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ENTERTAINMENT

Van Jones Snares Kim Kardashian West Post-Pardon Interview for CNN

By Brian Steinberg

LOS ANGELES (Variety) – Kim Kardashian West will give an exclusive interview to ’s Van Jones about her role in securing the presidential pardon of Alice Marie Johnson, the nonviolent drug offender who has served more than 21 years after being convicted on drug-possession charges.

Jones says he has been working with The Dream Corps, a social justice advocacy organization he founded, to secure a pardon for Johnson. “We despaired we’d ever get her out,” said Jones. People working with Jones and Kardashian West on this pardon came into contact with each other, he said, spurring the chance for an interview.  “I don’t know anybody who can say no to a Kardashian,” he said.

Jones is expected to interview Kardashian West tomorrow. Part of the exchange will air during the 10 p.m. hour of “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon” Thursday evening, while a fuller version of the interview is slated to run during the June 16th broadcast of his own “The Show” on CNN. “You’ve seen very few celebrities walk into that Trump White House. She went into the lion’s den, and she came out with a victory,” Jones said. “She was ridiculed for even trying.”

“Ms. Johnson has accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has been a model prisoner over the past two decades. Despite receiving a life sentence, Alice worked hard to rehabilitate herself in prison, and act as a mentor to her fellow inmates,” the White House said in a Wednesday statement, adding: “While this Administration will always be very tough on crime, it believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance.”
Through various specials and series, Jones has tried to take CNN viewers to meet people from across the nation in hopes of spurring a dialogue between U.S. citizens who hold different beliefs around a variety of issues. He expects to talk to Kardashian West about how she got involved in this issue and “what her process was” in making a case to the White House for a pardon.

Jones said his Dream Corps had been working on a pardon for Johnson for some time, but believed that after Trump took office it would not happen. Kardashian West managed to meet with the President last week and the White House announced the pardon Wednesday. “We thought we’d never get this thing done, but we kept fighting, and we discovered that Jared Kushner –  because his dad went to prison – is very passionate about this issue,” Jones recounted. “We’ve got 99 conflicts with them, but this ain’t one.”

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