Former Fugees rapper Pras wants a new trial after his ex-lawyer allegedly used an unproven artificial intelligence (AI) system to make closing arguments in his political conspiracy case.
To make matters worse, Pras, real name Prakazrel Samuel Michel, claims his attorney used the tool because he owned a stake in the tech platform.
In a Monday filing in D.C. federal court, Michel claimed attorney David Kenner “utterly failed” him during the April trial, according to Billboard. The rapper said Kenner worked with “inexperienced contract attorneys” and “failed to object to damaging and inadmissible testimony,” ultimately denying him his right to effective counsel.
Pras said Kenner also used EyeLevel.AI, a computer program designed to help attorneys win cases by digesting trial transcripts and other data. He said his attorney used the technology to draft his closing arguments for the trial, which “made frivolous arguments, misapprehended the required elements, conflated the schemes, and ignored critical weaknesses in the government’s case.”
Now, the rapper believes Kenner’s use of the technology was part of a bigger plan to promote it due to an “undisclosed financial stake” he had in the company.
After the trial ended, the company issued a press release highlighting its use in the Michel trial, calling it the “first use of generative AI in a federal trial.”
“Michel never had a chance,” the rapper’s new lawyers wrote Monday. “Michel’s counsel was deficient throughout, likely more focused on promoting his AI program … than zealously defending Michel. The net effect was an unreliable verdict.”
Michel was charged in 2019 with funneling money from a now-fugitive Malaysian financier through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. He was also accused of trying to squelch a Justice Department investigation and influence an extradition case on behalf of China under the Trump administration, Billboard reported.
In April, he was convicted on ten counts ranging from conspiracy, witness tampering, and failing to register as an agent of China.
