Pras Michel and his legal issues are still hanging over his head but on Wednesday (January 10), he entered a new hearing with a new legal team. The Fugees rapper is now represented by a new legal team featuring Doug Jones, a former senator who represented Alabama.
As reported by Vulture, Pras Michel, 51, was convicted on 10 counts of connected to a conspiracy to influence the Chinese government in Washington, D.C. nearly nine months ago. He has since fired his former attorney, David Kenner, who Pras has accused of using AI to write the rapper’s closing statement in his earlier trial.
According to the outlet, the hearing for today isn’t typical and suggests that there could be a retrial or acquittal of the previous convictions, this is due to the prosecution’s alleged mishandling of the case and Kenner’s defense tactics.
Before working with Doug Jones, Pras hired new lawyers to handle the Kenner issue and toured for much of the latter part of 2023 with his Fugees bandmates as part of Lauryn Hill’s 25th-anniversary tour in connection to her debut album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Jones made his mark as a civil rights attorney and was the federal prosecutor who helped convict two members of the Ku Klux Klan for the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four Black girls in 2020 and 2021.
The hearing this week will focus on Kenner, who once represented Snoop Dogg in 1996 and aided the popular rapper and pitchman in dodging murder charges. Michel’s side argues that Kenner, 82, was not up to par to represent Michel, especially in a case of that magnitude.
“Upon reviewing the record of Mr. Michel’s previous trial, questions have emerged about the consistency and fairness of the legal process,” shared Michel’s publicist, Erica Dumas, in a statement.
Kenner is expected to take the stand and explain his side while facing accusations of using AI to write Michel’s closing argument statment.
Pras Michel is still awaiting sentencing on the previous conviction but plans to hit the road again with the Fugees this March, according to sources close to Vulture.
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