Facebook posts
Facebook posts
stated on January 20, 2021 in a Facebook post:
False

No, Joe Exotic wasn’t pardoned

If your time is short

  • Joe Exotic wasn’t pardoned by President Donald Trump.
 
See the sources for this fact-check

Before Inauguration Day, a limousine was parked outside the office of the lawyer for Joseph Maldonado-Passage, the animal keeper known as Joe Exotic. The luxe ride was on standby to transport Exotic from federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, where he’s serving a sentence for animal abuse and murder for hire. Exotic, who became widely known to Americans as the subject of the Netflix documentary “Tiger King”, was hopeful that then-President Donald Trump would pardon him before he left office. 

Exotic’s team was so confident he would be released that a hairdresser was waiting in the limo to style his hair before he was seen by the public

Some social media posts declared that it was a done deal. 

“Joe Exotic is being pardoned,” one Jan. 20 post said

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Exotic was not among the 74 people that Trump pardoned, however. 

“I was too innocent and too GAY to deserve a Prdon from Trump,” read a tweet from Exotic’s account after President Joe Biden was sworn into office. “Boy were we all stupid to believe he actually stood for Equal Justice? His corrupt friends all come first.”

We rate claims that he was pardoned False.

 

No, Joe Exotic wasn’t pardoned

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
stated on January 7, 2026 a press briefing

stated on January 14, 2026 a statement

Social Media
stated on February 14, 2026 social media posts



stated on January 20, 2026 an op-ed


Donald Trump
stated on February 3, 2026 remarks in the Oval Office


Social Media
stated on February 8, 2026 social media posts





Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
stated on stated on November 17, 2025 in remarks at George Washington University:

Donald Trump
stated on February 2, 2026 an interview with Dan Bongino