Kim Kardashian West is making her case to become a lawyer after working with the White House to help commute the life sentence of a first-time nonviolent drug offender.
“I know I got so many times people would say to me, ‘Don’t go to the White House, your career will be over, don’t go there,’” the reality star said about critics who tried to dissuade her from working with President Trump’s administration on clemency.
“And I just kind of weighed the decision where it was like … to save a life or to get maybe bad tweets about me or a bad news story for a few days. I guarantee you the people sitting behind bars do not care who the president is. They just want that relief. And so if I could have done that, I don’t care,” she told Van Jones on “The Van Jones Show,” airing Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on CNN.
In June 2018, President Trump commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a first-time nonviolent drug offender, a week after Kardashian West pleaded her case during a meeting with the President on prison reform.
Since Johnson’s commutation, Kardashian has worked with lawyers and activists, including Jones, on a national bipartisan advocacy group on criminal justice reform.
In an interview with Vogue magazine, Kardashian West said she began an apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco last summer and wants to take the California bar exam in 2022.
“I don’t want to be put in a box,” she said. “I saw a comment where someone said, ‘You need to stay in your lane. You can have ambitions but don’t be too ambitious.’ … I read it to my husband in bed, and I was just like, ‘This will even push me harder,’” she said.
She said her family, including husband Kanye West, is supportive of her aspirations.
“Coming home, I have my backpack. [My kids] have their backpack. They’re studying, I’m studying. And them seeing that I have this filming career and I’m having makeup samples tested all over my arm while I’m trying to read my flashcards … I hope that they get inspired to know that they can put in the hard work,” she said.
Kardashian West also cited her father Robert Kardashian, who gained national attention as O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney, as inspiration for studying to become a lawyer.
“It’s in me,” she said.
For the full interview, tune in to “The Van Jones Show” Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on CNN.