Crystal Munoz, who President Trump commuted the remaining time for a supervised release from prison last week, told Fox & Friends Weekend on Sunday that she “was definitely too convicted” for a marijuana offense.
“I was definitely doomed and there are thousands of women and men who are like me who are serving very severe sentences for the crimes they have committed,” said Munoz on Sunday.
“You don’t realize until you get caught up in the judicial system how the laws are written or how it could affect you and it’s very difficult to understand and very difficult to get out of once you’re inside the judicial system in the prison system.”
Muñoz, who received clemency from President Trump for the first time in February, told Fox News’ ‘Overnumbered Overtime’ at the time that she “would really love” to give President Trump “a big hug.”
The mother of two in Texas was convicted in 2007 of conspiring to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana and later sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison.
In court cases, Munoz said his only role was to draw a map that others allegedly used to transport marijuana from Mexico to Texas and said his lawyer did not adequately defend it at trial.
Munoz found a defender in Alice Johnson, Tennessee’s grandmother who appeared in a Super Bowl commercial that highlighted President Trump’s background in criminal justice issues.
Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence in June 2018 after his case caught the attention of leading figures, including Kim Kardashian West and Trump’s son-in-law and his senior adviser Jared Kushner.
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Munoz had a 5-month-old daughter when she started her prison sentence and gave birth to another daughter while she was behind bars.
Last week, President Trump granted total forgiveness to 15 people and commuted part or all of the sentences of five others, including Munoz’s remaining period of supervised freedom.
The president previously commuted her prison sentence after serving 12 years in prison.
“I was very relieved, just to say the least … because even though I was released from prison, I still had a ball and a probation chain and I was very limited in what I could and couldn’t do, so it was like a major weight was taken from me, “said Munoz on Sunday.
“During her time in prison, she mentored people who worked to improve their lives, volunteered for a hospice program and demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to rehabilitation,” according to a White House press release.
“I don’t know if people know, but there are a lot of people in prisons who are dying and dying daily and of course they have no relatives and the prisoners look after them, and this is something that I … volunteered for and I experienced first hand, “said Munoz.
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In the final weeks of his presidency, Trump also granted pardons and commutations to former members of Congress convicted of corruption charges and two people accused in the Russian investigation, George Papadopoulos and Alexander Van Der Zwaan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.