21 December 2025<\/time>\n <\/p>\nPras Michel has sought bail while he appeals his international fraud convictions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pras Michel is appealing his sentence<\/p>\n
The Fugees rapper was convicted of 10 charges – including acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government – back in April 2023 after he accepted $100 million from disgraced Malaysian financier Jho Low to influence the administrations of US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump and after he was given a 14-year jail term last month, he has sought to be allowed to appeal the verdict before reporting to prison.<\/p>\n
A motion filed by his team on Friday (19.12.25) and obtained by Rolling Stone explained the appeal \u201cpresents substantial questions\u201d surrounding alleged \u201cegregious\u201d errors during his trial, including issues relating to \u201cimproper jury influence\u201d and \u201csufficiency of evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
It adds: \u201cNeither the D.C. Circuit nor any other Court of Appeals has ever confronted this extraordinary degree of improper jury influence, which appears to be unprecedented.”<\/p>\n
The lawyers – who had given an official notice of appeal earlier this month – claimed the trial judge had declared the 53-year-old musician to be “guilty on at least eight occasions by referring to Michel and others as co-conspirators and ruling in front of the jury that the co-conspirator exception to the rule against hearsay applied, further influencing the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIt also said the most “egregious example” that “further” influenced the jury was “permitting FBI Agent Robert Heuchling to provide improper overview testimony and to opine on at least 25 occasions that Michel was guilty\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nHis spokesperson, Erica Dumas, said: \u201cThis wasn\u2019t a fair trial. This was a coronation of guilt.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe\u2019re confident the appeals court will recognise this case for what it is, an unprecedented trial that denies Pras\u2019 constitutional right to an impartial jury.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAnd his attorneys noted: \u201cIf decided in Michel\u2019s favour, the substantial questions [outlined in the filing] would result in a new trial, reversal of nearly every count, and, at a minimum, a reduced sentence that would likely be less than the duration of Michel\u2019s appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nProsecutors had sought a life sentence because the 53-year-old rapper had \u201cbetrayed his country for money\u201d and \u201clied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThey wrote: \u201cHis sentence should reflect the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed.”<\/p>\n
\nThe Ready of Not hitmaker’s team had sought a three-year prison term and felt a life sentence would be an “absurdly high” punishment because it is one typically handed down to terrorists and cartel leaders.<\/p>\n
\nHis attorneys wrote in a court filing: \u201cThe Government\u2019s 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.”<\/p>\n
\nThe charges included claims Pras violating campaign finance laws during Barack Obama’s 2012 election campaign and illegally lobbed the Trump administration in 2017, but the musician argued he simply wanted to make money and got bad legal advice while reinventing himself in the world of politics. <\/p>\n
\nPras previously insisted he “never wanted to be a spy” but still found his conduct “a bit exciting”.<\/p>\n
\nHe told Variety: “I don\u2019t know if subconsciously it was a bit exciting for me … I like spy movies, but I never wanted to be a spy. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s sexy. But a part of it felt like that … <\/p>\n
\n“Technically, I\u2019m a foreign agent.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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