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Joe Exotic's Legal Team Traveling to Washington, DC, for 'High Level' Meeting

Earlier this month, the 57-year-old penned a letter to Kim Kardashian West, pleading for the American socialite to use her passion for social justice and connections with US President Donald Trump to obtain a pardon from the outgoing administration.
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TMZ reported Thursday that Eric Love, who heads Joe Exotic's legal team, will be taking a private jet from Ft. Worth, Texas, to Washington, DC, for a "high level" meeting tied to their ongoing pardon petition. 

According to the source, Joe Exotic's legal team's meeting will coincide with Congress' January 6 joint session, where bipartisan representatives from both legislative chambers will perform an official, out-loud count of the Electoral College votes from the presidential election.

While the US president unveiled 26 pardons on December 26, the report details "there's a buzz in DC" that Trump may announce additional presidential pardons on January 6 as a distraction from the vote. 

Exotic - real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage - rose to fame earlier this year due to the Netflix miniseries "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness." 

The series debuted on March 10, around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, and quickly became the quarantine obsession of many Americans, including Kardashian West. 

After seeing Kardashian West and friend Jonathan Cheban's "Tiger King"-themed Halloween costumes, the 56-year-old wrote to the socialite, attempting to see if she could use her connections with the US president to negotiate a pardon similar to that of Alice Marie Johnson - a 65-year-old great-grandmother who was granted clemency after serving 22 years in federal prison for a first-time drug offense.

"I know you have never met me and may never want to however I do believe that you hold the values of our justice system dear to your heart ... Please help me by just taking 10 minutes out of your life and placing a call to President Trump to look at my 257-page pardon," he pleaded. 

The 56-year-old is currently serving out a 22 year sentence after a federal jury convicted him of two counts of murder-for-hire, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act. 

Prior to incarceration, Exotic was a vocal supporter of Trump and even paid $1,000 for a meet-and-greet at a Trump campaign site outside Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, according to TMZ.

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