The lead legal professional for Sean “Diddy” Combs, Marc Agnifilo, says he has not had any conversations with the Trump administration about in search of a pardon for his shopper.
Agnifilo sat down with CBS Information for his first community interview since a New York jury convicted Combs of prostitution-related charges final month. Combs was acquitted of extra severe prices of intercourse trafficking and racketeering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 3.
Earlier this week, one other legal professional for Combs, Nicole Westmoreland, informed CNN it was her understanding that the protection group “had conversations in reference to a pardon” with the Trump administration.
However Agnifilo tells CBS Information, “I’ve nothing to do with a potential pardon.”
“I’ve had conversations with no one,” Agnifilo stated. “I’ve not spoken to the president. I’ve not spoken to anyone who speaks to the president about Sean Combs. I’ve not.”
He says he hasn’t mentioned it with Combs both, besides to inform him what’s within the information.
“He says, ‘Go inform him (Mr. Trump) that I want a pardon,'” Agnofilo stated. “‘Go inform him I deserve a pardon.’ That is what he stated.”
A senior White Home official declined to touch upon what they termed “hypothesis” and informed CBS Information any selections on pardons would come from the president himself.
Agnifilo stated proper now he is targeted on getting his shopper “an excellent sentence.”
He stated he normally speaks a number of instances a day with Combs, who’s at the moment jailed at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Middle after he was again denied bail on Monday. Decide Arun Subramanian cited Combs’ violence in his private relationships — the identical cause he denied Combs bail on the day of the decision.
Combs, 55, was convicted on July 2 of two counts alleging violations of the Mann Act, a legislation that makes it a federal crime to move somebody throughout state strains for prostitution. Every rely carries a possible most sentence of 10 years in jail.
Combs will get credit score for time served, and prosecutors have said he ought to get no less than 51 to 63 months imprisonment on the 2 convictions, or a sentence of roughly 4 to 5 years.
Requested if he has any regrets about how he tried the case, Agnifilo replied, “Probably not, not likely.”
Controversial moments at trial
In the course of the trial, Agnifilo described the connection between Combs and former girlfriend Cassie Ventura as “a terrific fashionable love story.”
However Ventura, who testified against him, has stated she was raped, bodily abused and have become hooked on medicine due to Combs.
Agnifilo stated they “vehemently deny” the rape allegation, and within the interview, he stood by his depiction of the connection.
“When it comes to the, you already know, the medicine and the opposite stuff … that is what makes it a contemporary love story,” he stated. “I feel they actually did love one another. I feel she very a lot liked him and I do know he very a lot liked her.”
“I imply, these are two individuals who harm one another, liked one another, cheated on one another,” he stated.
Ventura’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, rejects Agnifilo’s description of the connection, telling CBS Information that it’s a “full shame and affront” to survivors of home violence.
Agnifilo, a former prosecutor turned legal protection legal professional, has had different high-profile circumstances in his 35-year profession, together with the trial of NXIVM founder Keith Raniere and Martin “Pharma Bro” Shkreli, however none as extremely publicized because the trial of Combs.
“I have been blessed to have a number of circumstances that individuals care about, however nothing, nothing near this,” Agnifilo stated, including that it put a number of stress on him and his group.
“A whole lot of stress as a result of, you already know, Sean Combs — I imply, I, I believed in my coronary heart that he was harmless.”
Requested what Combs desires the general public to know, Agnifilo stated his shopper has been reflecting on “the blessings that he is been given, on the imperfections that I feel he sees in himself.”
He stated Combs is specializing in his household, and that the hip-hop mogul has additionally talked about a future purpose: “He stated to me he will be back at Madison Square Garden.”
