President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he was naming Alice Johnson, whose life sentence he commuted during his first term, as his “pardon czar” to advise him on criminal justice issues.
Trump announced Johnson’s appointment during a reception celebrating Black History Month at the White House, which Johnson attended. Kim Kardashian, a reality TV star, helped bring attention to her drug conviction during Trump’s first term in office.
Johnson is set to formalize a role that she had taken on at the end of Trump’s first term, which included her, at Trump’s request, submitting a list of people who she believed deserved clemency.
Trump said that Johnson would be advising him on cases of people convicted of nonviolent crimes who had gotten sentences not likely be handed down today. Johnson’s case was seen as an example of draconian sentencing laws that disproportionately affected nonviolent offenders, particularly women and members of minority groups.
“You know, Alice was in prison for doing something that today probably wouldn’t even be prosecuted,” Trump said during remarks to about 400 people during the event. “She spent 22 years in prison — 22 years. She had another 22 years left. Can you believe it?”
“It should not have happened,” he added of her case. “It should not have happened. So you’re going to look, and you’re going to make recommendations, and I’ll follow those recommendations.”
The New York Times previously reported that Johnson was under consideration for such a role.
Johnson’s case became a rallying cry for reform after a viral video of her speaking from prison caught the attention of Kardashian. In 2018, Kardashian personally pleaded Johnson’s case to Trump in the Oval Office.
Johnson had been in an Alabama federal prison since 1996 after being sentenced to life plus 25 years in prison as a first-time, nonviolent offender. She had been convicted of cocaine possession and money laundering in a drug conspiracy case.
A week after the Oval Office meeting with Kardashian, Trump commuted the sentence of Johnson, who was then 63 years old. In 2020 as he was campaigning for reelection, he issued a full pardon, wiping the conviction from her record.
Johnson was also an integral part of Trump embracing legislation called the First Step Act, one of the most consequential criminal justice reform bills in decades.
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