Sean Combs has retained Manhattan attorney Marc Agnifilo as prosecutors in the Southern District of New York prepare to indict him. Combs, 54, a rap singer and music producer, is also known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, and Diddy.
In 2019, Agnifilo was the lead attorney for Keith Raniere, the founder of NXIVM, during a six-week trial in Brooklyn federal court – where the legal definition of sex trafficking and forced labor expanded into a brave new world favoring prosecutors.
The jury convicted Raniere in minutes. The judge sentenced him to 120 years.
Combs on Hot Seat Now
In the Combs case, prosecutors have convened a federal grand jury, which, as most sophisticated citizens know, will convict a ham sandwich if directed. Typically, prosecutors do not waste time bothering 23 uninformed, basically useful idiots unless they plan to indict someone. In this case, their target is Combs.
If you think it is too harsh to call grand jurors useful idiots consider that out of 193,000 cases, grand juries failed to indict only 11 times.
Sex Trafficking Generally Results in Pre-Trial Detention
The prosecutors are reportedly pursuing the charge of sex trafficking. Sex trafficking comes with a presumption of no bail, though the defense can attempt to rebut the no bail presumption, but success in remaining free to defend oneself at trial is difficult.
Possibly Combs might persuade a judge to allow him to have home detention, but the possibility that with his fortune he might flee the country might work against him.
Once indicted, Combs can expect an arrest, probably by surprise, with a SWAT team (for show) with prosecutors not giving him the option to surrender voluntarily.
If this happens, and he is not granting bail, he will likely reside in a federal detention center, deliberately designed to be worse than a federal maximum security prison to encourage plea deals. Because of his celebrity, and the seriousness of potential sex trafficking charges, Combs can look forward to spending the year or so it will take to go to trial in isolation, in what the Department of Justice calls the Special Housing Unit or SHU, also known as solitary confinement.
Combs
Combs can anticipate residing in a single-man cell 23 hours a day while being monitored by CCTV cameras (unless, like Epstein, the cameras malfunction) and have lights on at all times.
Combs will be kept isolated. He’ll only leave his cell to exercise in an indoor cage, shower, or meet with his attorneys.
No outdoor recreation is permitted.
Chances At Trial
If Combs goes to trial, his chances of winning an acquittal are small. The rules of federal trial are heavily slanted in favor of the prosecution. Prosecutors win more than 80 percent of the time. Only about two percent of federal indictments result in a trial. Plea bargains resolve ninety percent, and about eight percent of indictments are dismissed.
A sex trafficking conviction requires a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years.
If the prosecutors tell the grand jury to indict Combs, his best hope to spend any portion of his life outside of prison might be to secure a plea bargain.
It is not uncommon to negotiate plea deals before an indictment. Perhaps with a substantial financial penalty paid to the feds, Combs might offset decades of prison in a system geared for him to lose regardless of innocence or guilt. He might also try to settle the lawsuits in a manner where the accusers are required to tell the truth and provide all exculpatory evidence, the combination of which might influence a potential plea bargain or serve him at trial.
As it stands now, the accusers, all of whom are coached by civil attorneys who will charge them nothing unless they collect money from Combs, are incentivized to tell a story that will help prosecutors convict Combs. Whether these stories are strictly true, half true, replete with omissions or neglect to share their role in the consent of the activities they suddenly allege as “coerced,” might be good for Combs to button down before the indictment. He has a legal route to obtain the truth through civil negotiations.
Otherwise, if he is indicted, he will see every witness the prosecutors line up against him accusing him of nearly the identical behavior framed to fit the crime, and in often identical language.
The jury will not understand that prosecutors coach the witnesses, and their civil lawyers reinforce it. Rather, the jury believes that if all these accusers say the same thing, it must be true.
Attorney Marc Agnifilo
Agnifilo Has Track Record
His attorney, Agnifilo, knows all this. In addition to representing many people charged with serious crimes, Agnifilo is a former prosecutor.
Marc Agnifilo [l], Martin Shkreli [c], and Benjamin Brafman [r]
Agnifilo represented Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical executive known for raising the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000%. In 2017, a federal jury found Shkreli, dubbed “Pharma Bro” in the media, guilty of two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018.
Agnifilo also represented former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng. A federal jury convicted NG of bribery and money laundering. He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Troubles Began With Ex Girlfriend
Cassie Ventura with Sean Combs
The genesis of Combs’ legal problems was a civil lawsuit his former girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, brought against him, seeking millions, alleging sex trafficking, human trafficking, sexual battery, sexual assault, and gender-motivated violence.
The lawsuit alleged Combs seduced Ventura into a “drug-fueled lifestyle” and repeatedly forced her to engage in sex with male sex workers so that he could watch and film the encounters. It is unclear why she repeatedly continued to have sex with the men.
Combs settled the lawsuit 24 hours after she filed it. The parties agreed not to disclose the settlement amount, but it is safe to assume he paid her multiple millions.
The Ventura lawsuit incentivized a cadre of additional accusers to bring lawsuits, some of whom allege abuse from decades earlier.
They “came out of the woodwork,” Agnifilo said.
The Ventura lawsuit also sparked a criminal investigation by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
Had Combs settled with her a day earlier, before the public filing, he probably would not face imminent arrest and possible life in prison.
Feds Can Take Their Sweet Time
It is unclear when the feds will pull the trigger and instruct the grand jury to indict.
Agnifilo said, “There’s been subpoenas out for months, and I don’t get the sense anything is imminent.”
Agnifilo added, “I think that the Southern District is appropriately taking its time and considering many different factors. But we are firmly convinced that he did not violate any federal laws, and we hope we can work with prosecutors in reaching that conclusion.”
But ominous signs indicate that absent some remarkable turnaround, such as finding that the women accusers’ claims are not credible and financially motivated, the feds will indict as soon as they feel they have shored up their case.
The most ominous sign is that Department of Homeland Security agents led a SWAT raid on March 25 at Combs’ mansion in Los Angeles and his Miami waterfront home, seizing phones, firearms, and computers in March.
Command trucks were parked outside both properties during the raids, and officers wearing protective gear and weapons were present.
The record shows that high-profile raids, in which the feds usually tip off the media in advance, are rarely undertaken unless the plan for indictment is already set.
Accusers Line Up
Combs faces ten civil lawsuits that allege abuse and sexual assault by multiple accusers who claim he abused them over 30 years.
Women from Comb’s past have come forward with accusations of violence and coerced sex – even though many if not all, consented at the time. Each will become a multi-millionaire if the singer is convicted.
One of the lawsuits comes from sex worker Adria English, who accuses him of sexual assault and harassment 15-20 years earlier.
She says Combs “demanded“ she engage in sex with guests at his high-profile “white parties“ at his homes in New York and Florida.
It is unclear why the sex worker did not refuse, why she agreed to continue coming back for more, or why she waited 15 years to bring the lawsuit. Combs denies the claims.
