One of the lawyers representing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in his criminal case has requested permission to leave the musician’s defence team, stating that “under no circumstances can I continue to effectively serve as counsel for Sean Combs”.
According to the New York Post, the attorney, Anthony Ricco, indicated that he hasn’t provided much information behind his decision to exit the case because he doesn’t want to divulge information that is protected by attorney-client privilege. However, he assured the judge, “there are sufficient reasons” for asking to be excused.
He also told the judge that him quitting the case at this point shouldn’t impact on the schedule for his soon to be former client’s trial, scheduled for May, because there are five other lawyers also working on the case.
Ricco’s statement reads, “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, consistent with the American Bar Association standards for criminal justice”.
Combs was charged with racketeering and sex trafficking last September, and is accused of using his entertainment businesses to run a criminal operation in order to sexually abuse men and women, including minors, and to cover up those crimes. The case is due to get trial in May.
The rest of Combs’ defence team continues to prepare for the trial, while also trying to get the charges against their client reduced. Last week they filed court papers seeking to have a specific ‘transportation to engage in prostitution charge’ dismissed, arguing that the law the charge is based on has racist origins.
That charge relates to the allegation, they explained, that Combs “and two of his longtime girlfriends sometimes brought a third party - a male escort - into their sexual relationship” from another state. Prosecutors claim that that violates the Mann Act of 1910 which, Combs’ lawyers said, was historically “used to target black men and supposedly protect white women from them”.
“No other person, and certainly no white person, has ever previously been prosecuted” under the Mann Act “for hiring male escorts from another state”, the lawyers added. Therefore “Mr Combs has been singled out because he is a powerful black man, and he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished”.