A week after a New York jury returned a mixed verdict, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is still a hot topic—that includes behind bars! Earlier this week, his lawyer Marc Agnifilo told the Associated Press that Diddy’s jail inmates gave him a standing ovation after his acquittal on potential life-in-prison charges. Here’s what else he spilled about their trial strategy and what’s next for Diddy if freed.
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Marc Agnifilo Claims Inmates Applauded Diddy After Verdict
Agnifilo called the acquittals “the best thing he could do for incarcerated Black men in America,” per AP. Combs, 55, remains jailed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn after his conviction Wednesday (July 2) on prostitution-related charges. He faces potential years behind bars. However, any sentence will include credit for time already served. So far, that’s almost 10 months.
“They all said: ‘We never get to see anyone who beats the government,'” Marc Agnifilo told AP days after a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.
After federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and the Miami area in March 2024, Agnifilo said he told the hip hop mogul he could expect to be arrested on sex trafficking charges. He recalled telling Diddy, “Maybe it’s your fate in life to be the guy who wins.” Additionally, Marc told AP he said: “They need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart.”
Attorney Stands By Team’s Blunt Trial Strategy
The verdict in Manhattan federal court came after a veteran team of eight defense lawyers executed a trial strategy that resonated with jurors. Agnifilo led them. As previously reported, Diddy passed notes to his attorneys during an effective cross-examination of nearly three dozen witnesses over two months.
The lawyers told jurors Sean Combs was a jealous domestic abuser with a drug problem. They also said he participated in the swinger lifestyle through threesomes involving him, his girlfriends, and other men. In her May opening statement, Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos told the court that thinking Diddy is a “bad boyfriend” does not mean he’s guilty of sex trafficking. Going with this blunt strategy was a “no-brainer,” Marc told AP.
“The violence was so clear and up front and we knew the government was going to try to confuse the jury into thinking it was part of a sex trafficking effort. So we had to tell the jury what it was so they wouldn’t think it was something it wasn’t,” he said.
Marc Agnifilo Says He Predicted Trial Outcome Hours Before
Tuesday seemed tough for Diddy’s legal team when the jurors appeared deadlocked on the racketeering charge. By the next morning at 3 a.m., though, he was texting Teny about putting together a bail application. He was confident they had gotten at least two Ws, but predicted their client would go down for prostitution. And he was right. In less than an hour on verdict day, the jury matched Agnifilo’s prediction.
Still, Diddy’s lawyer said he made the legal team feel “better” after concluding jurors would have convicted Diddy of racketeering if they had convicted him of sex trafficking. That’s because trafficking was an alleged component of the racketeering. So for them, acquittal on both was a significant win.
Diddy mouthed “thank you” to jurors after they delivered the verdict and smiled as family and supporters applauded. After he was escorted from the room, spectators cheered the defense team, a few chanting: “Dream Team! Dream Team!” Several lawyers, including Geragos, cried.
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Prosecutors Had “Fail Points”
During an eight-week trial, Combs’ lawyers picked apart the prosecution’s case with mostly gentle but firm cross-examinations. Combs never testified, and his lawyers called no witnesses. Two decades ago, as a prosecutor in New Jersey, Agnifilo was responsible for expanding the use of racketeering laws under organized crime. So for him, picking apart the prosecutors’ case seemingly felt familiar.
“I knew the weak points in the statute,” Diddy’s lawyer said. “The statute is very mechanical. If you know how the car works, you know where the fail points are.”
He said prosecutors had “dozens of fail points.” Adding, “They didn’t have a conspiracy, they just didn’t,” he said. “They basically had Combs’ personal life and tried to build racketeering around personal assistants.” Keep in mind that some personal assistants, even after viewing videos of Combs beating Cassie, had glowing things to say about Combs on cross-examination.
If Freed, What’s Next For Diddy?
For Sean Combs, Marc Agnifilo sees a long road ahead once he is freed and resumes work on personal demons. The producer will likely be reentering a program for domestic batterers that he had just started before his arrest in September.
“He’s doing OK,” said Agnifilo, who speaks with him four or five times daily.
He said Combs genuinely desires improvement and “realizes he has flaws like everyone else that he never worked on.”
“He burns hot in all matters. I think what he has come to see is that he has these flaws and there’s no amount of fame and no amount of fortune” that can erase them,” he said. “You can’t cover them up.”
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Associated Press Staff Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.
