AP Photo/Evan Vucci
- Kim Kardashian West spoke at the White House alongside President Donald Trump on Thursday about criminal justice reform.
- Kardashian West played a key role in convincing Trump to grant clemency to Alice Johnson, who had previously been serving a life sentence for non-violent drug-related offenses.
- Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
Kim Kardashian West — one of the highest-profile celebrities in the United States —attended an event at the White House alongside President Donald Trump and others on Thursday. The model and businesswoman was in Washington to continue her push for criminal justice reform from the Trump administration.
Read more: How Kim Kardashian West built her $350 million empire
Kardashian West sat next to White House advisers Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who she credited with moving the criminal justice reform effort further during Trump’s presidency.
"My whole journey with criminal justice reform started about a year ago when I came to see the president after speaking to Ivanka and Jared who really fought for me to get here," she said. She also praised Trump for taking action on criminal justice reform, including signing the First Step Act into law.
"Seeing the passion that he’s had for criminal justice has been really remarkable," Kardashian West said.
Kardashian West successfully lobbied Trump last year to grant clemency to Alice Johnson, a drug trafficker who had been serving a life sentence for nonviolent drug offenses. She cited the experience as her inspiration to begin studying law to become a lawyer.
"After that I really spent so much time going to different prisons because I really had no connection to anybody on the inside and really just felt like for me I’m at the place in my life that I wanted to make a difference and do the right thing but I didn’t know how or what to do or even what was really going on," she said. "And so after going to visit so many different prisons and really sitting down with lifers, with every situation you can possibly imagine, my heart just completely opened up and I wanted to do more."
During her speech, Kardashian West also announced a new program for released convicts that would give them preloaded cards to use for ride shares to be able to make to job interviews as part of reintegrating them back into society.
Kardashian West also traveled to the White House with two lawyers for whom she has been working as part of her schooling.
"I can tell you this, if she’s your — two lawyers — she’s your assistant?" Trump joked. "She’s the highest paid assistant in history. There’s never been anything like it."
Trump also noted Kardashian West’s husband, rapper and fashion designer Kanye West, is an ardent supporter of his. The president also praised her work on criminal justice reform.
"I knew her father and I know she’s got good genes, that I can tell you," Trump said. "Good genes for everything and she’s been a real friend and her husband has been a real friend of mine."
See Also:
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- A Republican who held one of the most powerful jobs in the Trump administration is now a lowly Navy ensign
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Source: Business Insider – jperticone@businessinsider.com (Joe Perticone)