It’s not every day that a Grammy-winning rapper ends up behind bars for election fraud — but yesterday delivered exactly that. Pras Michel, a founding member of the Fugees, was hit with a 14-year prison sentence for, among other things, funneling millions in foreign cash into Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. He was convicted back in 2023, and now the judge has finally handed down the punishment:
A founding member of the hip-hop group the Fugees was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in prison for his role in a foreign influence scheme that illegally funneled millions of dollars to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
The rapper Prakazrel Michel, known as Pras, orchestrated a sprawling international conspiracy in which he accepted $120 million from Low Taek Jho, a Malaysian financier who wanted to gain political influence in the United States, the Justice Department said. Mr. Michel distributed some of that money to a network of about 20 straw donors, who then donated it to the Obama campaign.
The prosecutors in this case were aiming for a life sentence, while Michel’s attorneys contended that three years would be more appropriate and have indicated plans to appeal:
Defense attorney Peter Zeidenberg said his client’s 14-year sentence is “completely disproportionate to the offense.” Michel will appeal his conviction and sentence, according to his lawyer.
Zeidenberg had recommended a three-year prison sentence. A life sentence would be an “absurdly high” punishment for Michel given that it is typically reserved for deadly terrorists and drug cartel leaders, Michel’s attorneys said in a court filing.
“The Government’s position is one that would cause Inspector Javert to recoil and, if anything, simply illustrates just how easily the Guidelines can be manipulated to produce absurd results, and how poorly equipped they are, at least on this occasion, to determine a fair and just sentence,” they wrote.
There’s also the lingering question of just how competent Michel’s legal team actually was. In 2023 he ditched his original lawyer and brought in a new crew, who immediately argued for a retrial — claiming his previous attorney had relied on AI to write his closing argument.
Yes, really. His defense was literally outsourced to a chatbot, and apparently the AI flubbed it. Never doubt ChatGPT when it tells you it “can make mistakes. Check important info.” Here we go:
Michel’s new counsel from ArentFox Schiff said that the AI-generated closing argument by Michel’s previous lawyer, David Kenner, was a resounding flop: “Kenner’s closing argument made frivolous arguments, misapprehended the required elements, conflated the schemes and ignored critical weaknesses in the government’s case,” the brief said.
By using an experimental AI program to generate his closing argument, the brief said, Kenner botched “the single most important portion” of Michel’s jury trial…
“The AI program failed Kenner, and Kenner failed Michel,” the brief said. “The closing argument was deficient, unhelpful and a missed opportunity that prejudiced the defense.”…
The brief listed a litany of purported failures by Kenner, in addition to the alleged AI closing argument fiasco. Among the most serious is ArentFox’s accusation that Kenner, who is not an expert in complex white-collar cases or lobbying regulations, outsourced trial preparation to inexperienced contract attorneys at an e-discovery company co-founded by Israely, an old friend.
So no, Michel clearly didn’t have the sharpest legal defense money can buy — and his request for a new trial was denied last year. But let’s be honest: the fact that his lawyer couldn’t magically secure an acquittal, AI or no AI, doesn’t mean the attorney was the core problem here.
Michel’s real problem was the mountain of evidence. And prosecutors — who, unlike his lawyer, did not rely on artificial intelligence — laid out exactly how serious his crimes were in their sentencing memo:
Prakazrel Michel betrayed his country for money. He funneled millions of dollars in prohibited foreign contributions into a United States presidential election and attempted to manipulate a sitting president to serve a foreign criminal and a foreign power. Over nearly a decade, Michel’s conspiracies sought to exploit and deceive the White House, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, political committees, the Federal Election Commission, straw donors, FBI agents, multiple financial institutions, and his own co-conspirators. Michel lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes.
Michel’s illicit foreign malign influence effort is extraordinary—he and his co-conspirators targeted the highest levels of American government through illegal contributions and backchannel influence. They tried to end the DOJ investigation into 1MDB, the largest foreign embezzlement scheme in history, and endeavored to send a PRC national back to China without due process. For his willingness to elevate foreign interests over those of the United States, Michel obtained more than $120 million from the architect of 1MDB, Low Taek Jho. After Michel was caught, he tampered with witnesses and then perjured himself at trial. His sentence should reflect the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed.
Conspicuously absent from comment, though he never stays quiet about anything else, especially when it comes to talking about himself, is Obama. Go figure.
