It really may have backfired here in this case.īLOCK: And the jury didn't take long to reach its verdict, just a couple days of deliberation. Now, taking the witness stand as a defendant is a pretty risky move. The idea that paying $20 million for a photo with Obama was what the market would bear. And he said he thought this money from Jho Low was basically free money. He seemed to blame his lawyer and his financial adviser. But then, he faced a really withering cross-examination. Michel talked about lavish displays of wealth, big parties with lots of celebrities, and he name-dropped several of his friends. He talked about growing up in New Jersey with very religious parents and then, almost overnight, going from the streets of Newark to Park Avenue when Fugees hit it big.

JOHNSON: Ah, it was a little rough at first. presidential administrations.īLOCK: And, Carrie, you were in the courtroom when the defendant, Pras Michel, testified this month. But the common thread here, really, is that Michel collected about a hundred million dollars from Jho Low to try to influence two different U.S. back to China to curry favor with the Chinese government. One part of the scheme was to try to get Trump to send a dissident living in the U.S. And then, years later, after the FBI started investigating Jho Low for allegedly stealing money, Low wanted Michel and others to help him convince the Trump White House to go easy on Low and drop that investigation. It started back in 2012 when the Justice Department says he used Jho Low's illegal foreign money to buy seats for people at fundraisers to help reelect then-President Obama. On the most serious counts, he could face as many as 20 years in prison when he's sentenced. Michel faced 10 criminal charges, and he was convicted on all of them. Low is on the run from Justice, so Michel stood trial alone here in D.C.īLOCK: This sounds like a pretty tangled case. That all led him to a Malaysian billionaire named Jho Low, who was at the center of this trial. And prosecutors say he was spending a lot of money and looking for a big payday. But by the early 2000s, Pras Michel was trying to reinvent himself as a political power player and a businessman.

How did he get caught up in this foreign influence operation?ĬARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Well, the group Fugees had a superpopular album back in the 1990s - 'The Score,' which is still popular on streaming today. People might remember Pras Michel as part of the hip-hop trio Fugees. NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has been covering the trial.Ĭarrie, let's talk about this. The Grammy-winning musician attracted attention from the FBI as part of an alleged campaign to influence two American presidents. A jury in Washington, D.C., has convicted rapper Pras Michel on charges including conspiracy and witness tampering.

I, Spy? by Kate Johnson