Attorneys say prosecutors ‘overextended themselves’ by charging Diddy with counts ‘reserved for Al Capone’

Criminal defense attorney Joshua Ritter said on Wednesday that prosecutors overcharged Sean “Diddy” Combs in the high profile sex trafficking case.

The jury found Combs not guilty of racketeering conspiracy (RICO) and on two counts of sex trafficking, but convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Ritter said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” that the prosecutors were “pushing the envelope” by trying to convict him on RICO and sex trafficking charges.

“You have to be shocked at how badly the government overshot their expectations on this case, but if you had been watching and you had been paying close attention, you’re really not shocked by these results because that RICO charge was pushing the envelope,” Ritter said. “Look, there’s an argument to be made that did they strictly meet the elements as the RICO charges laid out, perhaps. But to this jury, what they saw was a man living a lifestyle that they may not understand, they may not agree with. It may be lavish and it may include things that they will never experience. But where’s the criminality in all of this and beyond that, how are you trying to explain to me that this is a criminal enterprise?”

“We know RICO. It applies to the mafia. How does it apply to this man who may be powerful, he may have a lot of money, treating people disrespectfully and abusively, but how does that fit into the same crime that we think of as applying to the mafia? They just overextended themselves,” Ritter continued.

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Mark Eiglarsh, another criminal defense attorney, said the jury could not be convinced that the women in question were trafficked by Combs. He said the prosecution’s real problems in this case was attempting to convict Combs on a charge “reserved for Al Capone.”

“In this case, I don’t know if they really felt he had a criminal enterprise and I think that’s what you’re gonna hear from the jurors. As it relates to the other two serious counts that he was acquitted of, this was always about consent or whether it was coercion and I think there were numerous opportunities that the jurors found that they could’ve left if they really weren’t into it and yeah, there were times where maybe force was used but, we’re not going to find that this was sex trafficking,” Eiglarsh said.

The prosecution argued that the famous rapper abused his authority and influence to form a sex trafficking enterprise. They called 34 female witnesses to the stand, including his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, who testified that she was drugged and forced to participate in “freak off” parties hosted by Combs.

A video that aired in court showed Combs abusing Ventura in a hotel lobby in March 2016.

The defense team argued that the prosecution and the government targeted Diddy and argued that Ventura and the other women consensually engaged in sex acts. The team, led by Mar Agnifilo, made the decision to not call any witnesses to the stand, including Combs.

Combs faces up to ten years in prison over the prostitution charges.

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