Watch “CNN Tonight” at 10 p.m. ET Thursday for Van Jones’ exclusive interview with Kim Kardashian West on her reaction to President Donald Trump’s commutation of Alice Marie Johnson.
Alice Marie Johnson, the woman whose sentence President Donald Trump commuted, said she is “just so thankful” to Trump.
“Thank you, President Trump for really seeing me, not just looking at some data about my crime, but actually looking at the person who I have become now and having faith that I deserved a second chance in life,” Johnson said on CNN’s “New Day” Thursday morning. “President Trump made me having a wonderful life possible, and I’m just so thankful to him.”
Johnson was a first-time nonviolent drug offender, who had already served 21 years of a life sentence after she was convicted on charges of conspiracy to possess cocaine and attempted possession of cocaine, according to the nonprofit Can-Do, which advocates for clemency for non-violent drug offenders before being released Wednesday.
Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence a week after Kim Kardashian West pleaded her case during an Oval Office meeting with Trump.
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Trump wished Johnson good luck in a Thursday morning tweet, in which he told her to “have a wonderful life.”
When a CNN reporter showed Johnson the tweet earlier Thursday, she grinned ear to ear.
“I’m so just amazed to hear that I’m actually one of his tweets,” she told “New Day.” “I love it!”
Johnson’s daughter, Catina Scales, who appeared with her on “New Day,” also thanked Kardashian West for her help in obtaining her mother’s commutation.
“It was unbelievable because she felt my mother’s pain and change in her heart, and to come through and do that for my mom — forever, forever grateful,” Scales said. “Kim Kardashian is part of the family now. She has an open invitation to come to Memphis and spend time with the whole entire family whenever she feels like it.”
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Johnson has already begun to plan her life after prison.
“My plan is to start work, I already have a job secured,” Johnson said, “and my plan is also to work hard on helping to change some of these laws. Something has to happen, and I believe what has already begun is a good first step with prison reform.”
CNN’s Nick Valencia contributed to this report.
