Joe Exotic Latest Update: 'Tiger King' Star Warns Trump Death In Prison Would 'Haunt' Republicans

Joe Exotic has issued a fresh plea from his Texas prison cell, warning that if he dies behind bars it will 'haunt' Donald Trump and the Republican Party, as the Tiger King star pushes once again for clemency using a glowing letter of support from one of his own correctional officers.

The 62-year-old former zoo owner, real name Joseph Maldonado, is serving a 21-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth after being convicted twice in a murder-for-hire plot targeting his long‑time rival zookeeper Carole Baskin.

Joe Exotic has spent years insisting he was wrongly convicted, even as his notoriety soared with the release of Netflix's Tiger King docuseries. The programme turned a bitter feud between two eccentric big-cat operators into global spectacle, but it did not change the outcome of his federal case.

Jurors found he had tried to arrange Baskin's killing; he maintains that the government's witnesses were criminals who lied to save themselves and claims he deserves either a new trial or what he bluntly calls a 'get out of jail free card'.

Joe Exotic Latest Update Features Prison Guard Endorsement

In a letter obtained by RadarOnline and addressed to Trump and to US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, Keith Jones, identified as the current Recreations Specialist at the Fort Worth facility, urges them to revisit the case and consider Joe Exotic's immediate release.

'I feel that Mr Maldanado and his case need to be revisited,' Jones wrote, using an alternate spelling of the inmate's surname. 'I truly believe it warrants review and consideration for an immediate release.'

Jones, who says he has worked at the Federal Medical Center for 26 years and has never written such an appeal before, went further, describing the case as 'Unique and Unjust' and saying he believed Maldonado had already served enough time for his crime.

Joe Exotic Latest Update: Prison Officer Praises 'Positive Energy'

Jones portrays a very different man from the gun-toting showman who strutted through Tiger King. In his account, Maldonado is a seriously ill prisoner who has nonetheless kept up the morale of those around him.

'Mr Maldanado has had the right and Positive energy despite his situation, and not to mention his chronic medical condition,' he wrote, noting that the inmate continues to walk around the prison yard with his 'head up' despite battling cancer. 'Every time I've had an encounter or conversation w/him it [is] always uplifting.'

Maldonado has previously said he is suffering from both prostate and lung cancer and has told Radar he fears he may not have long left. The Federal Medical Center is designed for inmates with significant health needs, but he portrays it as a place where 'anyone can die', and where his health could simply run out before any legal review catches up.

'I pray with my health issues that I don't,' he said of dying in custody.

His legal position, as described in the piece, has not changed. He maintains that government witnesses against him were themselves involved in fraud, identity theft, bank fraud, sex trafficking and rape, and that their testimony should not have been trusted. Those claims remain unproven in the public record, and no court has accepted them as grounds to overturn the conviction.

Joe Exotic Latest Update: 'It Would Be The Worst Thing For The Republican Party'

With time ticking down, he told Radar, that the 'worst case' scenario is that he is released in October 2030, the point at which he believes he could be freed under his current sentence. For him, that is too late.

'It would be the worst thing for the Republican party for me to die in here,' he argued, claiming that 'millions of people' who watched Tiger King's second season, where he says witnesses 'admitted to perjury', would be furious that Trump had allowed that to happen.

He insists he is not asking for a full pardon and instead wants Trump to commute his sentence to 'time served with no probation', arguing that he needs to travel and work and would 'make you so proud of who all I can help with my platform'.

He also points explicitly to Trump's record of clemency for high‑profile and divisive figures, suggesting his case is no more controversial than others. The article notes that Trump recently commuted disgraced former Republican congressman George Santos and has also ordered the release of reality television couple Todd and Julie Chrisley. Against that backdrop, Maldonado says his patience is running thin.

'Am I disappointed that they all three got out before I did? Who wouldn't be?' he told Radar, before turning his irritation on Santos in particular. He says the pair spoke on a podcast and on the phone before Santos went to prison, and that he expected the former lawmaker to publicly champion his case after experiencing life inside.

'He lived 27 some days in hell. I spent 2 years and 8 months in that hell, and you have the bloody photos,' Maldonado said.

As of this publishing, there is no sign reported that Trump has responded to Jones's letter or to Maldonado's warnings about the political cost of leaving him to die in custody.