By Olaitan Ibrahim
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense team took a victory lap Wednesday after the rapper was acquitted of RICO and sex trafficking charges. But the rapper remains in jail until his October 3 sentencing date after the presiding judge in the case rejected his appeal for bail prior to sentencing.
Later, during a press conference following the verdict, his lead counsel Marc Agnifilo boasted that the team wasn’t going to stop until Diddy walks out a free man to his family.
“We are not nearly done fighting. We are just getting started,” Agnifilo said. “To win this and to defeat the prosecutors from the Southern District of New York takes effort from beginning to end. Today was a major, major step in the right direction. But we fight on and we’re going to win, and we’re not going to stop until he walks out of prison a free man to his family.”
Agnifilo admitted today was a “great victory for Sean Combs,” and praised the jury of 12 citizens for listening to every word of the federal trial.
“They acquitted him of the sex trafficking, which he was absolutely innocent of,” Agnifilo said. “They acquitted him of the racketeering conspiracy that he was absolutely innocent of. And all of the components to it, the kidnaping he was innocent of that, the arson. He was innocent of that, the obstructing justice. He was innocent of that. And that is no longer just me saying that. That is the verdict of our jury.”
A jury convicted Diddy on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution after a seven-week trial. The rapper was found not guilty on charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.
Diddy will remain behind bars until his sentencing hearing. The prosecution has suggested four to five years for the rapper’s sentence.