<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Sean “Diddy” 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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“They all said: ‘We never get to see anyone who beats the government,’” attorney Marc Agnifilo told The Associated Press in a weekend interview days after a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Combs, 55, remains jailed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn after his conviction on Wednesday on prostitution-related charges, which could put him in prison for several more years.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/trumps-reciprocal-tariff-pause-is-about-to-expire-cue-the-confusion/b1a81de0-7047-416a-b5ed-72e415d0f3cd" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Trump's 'reciprocal' tariff pause is about to expire. Cue the confusion</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Any sentence will include credit for time already served. So far that's almost 10 months.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and the Miami area in March 2024, Agnifilo said he told the “I'll Be Missing You” singer to expect to be arrested on sex trafficking charges.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“I said: ‘Maybe it’s your fate in life to be the guy who wins,’” he recalled during a telephone interview briefly interrupted by a jailhouse call from Combs.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/sean-diddy-combs-gets-standing-ovation-from-inmates-after-court-victory-his-lawyer-says/6c5d9cad-c83c-49ef-90e3-60bbe5139e03" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“They need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart.”</span></div></div><div class="styles__Wrapper-sc-2o34ro-0 cmwkBV"><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><a href="/content/2025/05/06/14/12/sean-diddy-combs-timeline-of-the-rise-and-fall"><img alt="A timeline of the rise and fall of Sean &amp;#x27;Diddy&amp;#x27; Combs" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 636px, (min-width: 768px) 396px, 100vw" src="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/Uxwv941NHGeWkwIyuABRWh2iO1I=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F0e79282c-a18a-4329-ae25-f4834b7fb6f4" srcset="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/Uxwv941NHGeWkwIyuABRWh2iO1I=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F0e79282c-a18a-4329-ae25-f4834b7fb6f4 396w, https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/TTzAGnDuPQTj-Y57myjMII7A1ts=/636x358/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F0e79282c-a18a-4329-ae25-f4834b7fb6f4 636w"/></a></div><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><div class="styles__Headline-sc-2o34ro-4 hpbOlz">From hit songs to abuse allegations: The rise and fall of Sean 'Diddy' Combs</div><div class="styles__Button-sc-2o34ro-1 eBjlmW"><a class="styles__ButtonLink-sc-2o34ro-2 hqpklJ" href="/content/2025/05/06/14/12/sean-diddy-combs-timeline-of-the-rise-and-fall">View Gallery</a></div></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Blunt trial strategy works</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The verdict in Manhattan federal court came after a veteran team of eight defence lawyers led by Agnifilo executed a trial strategy that resonated with jurors.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Combs passed lawyers notes during effective cross-examinations of nearly three dozen witnesses over two months, including Combs' ex-employees.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“You may think to yourself, wow, he is a really bad boyfriend,” Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos told jurors in her May opening statement.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But that, she said, “is simply not sex trafficking.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Agnifilo said the blunt talk was a “no-brainer".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“The violence was so clear and upfront 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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Combs and his lawyers seemed deflated on Tuesday when jurors said they were deadlocked on the racketeering count but reached a verdict on sex trafficking and lesser prostitution-related charges.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A judge ordered them back to deliberate on Wednesday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“No one knows what to think,” Agnifilo said. Then he slept on it.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/red-sea-ship-attack-crew-of-liberia-flag-greek-owned-ship-abandon-it-after-attack-uk-military-says/4156be03-d459-4352-a2b7-94c9a01034c8" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Crew abandons ship in Red Sea after 'drone boat' attack</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Morning surprise awakes lawyer</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“I wake up at three in the morning and I text Teny and say: ”We have to get a bail application together," he recalled.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“It’s going to be a good verdict for us but I think he went down on the prostitution counts so let’s try to get him out.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said he “kind of whipped everybody into feeling better” 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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Agnifilo met with Combs before court and Combs entered the courtroom rejuvenated.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Smiling, the one-time Catholic schoolboy prayed with family.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In less than an hour, the jury matched Agnifilo's prediction.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The seemingly chastened Combs mouthed “thank you” to jurors and smiled as family and supporters applauded.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After he was escorted from the room, spectators cheered the defence team, a few chanting: “Dream Team! Dream Team!”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Several lawyers, including Geragos, cried.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“This was a major victory for the defence and a major loss for the prosecution,” said Mitchell Epner, a lawyer who worked with Agnifilo as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey over two decades ago.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He credited “a dream team of defence lawyers” against prosecutors who almost always win.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Agnifilo showcased what would become his trial strategy — belittling the charges and mocking the investigation that led to them — last September in arguing unsuccessfully for bail.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The case against Combs was what happens when the “federal government comes into our bedrooms”, he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/texas-floods-search-for-missing-girls-plows-forward-after-flash-flood-kills-at-least-people-in-texas/9da0f633-51b1-46f9-8b04-2e0c8ba86c6f" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Texas flood death toll hits 70 as 21 children found dead</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Lawyers gently questioned most witnesses</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>During an eight-week trial, Combs’ lawyers picked apart the prosecution case with mostly gentle but firm cross-examinations.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Combs never testified and his lawyers called no witnesses.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Sarah Krissoff, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan from 2008 to 2021, said Combs' defence team “had a narrative from the beginning and they did all of it without putting on any witnesses. That’s masterful.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ironically, Agnifilo expanded the use of racketeering laws as a federal prosecutor on an organised crime task force in New Jersey two decades ago, using them often to indict street gangs in violence-torn cities.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“I knew the weak points in the statute,” he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“The statute is very mechanical. If you know how the car works, you know where the fail points are.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said prosecutors had “dozens of fail points”.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“They didn’t have a conspiracy, they just didn't,” he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“They basically had Combs' personal life and tried to build racketeering around personal assistants.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some personal assistants, even after viewing videos of Combs beating his longtime girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, had glowing things to say about Combs on cross-examination.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/sydney-man-killed-struck-by-bus-at-taronga-zoo/a059e633-1a7a-4e4d-a8b4-8e8870a3ff61" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>'Extraordinary figure' in motorsport killed in Taronga Zoo bike crash</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Once freed, Combs likely to reenter domestic abusers program</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“He’s doing OK,” said Agnifilo, who speaks with him four or five times daily.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said Combs genuinely desires improvement and “realises he has flaws like everyone else that he never worked on”.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“You can’t cover them up."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“I'm like: ‘What the hell?'” recalled the lawyer schooled in treating seizures.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“We made sure he didn't choke on vomit. It was crazy. I was worried about him,” he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The man was eventually taken away conscious by rescue workers, leaving Agnifilo to ponder a tumultuous day.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“It was like I was getting punked by God,” he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>Support is available from the</span></strong><span> </span><strong><span>National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service</span></strong><span> </span><strong><span>at</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.1800respect.org.au/" title="https://www.1800respect.org.au/"><strong><span>1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)</span></strong></a><strong><span>.</span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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