Credit: Lil Durk

Lil Durk was hit with conspiracy, murder-for-hire and firearms charges in November but pled not guilty to the allegations in the case. The charges included one count of conspiracy, one count of using interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death, and one count of using, carrying and discharging firearms and a machine gun and possession of such firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death.

Now, the Chicago rapper’s father, Dontay ‘Big Durk’ Banks, has spoken out about the legal case in a press conference. He called out the US government for targeting his son after he allegedly left the street life behind and moved on to a better life.

“I’ll leave all legal issues to the lawyers [but] as far as the family, as far as me as a father, the only thing I can say is that it’s mighty strange that once he start doing good out there, once he stayed away from all the gang banging and dissing the dead and doing things out there in the street – when he turned his life around, when he on his deen now practicing religion, doing things for the community, bringing about peace in Chicago and throughout various cities, all of a sudden now he’s being indicted,” he said.

He added, “Just right off the Muslim conference that we had in Chicago calling for peace – now three to four days later, he’s being indicted after that. When he put up [on the screen] at his concert all of the people that got killed in Chicago showing that this is not what it’s about and then he gets indicted.”

Banks continued to slate the justice system, saying, “So look at the bigger picture here. Look at what the government’s trying to do. Their whole thing is if you’re doing wrong, you’re doing bad, then that’s good for them because that fills up the prison. But when you start doing right and tell people to stop doing wrong, then all of a sudden you an enemy to them and they have to lock you up.”

Durk tried his hand at bail in December with a $3.3million package that included $1million in cash and $2.3million in property, but Judge Patricia Donahue denied him.

“Based on all of the evidence, I find that there is no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of the community,” she said. “The allegations are not that the defendant personally pulled the trigger. The allegations are that the defendant exercises a significant amount of control over others.”