A very odd pair helped free a coke-smuggling rapper from prison.

Free-spirited Carly Simon teamed up with the Mormon Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to plead to President George W. Bush to commute the sentence of their pal, singer John Forté. On Monday, after receiving a letter from the senator and pleas from Simon, Bush announced the commute of his sentence.

Forté was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2001 after being busted with a briefcase containing $1.4 million in cocaine at Newark Airport. Simon, Simon’s husband and son lobbied the sentencing. To them, the ruling was unjust and harsh. It was Forté’s first offense. He was young, talented and smart, Simon wrote on her official blog. The former Fugees producer and Grammy winner had so much potential, she wrote. Now, Forté will be released December 22 after serving half of his sentence at the Fort Dix, NJ, federal prison.

Forté, 33, was reportedly chums with Ben Taylor, Simon’s son with singer James Taylor. Taylor and Forté met at the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. During school breaks, they would visit Simon’s house and now their relationship spans nearly 20 years. So on the day that Forté landed in the slammer and had his one phone call, he dialed Simon.

Simon, 63, writes on her official blog about it:

From that time forward, I was and remain connected to John Forté through all the phases of his first trial in Newark, to his sentencing in Houston and to all of his appeals. It has been the most upsetting and disillusioning experience in my life. This young singer, this young and gifted, uniquely brilliant, African American singer with a voice of passion and guts and a history diverse (From Brooklyn to Exeter to Brooklyn to the Fugees, to Sony, to on his own, to an arrest) as few men have.

I believe in him. I believe not in his innocence, because he did something bad and got caught, but in his right to a fair trial, which in my opinion, he never got, and right now in 2006, as I write, to have his sentence looked at and reduced to one that is commensurate with his crime which was non-violent and a first time offense.

Go to the Right and Go to the Left. You will be surprised at whom you affect. Write specifically about John Forté. Every letter will help get his name around and keep his profile up.

Before John’s incarceration in Federal Prison, he was under house arrest and going every day to NYC to make a great CD called "I, John". He could never promote it because as soon as it was released, he went to Loretta Penitentiary. He was transferred to Ft. Dix in 2001 at the behest of Senator Orrin Hatch. It was a brave and forward thing of Senator Hatch to do and I will never forget it.

So, Hatch has been in the mix since 2001 it seems. It’s also known that Hatch has a music bug. In 2005, Simon performed a song written by Sen. Orrin Hatch in Washington, DC. Hatch was reportedly swooning during the performance.

Yesterday Bush pardoned 14 people and commuted one other sentence. Even with these latest actions, Bush hasn’t exercised this executive power as much as some past presidents, including Clinton or Reagan. There is growing speculation in Washington that before Bush leaves office, he will be issuing many more pardons.