CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A west suburban man received a call from Ivanka Trump Tuesday night, and now he's a free man.
Craig Cesal, 61, was granted clemency from his life prison sentence by now-former President Trump. Cesal had served nearly 20 years behind bars after being convicted of conspiracy to smuggle marijuana.
"To be honest, my feet haven’t hit the ground yet," Cesal said from his mother's home in Lombard. Because of the pandemic and medical conditions Cesal has, he was allowed on home confinement from the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. "There is a GPS tracking device on my ankle."
Cesal said he was asked Monday what the best number to call would be should the White House need to call him, so he said he was never far from his phone until he received the call from the former president's daughter.
Cesal had not had a criminal record before being sentence to life in prison for conspiracy to smuggle marijuana. He had owned truck repair shops in Lombard and Warrenville and would repair trucks used in the criminal operation.
Cesal said he had a real eye-opening experience one day while going to a Bureau of Prisons-approved doctor in the Pilsen neighborhood. He said he was walking down Western Avenue when he spotted a recreational cannabis shop. He said he saw people going in and out buying marijuana.
"It just amazed me that, I’m in prison and a prisoner for doing less," he said.
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His cause for clemency had been taken up in 2012 by criminal justice reform advocates including The Last Prisoner Project, an organization he now works for. He said he intends to work for criminal justice reform and to try to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. Alice Johnson, the woman whose prison sentence was commuted by President Trump in 2018, had also worked on Cesal's behalf.
Before people were advocating for his release, he said the only outside people he had contact with were his sisters, Chrystie McEllin of Oakbrook Terrace and Caryn Fischer of Carol Stream.
As for his brief phone encounter with Ivanka Trump, Cesal said, "She was very, very nice. We did some small talk when I talked about how I intended to work for criminal justice reform with my gift from the president.
"Until last night, when the COVID abates, there was a good chance I would be called back to serve my time in a federal prison facility."
Now, he believes he'll have to report to a parole officer for the next five years and stay in northern Illinois, but otherwise, he's free.
Craig Cesal said he used to listen to WBBM Newsradio 780 while in prison. He said the station would reach his small radio in the early morning hours so he could stay caught up with Chicago news. He said he'd tell other inmates from the Chicago area what was going on back home.