As President Donald Trump introduced his pardons for actuality tv stars Todd and Julie Chrisley throughout an Oval Workplace name on Tuesday, his newly minted “pardon czar,” Alice Johnson, stood proudly beside him.
Trump pardoned Johnson in 2018 after she served greater than 20 years of her life sentence in jail for a 1996 drug trafficking conviction. The Mississippi grandmother turned the face of Trump’s First Step Act, a bipartisan legislation that made a number of reforms to the felony justice system, together with decreasing felony penalties for nonviolent crimes.
“They got fairly harsh therapy from what I’m listening to,” Trump informed the Chrisleys’ daughter and son, Savannah and Grayson, throughout his Oval Workplace cellphone name.
Todd and Julie Chrisley had been convicted in 2022 for monetary fraud and tax evasion. Johnson, sporting all pink as she flanked the president, was credited by Trump for making the pardons for the Chrisleys doable.
“Alice had quite a bit to do with this,” stated President Trump.
BREAKING!
President Trump calls @_ItsSavannah_ to tell her that he can be granting full pardons to her dad and mom, Todd and Julie Chrisley!
Trump Is aware of Greatest! pic.twitter.com/j5WPMOOQ7L
— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) Could 27, 2025
Earlier than her latest elevation on the Trump White Home, Johnson spent her life after jail as a vocal felony justice reform advocate. Critics say that whereas Johnson’s advocacy is noble, it falls flat with a few of President Trump’s newest pardons, which included Paul Walczak, a former nursing house government who pled responsible to withholding staff’ taxes used to fund his luxurious life-style; and Scott Jenkins, a former sheriff in Culpeper County, Va., who was convicted in 2024 of marketing campaign bribery and conspiracy.
The aforementioned pardon recipients from Trump, amongst others, had been supporters of Trump or had familial connections to those that supported his presidential campaigns. They had been additionally pardoned for white-collar crimes just like these for which Trump was convicted or accused of committing.
On Wednesday, Trump additionally pardoned rapper NBA YoungBoy, a choice that was much less controversial and certain a well-liked one amongst Black and younger Individuals with an affinity for his music.
Whereas Trump’s commuting of the federal sentence of former Chicago gang chief Larry Hoover was embraced by some, it was dismissed by others as “political theatre,” as Hoover will nonetheless should serve out the remainder of his 200-year sentence in state jail. NBA YoungBoy and Larry Hoover’s son each credited Johnson for the clemency.
“President Trump, throughout his first administration, was sensible in selecting her as the one who would mainly stick with it his marketing campaign for the First Step Act,” stated political strategist Ameshia Cross, who famous that making Johnson the White Home’s pardon czar is supposed to “ship a message.”
“If Donald Trump is sweet at one factor, it’s actually messaging and messaging technique. He’s utilizing someone who can communicate to the Black group, but it surely’s additionally as an emblem to say that she was performed flawed by the system,” Cross informed theGrio. “He’s hoping that that transfers to those people that he has most not too long ago pardoned.”
Whereas Johnson “understands the calls from the Black group,” Trump’s pardons weren’t associated to Black and brown people who’ve been disproportionately sentenced because of the failed conflict on medicine, however reasonably had been “mirrored by rich white Individuals,” she stated.
“These are people who’re making the most of the widespread man. These are people who skirted taxes. These are people who scammed for thousands and thousands of {dollars}–so it’s not the identical factor,” Cross argued.
Reecie Colbert, political skilled and host of Sirius XM’s “The Reecie Colbert Present,” argued that Johnson’s function displays President Trump’s cleverness and the way he has “tokenized Black individuals in his orbit.”
“Alice Johnson represents mercy on Trump’s behalf, and so she’s there to characterize mercy, particularly, towards Black individuals. However she’s additionally there to offer cowl,” Colbert informed theGrio.
She defined, “She’s there to offer cowl for this administration ending consent decrees for police departments that arose out of the racial reckoning behind George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. She’s there to offer cowl for them retracting investigative findings of discrimination within the Tyre Nichols case. She’s there to be that cowl for all of those egregiously racist and hostile insurance policies towards the Black group.”
Colbert stated that she understands why Alice Johnson “feels indebted to Trump” and would possibly really feel that there’s a “righteousness in what she’s doing,” however added, “There’s nothing righteous about it.” She described Johnson standing by a few of President Trump’s insurance policies as “embarrassing” and “disgraceful.”
“I’m joyful that she received the mercy that she deserved, however to offer cowl for this racist administration, which is empowering cops to proceed to brutalize and discriminate towards Black individuals in Black communities, I believe is appalling and unconscionable,” she stated. “As a result of she’s Grandma Alice, it doesn’t make it OK.”
