Former Fugees musician Pras Michel found guilty of 10 criminal charges

A federal jury in Washington, D.C., has convicted musician Pras Michel of 10 criminal charges including conspiracy, failing to register as an agent of China, and witness tampering.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

A jury in Washington, D.C., has convicted rapper Pras Michel on charges including conspiracy and witness tampering. The Grammy-winning musician attracted attention from the FBI as part of an alleged campaign to influence two American presidents. NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has been covering the trial.

Carrie, let’s talk about this. People might remember Pras Michel as part of the hip-hop trio Fugees. How did he get caught up in this foreign influence operation?

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Well, the group Fugees had a superpopular album back in the 1990s – “The Score,” which is still popular on streaming today. But by the early 2000s, Pras Michel was trying to reinvent himself as a political power player and a businessman. And prosecutors say he was spending a lot of money and looking for a big payday. That all led him to a Malaysian billionaire named Jho Low, who was at the center of this trial. Low is on the run from Justice, so Michel stood trial alone here in D.C.

BLOCK: This sounds like a pretty tangled case. Carrie, can you break down the charges?

JOHNSON: It’s complicated. Michel faced 10 criminal charges, and he was convicted on all of them. On the most serious counts, he could face as many as 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced. 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. 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. One part of the scheme was to try to get Trump to send a dissident living in the U.S. back…