Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday took the stand as a defense witness in the illegal lobbying trial of hip-hop star Pras Michel, testifying that he could not recall meeting Michel and that the Fugees rapper’s request for a meeting did not appear improper.

Michel was charged in 2021 by federal prosecutors in Washington with participating in an illegal lobbying campaign to have a dissident Chinese businessman deported and for DOJ officials to drop an embezzlement investigation involving a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

On Tuesday, Sessions recalled two meetings where DOJ officials discussed deporting the dissident, Guo Wengui, including one requested by a Chinese vice minister for public security, Politico reported.

But Sessions said Guo wasn’t deported when he was attorney general and he never took the meeting requested by the Chinese official.

Sessions, the longtime former U.S. Senator from Alabama, also testified that he was unaware of ever meeting Michel.

“I don’t recall ever having met him,” Sessions said, according to Politico.

Still, said Sessions, Michel’s request for a meeting did not have an air of impropriety on its face.

“I think that’s an appropriate action, although the State Department would have an important role to play in that and others, perhaps Homeland Security, since this figure was important to China,” he said.

While federal prosecutors allege Michel acted as an unregistered agent on behalf of China and a Malaysian national, the Fugees rapper claimed he was acting in a humanitarian capacity.