By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on January 30, 2025
An Editorial Opinion
On Thursday, federal prosecutors in New York City unsealed a superseding indictment against Sean “Diddy” Combs. The new indictment did not add additional charges to Diddy's case. However, it added at least two more victims and greater clarity to the original criminal charges against him.
Diddy is charged with leading a racketeering enterprise that included sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportattion for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and onstruction of justice.
If convicted, Diddy faces life imprisonment.
The government also seeks to seize any of Diddy's mansions, cash, and other assets that were derived from the racketeering enterprise alleged in the indictment.
Since September 2024, Diddy has been held without bond on the original federal criminal charges against him. He has been refused bail in this case on multiple occasions. Presently, Diddy is jailed in the nasty, filthy, dilapidated Manhattan Detention Center in New York while he awaits trial.
Diddy has six criminal lawyers defending him. They are Marc Antony Agnifilo, Teny Rose Geragos, Alexandra A.E. Shapiro, Anna Maria Estevao, Anthony L. Ricco, and Jason Anthony Driscoll. None of these attorneys has a national reputation for winning complex criminal cases involving high-profile “outcast” defendants. In fact, we have not been able to establish an overall win-loss record for any of these attorneys for defendants in criminal cases that were tried to verdict.
The government has 8 seasoned prosecutors working on Diddy's case. Over 95% of the criminal cases they have prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York resulted in a plea of guilty. To date, Diddy has pleaded “Not Guilty.”
In fiscal year 2022, only 290 of 71,954 defendants in federal criminal cases – about 0.4% – went to trial and were acquitted, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the latest available statistics from the federal judiciary. Another 1,379 went to trial and were found guilty (1.9%).
In my opinion, there is a total mismatch of the legal talent in this case. Diddy’s lawyers are more suited for defending run-of-the-mill criminal cases involving low-profile defendants. Diddy is a high-profile “outcast” who is scorned by many segments of American society. Losing is NOT an acceptable option in Diddy's case.
Agnifilo, a New York criminal attorney, previously represented Keith Raniere, an infamous cult leader who was convicted on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges following a trial in 2019. Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison.
Based upon what I have seen in Diddy's case to date, there is no indication that his lawyers have the trial skills and experience necessary to walk him out of the courtroom as a “free man.”
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