Why Kim Kardashian West went to the White House

The reality TV star’s surprise summit with
Trump focused on prison reforms

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Kim Kardashian West visited fellow former reality TV star Donald
Trump to talk about prison reform, and to ask for the Alice Marie
Johnson to be pardoned, The Guardian reports. 

Johnson is a 63-year-old Tennessee woman who, according to
the Can-Do (Clemency for All Non-violent
Drug Offenders) foundation, was sentenced in 1996 to life in
prison on charges related to cocaine possession and money
laundering.

Brittany Barnett, a member of Johnson’s legal team, told The New York Times that Kardashian West
was scheduled to meet with a group of White House officials,
including the president’s son-in law and senior adviser, Jared
Kushner.

Kushner “has led a White House effort to build support for
legislation that would help prisoners as they re-enter society and
better develop work skills while they are incarcerated”, says
Time.

But some critics of the campaign say it doesn’t go far enough
and are calling on lawmakers “to include reductions in sentencing
guidelines, a step opposed by the White House and the Justice
Department”, the magazine adds.

“It was very general,” Barnett said of the meeting. “We just
don’t know, but it seems like the meeting was positive, and it is
in President Trump’s hands now as to what he decides to do.”

Trump, a former judge on the US version of The
Apprentice, later tweeted that it had been a “great meeting”,
and said that he and Kardashian West had discussed “prison reform
and sentencing”.

Kardashian West told news website Mic that a video it made about Johnson’s case
had inspired her to get involved.

“There was a reason why I was looking at my Twitter at that
moment,” Kardashian West said of the moment when she first saw the
video. “I was meant to come across it.”

Following her meeting with Trump, she issued a statement that
said: “We are optimistic about Ms Johnson’s future and hopeful
that she – and so many like her – will get a second chance at
life.”