Jared Kushner And Kim Kardashian Get Alice Johnson Pardoned

Image by Getty Images
Jared Kushner and Kim Kardashian West’s efforts to have President Trump pardon Alice Marie Johnson were successful today, Axios reported.
The unlikely duo first met in May to discuss commuting Johnson’s life sentence.
Johnson, a black woman in Mississippi, was sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a first-time drug offense. Kardashian West has been a fierce advocate for her sentence’s commutation, funding lawyers and providing continual advocacy. She met with President Trump last week to discuss prison reform.
After Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence, Kardashian West tweeted her thanks to him and Kushner.
“So grateful to @realDonaldTrump, Jared Kushner & to everyone who has showed compassion & contributed countless hours to this important moment for Ms. Alice Marie Johnson. Her commutation is inspirational & gives hope to so many others who are also deserving of a second chance,” Kardashian West tweeted.
Prison reform has become a prominent issue for Kushner, whose father served more than a year in prison. He threw his support behind a bill called The First Step Act, which aims to better equip inmates for their reentry to society through job-training and drug-treatment programs. The bill would also allow a wider variety of options for nonviolent offenders to serve the final parts of their sentences in.
Johnson’s commutation comes on tail of several other high-profile Trump pardons, including right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza.
Contact Juliana Kaplan at [email protected] or on Twitter, @julianamkaplan
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Opinion Stephen Miller’s cavalier cruelty misses the whole point of Passover
- 3
Opinion I co-wrote Biden’s antisemitism strategy. Trump is making the threat worse
- 4
Opinion Pro-Palestinian protests enriched Jewish life on my campus. Trump’s actions will do the opposite.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Jews thought Trump wanted to fight antisemitism. Why did he cut all of their grants?
-
Opinion Trump’s followers see a savior, but Jewish historians know a false messiah when they see one
-
Fast Forward Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil for undermining U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism, judge rules
-
Opinion This Passover, let’s retire the word ‘Zionist’ once and for all
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.