At the trial, Sean Combs is represented by a large and diverse defense team. This has become even more diverse recently.
From the early stages of the government's investigation, Combs has held Mark Agnifilo and Tenny Jelagos of Agnifilo Interter.
Agnifilo is a longtime criminal defense lawyer and has represented famous figures like former Pharma executive Martin Schkreli. Keith Raniere, leader of the NXIVM sex cult. Dominique Strauss Khan, former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York in 2011. (The case against Strauss Kahn was dismissed prior to trial.) Along with his wife, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Agnifilo is also part of Luigi Mangione's defense team, who was killed in the murder of a healthcare executive.
Agnifilo, who went in and out of court, was perhaps the strongest voice in Combs' defense. At last month's hearing, he repeated the defense's claim that Combs' “freak-off,” a sexual encounter that the government claims is agreed, and that Combs' ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, is willing to be a participant. “Come on that as a 'swinger' and call it whatever you do,” Agnifilo said.
In a media interview, he called the case “unfair prosecution” and said Combs was “not an incomplete person but not a criminal.”
Agnifilo, a longtime lawyer for Brahman & Associates, left last year to help start Agnifilo's interter. With him, he brought Mr. Jelagos. His father is Mark Jelagos, a celebrity lawyer who has represented Mr. Combs in the past. Jelagos also spoke publicly about the incident, including a series of Tiktok videos she posted before her arrest in September.
The team also includes Alexandra Shapiro, a prominent appeals court attorney for Shapiro Arato Bach, a prosecutor at the US Lawyer's Office in the Southern District of New York, who once indicted the Combs case. She graduated from Columbia Law School and was one of Judge Ruth Baderginsburg's first store clerks on the Supreme Court. She also wrote the novel “Presumed Sin and Conviction.”
Shapiro is widely recognized for her success rate and appeals at trial. “If you want to maximize your chances of winning a trial or an appeal against SDNY, you'll need to call Alexandra Shapiro (if you can afford her).”
Given her expertise, Shapiro may have a close look during the trial on issues that would be useful when the defense appeals a verdict.
Combs' defenses include Jason Driscoll of Shapiro Arato Bach and Anna Estevao of Harris Trzaskoma.
Over the past few weeks, Combs has added several other lawyers.
The most well-known is Brian Steel. He defended rapper Young Thug in a long run-of-control trial in Georgia. Jeffrey Williams' real name, Young Thug, pleaded guilty to participating in criminally-standing gang activities, and was released over time. However, Steele, who was recently featured in New Yorker, has widely notified him in and beyond the courtroom world for courtroom showdowns that accused judges of condemning inappropriate meetings with witnesses. He was detained in light empty, but was later proven when the judge was ordered to reject himself from the case.
Combs' team recently added Xavier Donaldson, a New York lawyer whose LinkedIn profile describes him as “litigator, professor, speaker, crisis manager and crisis manager,” and Nicole Westmoreland, who represented one of Young Thug's co-defendants at his trial.
In April, Combs' legal team sought a two-month delay in the trial to consider what he said was newly created evidence by the government. The judge denied the request, noting that Combs had four law firms working for him and had given him sufficient resources to prepare.
Since then, Combs has added two more.
