Pras has been denied a new trial following his lawyer’s unconventional tactics, according to a ruling last week.

On Friday (Aug. 30), Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected the Fugees member's request for a new trial, providing a detailed 77-page explanation. Pras was convicted in April for his involvement in a failed conspiracy to assist Malaysian businessman Jho Low and the Chinese government in accessing U.S. officials, including Barack Obama and Donald Trump. 

The “Ready or Not” hitmaker was found guilty on ten charges, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S., witness tampering, and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. He will potentially face a 20-year prison sentence. 

A few months after the conviction, Pras sought to overturn the verdict, arguing that his former attorney mishandled a crucial part of his defense by using generative AI to craft the closing statement. In her decision, the judge acknowledged that Pras' legal team used an AI program during the trial, including parts of the closing argument. 

The AI-generated prompt requested a compelling closing argument integrating lyrics from Pras' song. Still, the resulting argument mistakenly included lyrics from Diddy’s “I’ll Be Missing You,” which was incorrectly attributed to Pras.