Celebrity-backed prisoner gets Trump commutation
Kardashian West had touted female drug offender’s case
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump commuted t he sentence Wednesday of a woman serving a life sentence for drug offenses whose cause was championed by reality TV star Kim Kardashian West in a recent visit to the White House.
Trump commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, two White House officials said. The 63-year old spent more than two decades behind bars and is not eligible for parole. The move comes amid a recent flurry of pardons issued by Trump, who has seemed drawn to causes advocated by conservatives, celebrities or those who once appeared on his former reality show, “The Apprentice.”
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the commutation before it was announced.
The commutation puts a renewed focus on the Trump administration’s push for prison and sentencing reform, but which has sometimes clashed with the president’s lawand-order approach, especially at the Justice Department. Trump has called for getting tougher on drug dealers, including suggesting some should receive the death penalty.
Johnson was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts related to a Memphis-basedcocainetrafficking operation involving more than a dozen people. The 1994 indictment describes dozens of deliveries and drug transactions, many involving Johnson.
She was sentenced to life Kim Kardashian West, center, leaves the West Wing of the White House last week after meeting with officials, including Jared Kushner, to discuss prison reform. in prison in 1997, and appellate judges and the U.S. Supreme Court have rejected her appeals. Court records show she has a motion pending for a reduction in her sentence, but federal prosecutors are opposed, saying in a court filing that the sentence is in accord with federal guidelines, based on the large quantity of drugs involved.
A criminal justice advocacy site, CAN-DO, and one of Johnson’s attorneys say a request for clemency was rejected by former President Barack Obama.
A 1997 Associated Press story on Johnson’s sentencing said she headed up a multimillion- dollar drug ring. But Memphis attorney Michael Scholl, who filed the latest court documents in her request for a sentence reduction, said she was not a leader in the cocaine operation.
“What is the purpose of putting a lady with no prior criminal record, on a nonviolent drug offense, in jail for her entire life?” he said in a telephone interview. “She’s a model inmate.”
Scholl added that Johnson has admitted her wrongdoing, which is borne out in letters she has written to U.S. District Judge Samuel H. Mays, who now oversees her case.
Kardashian West visited the White House in May to meet with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, who is overseeing the administration’s push to overhaul the nation’s prison system. She also met with Trump in the Oval Office, a photograph of which the president released on Twitter.
In an interview with Mic released earlier this year, Kardashian West said she’d been moved by Johnson’s story after seeing a video by the news outlet on Twitter.
The commutation comes days after Trump pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who was convicted of a campaign finance violation, and granted a posthumous pardon to boxing’s first black heavyweight champion, clearing Jack Johnson’s name more than 100 years after what many saw as a racially charged conviction.
The boxer’s pardon had been championed by actor Sylvester Stallone, who Trump said had brought the story to his attention in a phone call.