The star of the Netflix documentary "Tiger King" Joe Exotic sued the United States Justice Department Wednesday because they rejected his request for a presidential pardon.
According to court documents obtained by CBS11 and Courthouse News, lawyers for Exotic, whose real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, argued that the rejection isn't valid because Acting Pardon Attorney Rosalind Sargent-Burns didn't give his official request to President Donald Trump himself.
According to the six-page complaint filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Exotic's legal team named Sargent-Burns because she allegedly never gave President Trump a formal recommendation, which according to the lawsuit, she's required to do.
Currently, Maldonado-Passage is serving a 22-year prison sentence in Fort Worth after he was found guilty in April 2019 for animal cruelty and trying to hire someone to murder Carole Baskin, who's a big-cat rights activist.
The complaint also names Donald Trump Jr. as a supporter, CBS11 reported.
