ‘I’ll look into it’ when asked about his potential pardon. Of course, Twitter can’t quite seem to handle that the absolute chaos of Joe Exotic potentially leaving prison at the hands of Donald Trump.

‘If Joe Exotic gets a presidential pardon, I will be fully convinced this year is a social experiment or computer simulation,’ one Twitter user tweeted to 10,000 likes. And the commentary doesn’t stop there…