The prosecution team pursuing sex trafficking and racketeering charges against Sean “Diddy” Combs is shoring up its ranks.
Maurene Comey on Monday notified the court that she’s joined the case. The lawyer, daughter of former FBI director James Comey, is best known as one of the three lead prosecutors who secured a conviction in 2021 against Ghislaine Maxwell for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse and traffick minors.
The nine-year veteran of the office of U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, among the most prestigious federal prosecutor’s offices in the nation, steps into the case after prosecutors prevailed in keeping Combs detained in prison as he awaits trial. The court on Wednesday denied the rap mogul’s bid for bail for a third time, finding that no conditions of release can assure the safety of the community. It pointed to Combs’ alleged history of violence, which includes the use of firearms, kidnapping and arson, to intimidate victims and witnesses with the help of his vast business empire, as well as evidence indicating that he’s tried to obscure communications with people he’s been barred from contacting.
Combs’ defense team, led by Marc Agnifilo, has aggressively challenged the prosecution at every turn. On top of repeatedly pursuing bail, it moved in October for a court order that would keep a potential jury from considering evidence allegedly leaked to the media by prosecutors, including hotel surveillance footage of Combs violently assaulting the singer Cassie. Combs claimed that the Department of Homeland Security leaked the video to CNN as part of a scheme to secure an indictment from the grand jury and prevent him from getting a fair trial.
The court on Monday instructed prosecutors to submit an affidavit attesting that they weren’t the source of the leaks by Wednesday. Under a federal rule of criminal procedure, the government is barred from disclosing “anything that will reveal what transpired” during grand jury proceedings.
Before becoming a prosecutor, Comey clerked for a federal judge in New York and was an associate for a year at white-shoe firm Debevoise & Plimpton.
Agnifilo, who faced federal prosecutors in a similar RICO case involving NXIVM leader Keith Raniere, has a long history of representing high-profile figures including Martin Shkreli, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Roger Ng. He spent nearly two decades working for ex-Harvey Weinstein lawyer Ben Brafman. He and another of Combs’ lawyers, Teny Geragos, have a history of defending conspicuous figures accused of major crimes.
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