The Department of Justice’s recent prosecution of Pras Michél opened up new information about his political dealings. Last month he was found guilty in federal court in Washington of 10 criminal counts that included conspiracy, money laundering, and campaign finance violations.
Pras got involved more than a decade ago Malaysian businessman Jho Low, after which he helped carry out a scheme to help the financier gain access to top U.S. officials, including former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
That plot and several others became the basis for the charges Pras was convicted of on April 26. But when it emerged during the trial that the Fugees frontman voluntarily went to talk to the FBI after learning he was under federal investigation over his dealings with the accused embezzler, that effort to clear his name was construed by celebrities Kyrie Irving and 50 Cent as being a government informant.
Days after Rolling Stone magazine described Pras as “an informal FBI informant” in a April 18 article about the trial, 50 Cent and Irving amplified that theme on social media. Now Pras has served notice by letter this week that he is suing them all for defamation and treading on his street cred, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
“Never ever. If people want to check it out, look at the testimonies—they could see that all within the records, and all the D.C. courts,” Pras said to TMZ last weekend about the informant accusations. “This is not a Tekashi 6ix9ine situation, respectfully. Because he admitted he was an informant, basically. So I was never. I never said I was. I am not now and never will be an FBI or a CIA informant.”
Kyrie’s Tweets
The Dallas Mavericks star posted two tweets in April where he wondered how deep the FBI informant system is while alluding to Pras’ alleged confession. Irving even went as far as to allude that this was similar to past FBI counterintelligence strategies that thwarted revolutionary movements from within, looping Lauryn Hill’s absence as part of Pras’s assumed activities with the government.
“A whole FBI informant was in the Fugees for that long??” Irving said in a since-deleted tweet. “Got me Wondering how many more informants are in Entertainment/Media/Politics silently destroying revolutionary movements from the inside. No matter what I gotta stay Poised and Aware of who I am around.”
“Now I see why Ms. Lauryn Hill and countless others had to retire or disappear from their craft without anyone understanding why. So S’o all of the Revolutionary Elders and Ancestors who saw the writing on the wall and got FREE. We need you more than ever now.”
Pras also was found guilty of attempting to influence the Trump administration to extradite a national from China.
According to Mother Jones, Michél wrote to them back in 2017 and pitched an article about the government denying a request to extradite a Chinese billionaire accused of sexual assault and living in New York City.
“The question is why is the FBI protecting Guo Wengui,” Pras allegedly wrote. “A Chinese illegal immigrant who lied on his U.S. visa application for entry to the USA, is wanted for rape, kidnapping and a number of civil lawsuits in the millions of dollars, and has an Interpol red notice warrant out for his arrest?”
The 50 Cent Effect
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson also lent his opinion in a post shared on Instagram.
“I knew this fool was a rat” Jackson wrote in a post alongside a headline about the Pras trial. “I’m glad I never fvck with this guy.”
Pras testified that Jho Low, who is now an international fugitive accused of embezzling some $4.5 billion from the 1MDB Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, paid Michel $20 million in 2012 to get a picture of himself with Obama. Prosecutors alleged Michel funneled over $800,000 of that money to Obama’s campaign through several straw donors.
Pras, who is free on bond before sentencing that could saddle him with as much as 20 years behind bars, has gone from Grammy wins to potential prison time in a life that was never based on street cred or political moves but on creativity.
