Former Fugees member Prakazrel ‘Pras’ Michel is seeking a retrial of his federal court case after alleging that his former attorney, David Kenner, used an AI-generated script during the closing statement. Michel was found guilty of all 10 criminal conspiracy charges he faced in a Washington DC federal court last April, including acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China, witness tampering and conspiring to defraud the United States government and make illegal political campaign contributions.
The motion seeking a retrial claimed that the closing argument created by an AI platform, similar to ChatGPT, was deficient and a missed opportunity that prejudiced the defence. The motion also alleged that the former attorney and his co-counsel had an undisclosed financial stake in the AI program and used Michel’s trial to experiment with the product, culminating in the aforementioned blog post showing its use. Michel has retained Washington DC-based law firm ArentFox Schiff LLP as his new counsel, including civil rights attorney and former US Senator Doug Jones.
Prosecutors accused Michel during the federal court case of accepting multi-million dollar payments to further the interests of China and assist Malaysian billionaire Jho Low in gaining political connections in the US and attempting to influence the Obama and Trump administrations. Michel, however, testified that a $20 million payment from Low was to help him get a photo with Barack Obama and claimed to act as a “celebrity surrogate” to help Low gain access to political fundraisers his reputation for partying would otherwise block him from.
Michel pleaded not guilty to all counts of criminal conspiracy. In a statement sent to Mixmag after Michel was found guilty, his former lawyer, David Kenner, said that he was confident in the ultimate outcome of the case
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