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Report: Meek Mill Refused FBI's Request to Tape Judge
During a recent court filing, Meek Mill’s legal team pointed out that Judge Genece Brinkley has been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations for improper conduct. Sources now says that it was Meek who pressed the FBI to launch the probe and that it was the Philadelphia rapper who halted the enquiry by refusing to cooperate.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News reports that Meek asked the FBI to investigate the judge last year, saying that she was trying to “extort favors from him in exchange for leniency.” When asked to cooperate with authorities by recording conversations with Brinkley, Mill declined. Separate federal law enforcement sources now deny that there is an active investigation into the judge’s conduct.
Mill’s legal team is still trying to have Judge Brinkley removed from the case. They are now arguing that the FBI probe and her knowledge of it should be enough to do just that. “The existence of a federal investigation involving Judge Brinkley’s conduct regarding Mr. Williams, combined with Judge Brinkley’s awareness of that investigation, raises further doubt as to her ability to preside impartially,” lawyers said in a recent motion.
Insiders say that Meek complained to the FBI after a February 2016 meeting with Brinkley. The conversation transcripts have been sealed by Mill’s attorney Joe Tacopina and his then-lawyer Frank DeSimone, according to the new report.
Meek’s legal team says that Judge Brinkley made inappropriate demands, including a Boyz II Men cover mentioning her name and a move from JAY-Z’s Roc Nation to Philadelphia-based Charles “Charlie Mack” Alston, who worked with Mill earlier in the Maybach Music Group rapper’s career.
Last month, Judge Brinkley sentenced Meek Mill to 2-4 years in prison for violating the terms of his probation on a 2009 drug and weapons case multiple times. He is now serving time at Chester State Correctional Institution, where he is working several jobs for 19 cents an hour. Earlier this month, Meek Mill’s bail motion was rejected by the Superior Court and then again by Judge Brinkley.