Kim Kardashian visits Trump at White House to discuss prison reform, plead for 63-year-old prisoner

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian West (second left) departs the West Wing after meetings at the White House in Washington, US, on May 30, 2018. PHOTO: REUTERS
Kim Kardashian West entering the grounds of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2018. PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) - Reality television personality Kim Kardashian visited the White House on Wednesday (May 30) to discuss her campaign to help a 63-year-old woman serving a life sentence without parole for a drug offence.

Kardashian, dressed in black, arrived at a side entrance to the West Wing late Wednesday afternoon. She was in the building for just under an hour.

She planned to raise the case of Alice Marie Johnson, a grandmother imprisoned for a first time drug offence, according to a statement from one of Johnson's attorneys released in advance.

Trump later posted a photograph on Twitter of Kardashian standing next to him in the Oval Office. He wrote that they "talked about prison reform and sentencing."

Kardashian also was to meet with Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, the attorney's statement said.

Her visit came after her husband, rapper Kanye West, publicly embraced Trump in a series of tweets late last month.

Trump responded in kind, thanking West for a tweet in which the Grammy-winning musician praised the president's "dragon energy."

Kushner has led a White House effort to build support for legislation that would help prisoners as they re-enter society and better develop work skills while they are incarcerated.

Some critics of the effort say it doesn't go far enough and want lawmakers to include reductions in sentencing guidelines, a step opposed by the White House and the Justice Department.

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