Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jared Kushner And Kim Kardashian Get Alice Johnson Pardoned

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

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.