President Trump gave a full pardon on Friday to Alice Johnson, the grandmother who had served 22 years in prison on drug charges and became a symbol of the president’s efforts to give second chances to former offenders.
In the Oval Office, Mr. Trump met with Ms. Johnson and signed the pardon. The president said she’s done an “incredible job” since he commuted her sentence in June 2018 and freed her from prison.
Ms. Johnson, who was moved to tears, had spoken on Mr. Trump’s behalf during the Republican National Convention this week.
“When President Trump heard about me — about the injustice of my story — he saw me as a person,” she said Thursday night at the convention. “He had compassion. And he acted.”
She said, “Free in body thanks to President Trump. But free in mind thanks to the almighty God.”
Among those in the Oval Office for the ceremony were Pastor Robert Jeffries of Dallas, Texas, and presidential adviser Jared Kushner, a key figure in the White House’s criminal-justice reform efforts.
Celebrity Kim Kardashian had lobbied the president for clemency for Ms. Johnson.
