The Grammy-winning producer for the hip-hop group The Fugees, whose prison sentence for drug-smuggling was commuted by President Bush after intense lobbying by singer Carly Simon, walked out of a federal pen yesterday a free man.
Brooklyn native John Forté, 33, left the Fort Dix Correctional Facility in New Jersey at 9:39 a.m., four weeks after Bush issued the order after pleas by Simon and Sen Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
Forté was arrested in 2000 for carrying 31 pounds of liquid cocaine at Newark Airport.
The newly freed artist spent his first day of freedom socializing with friends at the historic Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village.
Forté, who is prematurely graying and has much shorter dreadlocks than eight years ago, declined to comment when he stepped outside to a buy a cookie.