In April 2022, back when the world finally seemed to be on the brink of emerging from the COVID pandemic only to face a new geopolitical crisis with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a brief but consequential meeting took place at a political event in Florida.
Pensacola-based attorney Autumn Beck Blackledge approached then-Rep. Matt Gaetz with a “very, very important question” from one of her clients, Tiger King star Joe Exotic, who in 2019 was convicted of 17 counts of animal abuse and attempted murder for hire.
“If you do decide to run for president, would you please consider him as one of your running mates?” Blackledge said.
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“I would pardon him,” Gaetz said, as Blackledge laughed and high-fived him. “That is the extent of the commitment I can make.”
Now, more than two years later, Gaetz—who has been investigated for paying for sex, trafficking teenage girls, and abusing illegal drugs, all of which he denies—is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, the nation’s top law enforcement officer. And Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado, is seriously asking him for a pardon.
After congratulating Gaetz on his nomination and saying there was no one better for the job, Maldonado—who was sentenced to 21 years in prison—wrote that he was being held as a political prisoner and had lost “everything,” including his home, business and 55 years of “hard work.”
“You will have the power to correct this or at least recommend to President Trump to correct this in January of 2025,” Maldonado wrote Monday in a statement addressed to the former congressman.
Gaetz has been one of his strongest supporters for a pardon, along with Rep. Lauren Boebert and Senator Marco Rubio, he added.
Maldonado also repeated his request to become Trump’s director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Maldonado ran exotic animal parks in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and was convicted of falsifying wildlife records, killing five tigers, and illegally selling them across state lines—not to mention trying to have rival animal park owner Carole Baskin killed.
A week ago, the idea of putting a convicted animal abuser in charge of managing national wildlife refuges and protecting endangered species seemed like a bizarre joke.
Now, as Republican lawmakers attempt to suppress a damning congressional report about Gaetz’s alleged misconduct in order to ram through his nomination for attorney general, who even knows anymore.
