The Keeping Up With The Kardashians season finale includes the tear-jerking moment when Kim Kardashian West told Alice Johnson she was being released after 21 years in prison for a non-violent drug crime.
E! Network released the scene early, and it starts with Kardashian talking to her attorney Shawn Holley during a photo shoot.
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“This is so crazy. We did it!” Kardashian told Holley. “I am at a shoot so I cannot cry, but this is so crazy! I cannot believe we pulled this off.”
“There is no way this would have happened without you,” Holley said.
Johnson, 63, then joined the phone call with her attorneys, and was overwhelmed by the news. Johnson’s attorneys did not tell her President Donald Trump granted her clemency before Kardashian called.
“Oh my gosh, Alice, you’re out!” Kardashian said.
Johnson then shouted with joy, while Kardashian tries her best not to cry.
“I’m sorry, I thought you knew,” Kardashian told Johnson. “The news just broke, the president just called me and he told me that you are out. He signed the papers, it’s been released to the press and everything.”
The season finale also included the moment Kardashian finally met Johnson in person after trying to get her out of prison. Cameras caught up with Johnson, who lives in Memphis, after her release.
“People recognize me now and they’re in tears hugging me and telling me how happy they are that I’ve come back home,” Johnson told Kardashian. “I don’t know these people, but they’re so happy for me. It’s just love, it’s like a lovefest.”
Kardashian said Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, told her Trump “doesn’t want to stop” opening up his heart after helping Johnson.
“Jared [Kushner] was texting me and said, ‘Honestly we couldn’t have picked a better person to open up his heart and for this to get started because now he doesn’t want to stop,’” Kardashian told Johnson. “That’s all you, so thank you.”
Kardashian said the experience taught her how “messed up” the U.S. justice system.
“There’s so much that has to be done and I know Alice’s case is the one that spoke to me, but now that that is in me I can’t stop at Alice,” Kardashian said in the episode. “There has to be so much more that I can do.”
Kardashian spent part of the first six months of the year trying to get Johnson released. She first met with the president in Washington D.C. in May to discuss getting clemency for Johnson. In June, Trump officially granted Johnson clemency.
“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,” the White House said in a statement at the time.
“So grateful to [Donald Trump], Jared Kushner & to everyone who has showed compassion & contributed countless hours to this important moment for Ms. Alice Marie Johnson. Her commutation is inspirational & gives hope to so many others who are also deserving of a second chance,” Kardashian tweeted on June 6.
Kardashian continued, “I hope to continue this important work by working together with organizations who have been fighting this fight for much longer than I have and deserve the recognition.”
Johnson was convicted in 1996 for her involvement in a cocaine trafficking organization in Memphis. She received a lifetime prison sentence and became a grandmother and great-grandmother while behind bars. Although advocacy groups pushed for President Barack Obama to grant Johnson clemency, no efforts were successful before Kardashian’s personal appeal to Trump.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians airs on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on E! Network.
Photo credit: E! Network