The nepo baby millennial lawyer who spared Diddy from life behind bars

Telegraph

18 hours ago

As the verdict was read out in courtroom 26A in lower Manhattan, Sean 'Diddy' Combs, tightly squeezed Teny Geragos's hand and raised it in the air.
Nearly two months ago, the lawyer sitting to his left had glided over to the wooden podium to deliver a controversial opening statement in which she admitted her client was a violent domestic abuser. She did not deny that he had done some terrible things, but that wasn't what Combs was on trial for, she told the court.
It was a risky move, but as the jury foreman delivered the verdict on Wednesday morning, it was clearly one that had paid off. Combs was acquitted on the most serious offences of sex trafficking and racketeering and found guilty of two charges of transporting prostitutes.
As Combs put his head in his hands and fell to the ground to celebrate, Ms Geragos dabbed at her tears with a tissue and hugged his family members.
The three not guilty verdicts were not just a partial victory for Combs – it was a career-defining win for Ms Geragos, who was one of his 'dream team' of lawyers led by Marc Agnifilo.
Following in the footsteps of her father Mark Geragos, the celebrity lawyer who has defended stars including Chris Brown, Michael Jackson and Winona Ryder, it was the moment in which the 34-year-old carved out her own name as defender for the deep-pocketed.
In court she faced lead prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of James Comey, the former head of the FBI, in what appeared to be the battle of the 'nepo babies'.
The prosecution had alleged Combs used force and financial control to coerce his ex-girlfriends Cassie Ventura and a witness testifying under the pseudonym Jane into days-long drug-fuelled sex parties during which they would allegedly be made to sleep with male prostitutes.
In her opening statement Ms Geragos claimed that Combs's alleged victims were in consensual relationships and while he had beaten his girlfriends, this did not amount to sex trafficking.
'Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,' Ms Geragos told the court.
'Sean Combs has a bad temper and sometimes he gets out of control,' Ms Geragos said.
'We take full responsibility for the domestic violence. Domestic violence is not sex trafficking.'
Later, when commenting on the allegations involving Jane, she added: 'Being a willing participant in your own life is not sex trafficking.'
Months before she began attempting to convince the jury Combs was not a sex trafficker or the masterminds of a decades-long criminal enterprise, Ms Geragos had been batting for her client on a rather different platform.
Via a TikTok account with the bio 'criminal defence attorney breaking down the latest news' she posted a series of videos about civil lawsuits filed against him, insisting he was innocent.
'All right, here we go again, Diddy sued by a former bandmate; I'm his lawyer and here's why you should care,' Ms Geragos said during one clip.
Her father, Mr Geragos, 67, who was an adviser to Combs's legal team, was admonished by the judge at the start of the trial for using another platform to talk about the case.
He was called out by Judge Arun Subramanian for calling the prosecution a 'six-pack of white women' on his podcast.
Ms Geragos's career so far appears to be on a similar trajectory to her father's. After graduating with a degree in art history and media, culture and communications from New York University, Ms Geragos went on to study at the Loyola Law School in Chicago, the same law school where her father trained.
Ms Geragos worked as a judicial extern for a Supreme Court Justice in Kings County, New York, while studying for her degree before becoming licenced by both the New York and California state bars in 2017.
She worked as a law clerk at the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office and her father's firm, Geragos & Geragos, before joining New York City based firm Brafman & Associates PC as a trial attorney.
She left the firm after nearly eight years to join Agnifilo Intrater LLP as a founding partner.
She has represented defendants in federal and state trials in cases involving sexual assault, fraud and public corruption, according to the firm's website. Her expertise is in cases involving sexual misconduct.
Ms Geragos met her husband Ashwinn Krishnaswamy while studying at NYU. The couple married at her parents' home in Los Angeles in 2021 in a ceremony inspired by the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. They have one child and Ms Geragos is pregnant with their second.
After the trial concluded, Ms Geragos spoke briefly outside the court in Lower Manhattan.
'I first want to thank my client Sean Combs for trusting us, myself and everybody here, this incredible dream team that he put together,' she said.
'He is incredible. I want to thank him,' she said, adding that he had 'not sexually assaulted anybody'.
Later that evening she made a brief appearance on the 2 Angry Men podcast that her father co-hosts alongside Harvey Levin, the founder of TMZ.
Mr Geragos said he was on 'childcare duty' because his daughter was off to celebrate the outcome of the trial.
Appearing on the camera for a brief moment, Ms Geragos, stood grinning from ear to ear.
'I feel great,' she said.