Kim Kardashian Returns to the White House to Discuss Criminal Justice Reform

Over four years after she first made an appearance to meet with then-president Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian headed back to the White House.

On Thursday, April 25, The Kardashians star, 43, participated in a roundtable discussion with Vice President Kamala Harris, White House public engagement director Steve Benjamin and several recently pardoned former inmates, all of whom were there to discuss criminal justice reform.

Opening the meeting, Harris expressed gratitude for Kardashian’s activism for prisoners in the U.S.

“I want to thank Kim for your advocacy and for using your platform in a way that has really lifted up the importance of talking about and being dedicated to second chances,” Harris said in a video of the meeting shared by the White House on YouTube.

Reality television star and businesswoman Kim Kardashian (2nd L) joins Vice President Kamala Harris, White House Office of Public Engagement Director Steve Benjamin (R) and Jason Hernandez as they participate in a roundtable discussion on criminal justice reform at the White House.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty


During the meeting, Kardashian and Harris discussed the SKIMS founder’s past work lobbying Trump to grant clemency to incarcerated men and women. In 2018, she made headlines when she successfully campaigned for Trump to pardon Alice Marie Johnson, an Alabama woman who was given a life sentence in the 1990s for a first-time nonviolent drug offense. She later did the same thing for several inmates who were considered to be wrongly convicted or too harshly sentenced across the country, including advocating for stays of execution for inmates on death row.

“I am super honored to be here to hear your stories today and I think it’s so important to share them and amplify them because there are so many people that are in your position that could use the inspiration,” Kardashian said, addressing the newly-pardoned panelists, including Beverly Holcy, Jason Hernandez, Bobby Darrell Lowery, and Jesse Mosley, per USA Today. “I’m just here to help and spread the word.”

Harris also spoke about wanting to lessen or pardon the sentences for specific crimes — especially marijuana charges.

“For example, on marijuana, we have pardoned all people for federal convictions for simple marijuana possession,” she said, referring to the Biden administration’s work on the issue. “Many of you have heard me say I just don’t think people should have to go to jail for smoking weed. And these pardons have been issued as an extension of that approach.”

Chip Somodevilla/Getty


According to the outlet, Kardashian also spoke about how her advocacy work “inspired” her to pursue law.

“It was actually in this very room that I was in years ago, my first clemency meeting, that really inspired me to take a journey,” Kardashian said. “I didn’t know a whole lot, and I was inspired to go to law school and really further my education to see what I can do to help.”

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Kardashian revealed back in May 2019 that she was studying for the bar exam, following in the footsteps of her late father Robert Kardashian, who represented O.J. Simpson in the 1995 murder trial of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. In December of that year, she revealed that she had passed the “baby bar” exam.

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