By Meg Wagner and Veronica Rocha, CNN
Kim Kardashian is just getting started.
The reality television star-turned-prison reform advocate tweeted that Trump's decision on Alice Johnson would give hope to "so many others who are also deserving of a second chance," and said she would continue to work with organizations working on their behalf.
She added that her work here is not finished:
From CNN's Noah Gray
President Trump will hold bilateral meetings while at the upcoming G7 in Canada.
He will meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron, NEC Director Larry Kudlow told reporters.
CNN reported moments ago that President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau had a testy phone call on May 25 over new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration targeting steel and aluminum imports coming from Canada, including one moment during the conversation in which Trump made an erroneous historical reference, sources familiar with the discussion told CNN.
The White House just issued a statement confirming President Trump commuted Alice Johnson's sentence.
The White House said Johnson had "accepted responsibility for her past behavior" and was a model prisoner who rehabilitated herself in prison."
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.
Here's the statement in full:
Alice Marie Johnson wrote a piece for CNN last month in which she detailed her time in prison and what it was like when Kim Kardashian took up her case.
Some refer to prison as a place where hope dies. Some days I've found that to be almost right. But at the beginning of my time here I made a pact — that I wouldn't give up hope. Each time that I've come close, God has restored my faith. So when the unlikely voices of Kim Kardashian West and Jared Kushner came together to shine a spotlight on my case, I could only thank God, for he works in mysterious ways.
She also made clear that though her punishment may have been different had she committed the crime today, but she still, in fact, committed a crime.
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.
From CNN's Hunter Schwartz
Kim Kardashian West began advocating for the release of Alice Johnson after she watched a video from Mic about the Tennessee woman's case.
Kardashian West went to the White House last week and met with Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner in an attempt to convince him to pardon her.
Kim Kardashian went to the White House last week to meet with President Trump. Her agenda was to push for a pardon for Alice Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 on charges related to cocaine possession and money laundering.
Alice Johnson, the 63-year-old Tennessee woman who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 on charges related to cocaine possession and money laundering, has at least one celebrity advocate: Kim Kardashian West.
The reality TV star met with Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Oval Office last week in an attempt to convince him to pardon her.
"I would like to thank President Trump for his time this afternoon. It is our hope that the President will grant clemency to Ms. Alice Marie Johnson who is serving a life sentence for a first-time, non-violent drug offense," Kardashian West said in a statement after the meeting. "We are optimistic about Ms. Johnson's future and hopeful that she — and so many like her — will get a second chance at life."
President Trump has commuted the sentence of Alice Johnson, according to two White House officials.
She is expected to be released from prison soon.
Johnson is a 63-year-old Tennessee woman who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 on charges related to cocaine possession and money laundering.
This follows a White House meeting with Kim Kardashian, who pressed for her release.
Trump last week said Thursday that he is considering pardoning Martha Stewart and pardoning or commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Both were stars with Trump on NBC's "The Apprentice" franchise.
Stewart served a five-month term between 2004 and 2005 for lying and obstructing justice in a 2001 stock sale. Blagojevich is the former governor of Illinois who is serving a 14-year prison term for corruption.
The President told reporters that Blagojevich had said something "stupid" but that it was similar to what other politicians have said and called the 18-year sentence "really unfair." He added that "plenty of other politicians could have said a lot worse."
