Donald Trump's chief of staff nixed pardon talk for Joe Exotic, new book reveals

Months after President Donald Trump promised to "look into" pardoning Joe Exotic, the Tiger King came up again in a flight to Iowa on Air Force One, according to a quirky new book.

Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, quickly nixed any further talk of a pardon, a former White House deputy press secretary reveals.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like something we ought to be involved in," Meadows is quoted as saying after being told the Oklahoma zookeeper was convicted of a murder-for-hire scheme.

The book, "Vignettes & Vino: Dinner Table Stories from the Trump White House with Recipes & Cocktail Pairings," was released Tuesday. The former deputy press secretary, Brian Morgenstern, wrote it with his wife.

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Trump had been asked in April 2020 during a press briefing about the pandemic if he had any thoughts about pardoning Joe Exotic.

"I'll take a look," he said in the one-minute, lighthearted exchange with a reporter for the New York Post.

"What did he do?" Trump asked during the exchange that came shortly after a Netflix documentary series made Joe Exotic a pop-culture phenomenon.

Morgenstern wrote that he and Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, were discussing on an August 2020 flight what would happen if they tweeted a tiger emoji with no other commentary. He wrote that Trump started to pay attention to the conversation, and Meadows asked what it was all about.

"Thinking back on it ... it wasn't under any sort of serious consideration," he wrote.

Joe Exotic was convicted at trial in 2019 of hiring two men to kill his chief critic, Carole Baskin, and of crimes involving his animals. He originally was sentenced in 2020 to 22 years in federal prison. He claims he was set up.

The Netflix docuseries "Tiger King: Murder Mayhem and Madness," made him a household name at the start of the pandemic. His popularity has plummeted over the last year. He was resentenced this year to 21 years in prison after winning an appeal of his punishment. He is appealing his punishment again.

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The Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper, wrote about the book in August. In September, Joe Exotic tweeted: "I was this close to a pardon and @MarkMeadows cost me my freedom?"

Joe Exotic was born Joseph Allen Schreibvogel, but his name has changed over the years depending on his marital status. He is now going by the name Joseph Maldonado. He is 59.

He criticized Trump last year for not pardoning him. "I was too innocent and too GAY to deserve a Pardon from Trump," he said. "Boy were we all stupid to believe he actually stood for Equal Justice? His corrupt friends all come first."

He is now asking President Joe Biden to pardon him. "I pray for one miracle this Holiday season," he wrote Saturday.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Trump's chief of staff nixed Tiger King pardon talk, new book reveals