Sean “Diddy” Combs Steve Granitz/WireImage
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, knew after the Homeland Security raids in March that the music mogul would eventually be formally charged.
“I knew that day by looking at the search warrants, I mean … I’ve been doing this for a while. This is not my first or 100th rodeo. [I knew] that this was going to come as a matter of time,” Agnifilo said during a Tuesday, September 17, appearance on CNN’s The Source With Kaitlan Collins. “What I realized in early September is that it was coming soon and so it was time for Mr. Combs to come to New York, which he did.”
Diddy, 54, traveled to New York earlier this month, “as soon as we realized that this indictment was going to be coming down in a matter of weeks,” Agnifilo explained. The attorney “called the prosecutors” and said the rapper “wants to surrender.”
Agnifilo claimed during Tuesday’s interview that the prosecution “didn’t want him to surrender.”
“If he surrenders, they don’t get to tell the judge that he’s a flight risk and he’s a danger,” Agnifilo alleged. “Because who as a danger and a flight risk would fly to New York and surrender?”
INF/INSTAR Sean “Diddy” Combs has been under investigation for at least a year after being accused of sexual assault by multiple people. The rapper and music mogul, 54, made headlines in November 2023 after his ex-girlfriend Cassie accused him of sexual abuse in a bombshell lawsuit. She accused Diddy of beating her, forcing her to […]
Agnifilo also alleged that his client is not guilty. “He’s innocent. I believe he’s innocent. I believe he’s innocent of the charges,” he said. “He is going to go to trial. And I believe he’s going to win.”
Lawyer for Sean Combs, Marc Agnifilo, speaks to the media after a hearing at U.S. District Court on September 17, 2024 in New York City. John Lamparski/Getty Images
Diddy was arrested on Monday, September 16, in New York following a grand jury indictment. On Tuesday, he entered a not guilty plea for charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution. Diddy was subsequently denied bail and will remain in federal custody pending the outcome of his trial.
Agnifilo told Collins on Tuesday that his “defense is very well-established,” noting that he has interviewed “different men” who were involved in Diddy’s “intimate situation.”
“There’s not the slightest inkling — according to the interviews that I’ve done — of anything that’s coercive, nonconsensual,” Agnifilo claimed. “Nobody was too drunk; nobody was too high.”
A 14-page indictment outlining the allegations says otherwise, claiming that Diddy “abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him.” The indictment, which was unsealed Tuesday, detailed “Freak Offs” hosted by the musician and members of Combs Enterprise where female victims would allegedly be lured into hotel rooms and forced to “engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs was indicted on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering on Tuesday, September 17, one day after his arrest in New York. A 14-page indictment, unsealed on Tuesday, details a barrage of accusations against the rapper. Diddy “abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him,” the indictment states. Some of the alleged […]
The attorney also brought up the 2016 hotel security footage that allegedly showed Diddy assaulting ex-girlfriend Cassie, whom he dated on and off from 2007 to 2018.
Sean “Diddy” Combs Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean “Diddy” Combs
“The prosecutors are seizing on something that happened eight years ago. This video that we’ve all seen, it’s a bad video for Mr. Combs and he said so himself when he gave his apology,” Agnifilo said. “This is eight years ago, and the prosecutors are talking about him bribing a hotel security worker. There was no criminal investigation.”
He said the past situation was “a matter of personal embarrassment” between Diddy and Cassie, claiming the pair had a “mutually” toxic relationship.
“This whole notion that Mr. Combs is forcing drugs on someone is just nonsensical and it’s going to prove to not be true,” Agnifilo continued, noting that the video would “100 percent” be seen in court.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
