Kim Kardashian visits Trump in the White House

The star was there to discuss the case of a woman jailed over a drug offence

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian departs the West Wing after meetings at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 30, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
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Reality television personality Kim Kardashian West visited the White House on Wednesday to discuss her campaign to help a 63-year-old woman serving a life sentence without parole for a drug offence.

Kardashian West, dressed in black, arrived at a side entrance to the West Wing late on Wednesday afternoon. She was in the building for just under an hour.

She planned to raise the case of Alice Marie Johnson, a grandmother imprisoned for a first-time drug offence, according to a statement from one of Johnson’s attorneys released in advance. Kardashian West was to meet both President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, the statement said.

Earlier in the day White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the visit, but would not say who Kardashian West would be meeting or what would be discussed.

Kardashian West’s visit came after her husband, rapper Kanye West, publicly embraced Mr Trump in a series of tweets late last month.

Mr Trump responded in kind, thanking West for a tweet in which the Grammy-winning musician praised the president’s “dragon energy.”

Mr Kushner has led a White House effort to build support for legislation that would help prisoners as they re-enter society and better develop work skills while they are incarcerated.

Some critics of the effort say it doesn’t go far enough and want lawmakers to include reductions in sentencing guidelines, a step opposed by the White House and the Justice Department.