Alice Marie Johnson, who had her sentence commuted by U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks at the 2019 White House Prison Reform Summit and First Step Act celebration. Hosted in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., On Monday, April 1, 2019. (Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Trump has been on a spree this week: He’s pardoned or commuted the sentences of a host of people this week, tax fraudsters and TV personalities among them.
So, how do you get one of these pardons?
In my new video, I point out that if you’re Black, you should probably know Trump’s “Pardon Czar,” Alice Marie Johnson. Trump just pardoned rapper NBA YoungBoy, who spent time in prison for gun charges, and Larry Hoover, founder of the Gangster Disciples gang. Johnson’s fingerprints appear to be all over the pardons. NBA YoungBoy even thanked her in a statement after his release.
Johnson herself was actually pardoned by Trump back in 2020. When she was released from prison in 2018, she’d served more than 20 years of a life sentence for her involvement in a multi-national cocaine operation in Memphis, TN, which had connections to a Columbian drug cartel. Her story was championed by the ACLU, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and others. Now, her Instagram is full of pictures with Black rappers and entertainers, appearing to help turn pardons into loyalty to Trump from some Black entertainers, drawing more Black voters into his orbit.
Meanwhile, Trump is firing entire civil rights departments, militarizing the police, and ending corruption investigations into police departments known for targeting Black people.
It’s a bizarre sleight of hand. “Hey, look over here, I pardoned a Black person!”—while making it easier and easier to imprison Black people.
