Will Trump Grant Alice Johnson Clemency? Kim Kardashian Tries Convincing The President

Reality star Kim Kardashian visited the White House to meet President Donald Trump to discuss prison reform and possible clemency for convict Alice Marie Johnson.

After the meeting Kardashian tweeted:

POTUS tweeted a photo of the rendezvous on his Twitter page:

Who is Alice Marie Johnson?

Johnson was sentenced to life in prison for a non-violent drug-related crime in 1997 without the chance of parole, after being convicted on eight counts in a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation. She has since publicly accepted and regretted her crimes.

“I want this part to be clear: I acknowledge that I have done wrong. I made the biggest mistake of my life to make ends meet and got involved with people selling drugs,” she said in an opinion piece for CNN in 2016.

She added: “This was a road I never dreamed of venturing down. I became what is called a telephone mule, passing messages between the distributors and sellers. I participated in a drug conspiracy and I was wrong.”

Obama’s refusal to grant clemency

Johnson had faith former President Barack Obama would grant her clemency. However, despite the Obama administration touting her as the perfect candidate for receiving a presidential pardon three times in a row, Johnson never made the final cut.

“My family has been broken beyond what anyone can imagine," Johnson said, after Obama failed to pardon her. "A commutation would mean wholeness for me and my family again."

“When the criteria came out for clemency, I thought for sure — in fact, I was certain that I’d met and exceeded all of the criteria,” Johnson told Mic. The reason why Johnson’s clemency was denied was never made clear by Obama’s administration.

Model candidate for clemency

Her daughter, Tretessa started a petition two years ago on Change.org to invite people to support her mother’s bid for clemency. The bid currently has more than 250,000 signatures.

“My mother has accepted full responsibility for her actions and used that experience to better her life and the lives of others. Since being incarcerated she has been a model prisoner who mentors women and has become an ordained minister. She has also written, directed, and produced several plays and writings for conferences outside of prison walls, choreographed dance teams, and completed many classes and certifications,” she wrote in the petition.

Other experts have also agreed that Johnson has proved worthy to deserve a presidential pardon.

“We often say that people were given clemency, but the truth is that they earned it. And that's very much true of Alice," Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas who has closely followed Johnson's case, told Business Insider. "She obviously saw herself as a work in progress while she was in prison, and sought to be a positive influence on other people, which is the most we can hope for for anyone in or out of prison."

Kardashian’s involvement

Kardashian has taken a keen interest in Johnson’s case for quite a few months now. She hired renowned lawyer Shawn Holley back in November to fight Johnson’s case. Holley’s past clients include O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, and Lindsay Lohan.

She has also met with Ivanka Trump and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner prior to meeting with the president to discuss Johnson’s case.

Johnson made no secret of the gratitude she feels toward the mother-of-three, calling her a “war angel.”

"There are no words strong enough to express my deep and heartfelt gratitude. Ms. Kardashian, you are quite literally helping to save my life and restore me to my family. I was drowning and you have thrown me a life jacket [sic], and given me hope that this life jacket I'm serving may one day be taken off,” she wrote in a letter obtained by TMZ.