Kim Kardashian West made her second Oval Office visit to speak with President Trump on behalf of a prison inmate Wednesday, joined by former U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp, who personally asked Trump to reverse a life sentence he issued.
Kardashian West and Sharp were accompanied by #cut50 co-founder and Democratic pundit Van Jones for a discussion that lasted about 20-30 minutes, Sharp told the Washington Examiner.
Trump asked about Chris Young, 30, who was arrested at 22 and received a life sentence for dealing drugs, but also brought up Matthew Charles, who returned to prison this year after a court found his drug sentence was reduced in error, Sharp said.
“We talked about Chris Young and Matthew Charles. He clearly had read the files,” Sharp said. “He asked some factual questions [and said] ‘tell me a little more about these people’.”
Sharp, who sentenced Young to life in prison, previously said he had no choice but to give the penalty, which he called “way out of whack.” He resigned his lifetime judicial post last year and recently partnered with Kardashian West to overturn the sentence.
Sharp said he told Trump that he was the judge who sentenced Young and that “I think it carries some weight. … Nobody, probably, knows the case better than I do.” A White House photographer snapped photos inside the Oval Office, he said.
Young’s case previously was presented to White House counsel Don McGahn in June by a right-leaning policy advocate, after McGahn requested lists of worthy clemency cases. McGahn reacted favorably to the case, a source said.
Trump has been more generous than recent predecessors with clemency early in his first term. He has released four people from prison, two with pardons, and gave five other pardons. After releasing drug convict Alice Johnson in June at Kardashian West’s urging, Trump generated enormous enthusiasm saying he wanted to release other inmates treated “unfairly.”
Kardashian West’s visit to the Oval Office on Wednesday followed a larger meeting convened by Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who gathered a dozen prominent clemency advocates at the White House to discuss structural reform that could make it easier for people to get a pardon or win release from prison.
The Roosevelt Room meeting was attended by Kushner’s wife Ivanka Trump and an ideologically diverse group of advocates, including Federalist Society vice president Leonard Leo and Jones.
Kardashian West attended, as did policy specialists including University of St. Thomas law professor Mark Osler, who helped shape the Obama administration’s late-term Clemency Initiative, and Heritage Foundation scholar Paul Larkin, who has proposed a new commission to replace the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney.
Jessica Jackson Sloan, another co-founder of #cut50, said there seemed to be consensus among attendees that the current clemency process isn’t working.
Sloan said she left the White House meeting with the impression that Kushner was “looking to find the best process possible” for clemency reform and that he’s “looking at all models,” including mechanisms in states, some of which have apolitical commissions.
The reform meeting led by Kushner lasted about 90 minutes, Sloan said.
“I’m optimistic that something good will happen,” Larkin said after the meeting.
Mark Holden, the general counsel of Koch Industries, said discussion featured “brainstorming focused on the clemency process and ways to streamline the system and make it more efficient and effective for individuals who are worthy of a commutation or pardon.”
Since the release of Johnson in June, policy advocates have been sending the White House lists of worthy candidates, but Trump has not opened the floodgates with additional reprieves, thus far granting clemency almost exclusively at the urging of celebrities or political allies.
Sloan could not recall specific names of clemency aspirants that were mentioned at the larger meeting, but said it was clear that Kardashian West “thoroughly immersed herself in this issue” and “was able to point to ways for improving the process.”
Ivanka Trump, who was not listed on a White House-issued event description, spoke about prisoners rejoining the workforce and making sure that the investment in clemency recipients pays off, Sloan said.
Anti-abortion leader Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr., recently gave Kushner’s office a list of clemency recommendations and told the Washington Examiner there appeared to be an orderly internal review process. Many attendees said, however, they did not receive the impression that the White House already has an operational in-house process.
The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney currently takes the lead on clemency applications. Critics say the current process is inherently biased against inmates that were prosecuted by the department.
Attendees of the Kushner-led meeting included U.S. Sentencing Commission member Rachel Barkow, a New York University law professor sharply critical of the Obama administration for not being more generous with clemency, and Brittany Barnett, an attorney for both Johnson and Young.
White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement that the Kushner-led discussion was “mainly focused on ways to improve that process to ensure deserving cases receive a fair review.”
