WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s commutation of the sentence of a woman Kim Kardashian West championed (all times local):
7:05 p.m.
Alice Marie Johnson has been released from federal prison hours after her life sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump.
Footage from Alabama news station WVTM-13 shows Johnson running toward her family, throwing her arms open wide and embracing them in front of a crowd of onlookers.
Her release was confirmed by Jennifer Turner of the American Civil Liberties Union, who is part of Johnson’s legal team.
Johnson, 63, had spent more than two decades behind bars, serving life without parole for drug offenses.
Her case had been championed by reality TV star Kim Kardashian West, who met with Trump in the Oval Office last week.
Another attorney, Brittany K. Barnett, said earlier that Johnson feels overwhelmed with emotion and like she’s been “resurrected from the dead.”
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1:45 p.m.
A lawyer for Kim Kardashian West is describing the moment Alice Marie Johnson found out President Donald Trump had commuted her sentence.
Shawn Holley, who accompanied Kardashian West to the White House last week, says that Kardashian West was the one who told Johnson she was being released in a phone call.
Holley says in a statement that she, “just got off the most wonderful, emotional and amazing phone call with Alice, Kim and Alice’s lawyers.”
She says that once Johnson’s family joined the call, “the tears never stopped flowing.”
The 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson has served more than two decades in federal prison for drug offenses.
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1:10 p.m.
The White House says President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of a woman whose case was championed by reality star Kim Kardashian West, saying she’s been a model inmate.
The 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson has served more than two decades in federal prison for drug offenses.
The White House says in a statement that Johnson “has accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has been a model prisoner over the past two decades,” working to rehabilitate herself and acting as a mentor to fellow inmates.
They note her warden, case manager, and vocational training instructor have all written letters in support of her clemency.
Kardashian West is also responding to the decision, tweeting “BEST NEWS EVER!!!!” She visited the White House last week of press Johnson’s case.
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12:49 p.m.
President Donald Trump is commuting the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman convicted of drug offenses whose cause was championed by reality TV star Kim Kardashian West.
That’s according to two White House officials who say Trump commuted the 63-year old Johnson’s sentence. She has spent more than two decades behind bars and is not eligible for parole.
The move comes amid a recent flurry of pardons issued by Trump, who has seemed drawn to causes advocated by conservatives, celebrities or those who once appeared on his former reality show, “The Apprentice.”
Johnson was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts related to a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation.
Kardashian West visited the White House in May to advocate for Johnson.
