We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
TRUMP NAMES FORMER PRISONER ALICE JOHNSON ‘PARDON CZAR’
President Trump announced last Thursday that Alice Johnson, whose 1996 life sentence for a cocaine conspiracy was commuted in 2018, would serve as White House “pardon czar,” a position in which she will “advise him on criminal justice issues,” according to the NY Times.
No one knows exactly what this position entails or its significance but having a White House liaison responsible for clemency issues and who has the President’s ear is unprecedented in modern times. Still, many federal prisoners are starting to think that Jefferson Airplane had it right in “White Rabbit” when it advised, “Go ask Alice – I think she’ll know.”
After Kim Kardashian talked Trump into commuting Johnson’s sentence, Johnson initially convinced Trump to grant clemency to a couple of her FCI Aliceville cellies. Later, at Trump’s request, she suggested the names of people to receive clemency at the end of his first term.
The New York Times reported that in announcing her appointment, Trump said Johnson “would be advising him on cases of people convicted of nonviolent crimes who had gotten sentences not likely be handed down today. Ms. Johnson’s case was seen as an example of draconian sentencing laws that disproportionately affected nonviolent offenders, particularly women and members of minority groups.”
Trump told reporters that “Alice was in prison for doing something that today probably wouldn’t even be prosecuted.” That’s probably not quite correct: Her indictment, which named 16 defendants, described Alice as a leader in a multi-million-dollar cocaine ring, and detailed dozens of drug transactions and deliveries. At sentencing, her judge said she was “the quintessential entrepreneur” in an operation that dealt in 2,000 to 3,000 kilos of cocaine, with a “very significant” impact on the community.
Still, Johnson’s post-sentencing record was exceptional, and her work since her release seven years ago has been tireless. “Alice Johnson has been a relentless advocate for second chances, and her own story is a testament to the power of redemption,” Weldon Angelos, another Trump clemency recipient and founder of the criminal justice organization The Weldon Project, told Marijuana Moment last week.
The Times said that Johnson’s appointment illustrates how Trump’s
approach to criminal justice reform is rife with contradictions. He signed the bipartisan First Step Act, which aimed to reduce prison sentences for certain nonviolent drug crimes, during his first term, then told advisers privately soon afterward that he regretted it, according to multiple officials working with him at the time… During his 2024 campaign, he called for shooting thieves who steal from drugstores and for the death penalty for drug traffickers and dealers. Then, in one of his first acts as president in his second term, he issued a grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — violent and nonviolent alike.”
Angelos, however, is focused on the appointment rather than the President’s record on criminal justice. “The creation of a pardon czar position is a significant step in prioritizing clemency and criminal justice reform,” he said, “signaling a commitment to addressing injustices in the system and ensuring that mercy is applied more fairly and efficiently.”
MSNBC complained, “It’s not clear that this position will have real power. Ultimately, the president determines who receives pardons, so it’s possible this role will have as much actual authority as Trump’s Diet Coke retriever. But it seems pretty obvious what he’s after with this stunt. Trump has perverted the pardon process, most glaringly with his pardons of violent insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan 6. And now he has made a sympathetic figure the face of that process.”
Prisoners and their loved ones are wondering how Johnson’s appointment might upend the current clemency system, which has been characterized over the past decade by Byzantine review procedures while thousands of petitions gathered dust in the DOJ Office of Pardon Attorney. Must a commutation petition still begin with a filing with OPA? Will clemency petitions now be routed directly to Johnson’s White House office?
No one knows. However, a Substack blogger on healthcare already has solicited people to contact Johnson to urge that a father and his sons convicted of selling toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure through their online church be pardoned.
New York Times, Trump Names ‘Pardon Czar’ to Advise on Clemency (February 21, 2025)
New York Times, Trump May Name a Woman He Once Pardoned to Be His ‘Pardon Czar’ (February 18, 2025)
Marijuana Moment, Trump Confirms He’s Appointing Former Drug Prisoner He Freed As New ‘Pardon Czar’ (February 20, 2025)
MSNBC, In ongoing stunt, Trump names Alice Johnson his ‘pardon czar’ (February 21, 2025)
Robert Yoho, Surviving Healthcare (Feb 22)
– Thomas L. Root