Sean “Diddy” Combs received a standing ovation from fellow inmates after he was acquitted of three of the five charges against him during his recent federal trial, his lawyer said.
In an interview with the Associated Press published Sunday, July 6, the music mogul’s attorney Marc Agnifilo said the rapper received a round of applause when he returned to his Brooklyn, New York, jail following the Wednesday, July 2, verdict. (Diddy has been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center since he was arrested in September 2024.)
Diddy, 55, was acquitted of three of the most serious charges against him — two counts of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering conspiracy — last week. If found guilty, Diddy could have been sentenced to life behind bars.
The rapper was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, for which he faces up to 20 years in prison minus time already served. Legal experts have predicted he will ultimately serve much less time than the maximum sentence. He is expected to be sentenced October 3.
“They all said: ‘We never get to see anyone who beats the government,’” Agnifilo told the AP.
He added, “I said, ‘Maybe it’s your fate in life to be the guy who wins.’ They need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart.”
Agnifilo also gave an update on Diddy since the verdict was delivered. “He’s doing OK,” he told the agency.
According to Agnifilo, Diddy is eager to continue working on self-improvement when he is eventually released from prison. He noted that Diddy will likely reenter a domestic violence program he had started before his September arrest. (In May 2024, video footage emerged of him assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016.)
Agnifilo said the rapper “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.”
One of the 12 jurors in Diddy’s trial recently said that the rapper’s star power had little to do with their decision to acquit him of three of the five charges against him. The juror said any speculation to the contrary was “highly insulting and belittling to the jury and the deliberation process.”
“We spent over two days deliberating,” the anonymous juror shared in a Thursday, July 3, statement with ABC News. “Our decision was based solely on the evidence presented and how the law is stated.”
“We would have treated any defendant in the same manner regardless of who they are. I have nothing else to say,” the juror added.
Diddy pleaded not guilty to all five charges and has maintained his innocence.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Agnifilo said in a statement at the time of his arrest last year. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
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