Alice Johnson Freed After Trump Commutates Her Sentence for Drug Abuse.
LEMON: Breaking news as Alice Johnson is a free woman, released tonight from federal prison after President Trump commuted her sentence. She is a first-time nonviolent drug offender who spent 21 years of a life time behind bars. Her release coming one week after reality T.V. star Kim Kardashian met with the President to personally plea Johnson's case. So let's talk about this with CNN Political Commentators, Joan Walsh, Van Jones, and Mike Shields. Good evening. Welcome to the program. Sp, Van, was it -- I know that this was Kim Kardashian visited the President, I think obviously urged the President to do this, but also, wasn't she brought up in a meeting with you, and Jared Kushner, good for Kim, but there were other folks who were involved in getting this done, correct?</s>VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. Listen, this is something that people should be very happy about. First of all, a number of factors came together. The family of Miss Johnson fought like cats and dogs for years. Young female attorneys like Brittany Barnett, Jessica Jackson Sloan, and others talking fought on this for a long time. A viral video that was created by young people went all over the place, and got this on the radar screen.</s>LEMON: Is that one that Kim saw? Is that out Kim saw it?</s>JONES: Exactly. Listen, you'll never know. The mainstream media wasn't covering it, but it went crazy on a viral video. You never know when you post something what's going to happen. And then Jared Kushner inside the White House says this was an important issue. I mean, his father had been to prison. Listen, you can't look at a 63-year-old grandmother who will be -- who will die in prison, never get parole ever because of a nonviolent drug offense, you know, a year -- a decade ago.</s>LEMON: OK.</s>JONES: And so it all came together, and you got to give credit to these young female attorneys like Jessica Jackson Sloan and Brittany Barnett, and you've got to give credits to these young video activists, and you got to give credit to Jared Kushner. But Kim Kardashian walked in that White House, a very few celebrities, and athletes would do that. And she -- and she came out with a victory. You got to give her credit.</s>LEMON: OK. So, listen, why didn't -- I'm going to bring the rest of the rest of the guess in. Since you worked for the Obama administration, why didn't President Obama do it?</s>JONES: President Obama did more pardons, and more commutations than anybody. There is not -- and he had a huge operation to try to get that figured out. On this particular case, I felt, and a lot of people felt that they were too cautious because she had some negative associations earlier. And so they said we just don't feel comfortable with her. But you know what, so many groups that said had her at the number one position on their list for commutations under Obama. I'm glad it got done under Trump. And I'm very, very proud of the fact that you can still eke out, at least a chicken McNugget worth of challenges even in the Trump era.</s>LEMON: So here is -- this is a -- and according to the senior Obama administration official, the Department of Justice recommended denying the petitions had never reached the White House. And a source tells CNN the prosecutor said that Johnson was heavily involved in a long standing drug cartel that was connected to a lot of violence, and crimes. She was never charged with that. But it did come up as you said in the DOJ research. So, Mike, my question to you, does this White House know all of the facts if they aren't going through this official review process that all administrations, except for this one?</s>MIKE SHIELDS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know. I think the President did a lot of this on his gut. And I appreciate Van for recognizes this is a good thing. He gave credit to a lot of people, he forget to mention President Trump. He should get credit for this as well, I believe.</s>LEMON: Fair enough. Fair enough.</s>SHIELDS: And so look, I mean, this president is prone to people giving him an emotional appeal, and I think that that's what happened here. I think he heard this himself. He follows his gut. He doesn't follow the same procedures that had been well discussed. It doesn't go through the same Justice Department vetting. But he's someone whose -- who ran an entire, you know, huge international company using his gut, that's his style, that's how he's managing the presidency in the White House. And he made this decision based on this as well. And I suspect he'll probably do some more of that.</s>LEMON: So, Joan, here is -- this is what David Axelrod tweeted. He said, new White House reality show, celebrity pardons, Kardashian, Martha Stewart. It had everything, featuring the biggest reality show host of them all, Donald -- @RealDonaldTrump, with his new signature line, you're pardoned. He has a point there, is that Trump's new favor line, you're pardoned?</s>JOAN WALSH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well look, I think that I'm thrilled for Miss Johnson, and for her family, and for the lawyers who worked so hard.</s>LEMON: That goes without saying it.</s>WALSH: But it goes without saying. But something is -- something different is going on here. And she stands out for -- you know, for what she did. The other people that he is pardoning, and talking about pardoning it's as though he's trying to give messages to the people who are -- who are caught up in the Mueller probe, and he's trying to let them know, I can pardon you too. We've got people who got campaign finance violations. We've got people who are charged with lying to federal authorities. So, you know, she's great, I'm happy it happened the way it did. But everybody else think that he's talking about pardoning he's giving messages to his --</s>LEMON: To your point, Joe Arpaio, criminal intent, Christian Mark, mishandled a classified information, Scooter Libby perjuring of such injustice, Jack Johnson was a posthumous, and Dinesh D'Souza, illegal campaign contribution.</s>WALSH: Right.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>WALSH: So it's like --</s>JONES: Can I say something?</s>LEMON: Yes, go for it.</s>JONES: Yes, look -- I mean, here's what I think that the Trump administration can now do going forward, and we should give credit -- listen when Trump goes --</s>LEMON: Hey, Van -- Van, can you hold that because they're telling me I got to get to a break. I'll give it to you. You will tell about it on the other side, OK?</s>JONES: Yes.</s>LEMON: We'll be right back.