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FEATURING JESSELYN MCCURDY – The US Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping criminal justice reform bill with bipartisan support. The House had already passed a version of the bill, which extensively revises prison and sentencing guidelines. The President’s support of the bill, called the First Step Act, resulted from an unlikely scenario – pressure from his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as well as the liberal CNN commentator Van Jones, and the reality TV star Kim Kardashian, who used the case of a 63-year woman named Alice Marie Johnson to change the President’s mind.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reluctantly backed the bill in turn, and got it passed through the senate 87-12, with some conservative Republicans refusing to support it. Trump is expected to sign the bill into law this week.

Jesselyn McCurdy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office.

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