Trump commutes sentence for Kardashian-backed drug offender

WASHINGTON (AP) — Flexing his clemency powers once again, President Donald Trump on Wednesday commuted the life sentence of a woman whose cause was championed by reality TV star Kim Kardashian West.

"BEST NEWS EVER!!!!" was the exuberant twitter response from Kardashian West, who visited the White House last week to press the case of Alice Marie Johnson, 63, who has spent more than two decades behind bars, serving life without parole for drug offenses.

Unlike a pardon, the commutation will not erase Johnson's conviction but will end her sentence. Michael Scholl, a member of Johnson's legal team, praised Trump for "a courageous move."

He spoke with The Associated Press as he was driving to the federal prison in Aliceville, Alabama, for Johnson's release.

Trump's decision, his latest inspired by a celebrity champion, comes amid a flurry of recent pardons issued by the president. He says he's considering a long list of other clemency actions for those famous and not, including former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is serving 14 years in prison for corruption, and celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart, who served about five months for insider financial trading.

Trump has been working outside the traditional pardon process usually overseen by the Justice Department, and has appeared to favor cases that catch his attention — either because they've been championed by friends and celebrities or conservative media. Trump has also been drawn to cases in which he believes there was a political motivation to the prosecutions — situations that may remind him of his own predicament at the center of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling.

Trump recently pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza, who was convicted of a campaign finance violation. And he granted a posthumous pardon to boxing's first black heavyweight champion, clearing Jack Johnson's name more than 100 years after what many saw as a racially charged conviction.

The boxer's pardon had been championed by actor Sylvester Stallone, who Trump said had brought the story to his attention in a phone call.

Shawn Holley, Kardashian West's attorney who accompanied her to the White House last week, said the reality star was the one who broke the news to Johnson on Wednesday in what she described as "the most wonderful, emotional and amazing phone call with Alice, Kim and Alice's lawyers."

"Once Alice's family joined the call, the tears never stopped flowing," Holley said in a statement.

Kardashian West described the moment via Twitter.

"Telling her for the first time and hearing her screams while crying together is a moment I will never forget."

In a statement announcing the president's decision, the White House said Johnson "has accepted responsibility for her past behavior" and has been a model prisoner, working hard to rehabilitate herself and serve as a mentor to fellow inmates. It said that Johnson's warden, case manager and vocational training instructor had written letters in support.

"While this Administration will always be very tough on crime, it believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance," said a statement from the office of White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Lawyer Scholl praised Trump for calling attention to the issue of drug crime sentencing, a system he said "is just broken."

Attorney Brittany K. Barnett, another member of Johnson's legal team, thanked Trump in a statement that said, "Life in prison without the possibility of parole screams that a person is beyond hope, beyond redemption. And in Alice's case, it is a punishment that absolutely did not fit the crime."

Johnson was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts related to a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation involving more than a dozen people. The 1994 indictment describes dozens of deliveries and drug transactions, many involving Johnson.

Federal courts including the Supreme Court rejected her appeals. Court records show she had a motion pending for a reduction in her sentence, but prosecutors were opposed, saying the sentence was in accord with federal guidelines based on the large quantity of drugs involved.

Kardashian West expressed gratitude to Trump, his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and others. She said Johnson's commutation "is inspirational and gives hope to so many others who are also deserving of a second chance."

A criminal justice advocacy site, CAN-DO, and one of Johnson's lawyers said a request for clemency had been rejected when Barack Obama was president. The reasons are unclear.

Kardashian West visited the White House last month to meet with Kushner, who is overseeing the administration's push to overhaul the nation's prison system. She also met with Trump in the Oval Office, a photograph of which the president posted on Twitter.

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Associated Press writers Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles, Adrian Sainz in Memphis and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed.