Rapper T.I. is back on the road to redemption after a surprise reversal by prison officials.
T.I. (real name Clifford Harris), 30, was released prison Thursday and returned to the same halfway house where he would have spent the last two weeks if not for some controversial “elbow-rubbing” with reality TV producers.
Prison officials first released T.I. on August 31st, but re-incarcerated him the same day, saying he violated rules by associating with VH1 producers and conducting business on a self-guided bus ride to the residential facility.
His lawyer vehemently denied T.I. did anything wrong and submitted letters from the producers saying they rode along as concerned friends.
“He’s been returned to the halfway house,” his lawyer Steve Sadow told reporters. “I think it’s because we took a proactive and assertive approach in bringing information to the attention of the Bureau of Prisons.”
He said prison officials held a formal review of T.I.’s bus indiscretion late last week and decided to reinstate his release.
“I’ve spoken with his wife, and they are both thrilled he’s been returned to the halfway house,” Sadow said.
“I believe he was escorted by prison officials. It was kept under wraps until he got to the halfway house for security purposes,” he said.
Sadow blasted prison officials last week saying they were being “disingenuous” after escorting T.I. to the bus and watching him board.
“T.I. was never told that only his wife was permitted to travel with him and was never instructed or directed to list each and every person that would be traveling with him,” Sadow says.
“It was clear to me that Mr. Harris believed that I was permitted to be with him on the trip back to Atlanta because I had been authorized to visit him,” reality mogul Brian Sher, the CEO of Category 5 Entertainment, said in his letter. “No business was conducted with Mr. Harris.”
T.I.’s legal problems date back to the 7 months he spent in jail in 2009 for trying to buy unregistered guns and silencers from undercover federal agents.
He was serving 3 years of supervised probation when authorities say his Maybach made an illegal U-turn on Sunset Boulevard in September 2010. The cop who pulled him over reported that “a strong odor of marijuana” wafted from the vehicle, prompting a search.
Officers found Ecstasy pills and arrested T.I. and his wife on suspicion of felony drug possession.
No charges were filed against his wife, but T.I. picked up a probation violation and got sent back to prison.
