Pras, also known as Pras Michel of Fugees fame, found himself at the center of a global conspiracy case where it became assumed that the rapper became an informant to the FBI. While that fact is currently being debunked by Pras’ legal team, that hasn’t stopped Twitter from roasting his Fugees bandmates Wyclef Jean and Ms. Lauryn Hill with John Forte catching strays in the process.
Pras Michel was recently in Washington to take the stand in his federal conspiracy trial where he faces up to 22 years in prison for allegedly involving himself in a global money laundering scheme and working with a foreign nation to influence U.S. government matters.
Pras did admit on the stand that he spoke with FBI agents regarding his connection to Malaysian financier and fugitive, Jho Low.
After examining the case further, Michel is actually on trial because he took Low’s money to the tune of millions and reentered a portion of those funds into President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and then attempted to ask the Trump Administration to move away from investigating Kow and extradite Chinese businessman, Guo Wengui who was connected to former Trump ally, Steve Bannon.
Hip-Hop Wired also received a statement this week from Michel’s legal team correcting the perception that their client turned informant.
From the statement:
Simply stated, if Pras had been an informant for the government, he wouldn’t be on trial right now. The government does not prosecute and threaten its informants with more than two decades of jail time.
Pras never was an “informant” for the FBI.
Nothing could be further from the truth, and the reckless suggestion that he was an informant carries life-threatening implications in hip-hop circles.
During a portion of Pras’ nearly two days of testimony last week, Pras described from the stand a decision he made a handful of years ago to approach the FBI in regard to a narrow issue related to his wider case.
In law enforcement parlance, an “informant” is someone who works directly with an investigating law enforcement agency either to cut a deal for him or herself, or with the direct interests of that law enforcement agency as part of their own agenda.
As it stands, Twitter won’t care about all of that legal mumbo jumbo and is always hellbent on getting those jokes off. We’ve got some of them listed below.
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Photo: Tasos Katopodis / Getty
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