Controversial hip hop artist Sean “Diddy” Combs has lawyered up as a federal grand jury in Manhattan continues a months-long investigation into sex-trafficking allegations involving multiple accusers via Business Insider.
It has been noted that the rap mogul has hired Marc Agnifilo, a veteran criminal attorney whose high-profile clients include ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, and NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere.
Agnifilo told the outlet that the sex-trafficking allegations by R&B singer and Combs’ former girlfriend Cassie Ventura were the spark for the now sprawling investigation by prosecutors for the Southern District of New York.
Ventura’s bombshell Manhattan lawsuit settled only a day after it was filed last November — for a sum assumed to be in the millions — additional Combs accusers “came out of the woodwork,” Agnifilo said.
Since then, “There’s been subpoenas out for months, and I don’t get the sense anything is imminent,” Agnifilo said of potential charges.
He said that Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami were subjected to federal searches and the seizure of phones and computers in March as part of that probe.
Agnifilo, a former state and federal prosecutor in Manhattan stated that he and co-counsel Teny Geragos are in regular communication with federal prosecutors.
“I think that the Southern District is appropriately taking its time and considering many different factors,” the lawyer said.
“But we are firmly convinced that he did not violate any federal laws, and we hope we can work with prosecutors in reaching that conclusion.”
Combs recently spoke with prosecutors and added Agnifilo, now at Agnifilo Intrater. The Manhattan grand jury is the latest, and potentially most serious, legal trouble plaguing Combs as women from the rapper’s past step forward with accusations of violence and coerced sex.
In May, CNN published 2016 video of Combs shoving, dragging, and kicking Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel. The video corroborated allegations of violence in the R&B singer’s lawsuit against Combs and Bad Boy Entertainment.
