Celebrity News June 14, 2018
Kim K on Helping Free Alice Johnson, Plus: The Funny Khloé Icebreaker She Used with Trump
NBC
Kim Kardashian and Alice Johnson, the grandmother she helped free from prison, finally met!
The two women sat down with Hoda Kotb on “Today” to talk about Alice's journey to clemency.
Alice was serving a life sentence for nonviolent charges related to her involvement in a Memphis cocaine trafficking organization. She was released this month after serving 21 years in prison.
Johnson admitted she had no idea who Kim was when the reality star made it her mission to help free the 63-year-old.
“As soon as I found out who she was, I started getting every magazine I could find,” Alice said. “I started reading everything that I could about her. And everyone was amazed. And I was amazed, too.”
Kim explained that it took months of work to secure Alice's freedom. It turns out it was a phone call to Ivanka Trump that paved the way for Kardashian's meeting with President Trump, who later released Johnson.
“I mean, I think to some people it might seem like, 'Okay, Kim made a phone call to the president, showed up.' We had been in talks and working on this for seven months. And it wasn't an instant thing. It was a lot of work."
Kardashian relied on a little humor to break the ice with the president by bringing up her sister Khloé's stint on “Celebrity Apprentice.”
She told him, “I am here because I really want to know why you kicked Khloé off 'The Apprentice'… and he laughed and it broke the ice.”
Afterward, they focused, and Kim was able to plead her case, saying Trump had compassion for Alice's story and felt releasing her was the right thing to do.
The reality star broke the good news to Alice, who said, “When she said that, I went into full-fledged Pentecostal holy dance. I started screaming and jumping.”
Alice said merely offering thanks wasn't "big enough" to show her gratitude toward Kim, saying, "I have to walk it out… I have to live it out for her.”
She also keeps a picture of Kim and Kim's husband Kanye West in her Bible, and prays for the couple. “Kim has been anointed to do this. And no one better not touch her — even with their mouth,” she said.
While Kim plans to get involved in other legal cases, she won't be going into politics. "People have been asking me, 'Are you getting into politics?' Like, no. I'm still doing me. But I enjoy this," she said. "This has fulfilled my heart, and so since I feel so fulfilled, why would I stop that?"
