Michel told a federal jury that Low hired him to be a “celebrity surrogate” to get the photo. Read more at straitstimes.com.
WASHINGTON – Grammy-winning rapper Pras Michel told jurors on Tuesday at his illegal lobbying trial that the party-boy Malaysian tycoon Jho Low – once a friend and now a fugitive – paid him US$20 million to get a photo with former president Barack Obama in 2012.
Prosecutors say he later illegally lobbied former president Donald Trump’s administration to drop US probes of Low’s alleged looting of billions of dollars from the Malaysian development fund 1MDB. “I basically asked for $1 million to begin to think about how I would get this photo,” Michel said as a lawyer questioned him. “I was going to try.”
They also say he made at least US$70 million more for his role in a scheme to lobby the Trump administration to drop its investigations of Low.Michel said he never made any donations on behalf of Low and did not believe the political donations were illegal. But Michel said he could not convince Mr Obama’s campaign to let Low attend that event or another one that September.“They didn’t want the optics at that time. At that point, Jho Low was a party guy – Vegas, champagne, parties with Paris Hilton. The campaign just didn’t want that.”That event was at the Washington house of Obama fundraiser Frank White Jr, who asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than testify at Michel’s trial.
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