Tiger King Joe Exotic’s husband reveals jailed star’s legal team are seeking a Presidential pardon

Tiger King Joe Exotic’s husband Dillon Passage has revealed the jailed star’s legal team are seeking a Presidential pardon from Donald Trump.

The former zoo owner, 57, is currently serving a 22-year sentence after being found guilty of animal abuse charges and a murder-for-hire plot against his exotic animal rival Carole Baskin in January. 

During an appearance on Good Morning Britain with Adil Ray and Ranvir Singh on Wednesday, the reality star, 23, insisted ‘a lot of things will come to light’ in support of his partner’s case.

A pardon is the decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal punishments of a criminal conviction. 

On his spouse’s request, the media personality explained: ‘So the pardon, Joe’s legal team are sending out the requests for it next week or the week after. They are driving a car all the way to DC to deliver it in person.’

‘We all know the situation, the people who are actually in Joe’s life. We know he was confronted with this plot to take out Carol. 

‘He was put in this position where he was already in a really depressed mental state and that was kind of taken advantage of by someone he thought he could trust.’

The supportive TV star went on to detail Joe’s plan B if the pardon doesn’t go ahead: ‘There is loads of evidence that proves it, that was not used in the court case, that was thrown out by the judge. 

‘There was another agenda by multiple little corporations in the animal world working against Joe… a lot of people were trying to keep him out of the business and a lot of it is going to come to light during this pardon. 

‘And if not the pardon, if it’s rejected, the appeals process is really going to show the world exactly the situation that has happened.’

Dillon, who revealed filming for series two of the Netflix hit has kicked off, shared his experience of being on TV as well as his new-found fame.

He said: ‘Originally the producers had told us this show would be about the big cat underworld, but then Joe got arrested and the whole thing changed. 

‘But even then when the show first dropped the producers Eric [Goode] and Rebecca [Chaiklin], they had no idea it was going to be so big, so they were kind of shocked by how popular it was around the world.

‘At first it was super overwhelming, there were a lot of eyes on my life. A lot of people were super curious about what I was doing and life with Joe… now it’s kind of normal. I still get recognised when I’m out and about. It’s still weird to me…’ 

The University of Texas alum was later asked whether he agrees with people who believe keeping big cats in enclosures is cruel.

Dillon responded: ‘I can agree with them, it definitely is… [but] in my opinion, the only way to keep a species alive is to breed in captivity and once they are bred into captivity they can never be released back into the wild, because their natural instinct has kind of subsided by being in captivity.’  

On where the animals at Joe’s zoo were now, he revealed the owner who took on the attraction after Joe was jailed, Jeff Lowe, had now left.

Dillon explained: ‘Jeff Lowe … now he’s back in Vegas, in Nevada… The zoo has officially been closed down, Carol Baskin owns the zoo. Jeff had to find a way to move all the animals and honestly I have no idea where they have gone.’ 

The series, which was watched by 64million households, follows the Oklahoma zookeeper and his battle with Carole, 59, who accuses him of mistreating animals. 

On the upcoming edition, he added: ‘I do not know the release date but It’s going to be very interesting because it will tell a little bit of Joe’s arrest and afterwards.’