{"id":44288,"date":"2025-07-06T21:04:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T21:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/44288\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T21:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T21:04:15","slug":"sean-diddy-combs-gets-standing-ovation-from-inmates-after-court-victory-his-lawyer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/44288\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs gets standing ovation from inmates after court victory, his lawyer says"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/a> got a standing ovation from fellow inmates when the music mogul returned to jail after winning acquittals on potential life-in-prison charges, providing what his lawyer says might have been the best thing he could do for Black incarcerated men in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all said: \u2018We never get to see anyone who beats the government,\u2019\u201d attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a weekend interview days after a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.<\/p>\n

Combs, 55, remains jailed after his Wednesday conviction on prostitution-related charges and could still face several years in prison at an upcoming sentencing after being credited for 10 months already served.<\/p>\n

After federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami in March 2024, the lawyer said he told Combs to expect arrest on sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said: \u2018Maybe it\u2019s your fate in life to be the guy who wins,\u2019\u201d he recalled during a telephone interview briefly interrupted by a jailhouse call from Combs. \u201cThey need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blunt trial strategy works<\/p>\n

The verdict came after a veteran team of eight defense lawyers led by Agnifilo executed a trial strategy that resonated with jurors. Combs passed lawyers notes during effective cross examinations of nearly three dozen witnesses over two months, including Combs\u2019 ex-employees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lawyers told jurors Combs was a jealous domestic abuser with a drug problem who participated in the swinger lifestyle through threesomes involving Combs, his girlfriends and another man.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may think to yourself, wow, he is a really bad boyfriend,\u201d Combs\u2019 lawyer Teny Geragos told jurors in her May opening statement. But that, she said, \u201cis simply not sex trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agnifilo said the blunt talk was a \u201cno brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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\u2019t think it was something it wasn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Combs and his lawyers seemed deflated Tuesday when jurors said they were deadlocked on the racketeering count but reached a verdict on sex trafficking and lesser prostitution-related charges. A judge ordered them back to deliberate Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one knows what to think,\u201d Agnifilo said. Then he slept on it.<\/p>\n

Morning surprise awakes lawyer<\/p>\n

\u201cI wake up at three in the morning and I text Teny and say: \u201dWe have to get a bail application together,\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a good verdict for us but I think he went down on the prostitution counts so let\u2019s try to get him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he \u201ckind of whipped everybody into feeling better\u201d after concluding jurors would have convicted him of racketeering if they had convicted him of sex trafficking because trafficking was an alleged component of racketeering.<\/p>\n

Agnifilo met with Combs before court and Combs entered the courtroom rejuvenated. Smiling, the onetime Catholic schoolboy prayed with family. In less than an hour, the jury matched Agnifilo\u2019s prediction.<\/p>\n

The seemingly chastened Combs mouthed \u201cthank you\u201d to jurors and smiled as family and supporters applauded. After he was escorted from the room, spectators cheered the defense team, a few chanting: \u201cDream Team! Dream Team!\u201d Several lawyers, including Geragos, cried.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a major victory for the defense and a major loss for the prosecution,\u201d said Mitchell Epner, a lawyer who worked with Agnifilo as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey over two decades ago. He credited \u201ca dream team of defense lawyers\u201d against prosecutors who almost always win.<\/p>\n

Agnifilo showcased what would become his trial strategy \u2014 belittling the charges and mocking the investigation<\/a> that led to them \u2014 last September<\/a> in arguing unsuccessfully for bail. The case against Combs was what happens when the \u201cfederal government comes into our bedrooms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lawyers gently questioned most witnesses<\/p>\n

During an eight-week trial<\/a>, Combs\u2019 lawyers picked apart the prosecution case<\/a> with mostly gentle but firm cross-examinations. Combs never testified and his lawyers called no witnesses.<\/p>\n

Sarah Krissoff, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan from 2008 to 2021, said Combs\u2019 defense team \u201chad a narrative from the beginning and they did all of it without putting on any witnesses. That\u2019s masterful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, Agnifilo expanded the use of racketeering laws as a federal prosecutor on an organized crime task force in New Jersey two decades ago, using them often to indict street gangs in violence-torn cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the weak points in the statute,\u201d he said. \u201cThe statute is very mechanical. If you know how the car works, you know where the fail points are.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said prosecutors had \u201cdozens of fail points.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have a conspiracy, they just didn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cThey basically had Combs\u2019 personal life and tried to build racketeering around personal assistants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some personal assistants, even after viewing videos of Combs beating his longtime girlfriend, Casandra \u201cCassie\u201d Ventura, had glowing things to say about Combs on cross examination.<\/p>\n

Once freed, Combs likely to re-enter domestic abusers program<\/p>\n

For Combs, Agnifilo sees a long road ahead once he is freed as he works on personal demons, likely re-entering a program for domestic batterers that he had just started before his arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing OK,\u201d said Agnifilo, who speaks with him four or five times daily.<\/p>\n

He said Combs genuinely desires improvement and \u201crealizes he has flaws like everyone else that he never worked on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe burns hot in all matters. I think what he has come to see is that he has these flaws and there\u2019s no amount of fame and no amount of fortune\u201d that can erase them,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t cover them up.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Agnifilo, a final surprise awaited him after Combs\u2019 bail was rejected when a man collapsed into violent seizures at the elevators outside the courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like: \u2018What the hell?\u2019\u201d recalled the lawyer schooled in treating seizures.<\/p>\n

Agnifilo straddled him, pulling him onto his side and using a foot to prevent him from rolling backward while a law partner, Jacob Kaplan, put a backpack under the man\u2019s head and Agnifilo\u2019s daughter took his pulse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made sure he didn\u2019t choke on vomit. It was crazy. I was worried about him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The man was eventually taken away conscious by rescue workers, leaving Agnifilo to ponder a tumultuous day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like I was getting punked by God,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs got a standing ovation from fellow inmates when the music mogul…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3881,2122,356,4219,171,57,9621,4228,34467,12588,362,20229,34469,401,405,403,404,406,9627,34468,349,12589,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-44288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-arts-and-entertainment","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-human-trafficking","15":"tag-indictments","16":"tag-jacob-kaplan","17":"tag-juries","18":"tag-legal-proceedings","19":"tag-marc-agnifilo","20":"tag-mitchell-epner","21":"tag-new-jersey","22":"tag-new-york","23":"tag-new-york-city","24":"tag-new-york-city-wire","25":"tag-ny-state-wire","26":"tag-prostitution","27":"tag-sarah-krissoff","28":"tag-sean-diddy-combs","29":"tag-sexual-misconduct","30":"tag-u-s-news","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}