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Rapper A$AP Rocky’s trial began in Stockholm, Sweden, on Tuesday, and the Trump administration sent a very notable guest: the US presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

The New York Times and Politico reported that Robert C. O’Brien, the US top diplomat responsible for negotiating the release of Americans held abroad, is in Stockholm to monitor the trial of A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers.

Rocky and two members of his entourage have been charged with assault. His arrest became a sore point in the US-Sweden relationship last week when President Donald Trump personally intervened in the case, speaking directly with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, and then made that involvement very public on Twitter.

Prosecutors say Rocky, who pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday, assaulted 19-year-old Mustafa Jafari last month while in Sweden on a music tour. Rocky has said he was acting in self-defense, as Jafari was following him and harassing others. If convicted, Rocky could face up to two years in prison.

The rapper has been held in custody since about July 5, though he wasn’t formally charged until last week. Some of his defenders have decried the terms of his detainment, saying he has been held in unsanitary conditions and put in solitary confinement.

And then, Trump stepped in — reportedly at the prompting of Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West. Trump advertised his diplomatic efforts in a series of rather undiplomatic tweets in which he promised to pay Rocky’s bail (Sweden doesn’t have a bail system). He accused Sweden of not treating Americans fairly and nodding to an old conspiracy theory about immigrant crime in Sweden.

“We do so much for Sweden but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around,” Trump tweeted on July 20. “Sweden should focus on its real crime problem!”

Sweden’s prime minister, however, has pushed back, explaining that his government can’t intercede in Rocky’s trial because of the rule of law. “The government cannot and will not attempt to influence the legal proceedings,” Löfven’s press secretary said.

But the arrival of America’s top hostage negotiator in Stockholm during Rocky’s trial is certainly a sign that Rocky’s case remains a top priority for the White House.

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Sweden’s primary export commodities include industrial machinery, automobiles, paper products, iron and steel products, pulp and wood, and chemicals.

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A special U.S. presidential envoy warned of "potentially negative consequences" to U.S.-Swedish relations if American rapper A$AP Rocky were not released from prison and allowed to live in a hotel during his trial this week on assault charges in Stockholm, according to media reports.

According to letters obtained by Aftonbladet, the Swedish newspaper, and published by NBC News and CNN, Ambassador Robert O'Brien had sought an "immediate humanitarian release" for Rocky, including supervised detention in a Stockholm hotel.

Sweden's prosecutor-general, Petra Lundh, declined to get involved, saying that under Swedish law, she could not interfere with the work of independent prosecutors.

Copies of the letters were posted by NBC News

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U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky was convicted of assault by a Stockholm court on Wednesday but was spared time in prison after a high-profile trial that led President Donald Trump to question the fairness of Sweden’s legal system.

The court also convicted two members of A$AP Rocky’s entourage of the same crime in connection with a street brawl in the Swedish capital. None of the three, who had all pleaded not guilty, were in court for the hearing.

“In an overall assessment the court finds that the assault has not been of such a serious nature that a prison sentence must be chosen,” the court said in a statement.

The court said the assault would have carried a two-month sentence but the fact that the defendants had no prior convictions over the past five years and had already spent time in custody awaiting their trial meant they would not serve further time in prison or pay any fine.