PARDONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump commuted the sentence on Wednesday [6-6-18] of a 63-year-old woman serving life in prison for a nonviolent drug conviction after her case was brought to his attention by the reality television star Kim Kardashian West. Although short of a full pardon, the decision will free Alice Marie Johnson, who has been locked up since 1996 on charges related to cocaine possession and money laundering. Ms. Kardashian West, who learned of the case through a video that went viral on social media, visited Mr. Trump at the White House last week to lobby on Ms. Johnson’s behalf…The president’s intervention, however, was contrary to the policies his own Justice Department has enacted since he took office. Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year ordered federal prosecutors to pursue the toughest possible charges and sentences against criminal defendants, reversing President Barack Obama’s efforts to ease penalties in nonviolent drug cases. The arguments advanced on Ms. Johnson’s behalf were essentially the same that were made for thousands of other nonviolent drug convicts whose petitions for presidential clemency have been languishing at the Justice Department without action. While Mr. Obama pardoned 212 people and commuted the sentences of 1,715 prisoners, including 568 serving life sentences, Mr. Trump has acted mainly on a few high-profile cases brought to him by associates and allies.”
-Peter Baker, “Trump Offers Clemency to Imprisoned Woman, Alice Marie Johnson, After Push by Kim Kardashian West,” The New York Times online, June 6, 2018