The White House announced the news in a statement on Wednesday, saying: “Ms. Johnson has accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has been a model prisoner over the past two decades.”
“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,” the statement added.
The news comes after Kardashian West met with the president at the White House last week to plead for clemency for Johnson, a 63-year-old first-time nonviolent drug offender who in 1996 was given a life sentence without parole.
Kardashian West celebrated the good news on Wednesday, tweeting a link to a Mic article about Johnson’s commuted sentence and writing: “BEST NEWS EVER!!!” alongside three praying hand emojis.
She later sent out tweets thanking Trump and the president’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, whom Kardashian West had also spoken with about a possible pardon for Johnson.
She added that she hopes to continue “this important work” by joining forces with organizations fighting for prison reform.
Mic, the publication that first brought Johnson’s case to Kardashian West’s attention, reports that Johnson will soon be released from federal prison in Aliceville, Alabama, where she has been serving her sentence for more than 20 years.
Kardashian West’s months-long campaign for Johnson’s freedom culminated in a White House meeting with the president last Wednesday.
After the visit, Kardashian West told Mic that Trump “really spent the time to listen to our case that we were making for Alice. He really understood, and I am very hopeful that this will turn out really positively.”
Johnson opened up about what Kardashian West’s help has meant to her in a recent essay for CNN, writing, “Some refer to prison as a place where hope dies. Some days I’ve found that to be almost right. Each time that I’ve come close [to giving up], 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 added.
