Kim Kardashian visited the White House last week in a bid to free Alice Marie Johnson, and her efforts were not in vain. A week later, President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of the 63-year-old great-grandmother on Wednesday, June 6.
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Johnson will be released from a federal penitentiary in Aliceville, Alabama, where she has been imprisoned since her 1996 conviction on drug-trafficking charges. Kardashian met with Trump about Johnson on May 30, petitioning the president to grant clemency to Johnson, a nonviolent drug offender with no prior arrests who was given a life sentence without parole.
Following news, Kardashian took to social media for a series of celebratory tweets.
Kardashian’s efforts to secure Johnson’s freedom were lauded by the star’s sister, Khloe Kardashian.
You can read the official White House statement below:
Kardashian, 37, previously confirmed to Mic that she would sit down for a meeting with Donald Trump and his senior advisor Jared Kushner to discuss prison reform, telling the site: “I’ve been fighting very hard and am willing to do what it takes to fight for what’s right.”
The meeting, which was first reported by Vanity Fair, took place before 4 p.m. ET, and the trio gathered in the Oval Office.
NBC News captured video of Kardashian on her way to the White House.
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Trump tweeted a photo alongside Kardashian in the Oval Office after their meeting. Although details were scarce, he said the two had a “great meeting” and “talked about prison reform and sentencing.”
After her Oval Office meeting, Kardashian also chimed in, thanking the Trump for his time and expressing optimism for Johnson’s future.
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Johnson’s story was first brought to Kardashian’s attention via a Mic opinion video and she previously told the publication that she’d been “in communication with the White House” to also make them aware of her.
She explained, “[I’m] trying to bring her case to the president’s desk and figure out how we can get her out. That’s such a huge step from where we started with that not even being on their radar.”
Kardashian added that she’d tell Trump that “just like everybody else, we can make choices in our lives that we’re not proud of and that we don’t think through all the way.”
Johnson, who has exchanged letters with Kardashian, is serving life behind bars at the Aliceville Correctional Facility in Alabama due to a first-time drug offence. She’s been locked up for 21 years so far.
TMZ added that Kardashian’s attorney, Shawn Holley, would be joining Trump, the reality TV star and Kushner Wednesday afternoon. The site’s sources continued to say that Kardashian would be making the trip without the “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” cameras.
