Caged Tiger King Joe Exotic plans to officially claw his way into the 2024 Presidential race, RadarOnline.com can exclusively report.
In a handwritten letter from a federal penitentiary in Texas, where he is serving 22 years in a murder-for-hire plot to eliminate his archenemy Carole Baskin, the Netflix star told this outlet that he’s on a mission to clear his name.
“I will be announcing that I am running for President for 2024 in the next couple of weeks,” Joe, aka Joseph Maldonado, wrote in the one-page letter obtained by RadarOnline.com.
“It has only been done 3 times from federal prison,” he added. “I will make the world listen to the evidence that the DOJ (Department of Justice) is corrupt….My federal election papers will be (filed) next week to make it official.”
Ever since his 2019 conviction, which also included eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act, Joe has maintained an active social media campaign calling his incarceration “bogus.”
RadarOnline.com can confirm Exotic was later resentenced to 21 years as he began treatment for early-stage cancer. He charges the convictions were based on “false testimony” and “suppressed evidence.”
The brash gun-toting tiger man recently made headlines when he ripped into Baskin’s claim that her long-missing husband Don Lewis is “alive and well” in Costa Rica based on an already discounted 1998 U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigative report she made public.
“Don Lewis is NOT alive, I have her original diary and trust me she hated him so bad she could not kill him fast enough,” said the 59-year-old reality star told RadarOnline.com.
“When this story came out, I said I would voluntarily move to death row if he was alive and it made world headlines,” he added. “I investigated her so much I am 100% sure she, her father who is now passed away and …. killed Don Lewis and ground him up.”
Baskin, 61, created a media firestorm on January 18, 2023, when she rediscovered Homeland Security investigative report claiming her ex, who vanished in 1997 and was declared legally dead in 2002, was spotted in the Central American country.
As RadarOnline.com reported, her claim was immediately shot down by Tampa’s Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, who said the case was active.
It is unknown if Joe Exotic plans to use his presidential powers, if elected, to go after Baskin, but based on his past bids for the White House, his chances look pretty slim. He only obtained 962 votes nationwide during his 2016 run, and in 2018 received only 664 votes when he tried to become Governor of Oklahoma – his home state.
Joe Exotic will become the fourth person in the country to run a presidential campaign from federal prison.
He joins the ranks of Labor Leader Eugene V. Debs, who lost the 1920 election while serving 10 years for violating the Espionage Act after delivering an antiwar speech, Leftist Lyndon LaRouche, who was serving five years for fraud when he ran in 1992, and Keith Judd aka “Dark Priest,” who was serving 17 years for extortion when he tried to become the Democratic candidate in 2008, 2012, and 2016.