Anthony Ricco, one of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyers, has filed a motion to leave the legal team of the rapper and record producer arrested last September in Manhattan.
“Under no circumstances can I continue to effectively serve as counsel for Sean Combs,” Ricco said, but without specifying the causes that led him to make this decision, invoking attorney-client privilege.
Now, to become effective, his motion must first be approved by a judge. “This motion for withdrawal of counsel, if granted, will not result in a delay of the present schedule for the commencement of jury selection and trial, or the present schedules for briefing of pretrial legal issues,” Ricco added. “As a result, there will be no lapse in representation, as Sean Combs will continue to be represented by five other attorneys of record.”
He explained that he arrived at that decision after speaking with Marc Agnifilo, the lawyer who is captaining Diddy’s legal team, who is accused of exploiting his business contacts to create a criminal conspiracy, aimed at racketeering, sex trafficking and drug trafficking.
Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after three federal judges denied him bail. In recent months, the Bad Boy Records founder has consistently pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled to begin on May 5.
Recently, Diddy’s lawyers argued that the federal indictment against him is based on a “racist” law. “No white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution,” the producer’s legal team argued.
Seeking to dismiss the charges against their client, the attorneys lashed out at one of the laws the government is using to indict him: the Mann Act, also known as the White-Slave Traffic Act, which makes it illegal to transport people across state or international borders for the purpose of prostitution.
Combs’ lawyers argue that the law has a history of racial bias and rarely results in prosecution of whites. The attorneys also say the rule has historically been “used to target black men and supposedly protect white women from them.”
