A week after Kim Kardashian met with President Trump on behalf of Alice Marie Johnson, the 63-year-old grandmother who was serving a life sentence in federal prison for a non-violent drug crime is back at home with her family.
In her first interview as a free woman on Thursday, Johnson said she’s “just so thankful” to Trump for commuting her sentence. “Thank you, President Trump for really seeing me, not just looking at some data about my crime, but actually looking at the person who I have become now and having faith that I deserved a second chance in life,” she said on CNN’s New Day. “President Trump made me having a wonderful life possible.”
Catina Scales, Johnson’s daughter, who also appeared on New Day, thanked Kim Kardashian for meeting with Trump on Johnson’s behalf.
“I saw this seven months ago, and I have been…daily phone calls with the White House, [sent] maybe a dozen emails a day trying to get letters… a letter from the warden,” Kardashian said of her role in Johnson’s commutation during her exclusive interview on The Van Jones Show on Thursday. “I have to give credit to where Alice’s whole team has been working on this for years. I did step in late in the game, so I don’t want to take away from [that]…Everyone has brought attention to this case.”
Though Johnson is just beginning to settle back into her daily life, she’s already working on improving the lives of others like her.
“My plan is to start work, I already have a job secured,” she said. “My plan is also to work hard on helping to change some of these laws. Something has to happen, and I believe what has already begun is a good first step with prison reform.”