President Donald Trump’s newly-appointed “pardon czar” outlined the priorities for her role Monday, telling “America’s Newsroom” she is “ready” and eager to get started.
“I plan to fulfill the trust that the president has placed in me,” said Alice Marie Johnson, a former prisoner pardoned by Trump during his first administration.
“He’s given me specific marching orders and, actually, I’ve been working on this nonstop since my release. This is really a continuation of the work that I’ve already been doing. I’ve brought many pardon cases before the president in the past and one thing I can say about President Trump [is], he was very interested in their families. He wanted to know if they have a solid reentry program in place,” she added.
Trump commuted Johnson’s life sentence for nonviolent drug trafficking in 2018 after she served 21 years in an Alabama prison.
A series of unfortunate events, including the death of her son, financial troubles and a divorce, led to her involvement with cocaine dealers in the 1990s in Memphis, Tennessee. While Johnson claims she never “touched, saw or sold a single drug,” she admitted to assisting in communications.
Trump announced the great-grandmother’s appointment during a Black History Month event at the White House Thursday.
Johnson said she aims to make sure she recommends the best pardon candidates to Trump, and that means assessing their readiness to reintegrate into their communities, including an available job and a home waiting for them.
“[I want to make sure] that they have the ability not only for a second chance, but for their best chance of success,” she said.
“Then it takes follow-up because I don’t want to help people come home, and then at the same time, they’re set up for failure. We’ll be making sure that we check in with them. Not in concert with probation, not to catch them doing something wrong, but to make sure that they have things that will help them make [the] right decisions.”
Johnson said the various support methods available to pardoned individuals would include mental health services and a focus on family and faith support.
Trump issued 144 pardons during his first White House term. Hours after returning to office on Jan. 20, he pardoned nearly all 1,500 Jan. 6 participants.
Fox News’ Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
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