Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines for September 9
Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. Check out what's clicking today in entertainment.
Personal letters from "Tiger King" star Joe Exotic to President Trump have been revealed after the star requested a presidential pardon.
Exotic -- born Joseph Maldonado-Passage -- is currently serving a 22-year prison term after being found guilty of participating in a murder-for-hire plot against his rival, Carole Baskin.
It was reported this week that Maldonado-Passage and his attorneys have formally requested a pardon from the White House, and now, Yahoo! News has obtained part of the submitted documents: Letters written by the reality star addressing the president.
'TIGER KING' STAR JOE EXOTIC RELEASED FROM SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AFTER MONTHS IN CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN
"If I have ever looked up to anyone it would be you," Maldonado-Passage writes in the first of two letters, "not because I need you to save my life but because you stand for what you believe no matter what anyone thinks."
Joseph Maldonado-Passage is currently serving 22 years after being found guilty of participating in a murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin. (Santa Rosa County Jail via AP)
He continues to offer praise for Trump, stating the president's political passions are what inspired him to run as an independent candidate in the 2016 election, though he admitted to voting for Trump in the end anyway.
"My parents and my life and everything we ever worked for was stolen by criminals who got everything we had for nothing," the former zoo owner continues, noting that his mother has since died and his father is "God knows where, locked in a nursing home."
Maldonado-Passage, 57, says he "was ashamed of our country" after his trial, in which he claims to have seen several federal employees that "know their witnesses were lying under oath and even helped them."
'TIGER KING' STAR JOE EXOTIC SEEKS PARDON FROM TRUMP: REPORT
The star said that there are "millions who see the truth" and begged for Trump to "listen to" them.
"I am asking you to listen to your own son Donald Jr. and make this right and grant me a miracle, 'a pardon,' and let me put this behind me and go save my dad ... and go live my life with my husband 'Dillon.'"
He also said he wished to "return to helping sick children and the homeless."
"Allow me to make you proud, to make America proud," the animal enthusiast pleaded. "To make the Lord proud. Be my hero, please."
Joe Exotic is the main subject of Netflix's hit docuseries 'Tiger King,' which chronicles the rivalry between himself and Carole Baskin as he struggles to keep his zoo afloat. (Netflix)
A second letter was also revealed, written to Donald Trump Jr. in which he claims to have been "sexually assaulted by jail staff, beat up and tied to a chair to the point the skin came off my arms."
"Dying could not be as bad as what this system has done to me," Maldonado-Passage added. "You see the outcry from people around the world asking you and our President to make this right and grant me a miracle and ask your father, the best President America has ever had to sign my pardon as soon as it gets to him."
He finished the letter with "#TrumpJr2024."
The former zoo owner also shared an image of one of his injuries with OK! magazine, displaying wounds on his wrist.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
He elaborated on his claims of abuse to the outlet, claiming he was "locked in a room naked for eight days sleeping on a cold metal shelf on the floor with dried feces and sperm on it from so many others before" him.
Reps for the Federal Medical Center Fort Worth, the Texas lockup where Maldonado-Passage is being held, and Grady County jail in Oklahoma where he alleges the assault occurred, could not immediately be reached.
Trending
Who's making headlines in television, music, movies and more from Hollywood to the Heartland.