Diddy’s Legal Team Wants All the Smoke as Puff’s Trial Looms
While it might appear to some observers that Diddy has no way out of his legal issues, the music mogul’s legal team is hellbent on victory. Their recent chess moves prove they are pulling out all stops in the squabble with the government.
Diddy’s Legal Team Wants a Fair One
With his May 5 sex crimes trial looming, Diddy’s attorneys continue to mount a defense for the Bad Boy Records founder, who has been charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. In the last two weeks, Puff’s counsel has filed multiple motions directly challenging the government’s case.
On Feb. 18, Diddy’s team filed a motion requesting his prostitution charge be dismissed, citing racial bias.
“There has never been a similar RICO prosecution,” the motion states. “No White person has ever been the target of a remotely similar case. Mr. Combs has been singled out because he is a powerful Black man, and he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished.”
Diddy suffered a slight setback after one of his defense attorneys, Anthony Ricco, quit the case on Feb. 21. But with Diddy’s lead counsel Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos still being in place, it’s been full steam ahead.
On Sunday (Feb. 23), Diddy’s lawyers challenged the legality of search warrants executed on Diddy’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles last March.
The filing contends the “government withheld exculpatory facts, did not present a fair picture of the evidence, and used overbroad search warrants to search his homes, iCloud accounts, phones, and a hotel room.” The motion asks the judge to suppress all evidence obtained through these searches and hold a hearing to look into the government’s conduct in obtaining the warrants.
On the civil side, it’s been much of the same. On Feb. 12, Diddy filed a $100 million lawsuit against NBCUniversal Media, LLC, Peacock TV, LLC, and Ample LLC for alleged defamatory statements published in the new documentary Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.
On Feb. 25, Diddy’s legal team went after attorney Tony Buzbee, the lawyer who has filed over 20 civil lawsuits on behalf of Diddy’s accusers. They filed a court motion citing “serious professional misconduct, unauthorized practice of law and violations of court rules.” It claims Buzbee was not licensed to practice law in some states where the lawsuits were filed.
“Mr. Buzbee has signed multiple filings across twenty-two cases without permission to practice in this Court,” the motion reads. “He failed in each instance to disclose that he had filed without being admitted; and he violated New York’s Rules of Professional Conduct by, among other things, repeatedly insisting that Mr. Combs is guilty of the criminal charges pending against him in this District.”
There’s no backdown from Puff’s legal aces. Will it be enough in the end? The saga continues…