Diddy defense preview? His lawyer defended 'sex cult' leader in eerily similar case

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2 days ago

NEW YORK ― A charismatic man coerced women into sex and silence. His inner circle transported victims, reaping financial rewards. Sleep deprivation abounded.
Those are all allegations against Sean "Diddy" Combs, whose sex-trafficking trial heads to opening statements on Monday, May 12. But they are also similar to the charges in a 2019 sex-trafficking trial against self-help guru Keith Raniere, the so-called NXIVM "sex cult" leader. And the similarities could offer an early window into Combs' defense.
After all, the two men went to trial with the same lawyer: Marc Agnifilo.
As a federal prosecutor in the 2000s, Agnifilo helped expand the government's use of a 1970 law designed to take down the mafia, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or "RICO." Agnifilo helped broaden the use of RICO to also tackle street gangs.
However, as a defense lawyer Agnifilo argued that using that law against Raniere was a bridge too far.
The law is now being used against Combs to allege he ran a criminal enterprise that involved kidnapping, forced labor, and sex trafficking.
Agnifilo, who lost Raniere's case, didn't respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on how he will be approaching Combs' defense and whether his strategy will mirror that defense. But Season 2 of HBO's "The Vow," in which Agnifilo let a documentary team follow him through the trial, offers clues to what the defense could look like.
The prominent New York defense lawyer is also representing accused UnitedHealthcare CEO-killer Luigi Mangione along with his wife, Karen Agnifilo, who is leading that defense team. Marc Agnifilo also represented former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli and ex-International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn in high-profile cases.
To prove their sex-trafficking charges against Combs, prosecutors will have to show that Combs knew his alleged victims were participating in "freak off" parties that involved sexual activities as a result of force, fraud, and coercion.
It's an element of the charges that's not just about whether the parties happened, but also about Combs' intent and whether he believed the women had freely consented.
When Raniere faced similar sex-trafficking charges, Agnifilo approached that issue head-on, portraying Raniere as a man who lived an atypical sexual lifestyle, but who always had good intentions.
"I don't have to defend everything to win this case, but one thing I am going to defend is his intentions," Agnifilo said in his opening statement at Raniere's trial. "I'm going to defend his good faith."
Agnifilo has already dropped hints that he will pursue a similar strategy in Combs' case. At an April 25 pre-trial hearing, Agnifilo said he plans to tell jurors that there is a certain alternative sexual lifestyle – "call it swingers" – that Combs belonged to. He said being able to describe that lifestyle to jurors will be crucial to showing Combs didn't have the necessary intent to be guilty.
More broadly, Agnifilo tried to humanize Raniere throughout his trial.
"Keith undoubtedly believes that his work with NXIVM is good, and I think it's helped a lot of people," Agnifilo said at the time.
It's a strategy that's in line with Agnifilo's general style, according to Mitchell Epner, a long-time litigator who worked in the New Jersey federal prosecuting office at the same time as Agnifilo.
"His style is to make the jury believe that he is investing his personality in the defendant," Epner said.
Epner described it in the following way: "I'm likable. You like me. I'm a charismatic guy. I like my client. I'm standing behind him, I'm putting my hands on his shoulders. I am investing whatever halo effect I have on my client. And therefore, you should think good things about my client."
In Raniere's trial, Agnifilo appeared to conclude that the defense's Achilles' heel was evidence that practically any juror would see as morally abhorrent.
That included sexual images of someone the jury concluded was a minor. Even though that evidence spoke directly only to charges that Raniere sexually exploited a child and possessed child sexual-abuse material, Agnifilo believed it damned the entire defense.
"After Keith's sentencing I said, 'You know, Keith, this was a fascinating debate, and maybe even a debate that we win until you have allegations of, you know, underage sex and pornography,'" Agnifilo said in the documentary. "Then you don't get to be a participant in the debate anymore, and no one's going to listen to your viewpoint the same way."
Combs is also going to be up against evidence that no juror is likely to countenance: a video that appears to show Combs dragging and kicking his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, in a hotel hallway. Judge Arun Subramanian ruled April 25 that prosecutors will be able to show the video at trial, despite the defense's objections.
Agnifilo's experience in Raniere's trial may cause him to think especially hard about how to challenge the evidence Combs faces. In court filings ahead of trial, the defense has suggested the video may have been doctored.
CNN, which made the video public in its broadcast, has denied the allegations.
Agnifilo's experience with the Raniere case could also give him food for thought when it comes to picking a jury that is going to see morally troubling evidence.
Robert Hirschhorn, a lawyer and jury consultant, told USA TODAY ahead of jury selection that, if he were on the defense team, he might argue Combs is guilty of domestic violence, but he was overcharged with sex trafficking. Hirschhorn would test whether potential jurors could set aside the video by asking if they could work through and compartmentalize a significant other cheating.
"Everybody that says, 'compartmentalize,' I don't care what else they say – Unless they say, 'I already think Diddy's guilty,' I'm putting them on the jury every day," Hirschhorn said.
Another of Agnifilo's tactics to try to combat the case against Raniere was to use the words of his victims against them.
"These women who are saying that they're victims, yet see, how do they speak to Keith?" Agnifilo asked rhetorically ahead of witness testimony. "That's when the jury's gonna start seeing what this case is really about, when we actually get to the evidence."
It was a strategy he employed over and over as prosecutors put women on the stand who testified that Raniere coerced them.
With one witness who testified that, at Raniere's direction, she started sending him nude images and entered into a "master-slave" relationship with him, Agnifilo pointed to her text messages to cast doubt on her claims of coercion.
"You were asking to see Keith on a pretty regular basis?" Agnifilo asked. "I was just following the instructions of my master," the woman responded.
"Have you told my client that you love him?" Agnifilo asked. "I tried to be the best slave I could be so that things would work out for me," the woman responded.
When another woman, a Mexican citizen, testified that Raniere forced her to stay in a room for two years after she kissed another man, Agnifilo again pointed to what she wrote.
"What you write here is, 'From my love for you and what is unfinished between us, I gathered the strength to go against my own momentum and be honest with myself,'" he said.
"This is a very complex situation," she replied. "I have no money, no papers, and I was threatened with both being sent back to Mexico, and also threatened with being completely cut off from everyone I knew," she said.
Agnifilo has experience with just how impactful an alleged victims' own statements can be. New York prosecutors dropped a sexual assault case against his client, former French politician Strauss-Kahn, based on statements they believed called her story into question.
Just as with that woman in Raniere's case, prosecutors in Combs' case say he leaned on other members of his alleged enterprise to help him monitor women and keep them from leaving. They plan to introduce testimony from a psychologist on why victims might stay in abusive or violent relationships.
In Raniere's case, Agnifilo also wanted to bring in witnesses who could testify to participating in an organization within NXIVM, "DOS," that prosecutors alleged was used to traffic women.
"The only way to rectify it is to hear from these DOS women firsthand and set the record straight and say, 'Listen, I joined DOS for my own reasons,'" Agnifilo said as he was preparing for trial. "Even the power and might of the great federal government hasn't shaken these women from that belief."
In practice, that strategy didn't work out for him. When it came time for the defense to present witnesses, nobody wanted to do it.
"We went to several different countries and interviewed hundreds of people to be witnesses in this case, and we got what I think was good information," he said after the trial. "But when it came time to actually, you know, travel to Brooklyn, enter that courtroom, sit in the witness chair, not a lot of people wanted to do that."
Agnifilo will likely be hoping witnesses for Combs will stay the course even as prosecutors present testimony and evidence over several weeks that could likewise paint Combs in a highly-negative light. In court filings ahead of the trial, the defense team and prosecutors have been arguing over whether Combs should be able to present that kind of testimony.
Ultimately, Agnifilo's defense didn't work out for Raniere, who was found guilty on every charge he faced.
Still, a recent development – Combs' decision to reject a plea offer – may indicate Agnifilo is optimistic for a better outcome this time. (The details of the offer – or what Agnifilo advised – weren't publicly revealed.)
When Raniere was headed to trial, Agnifilo said, "If your client's guilty and the government can prove it, cut a deal and call it a day."
Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison. His appeal is ongoing.
Aysha Bagchi covers the Department of Justice for USA TODAY. She is an attorney, Harvard Law graduate, and Rhodes Scholar. You can follow her on X and Bluesky at @AyshaBagchi.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A look at Diddy lawyer's strategy in eerily similar 'sex cult' trial