Jailed former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai took the stand for the first time Wednesday in his trial on conspiracy to collude with foreign powers and publishing seditious anti-government material.

Jimmy Lai, the pugnacious Hong Kong media tycoon whose now shuttered tabloid Apple Daily was a regular thorn in Beijing’s side, took the stand Wednesday in his own defense for the first time in a high stakes national security trial that could send him to prison for life.

HONG KONG (AP) — Former Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai testified he met with then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during Hong Kong’s anti-government protests in 2019 but told the court at his landmark national security trial Wednesday that he did not ask the U.S. officials to take action.