The reality TV star reveals in an interview that she was on the phone with Kanye West when the president called her.
- Jun 9, 2018
AceShowbiz - Kim Kardashian learned her clemency bid for jailed grandmother Alice Marie Johnson had been granted in a personal phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The world leader commuted the life sentence for Johnson on Wednesday, June 06, days after welcoming Kardashian to the White House, where she championed the case of the 63-year-old, who was imprisoned without parole following a 1996 conviction for a non-violent, first-time drug offence.
Kim celebrated the news on Twitter by publicly thanking the politician, as well as his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who had supported the cause as close advisors to the president, and she has since revealed it was Trump himself who reached out directly to announce his decision before making it public.
She explains she had to hang up on her husband, rapper Kanye West, to take the joyous call, which had come from a private number, labelled as "Unknown" on her phone screen.
"I remember I was on the phone with my husband and I said, 'Wait, babe, I have to call you back.' And it was a secretary on the line who said she had the President on the phone and I knew it had to be some news," Kim told CNN's Van Jones.
The reality TV beauty was then able to break the exciting news to Johnson herself. Their conversation was so emotional, Kim is moved to tears just thinking about it, and she knows there will be waterworks when she and Johnson finally meet face-to-face.
"Hearing her scream (of excitement) was like (so touching)...," she shared. "I know I'm gonna cry so much when I see her, but just to know that we changed one person's life, (it means everything)."
Despite the positive outcome, some critics have suggested Trump only agreed to help Kardashian's cause to enhance his own credibility, a notion Kim denies.
Instead, she claims her husband's controversial show of support for Trump in recent months has already "given him legitimacy in that way", and maintains the clemency victory is the result of months of hard work.
"I don't think I would be used (as a pawn)," she remarked. "At the end of the day, he heard me out. We got the job done. What could he really use me for...? That (pardon) was the right thing to do."
