<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Meek Mill, a previously incarcerated rapper scheduled to participate in President Trump\u2019s prison reform panel Friday, said he abruptly withdrew from the event rather than risk distracting from the discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was originally scheduled to be part of a panel on Prison Reform at the White House to help shed light on the issues within the system,\u201d the performer, born Robert Rihmeek Williams, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, the focus turned to the President and Myself, which concerned me that it might take away from creating a positive result from today\u2019s discussions,\u201d added Mr. Williams, 31. \u201cAs a result, I decided not to attend so that the focus would be solely on fixing our prison system. Most importantly I remain fully committed to improving our criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Williams was released from prison in April after spending five months behind bars for a probation violation, and he emerged pledging to use his fame to help reform the existing criminal justice system.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I\u2019m blessed to have the resources to fight this unjust situation, I understand that many people of color across the country don\u2019t have that luxury and I plan to use my platform to shine a light on those issues,\u201d he said in a statement following his release last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to know the situation is not about me on any level,\u201d the rapper told CBS News recently. \u201cIt\u2019s about changing policies and doing things to protect people like myself who deserve a second chance even if you\u2019re innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Williams was initially sentenced to spend two to four years in prison after he was arrested in 2017 while on probation for a previous conviction, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted him bail last month and he was released early as a result.<\/p>\n
The White House said in a statement Friday that the panel event would bring together \u201ca diverse group of thought leaders from across the country to discuss the need for federal prison reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no substitute for personal accountability and there is no tolerance for those who take advantage of society\u2019s generosity to prey upon the innocent,\u201d Mr. Trump said afterwards. \u201cBut if we want more prisoners to take charge of their own lives, then we should work to give them the tools to stand on their own two feet.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meek Mill, a previously incarcerated rapper scheduled to participate in President Trump’s prison reform panel Friday, said he abruptly withdrew from the event rather than risk distracting from the dis Meek Mill, a previously incarcerated rapper scheduled to participate in President Trump\u2019s prison reform panel Friday, said he abruptly withdrew from the event rather than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276],"tags":[264,22,543,312],"class_list":["post-3012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-donald-trump","tag-law-crime","tag-robert-rihmeek-williams","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}