Diddy Just Scored a Rare Legal Win, But It's Not All Good News
On Monday, a New York judge decided to dismiss partial claims lobbed against the disgraced hip-hop mogul by Rodney 'Lil Rod' Jones back in February 2024. The bombshell sexual assault lawsuit was one of the first that came out against Diddy that triggered his eventual downfall.
In the suit, Jones made a myriad of horrendous accusations against the Bad Boy producer including, but not limited to: sexual harassment, drugging, violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).
Diddy, his company Combs Global; his son Justin Combs; his chief of staff Kristina Khorram; Universal Music Group CEO Sir Lucian Grainge; and former Motown Records CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam were all named as defendants in the suit.
Now however, per PEOPLE, it was revealed that the judge decided to dismiss Jones' claims of RICO violations against Diddy and the rest of the defendants—signaling a rare, major win for the heaviest charge of them all. The TVPA violations were also dropped against Combs Global, but Diddy and Khorram still face those charges. The judge also dismissed Jones' claims of emotional distress and breach of contract. But Diddy will still face charges of sexual assault and the 'premises liability claim' which argues that Jones was sexually assaulted multiple times on Diddy's property.
Additionally, the judge also issued a warning against Jones' lawyer Tyrone Blackburn and his 'unsettling' conduct.
'Blackburn's filings are replete with inaccurate statements of law, conclusory accusations, and inappropriate ad hominem attacks on opposing counsel,' the judge wrote.
But Blackburn remains unfazed.
'We view this as a win,' Blackburn said in a statement to USA Today on Tuesday. 'Defendants wanted a total dismissal and they failed to get it. [Combs and Khorram] 'do not want me to do discovery...I know where all of the bodies are buried and I have a HUGE shovel. Time to start digging!'
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Sean 'Diddy' Combs Was Met with a Standing Ovation from His Fellow Inmates After Court Verdict
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Associated Press
10 hours ago
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Sean 'Diddy' Combs gets standing ovation from inmates after court victory, his lawyer says
NEW YORK (AP) — 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. 'They all said: 'We never get to see anyone who beats the government,'' attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a weekend interview days after a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges. Combs, 55, remains jailed after his Wednesday conviction on prostitution-related charges and could still face several years in prison at an upcoming sentencing after being credited for 10 months already served. After federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami in March 2024, the lawyer said he told Combs to expect arrest on sex trafficking charges. '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. 'They need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart.' Blunt trial strategy works The verdict came after a veteran team of eight defense lawyers led by Agnifilo executed a trial strategy that resonated with jurors. Combs passed lawyers notes during effective cross examinations of nearly three dozen witnesses over two months, including Combs' ex-employees. 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. 'You may think to yourself, wow, he is a really bad boyfriend,' Combs' lawyer Teny Geragos told jurors in her May opening statement. But that, she said, 'is simply not sex trafficking.' Agnifilo said the blunt talk was a 'no brainer.' 'The violence was so clear and up front 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. Combs and his lawyers seemed deflated Tuesday when jurors said they were deadlocked on the racketeering count but reached a verdict on sex trafficking and lesser prostitution-related charges. A judge ordered them back to deliberate Wednesday. 'No one knows what to think,' Agnifilo said. Then he slept on it. Morning surprise awakes lawyer 'I wake up at three in the morning and I text Teny and say: 'We have to get a bail application together,' he recalled. '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.' 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. Agnifilo met with Combs before court and Combs entered the courtroom rejuvenated. Smiling, the onetime Catholic schoolboy prayed with family. In less than an hour, the jury matched Agnifilo's prediction. The seemingly chastened Combs mouthed 'thank you' to jurors and smiled as family and supporters applauded. After he was escorted from the room, spectators cheered the defense team, a few chanting: 'Dream Team! Dream Team!' Several lawyers, including Geragos, cried. 'This was a major victory for the defense 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. He credited 'a dream team of defense lawyers' against prosecutors who almost always win. 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. The case against Combs was what happens when the 'federal government comes into our bedrooms,' he said. Lawyers gently questioned most witnesses During an eight-week trial, Combs' lawyers picked apart the prosecution case with mostly gentle but firm cross-examinations. Combs never testified and his lawyers called no witnesses. Sarah Krissoff, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan from 2008 to 2021, said Combs' defense team 'had a narrative from the beginning and they did all of it without putting on any witnesses. That's masterful.' Ironically, Agnifilo expanded the use of racketeering laws as a federal prosecutor on an organized crime task force in New Jersey two decades ago, using them often to indict street gangs in violence-torn cities. 'I knew the weak points in the statute,' he said. 'The statute is very mechanical. If you know how the car works, you know where the fail points are.' He said prosecutors had 'dozens of fail points.' 'They didn't have a conspiracy, they just didn't,' he said. 'They basically had Combs' personal life and tried to build racketeering around personal assistants.' 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. Once freed, Combs likely to re-enter domestic abusers program For Combs, Agnifilo sees a long road ahead once he is freed as he works on personal demons, likely re-entering a program for domestic batterers that he had just started before his arrest. 'He's doing OK,' said Agnifilo, who speaks with him four or five times daily. He said Combs genuinely desires improvement and 'realizes he has flaws like everyone else that he never worked on.' '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. 'You can't cover them up.' 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. 'I'm like: 'What the hell?'' recalled the lawyer schooled in treating seizures. 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. 'We made sure he didn't choke on vomit. It was crazy. I was worried about him,' he said. The man was eventually taken away conscious by rescue workers, leaving Agnifilo to ponder a tumultuous day. 'It was like I was getting punked by God,' he said.
