OAN Staff James Meyers
10:12 AM – Friday, February 21, 2025
President Donald Trump has appointed Alice Marie Johnson, a woman whom he pardoned during his first term, as his “pardon czar.”
The announcement for Johnson was made during a Black History Month event that was held at the White House on Thursday.
“Alice was in prison for doing something that today probably wouldn’t even be prosecuted,” Trump said at the White House event celebrating Black History Month.
“She spent 22 years in prison, 22 years, she had another 22 years left. Can you believe it? And I pardoned her, and it was one of the best pardons,” he told the crowd that included Johnson.
The new “pardon czar” will simply be responsible for making recommendations to the president on what individuals should be given clemency and why.
The New York Times was the first to report that Trump was contemplating naming Johnson as his “pardon czar.”
Johnson, who was a single mother of five children at the time of her arrest, was previously convicted of nonviolent drug trafficking in Memphis, Tennessee — and after serving 21 years, her life sentence was commuted by Trump.
According to a 2017 interview, Johnson became involved in the drug trafficking trade after losing her ten-year-long job at FedEx due to a gambling addiction that took over her life. She soon went through a divorce, and even lost her youngest son in a motorcycle accident. After declaring bankruptcy in 1991, her home was foreclosed.
She was eventually caught and arrested in 1993 — being convicted of drug conspiracy and money laundering a few years later in 1996.
“Back in the 1990s, I was a single mother about to lose my house,” Johnson wrote in a Fox News Digital opinion article. “In a desperate moment, I made a life-altering bad decision to become a low-level player in a drug operation. When law enforcement authorities broke up the drug operation, I was prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison.”
While Johnson still maintains that she never “touched, saw or sold a single drug,” she does admit to assisting with communications of drug dealers and customers.
During her time in prison, she worked in the prison hospice, volunteered with the prison church services, became an ordained minister, and wrote and directed theatrical plays.
After the 47th president pardoned her, she still remained under federal supervision for five years.
Her work on criminal justice reform led her to begin “Taking Action For Good,” which supported clemency and pardons for over 100 people.
Additionally, she published a book and ended up partnering with the philanthropic organization “Stand Together,” which “helps America’s boldest changemakers tackle the root causes of our country’s biggest problems,” according to its website bio.
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