Joe Exotic "The Tiger King" Writes to Santos and the SSP

From: MALDONADO-PASSAGE JOSEPH (26154017)

Sent Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2025, 4:08 p.m.

Subject: Letter

October 29, 2025

George Santos:

Congratulations on getting back to the free world. We had spent some time talking before you went to prison, and at that time I might have seemed like I was just another convict complaining about being abused or treated as less than human while being here. Now that you have lived, even for a short time, through the hell I’ve lived for the last eight years, would you please think of me more as a human being than a TV figure or a meme and help be my voice?

I have never been perfect, but I tried damn hard to help people in everything I ever did. I have never hurt or cheated anyone in my life. The only thing I am guilty of is having a big mouth, and some things I said on my podcast I probably should not have said. But back then, freedom of speech was just that—freedom of speech.

I have learned one thing through all of this: In America, you can never say anything like, “I would kill for a cigarette” or “I would kill for a hamburger,” because someone is going to take that out of context and put you in prison.

I have now served eight years of a sentence that is already one year longer than the man who went to a Supreme Court justice’s house intending to kill him. He was sentenced to seven years, and I got 22 years for something that all of the government witnesses admitted they made up. But what confuses me the most is they not only admitted that on national television, they admitted and showed the world how they intended to kill me while I was running for governor in Oklahoma. Yet they walk free, and the Department of Justice leaves me to rot in prison with cancer and a deadly immune disease.

All I am asking is for you to take one hour of your life and look at the confessions, the report of FBI misconduct, and the evidence that was kept from me during my trial that proves I did not hire someone to kill Carole Baskin. Then be my voice to help me receive the second chance you have received.

Did I put five tigers to sleep? Yes, I did. I did it the way my veterinary protocol and USDA inspectors told me to. I was following the guidance of the federal agency that licensed me to operate a zoo. Did I know that someone with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was allegedly working with Carole Baskin to build a case against me and send me to prison by claiming I needed a permit to euthanize those animals? No. In 23 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service never once came to my zoo and asked how many tigers I had, how many were born each year, how many died, or where their bodies were until it came time to shut me down and put me in prison. To this day, you can ask Al if any person in America who has euthanized a tiger or lion since 2016 has been required to obtain a permit. You will find that not one person has, yet I remain in prison because of it.

God has given me the strength to make it this far, and I pray that you will help me make it out of here based on the evidence alone. My parents died while I was in prison. I was not allowed to attend their funerals. I lost everything. My house has been destroyed, and everything I worked for is gone.

The only thing I have left is my husband, Jorge, who is out there struggling without me. I just want a chance to give him the life he deserves and, together, use my platform to advocate for underprivileged children and orphaned elephants in the wild.

But the one thing I dream of is for you and me to testify before Congress about how we treat human beings in solitary confinement in this country. The hell you and I have lived through must help the tens of thousands of people in this country who are still living it every day.

Sincerely,

Joseph Maldonado

#26154017

aka Joe Exotic

pardonjoeexotic.com