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At trial, Sean Combs will be represented by a large and varied defense team \u2014 one that has grown even larger and more varied in recent days.<\/p>\n
Since early in the government\u2019s investigation, Mr. Combs has retained Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos of the firm Agnifilo Intrater.<\/p>\n
Mr. Agnifilo is a longtime criminal defense attorney who has represented high-profile figures like the former pharma executive Martin Shkreli; Keith Raniere, the leader of the Nxivm sex cult; and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, who in 2011 was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York. (The case against Mr. Strauss-Kahn was dismissed before a trial.) Along with Karen Friedman Agnifilo, his wife, Mr. Agnifilo is also part of the defense team for Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with murder in the killing of a health care executive.<\/p>\n
In and out of the courtroom, Mr. Agnifilo has been perhaps the strongest voice in Mr. Combs\u2019s defense. At a hearing last month, he reiterated the defense\u2019s argument that Mr. Combs\u2019s \u201cfreak-offs\u201d<\/a> \u2014 sexual encounters that the government contends were coerced \u2014 were consensual, with Mr. Combs\u2019s ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura a willing participant. \u201cCall it \u2018swingers,\u2019 call it whatever you will,\u201d Mr. Agnifilo said<\/a>.<\/p>\n In media interviews, he has called the case an \u201cunjust prosecution\u201d and said that Mr. Combs is \u201can imperfect person but is not a criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Agnifilo was a longtime lawyer at the firm Brafman & Associates but left last year to help start Agnifilo Intrater. With him, he brought Ms. Geragos, whose father is Mark Geragos, the celebrity lawyer who has represented Mr. Combs in the past. Ms. Geragos has also spoken publicly about the case, including in a series of TikTok videos<\/a> that she posted before Mr. Combs was arrested in September.<\/p>\n The team also includes Alexandra Shapiro, a prominent appellate court lawyer at the firm Shapiro Arato Bach who was once a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York, which is prosecuting the Combs case. She graduated from Columbia Law School and was one of the first clerks for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court. She also wrote a novel, \u201cPresumed Guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Shapiro is widely recognized for her success rate at trial and on appeals. \u201cIf you want to maximize your chances of either prevailing at trial or on appeal against the S.D.N.Y., then you should call Alexandra Shapiro (if you can afford her),\u201d the legal newsletter Original Jurisdiction<\/a> wrote last year.<\/p>\n Given her specialty, Ms. Shapiro may be keeping a close eye during the trial on any issues that might be useful if the defense appeals a verdict.<\/p>\n Mr. Combs\u2019s defense also includes Jason Driscoll of Shapiro Arato Bach and Anna Estevao of Harris Trzaskoma.<\/p>\n In the last few weeks, Mr. Combs has added several other lawyers.<\/p>\n Most prominent is Brian Steel, who defended the rapper Young Thug in a long-running racketeering trial in Georgia. Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, pleaded guilty to participating in criminal street gang activity<\/a>, and was released with time served. But Mr. Steel \u2014 who was recently profiled in The New Yorker<\/a> \u2014 drew wide notice, in legal circles and beyond, for a courtroom showdown where he accused a judge of improperly meeting with a witness. He was held in contempt but later vindicated when the judge was ordered to recuse himself<\/a> from the case.<\/p>\n Mr. Combs\u2019s team has also recently added Xavier Donaldson, a New York lawyer whose LinkedIn profile<\/a> describes him as \u201clitigator, professor, speaker, crisis manager,\u201d and Nicole Westmoreland, who represented one of Young Thug\u2019s co-defendants in his trial.<\/p>\n In April, Mr. Combs\u2019s legal team asked for a two-month delay of the trial to consider what it said was newly produced evidence by the government. The judge denied the request, noting that Mr. Combs had four law firms working for him, giving him ample resources to prepare.<\/p>\n Since then, Mr. Combs has added two more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n