Kim Kardashian meets with Donald Trump to ask for pardon for great-grandma serving life

Kim Kardashian met with Donald Trump on Wednesday to request a pardon for a 62-year-old great-grandmother who is serving life in prison.

The reality TV star and her attorney, Shawn Holley, spoke with the president about the pardon of low-level drug offender Alice Marie Johnson, who has served more than 20 years in prison for a first-time drug offence.

The US president tweeted that they had a "great meeting" discussing prison reform and sentencing, alongside a picture of the two of them posing in the Oval Office.

Making the trip without the Keeping Up With The Kardashians cameras, afterwards, the 37-year-old celebrity also took to social media to thank Trump for his time, and reiterate her hope that clemency would be granted to Johnson.

Kardashian had been speaking with senior advisor and son-in-law to President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, about the case for months, having been put in contact with him by his wife, and Trump's daughter, Ivanka.

Johnson was given life without the possibility of parole when she was convicted of drug conspiracy and money laundering in 1998, this being her first offence and a non-violent one.

Her story first caught the TV personality's eye back in October 2017 when she saw a video on social media produced by Mic.com which made a case for her release.

In the footage, Johnson - who became a drug mule after going through a divorce, losing her job and the death of her youngest child - explains the effect that prison has had on her family and exactly how one of the "worst mistakes" of her life landed her behind bars.

"One of my family members one time, and I’ll never forget this, they said that coming to visit me in prison is like visiting a gravesite,” she said. “They said that they can see the place where my body lay but they could never take me home again."

Earlier in May, Kardashian - a Hillary Clinton supporter in the 2016 election - confirmed she had been talking to the White House about the case for a while, stating: "I’ve been in communication with the White House and trying to bring her case to the president’s desk and figure out how we can get her out. That’s such a huge step from where we started with that not even being on their radar."

According to the 62-year-old great-grandmother's daughters, the process of fighting for her release has sped up greatly since Kardashian's involvement, with the star paying for a new legal team for Johnson.

Furthermore, prison reform is said to have always been a key issue for Kushner, whose father, Charles, spent more than a year in a federal prison camp in 2005 and 2006 on charges of tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and witness tampering.

Trump's son-in-law is said to have carried a wallet his father made for him in prison for years after and when he joined the White House as a senior adviser, he vowed to help improve the prison system.

Kushner's First Step Act, which ensures that $50m goes towards rehabilitative programmes for inmates, passed in the US House of Representatives last week.