Pras Michel seeks trial with AI Enhanced closing argument

After being convicted in April of conspiring to make straw campaign donations, witness tampering, and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, Fugees singer Pras Michel seeks new trial with AI Enhanced on claims that his defense attorneys used AI to prepare their jury case. Michel’s new attorneys filed a blistering appeal Monday night with a Washington federal court, alleging that his Los Angeles lawyer David Kenner exploited the new technology at important trial stages, resulting in “prejudicial ineffective assistance of counsel.”

Michel’s new D.C. defense team, ArentFox Schiff, said that Kenner “Used an untested AI computer to compose the closing argument, omitting the strongest arguments and combining the alleged schemes.”

He bragged that it ‘reduced hours or days of legal labor into seconds Kenner and his co-counsel promoted the AI program in Michel’s trial on the basis of their concealed financial participation.

Pete Zeidenberg said in the petition that Michel’s former publicist told the defense counsel that Kenner proudly said, “AI wrote our closing.”

Michel appeared in Eyelevel’s May press release, which said its technology “made history last week, becoming the first use of generative AI in a federal trial.” Ziedenberg cited release. Kenner called AI “an absolute game changer for complex litigation” in the announcement.

Michel was found guilty on all 10 crimes in less than three days after a three-week trial involving Leonardo DiCaprio and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Kenner and defense attorney Alon Israely did not respond to late Monday night queries about the new filing.

Michel stole $88 million from rich Malaysian billionaire Jho Low to gain influence in the U.S. and postpone Low’s fraud probe and 1MBD collapse sentence, according to federal authorities. A 1990s hip-hop musician was accused of orchestrating foreign finance for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and persuading Trump to drop Low’s charges.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has kept Michel on bail awaiting sentencing since 2019. No one intended that.

Michel struggled financially before and throughout the trial owing to a judicial asset freeze. March reports say he surrendered his recording rights and offered frozen assets or income for $2.6 million for his defense.

Tuesday night celebrates Lauryn Hill’s 25th anniversary of “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” A Fugees reunion tour begins with Michel. More than 20 gigs, including two in Canada, are scheduled from Tuesday night in Newark, N.J., to Saturday in Washington. Michel may miss shows.

Beyond AI, the petition attacks Kenner’s case handling. Michel’s new attorneys say Kenner’s likely contempt prosecution for leaking marked grand jury information to a media reporter before trial was a conflict of interest.

The new attorneys argued Kenner was “deficient” in not trying Michel separately for the Obama campaign straw contribution and Trump-era foreign-influence allegations. A “flat fee” Kenner agreed to with Michel may have influenced that decision, the new-trial petition says.

Zidenberg observed, “Michel’s counsel was deficient throughout, likely more focused on promoting his AI program and saving himself from the contempt proceeding than zealously defending Michel.”

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