“Tiger King” star Joe Unique has taken concern with Donald Trump pardoning lots of of Jan. 6 insurrectionists and ignoring his requires clemency.
The previous zoo owner-turned-reality TV star — whose actual identify is Joseph Allen Maldonado —has been publicly crusading for a launch from jail since his conviction on 19 legal counts in 2020.
At present incarcerated at Federal Medical Middle in Fort Price, Texas, he beforehand used social media as an avenue to plead for a presidential pardon from Trump.
Now serving a 22-year jail stint for hiring a hitman to snuff out rival Carol Baskin, Unique has maintained his innocence and feels he by no means obtained a good shake — evaluating his judicial plight to people who find themselves thought-about precise killers.
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Joe Unique believes he’s deserving of clemency together with Jan. 6 rioters. (Getty)
“Being in prison with the evidence that I have is wrong, especially when they’re releasing people that have murdered people,” he informed Leisure Weekly. “I don’t hold anything against the Jan. 6 people, but some of them people really hurt some police officers and they’re free because they were hostages. Hell, I’m a hostage, I’m a political prisoner in America, and I’m asking President Donald J. Trump to put an end to this and let me go home.”
Shortly after being sworn in because the forty seventh U.S. president, Trump issued 1500-plus pardons to violent rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a number of of whom had been convicted of beating legislation enforcement officers. Greater than 140 cops had been injured throughout the seven-hour siege, resulting in about $2.8 million in damages, CNN reported.
61-year-old Unique grew to become a popular culture phenomenon with the runaway success of the Netflix 2020 true crime collection “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.”
After being beforehand sentenced to 22 years for his function within the murder-for-hire plot in opposition to Baskin, Unique was resentenced by a federal choose to 21 years in jail in Jan. 2022, the choose shaving off only one 12 months regardless of Unique’s request for leniency as he underwent most cancers remedy.
“I plead to President Trump,” he mentioned, including: “I’m not begging, but I’m asking that he take five minutes and look at the evidence.”
Initially Printed: January 27, 2025 at 3:25 PM EST
