Grammy-winning musician Pras Michel informed a jury that thousands and thousands of {dollars} he accepted from a fugitive billionaire amounted to “free money” he pocketed for attempting to get the person a photograph with then-President Obama.

Under withering cross examination, Michel acknowledged he used a few of that cash to pay for pals to attend $40,000-a-plate fundraisers for the Obama marketing campaign in 2012, basically funneling unlawful overseas funds into the American election system.

Years later, after FBI brokers visited his pals, Michel despatched the buddies letters characterizing these items as loans and demanding compensation amid threats to sue them. He stated he relied on recommendation from an legal professional on the time, and that he relied on his monetary adviser for recommendation concerning the billionaire’s cash, which he reported as a present to keep away from paying taxes.

“Every time you lied or did something illegal, it’s on someone else?” requested prosecutor John Keller.

No, Michel replied, later including that he had “panicked” when the FBI got here knocking.

“I was scared, I did something stupid,” Michel stated.

Michel faces nearly a dozen criminal charges stemming from his ties to the billionaire Jho Low, who’s on the run from justice after being accused of stealing billions from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

For the primary time within the trial, Michel took the witness stand in his personal protection Tuesday. Outside the presence of the jury, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly requested him whether or not he had sufficient time to contemplate his determination to testify.

“After consulting with my attorneys and the universe, I have decided I will testify,” he informed the choose.

Michel examined the microphone earlier than explaining to a jury within the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. his journey from a low-income family in New Jersey to “global stardom” with the hip hop group Fugees, which he stated was named in homage to his mother and father’ ties to Haiti.

“We were representing for everyone who basically felt like an outcast, didn’t fit in,” Michel stated.

The band hit the bigtime and Michel stated he “went from being on the streets of Newark to Park Avenue overnight.”

Trouble began after he sought to reinvent himself as a political insider. The Justice Department says he collected nearly $100 million from Low to influence the Obama and Trump administrations–first to purchase entry and safe a photograph of Low with President Obama, then to attempt to press the Trump administration to desert civil and legal probes of Low.

Michel initially informed the jury that he did not understand it was unlawful to pay for others to attend political fundraising occasions. But prosecutor Keller confirmed him language on an Obama marketing campaign type that spelled out the federal election guidelines. Michel stated he hadn’t learn the doc.

Then, Keller requested about two of Michel’s pals, who later returned the cash he gave them after consulting with their very own attorneys in regards to the legality of these funds, and about an Obama fundraiser telling Michel any cash he donated needed to be “legitimately your money.”

At one level, paperwork that the prosecutor was utilizing to cross look at Michel didn’t show on screens for the jury. At least one juror made a hand gesture to sign the court docket in regards to the technical drawback. Then, when the paperwork confirmed up on their screens, practically all the jurors peered carefully at them.

Defense lawyer David Kenner repeatedly objected throughout the cross examination, however he usually didn’t prevail with the choose or give his consumer a lot of a respite from the barrage of prosecutor questions.

During his direct examination, Michel spoke expansively about his conferences with “A-list celebrities” and the lavish show of wealth from Low. For occasion, at their first encounter in 2006 at a New York membership, Low appeared to one-up Wall Street moneymen within the crowd by providing to purchase the complete bar’s provide of champagne, wine and different libations.

“The crowd just went nuts and almost right on cue, the DJ came on and you hear ‘boom boom bop boom boom bop, we will we will rock you,'” Michel stated.

Michel additionally spoke about his respect for former President Obama, whom he needed to assist safe a second time period within the White House.

“I got some free money, I figured why not just pay it forward and also to help the cause…help President Obama get re-elected,” Michel stated.

Pointing out that Low spent cash to attract celebrities to his parties and pay for Britney Spears to leap out of his birthday cake, Michel stated he figured these issues weren’t “even all that important” in comparison with a photograph with a historic determine similar to Obama.

“It’s what the market is willing to bear,” Michel stated.

The prosecutor’s cross examination will proceed Wednesday.