NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Sean 鈥淒iddy鈥 Combs 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.
鈥淭hey all said: 鈥榃e never get to see anyone who beats the government,鈥欌 attorney Marc Agnifilo told The Associated Press in a weekend interview days after a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.
Combs, 55, remains jailed after his conviction Wednesday on prostitution-related charges, which could put him in prison for several more years. Any sentence will include credit for time already served. So far that's almost 10 months.
After federal agents raided Combs鈥 homes in Los Angeles and the Miami area in March 2024, Agnifilo said he told the 鈥淚'll Be Missing You鈥 singer to expect to be arrested on sex trafficking charges.
鈥淚 said: 鈥楳aybe it鈥檚 your fate in life to be the guy who wins,鈥欌 he recalled during a telephone interview briefly interrupted by a jailhouse call from Combs. 鈥淭hey need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart.鈥
Blunt trial strategy works
The 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' .
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.
鈥淵ou may think to yourself, wow, he is a really bad boyfriend,鈥 Combs鈥 lawyer Teny Geragos told jurors in her May opening statement. But that, she said, 鈥渋s simply not sex trafficking.鈥
Agnifilo said the blunt talk was a 鈥渘o brainer."
鈥淭he 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鈥檛 think it was something it wasn't,鈥 he said.
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.
鈥淣o one knows what to think,鈥 Agnifilo said. Then he slept on it.
Morning surprise awakes lawyer
鈥淚 wake up at three in the morning and I text Teny and say: 鈥漌e have to get a bail application together," he recalled. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a good verdict for us but I think he went down on the prostitution counts so let鈥檚 try to get him out.鈥
He said he 鈥渒ind of whipped everybody into feeling better鈥 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.
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's prediction.
The seemingly chastened Combs mouthed 鈥渢hank you鈥 to jurors and smiled as family and supporters applauded. After he was escorted from the room, spectators cheered the defense team, a few chanting: 鈥淒ream Team! Dream Team!鈥 Several lawyers, including Geragos, cried.
鈥淭his was a major victory for the defense and a major loss for the prosecution,鈥 said Mitchell Epner, a lawyer who worked with Agnifilo as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey over two decades ago. He credited 鈥渁 dream team of defense lawyers鈥 against prosecutors who almost always win.
Agnifilo showcased what would become his trial strategy 鈥 that led to them 鈥 in arguing unsuccessfully for bail. The case against Combs was what happens when the 鈥渇ederal government comes into our bedrooms,鈥 he said.
Lawyers gently questioned most witnesses
, Combs鈥 lawyers picked apart the with mostly gentle but firm cross-examinations. Combs never testified and his lawyers called no witnesses.
Sarah Krissoff, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan from 2008 to 2021, said Combs' defense team 鈥渉ad a narrative from the beginning and they did all of it without putting on any witnesses. That鈥檚 masterful.鈥
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.
鈥淚 knew the weak points in the statute,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he statute is very mechanical. If you know how the car works, you know where the fail points are.鈥
He said prosecutors had 鈥渄ozens of fail points.鈥
鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 have a conspiracy, they just didn't,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey basically had Combs' personal life and tried to build racketeering around personal assistants.鈥
Some personal assistants, even after viewing videos of Combs beating his longtime girlfriend, Casandra 鈥淐assie鈥 Ventura, had glowing things to say about Combs on cross examination.
Once freed, Combs likely to reenter domestic abusers program
For Combs, Agnifilo sees a long road ahead once he is freed as he works on personal demons, likely reentering a program for domestic batterers that he had just started before his arrest.
鈥淗e鈥檚 doing OK,鈥 said Agnifilo, who speaks with him four or five times daily.
He said Combs genuinely desires improvement and 鈥渞ealizes he has flaws like everyone else that he never worked on.鈥
鈥淗e burns hot in all matters. I think what he has come to see is that he has these flaws and there鈥檚 no amount of fame and no amount of fortune鈥 that can erase them," he said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 cover them up."
For Agnifilo, a final surprise awaited him after Combs' bail was rejected when a man collapsed into violent seizures at the elevators outside the courtroom.
鈥淚'm like: 鈥榃hat the hell?'鈥 recalled the lawyer schooled in treating seizures.
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's head and Agnifilo's daughter took his pulse.
鈥淲e made sure he didn't choke on vomit. It was crazy. I was worried about him,鈥 he said.
The man was eventually taken away conscious by rescue workers, leaving Agnifilo to ponder a tumultuous day.
鈥淚t was like I was getting punked by God,鈥 he said.
