#Alice Johnson praises President Trump’s ‘compassion’ in moving RNC speech

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Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via AP

WASHINGTON — Alice Johnson, the woman sentenced to life in prison before being freed by President Trump in 2018, praised his compassion in an emotional speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

“I was once told that the only way I would be reunited with my family as a corpse,” Johnson said on the final night of the Republican convention, themed “Land of Greatness.”

“But through the grace of God and the love and compassion of President Donald John Trump, I stand before you tonight and I assure you, I am not a ghost. I am alive, I am whole and most importantly, I am free,” she continued.

In 1997, Johnson, 65, was sentenced to life in prison with no parole as a first-time, non-violent offender for her role in a large cocaine-dealing ring.

She spent 22 years in jail and unsuccessfully appealed the Obama-Biden administration to commute her sentence before reality TV star Kim Kardashian became interested in her case.

Kardashian lobbied Trump to free Johnson and in 2018, he officially commuted her sentence.

“What I did was wrong, I made decisions that I regret. They say you do the crime, you do the time. However that time should be fair and just. We all make mistakes — none of us want to be defined forever based on our worst decision,” Johnson continued on Thursday.

“When President Trump heard about me and the injustice of my story, he saw me as a person. He had compassion,” she said.

Trump spoke about Johnson in his 2019 State of the Union address, saying he had been “deeply moved” by her story and described her as a “terrific woman.”

Earlier Thursday, The Post reported how Johnson was only sentenced to life because of a 1986 drug act co-authored by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden which drastically increased sentencing guidelines.

The mom-of-six has now become a criminal justice advocate and the face of the Trump administration’s criminal reforms.

In a White House appearance last year, she thanked Trump for believing in her and called for other people to be given “a second chance.”