Fugees rapper’s multimillion-dollar political conspiracy trial opens

WASHINGTON — A founding member of the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees was enmeshed in political conspiracies involving millions of dollars in foreign money under two different U.S. presidents, federal prosecutors said as his trial got underway with opening statements Thursday.

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel is accused of funneling money from a fugitive Malaysian financer through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. Five years later, prosecutors say he tried squelch an investigation into the financer and persuade then-President Donald Trump’s administration to return to China a “vocal critic of the government.”

“This is a case about foreign mon …