Trump commutes sentence after appeal by Kim Kardashian

[webfact]

Trump commutes sentence after appeal by Kim Kardashian

By James Oliphant and Jan Wolfe

 

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian arrives for meetings at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 30, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday commuted the life sentence of a woman for a first-time drug offence whose cause was taken up by celebrity Kim Kardashian West, and he is prepared to use his constitutional clemency powers to give relief to dozens more convicts, a White House source said.

 

Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old from Tennessee, has already served more than 20 years in prison on drug conspiracy and money laundering charges. Johnson "has been a model prisoner over the past two decades" White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

 

Sanders said that 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."

 

While Johnson was deserving of clemency, the manner in which her case was brought to Trump’s attention was unprecedented and raises fairness concerns, said Margaret Love, a lawyer who formerly served as the U.S. Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department.

 

"Never in history has this been done," Love said.

 

Kardashian West personally lobbied Trump and also met with Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump who has spearheaded efforts at sentencing and prison reform for the administration.

 

A White House official familiar with the clemency process said that Trump continues to examine the cases of people whom he believes have been victims of the criminal justice system.

 

Trump last week pardoned conservative commentator and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, convicted of making illegal campaign contributions. He pardoned the late heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, controversial former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former top aide to then-Vice President Dick Cheney.

 

Trump is still considering pardoning lifestyle maven Martha Stewart, who was convicted in an insider trading case, and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, serving 14 years on felony corruption charges, along with several others, the White House official said.

 

Stewart and Blagojevich both have ties to Trump's former "Apprentice" TV shows, but the White House has denied that Trump is only considering pardons for well-known figures.

 

"President Trump saved Alice Johnson’s life today," said Brittany K. Barnett, a lawyer for Johnson.

 

Most clemency requests are handled by the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney, which receives thousands of requests from prisoners every year, said Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Applications are usually reviewed by multiple government attorneys before being shared with the president.

 

(Reporting by James Oliphant, Jan Wolfe and Steve Holland; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-06-07

[Andaman Al]

Instead of saving a 63 yr old woman who was acting as a major drug trafficker why not save the life of one of the many young teenagers jailed for life without parole just for being present when someone else committed murder.

 

With Trump, celebrity and ratings mean everything. If this woman was nothing to do with Kardashian then she would rot in jail for the rest of her days.

 

[Boon Mee]

The woman who was pardoned by Trump had received an unfairly long sentence. 

[Andaman Al]

15 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

The woman who was pardoned by Trump had received an unfairly long sentence. 

And here we have it, because of Trump, you, a right wing republican -  the ones who always scream for punishment of criminals is saying that a woman who was a drug TRAFFICKER in Cocaine says she got too long a sentence. A woman that was trafficking drugs that kill people, that make people commit crime, that cause untold misery was given too long a sentence. Under Bush you would have been screaming for this woman to be locked in jail and have the key thrown away. BUT, because Trump wants to free her then that's cool with you. It is more than the country that has fallen.

[Credo]

I am not a Trump fan, but it was the right thing to do.   

 

Now, there are probably several thousand behind her that should be released (maybe not pardoned, but released).   

[pedro01]

Sort of kills the whole "Trump is racist narrative".

[Berkshire]

3 hours ago, Andaman Al said:

Instead of saving a 63 yr old woman who was acting as a major drug trafficker why not save the life of one of the many young teenagers jailed for life without parole just for being present when someone else committed murder.

 

With Trump, celebrity and ratings mean everything. If this woman was nothing to do with Kardashian then she would rot in jail for the rest of her days.

 

I'm an unapologetic Trump-hater, but I agree with Trump in this case.  This was a non-violent, first time offender who had already spent 20+ yrs in prison.  She's paid her debt to society.  As for why Trump did it?  Well, if Kim Kardashian wasn't an attractive young female, there probably would not have been a pardon.  This pardon also defies convention.  I wonder what his hardcore racist base thinks about this?      

[tomacht8]

The Bully desperately needs a pair of PR plus points after all the bad news. The meeting with Kim and freedom for some cocaine dealers are quite suitable.

[sammieuk1]

Looks more like a plastic surgery and Botox convention to me.

[helpisgood]

37 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

 

 

40 minutes ago, pedro01 said:

Sort of kills the whole "Trump is racist narrative".

Sort of not kills the notion that it is always good to have the right connections. 

Edited June 7, 2018 by helpisgood
typo, sorry!

[DM07]

50 minutes ago, pedro01 said:

Sort of kills the whole "Trump is racist narrative".

Not in the least!

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, Andaman Al said:

And here we have it, because of Trump, you, a right wing republican -  the ones who always scream for punishment of criminals is saying that a woman who was a drug TRAFFICKER in Cocaine says she got too long a sentence. A woman that was trafficking drugs that kill people, that make people commit crime, that cause untold misery was given too long a sentence. Under Bush you would have been screaming for this woman to be locked in jail and have the key thrown away. BUT, because Trump wants to free her then that's cool with you. It is more than the country that has fallen.

It is literally like witnessing the Western Roman empire, a few years before Odoacer marches into Rome. The US is on it's way out, as a major player. It is just a matter of time. It is a perfect storm. 30 years of gorging on reality TV, a wanna be fascist conservative so called leader, a congress and senate that has lost all moral authority, a corrupt and broken judiciary, well over 20 trillion in debt, more tax raises by Trump (the tariffs this severely misguided administration has just imposed, are a tax raise on the middle class and poor, no matter how you look at it), fabulously incompetent appointees like Ross, Sessions, Mnuchin, and Pruitt, and a White House without a chief of staff (it appears Kelly has been living in a coat closet lately). 

 

I do not really have an issue with pardoning drug offenders. Personally, I think ALL drugs should be legalized. Certainly if cocaine were to be legalized the cartels would seize to exist. 3,600 murders in Juarez in 2011. That same year across the border in El Paso, there were five. Our ridiculous war on drugs is largely to blame for that.

 

There were 25,339 homicides in Mexico last year, a 23% jump from 2016 and the highest number since at least 1997, the year the government began tracking the data. Overall, murders in Mexico had been declining in recent years, reaching a low of 15,520 in 2014. But officials say a surge in drug-related crime reversed that trend.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/22/americas/mexico-murders-2017/index.html

 

 

[Rigby40]

To the Left, conservatives can do no right and liberals can do no wrong.

[Mavrix]

Lewinski type meeting ?

[RobFord]

Pardons are the wanna be king’s latest obsession.

 

The president evidently believed that Kardashian and her husband, rapper Kanye West, had helped Trump’s approval ratings among African American voters, according to Bloomberg.

 

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-obsessed-pardons-white-house-960430

 

 

[Expatthailover]

3 hours ago, Credo said:

I am not a Trump fan, but it was the right thing to do.   

 

Now, there are probably several thousand behind her that should be released (maybe not pardoned, but released).   

'Behind her'???

She will be returning to a life of luxury and undeserved fame due to this unconscionable act of clemency. 

So he has pardoned a navy seal traitor, allegedly will pardon martha stewart ( tax evader and inside trader).

What next  a posthumous pardon for ted Bundy?

[spidermike007]

Tiny D. is really despised and considered to be a complete ignoramus and racist within the black and hispanic communities in the US. So, he is probably doing this to appeal to those communities. To appear to be compassionate. Sorry Don. It is not working. Most of us are not buying this abuse of power. You are a clown. You are a racist. You are a hateful charlatan. You are not a leader of men. You are fool. We know you want Kanye to like you even more than he already does, but this is a desperate move.

[dick dasterdly]

Christ almighty!

 

I've no idea about the rights and wrongs of this offender's sentence, but sincerely hope that trump didn't commute the sentence because a celebrity appealed to him - as indicated in the article headline!

[thaibeachlovers]

5 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

The woman who was pardoned by Trump had received an unfairly long sentence. 

It's interesting seeing how the anti Trump people turn this into an attack on Trump. Had he refused Kardashian's appeal, I suppose they'd be attacking him for being too hard hearted to help a poor old woman unfairly sentenced to a long period.

[thaibeachlovers]

54 minutes ago, Expatthailover said:

'Behind her'???

She will be returning to a life of luxury and undeserved fame due to this unconscionable act of clemency. 

So he has pardoned a navy seal traitor, allegedly will pardon martha stewart ( tax evader and inside trader).

What next  a posthumous pardon for ted Bundy?

If you are going to post, perhaps you can get your facts correct. He was a sailor, not a SEAL, and he wasn't a traitor. Had he been a traitor he'd have got a lot more than a year. The reason he was pardoned was that it was a grossly disproportionate sentence when a politician got off with no penalty at all for doing something a lot worse.

Quite rightly he is now suing Comey and Obama for this travesty of justice, though I doubt he'll win.

[smotherb]

3 hours ago, pedro01 said:

Sort of kills the whole "Trump is racist narrative".

Gee, ya think? Or, do you think? Certainly does appear to be just another attempt to quell that thought, two black johnsons. 

[dunroaming]

4 hours ago, pedro01 said:

Sort of kills the whole "Trump is racist narrative".

No it just confirms how shallow a man Trump is to be so swayed by a large pair of boobs.  Whether the woman should have been released for an unfairly long sentence should have been dealt with elsewhere.  In Trump's screwed up circus reality is something rarely seen.  Which is quite odd when we are talking about "reality TV" stars.

[Expatthailover]

Amazing what pulling a train for don the draft dodger, diddy don and jared gets you. 

Well done kk..your moral free zone of a mother will be proud of you.

Nailing your colours to the trump mast..how low can you go

[mikebike]

3 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

Christ almighty!

 

I've no idea about the rights and wrongs of this offender's sentence, but sincerely hope that trump didn't commute the sentence because a celebrity appealed to him - as indicated in the article headline!

And yet... that is exactly what happened.

 

Welcome to The Appardonass new episodes coming next week featuring Manafort et al.

[Credo]

Many non violent offenders need to be out of prison, but it should be done in a similar manner as Obama's change which was done by order, rather than individual pardon.

 

Trump is just showing his power like a dictator does.   He wants everyone from the NFL players to prisoners know he holds the ultimate power over their destiny.   

[Redline]

On 6/7/2018 at 9:37 AM, pedro01 said:

Sort of kills the whole "Trump is racist narrative".

Oh boy ?