Kim Kardashian West Lobbied Jared Kushner To Have Trump Pardon A Drug Convict
Kim Kardashian West has spoken several times over the past few months with White House senior advisor/son-in-law Jared Kushner about a possible presidential pardon for a great-grandmother serving a life sentence for money laundering and drug conspiracy, Mic reported Wednesday.
Alice Marie Johnson, a black woman from Mississippi who was sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in a drug trafficking ring. It was Johnson’s first offense. West has publicly advocated for her and funded lawyers to advocate for her release.
Mic reported that Johnson’s case has been viewed by White House lawyers, and that conversations between Kushner and Kardashian West have “picked up in intensity over the last several days.” Johnson could likely only be freed from prison via a presidential pardon or commutation. Trump, who has promised to be tough on crime, has extended those powers only a few cases, such as with jailed kosher meat executive Sholom Rubashkin and former Dick Cheney aide Scooter Libby.
Kushner and Ivanka Trump his wife Ivanka Trump have advocated for prison sentencing reform since moving to Washington, and Kushner, whose father served 14 months in federal prison, has reportedly been working to pass a bipartisan bill reforming prison sentencing and training programs.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30