Obama Donor Demands New Trial, Citing Attorney Used AI for Defense Argument

Well, this is a new one.

Pras Michel of the Fugees, the rapper who was convicted for pumping millions of dollars in illegal contributions into the Obama campaign, is trying to get a new trial.

According to Michel, his previous defense attorney used AI to make his legal argument in Michel’s defense.

AI Did It

If he is successful, I think we are going to see a flood of these types of cases hit the courts.

In April, Michel was convicted of a massive conspiracy to pump about $88 million from foreign donors into the campaign of Barack Obama. This was allegedly done at the direction of China.

On Monday, Michel filed a motion for a new trial, based on the claim that his previous attorney had used AI to formulate his closing argument. Michel claims that the attorney, David Kenner, "used an experimental AI program to write his closing argument, which made frivolous arguments, conflated the schemes, and failed to highlight key weaknesses in the Government’s case."

The motion goes on to say that Kenner "then publicly boasted that the AI program ‘turned hours or days of legal work into seconds.’"

His new legal team, attorneys from ArentFox Schiff, continued, "It is now apparent that Kenner and his co-counsel appear to have had an undisclosed financial stake in the AI program, and they experimented with it during Michel’s trial so they could issue a press release afterward promoting the program — a clear conflict of interest."

In the initial trial, Michel was charged with conspiring with Malaysian businessman Jho Low to engage in a lobbying campaign at the direction of Low and the Vice Minister of Public Security for the People’s Republic of China.

Funny how that never seems to come up when Democrats are talking about foreign influence in our elections.

What do you think about this story?

Let us know in the comments below.