Rapper Meek Mill supports President Trump's efforts to free A$AP Rocky.
UPDATE: According to reports on Friday afternoon, A$AP Rocky will be released from Swedish police custody at least until a verdict is announced on August 14.
Superstar artist Meek Mill is diving head first into the debate over rapper A$AP Rocky’s controversial incarceration in Sweden. Rocky was charged with assault for allegedly beating a 19-year-old man in Stockholm.
President Donald Trump has personally taken interest in Rocky’s story, sending the U.S. presidential envoy for hostage affairs to monitor the trial in Stockholm after vouching for A$AP Rocky on Twitter.
Just had a very good call with @SwedishPM Stefan Löfven who assured me that American citizen A$AP Rocky will be treated fairly. Likewise, I assured him that A$AP was not a flight risk and offered to personally vouch for his bail, or an alternative....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2019
Mill supports those efforts.
“We’re into using power to the fullest extent and trying to change laws and make great change,” Mill told Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman (video above), later adding that if Trump’s efforts “can help A$AP Rocky come home, that’s the greatest thing in the world.”
‘A guy followed me just like that in the airport’
The defense claims that Rocky, a 30-year-old rapper, tried to handle the situation peacefully before being forced to act in self-defense. Mill detailed how he can personally relate to that situation.
“A guy followed me just like that in the airport,” Mill said. “He actually ended up swinging the first punch at us and we defended ourselves. I got arrested and was let go. I wasn’t charged with a crime...
“But when I got home, I had to go in front of the judge who sentenced me to probation. That was a part of her finding me guilty on a technical violation — because I defended myself.”
A$AP Rocky’s was caught on video and shared widely on social media. That video, along with A$AP Rocky’s celebrity status, sparked a wave of support claiming he is being treated unfairly because of his public image.
Give A$AP Rocky his FREEDOM. We do so much for Sweden but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around. Sweden should focus on its real crime problem! #FreeRocky
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2019
“You see him tell the guy ‘I don’t want to fight you, I don’t want to go to jail’ and the guy swung the first punch,” Mill said. “He initiated everything. But being as though the guy didn’t come out on the right side of the stick or maybe because A$AP Rocky is a rapper, or whatever the situation is, he is treated unfairly at the end of the day.”
Critics accuse Trump of using the case to drum up support from black voters, but Meek Mill says Rocky could use all the help he can get.
“We’re willing to work with anybody we have to work with to make change for the better,” he said. “I’ve never really been emotional about who I do business with to get a better result.”
Read more: 'I just keep things going': Rapper Meek Mill on how he manages his money
Meek Mill on prison reform: We want to free '1 million people'
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