Joe Exotic, who rose to fame after starring in the Netflix series Tiger King, called out the Trump administration on Tuesday over the president’s pardon of Todd and Julie Chrisley.
“This officially shows the Justice system is still two sided. You are either rich and connected or your poor and being trafficked by the system,” Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, posted on X.
On Tuesday, a White House special assistant posted a video on X of Trump notifying the Chrisleys’ daughter Savannah that her parents were receiving the pardon for their conviction of tax evasion and bank fraud. Maldonado-Passage then took to Instagram, posting a screenshot of an article written about the pardon and calling out the justice system for his conviction of hiring two people to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin.
He wrote in another post on X about the weight of the Chrisleys having admitted to their crimes, as well as the amount of evidence in general.
“I guess being innocent is not enough in America,” Maldonado-Passage said.
Maldonado-Passage later took to X to list out beliefs he has about himself and his conviction. He said that he never hurt or hired anyone and that his conviction was due to a conspiracy within the justice system.
“Joe Exotic has suffered seven years behind bars being isolated, abused, and treated in ways no American should ever endure. Joe Exotic has no prior criminal record and is not a danger to society,” the post said.
The Chrisleys were the stars of the reality TV show Chrisley Knows Best from 2014 to 2023. The millionaire family has been appealing their case ever since their conviction in 2022, but it has been upheld in the meantime. Savannah Chrisley spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention about her parents’ ordeal, calling it political persecution.
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Maldonado-Passage, who has had prostate cancer since 2021, has been calling for his own pardon since Trump’s first time in office and requested that former President Joe Biden offer him clemency when he was offering his end-of-term pardons. He was first sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2020, then got 21 years in a new sentencing in 2022.
Earlier in May, Maldonado-Passage’s husband, Jorge Flores Maldonado, whom he met while the two were both incarcerated, was deported to Mexico. Maldonado-Passage had been posting consistently on social media in posts directed at Trump, saying that he would go with his husband to Mexico if the pardon was granted to him.