Diddy is down one lawyer in his federal racketeering and sex trafficking case, as Anthony Ricco has petitioned the judge to leave the Bad Boy head’s legal team.
On Friday (February 21), Ricco, who has been with Diddy since the case’s beginning alongside Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos (Jason Driscoll, Anna Maria Estevao and Alexandra Shapiro have since come aboard as well), sent a letter to Judge Arun Subramanian requesting to leave the case.
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“Although I have provided Sean Combs with the high level of legal representation expected by the court, under no circumstances can I continue to effectively serve as counsel for Sean Combs,” Ricco wrote.
Ricco did not make his reasons public, citing attorney/client privilege. However, TMZ is reporting that Ricco’s exit is related to a difference in legal strategies, specifically when it came to the charge of sex trafficking. Earlier this week, Shapiro, Agnifilo and Estevao (with Ricco missing from the signatories), filed a motion to dismiss that charge, calling “racist.”
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In addition, TMZ claims that Ricco wanted more time before trial (currently scheduled to begin on May 5), while Agnifilo disagreed. HipHopDX has reached out to Diddy’s representatives for comment on Anthony Ricco’s departure.
Diddy’ motion to dismiss the sex trafficking charge, filed on Tuesday (February 18), focuses on the charge of transportation to engage in prostitution, one of three counts in the indictment along with sex trafficking and racketeering.
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It claims that there has never been a similar prosecution under the Mann Act and no white person has ever been targeted with the law, which has been in place for over 100 years and was designed to prohibit the transportation of women for sex.
The filing claims that Diddy is the victim of racism from the government, saying: “Mr. Combs has been singled out because he is a powerful Black man, and he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished.”
It adds: “What was racist in its inception has often been racist in its operation.”
The filing also reiterates the defense’s argument that all sexual activity involving Diddy and others was consensual: “The government has concocted a criminal case based primarily on allegations that Mr. Combs and two of his longtime girlfriends sometimes brought a third party — a male escort — into their sexual relationship.”
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It also repeats the accusation that federal prosecutors have been leaking information about the case to the media: “The government’s handling of this case demonstrates bias and animus. It has gone out of its way to humiliate Mr. Combs and to prejudice the jury pool with pretrial publicity that plays on racist tropes. It has leaked damaging (and often times false) material to the press.”
The prosecution have yet to respond to Diddy’s motion to dismiss the charge or the allegations of racism.
