Prez Trump formally announces Alice Marie Johnson will be his "pardon czar"

As reported in this Reuters piece, "Donald Trump on Thursday said he had made Alice Johnson, a Tennessee woman who was serving a life sentence for a drug crime before Trump commuted her sentence, a 'pardon czar' to advise him on further acts of clemency." Here is more:

Trump made the announcement at a Black History Month reception at the White House, roughly four weeks after he returned to office and began implementing sweeping rollbacks of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the federal government.

Trump, who commuted Johnson's life sentence in 2018 and granted her a full pardon in 2020, asked her to advise him on other cases where pardons were warranted.

"Alice was in prison for doing something that today probably wouldn't even be prosecuted," Trump told the crowd of mostly African American supporters, including golfer Tiger Woods, who joined the president on stage.

"You've been an inspiration to people, and we're going to be listening to your recommendation on pardons," he said to Johnson. "You're going to find people just like you."

As set out in this post from October 2018, Alice Marie Johnson authored a Fox News column not long after she was released from from prison that urged Prez Trump to consider many more federal prisoners for clemency.  Here is a small portion of that lengthy piece:

Many other nonviolent offenders in federal prisons today are — like me — no danger to society, and I look forward to having President Trump and members of his administration examine their cases.  Many of these men and women have spent long years in prison and deserve to receive clemency or a commutation of their sentences from the president.

Freeing these offenders early would be an act of justice and mercy, as granting me my freedom was.  And early release would save taxpayers the cost of feeding and housing these people for years after they have paid their debt to society....

The president has a power that the Constitution grants to him alone to both show mercy and deliver justice for people who were given excessively long sentences for crimes involving no violence.  The people who deserve to be freed are those who have long since recognized their mistakes and who have rehabilitated themselves during their time in prison.

I will never forget what President Trump did for me. He changed my life and gave me the opportunity to fulfill my potential, and now he has the chance to do the same for thousands more.

As this piece highlights, Alice Marie Johnson has been advocating for criminal justice reform and clemency since she was released after 22 years in federal prison, and I expect she will make lots of clemency recommendations to Prez Trump.  Prez Trump seems to quite enjoy his unlimited power to grant clemencies, so we might reasonably expect that he will act on many of Alice Marie Johnson's recommendations.