Kim Kardashian West explains why she's fighting to free a 62-year-old convicted of drug conspiracy
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kim Kardashian stripped down and shared a nude photo following the birth of her third child. Here, she poses at the MET Gala on Jan. 5, 2017. (Reuters)
Although Kim Kardashian West is known as a reality TV star, she’s in the midst of a major push for criminal justice reform with regards to a 62-year-old great-grandmother who is serving a life sentence that’s brought her in close contact with the White House.
In an exclusive interview with Mic, which initially profiled Alice Johnson, a woman serving a sentence for drug conspiracy and money laundering, Kardashian West explained why she got involved with the case and what the status of her work is right now.
“I’ve been in communication with the White House and trying to bring her case to the president’s desk and figure out how we can get her out,” Kardashian West tells Mic in the video below. “That’s such a huge step from where we started with that not even being on their radar.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kardashian West even said that she’s been working with Jared Kushner and the Trump administration for months to try and make headway on getting Johnson freed. She says that she felt moved by a video profile the site did on Johnson in 2017 and immediately took action, hiring her personal legal team to represent the incarcerated woman.
As previously reported, Johnson became involved with cocaine dealers after she lost her job, her son was killed, she and her husband divorced and her home was foreclosed on, Mic reported in 2013.
According to Mic, Johnson said she did not sell drugs or make deals but did admit to acting as an intermediary for those involved, passing along messages. She was given life in prison — without parole, something Kardashian West takes issue with.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“If you think about a decision that you’ve made in your life and you get life without the possibility of parole for your first-time nonviolent offense, there’s just something so wrong with that,” she said.
The star went on to explain that she has had a shift in her priorities and the way she looks at her wealth as of late.
“Where I’m at in my life right now, just like, to go and spend my money buying material things just doesn’t satisfy me the way that it used to,” she said. “To save someone’s life and do that once a year, then that would make [my] heart fuller.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kardashian West has no easy tasks in front of her. At the moment, the only thing that will free Johnson is a pardon on behalf of President Donald Trump. You can watch her explain her decision, as well as comment on any detractors of Trump, below.