Kim Kardashian joins Kamala Harris to discuss criminal justice reform

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kim Kardashian marshaled her celeb in a single administration to highlight prison justice reform — and she or he’s doing it once more within the subsequent.

The truth TV star and entrepreneur joined Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday for a roundtable highlighting the administration’s efforts on prison justice reform and the way President Joe Biden has used his clemency powers, notably on these convicted of non-violent drug offenses who confronted considerably longer sentences than they might beneath present legal guidelines.

Kardashian was a daily presence on the White Home through the Trump administration after placing up a partnership with the then-president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who had taken on prison justice points as a part of his portfolio, and leveraging her celeb to assist safe clemency for these she felt had been unjustly imprisoned.

The Biden White Home invited 4 folks pardoned earlier this week by the president, who granted clemency to 16 folks who had dedicated such crimes, for a roundtable with Harris and Kardashian.

Harris, a former prosecutor, advised the group that she is a “massive believer within the energy of redemption.”

“It’s an age-old idea that transcends religions however is basically about an understanding that everyone makes errors, and for some, which may rise to the extent of it being against the law,” Harris stated. “However is it not the signal of a civil society that we enable folks a option to earn their approach again, and provides them the help and assets they want to try this?”

Those that sat down alongside Harris, Kardashian and Steve Benjamin, the director of the White Home Workplace of Public Engagement, included Jason Hernandez, Bobby Lowery, Jesse Mosley and Beverly Robinson, who all obtained presidential pardons earlier this week. They spoke of profitable careers — equivalent to operating nonprofits and working towards actual property — and the way they had been overcome with emotion when discovering out about their pardons earlier this week.

Mosley spoke of latest alternatives being opened to him along with his pardon, equivalent to with the ability to apply for a authorities job, and stated he was crammed with “overwhelming gratitude.”

“I’m tremendous honored to be right here to listen to your tales in the present day,” Kardashian advised the group. “I feel it’s so essential to amplify them.”

The actuality TV star lobbied Trump to commute the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, who spent greater than 20 years in jail for drug offenses. Johnson was launched in June 2018 and later, in August 2020, obtained a full pardon from Trump and had her rights restored.

However in latest instances, it seems the once-beneficial relationship between Trump and Kardashian has frayed.

Trump, in a submit on his social media website final November, had derided Kardashian because the “World’s most overrated celeb” primarily based on anecdotes in a just-released ebook from ABC Information journalist Jonathan Karl.

“I don’t assume he likes me very a lot. However I’m OK,” Kardashian stated throughout an interview with late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel earlier this week. “I feel he did superb stuff with jail reform and let lots of people out, and signed a tremendous invoice — the First Step Act — and in order that’s what I’ll concentrate on.”

The White Home says Biden has commuted sentences for 122 folks and granted pardons for 20 people who had been convicted of non-violent drug offenses to date in his presidency. He has additionally issued a sweeping pardon for these convicted of straightforward possession of marijuana, a proclamation that the White Home says covers tens of 1000’s of individuals.

In contrast to Biden, Trump typically skirted the standard processes run by the Justice Division when contemplating presidential pardons and clemency actions, as a substitute impulsively performing on suggestions from mates or celebrities, in addition to conservative media.