{"id":5316,"date":"2025-04-16T16:08:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T16:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/sean-diddy-combs-hires-young-thugs-lawyer-ahead-of-sex-abuse-trial\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T16:08:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T16:08:48","slug":"sean-diddy-combs-hires-young-thugs-lawyer-ahead-of-sex-abuse-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/sean-diddy-combs-hires-young-thugs-lawyer-ahead-of-sex-abuse-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Hires Young Thug’s Lawyer Ahead of Sex Abuse Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tW<\/span>ith his sex trafficking and racketeering trial looming next month, Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs has beefed up his trial team by hiring Brian Steel<\/strong> \u2013 the veteran Atlanta defense attorney who won Young Thug\u2019s release from prison last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a motion filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, Steel requested to be admitted as one of Combs\u2019 lawyers ahead of the upcoming trial, which is currently set to go to jury selection on May 5. Such approval is necessary for out-of-state lawyers to practice in new courts.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe move marks a significant addition to the team representing Combs, the once-powerful rap mogul now charged with abusing women for decades. Steel will join Marc Agnifilo, a former federal prosecutor and longtime criminal defense attorney who has previously repped Martin Shkreli and Keith Raniere, and his law partner Teny Geragos.<\/p>\n

\n\tSteel made headlines with his recent work defending Young Thug (Jeffery Williams), who faced a slew of felony charges in Georgia over allegations that his \u201cYSL\u201d rap collective was actually a violent street gang that had wrought havoc on Atlanta. The attorney often took center stage during that case, which captivated the music industry for more than two years.<\/p>\n

\n\tA well-regarded defense attorney for years in Atlanta, Steel is known for his unique demeanor in the courtroom \u2013 polite, calm and scrupulous, but also relentless. Case in point: In June, he accused the judge overseeing Thug\u2019s trial of holding an illegal secret meeting with prosecutors and a key witness. When the judge demanded to know how he\u2019d learned of the meeting, Steel refused to answer so steadfastly that he was eventually held in contempt and ordered into custody. Weeks later, that judge was removed from the case over the incident and Steel was later cleared of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn some ways, the case facing Combs is similar to the one leveled against Thug. Both were charged with violating RICO laws (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), accused of serving as the bosses of large criminal organizations. But Thug\u2019s case was centered on accusations that his group committed drug dealing, carjackings and an alleged drive-by shooting; Combs is accused of using his fame and his sprawling business empire to sexually abuse numerous women and then keep them silent.<\/p>\n

\n\tDifferences aside, Combs is no doubt hoping for a similar result to the one Steel secured for Thug.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter botched testimony from a state\u2019s witness in October sparked talk of a mistrial, prosecutors began reaching plea deals with multiple defendants. But Steel and Thug refused to take one, instead opting to simply plead guilty and hope the judge would set him free on probation rather than the 25 years the district attorney was seeking.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat gamble paid off: After sentencing Thug to only 15 years probation with no time to be served in prison, the judge urged the Grammy-winning rapper to use his platform to set a good example for young people in the future: \u201cGood luck to you. And there better be no violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSince he was indicted in September, Combs\u2019 legal team has seen several shakeups. He hired Alexandra Shapiro, an well-known appellate specialist, in October. Anthony L. Ricco, another prominent New York defense attorney, withdrew from the case in February for undisclosed reasons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With his sex trafficking and racketeering trial looming next month, Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs has beefed up his trial team by hiring Brian Steel \u2013 the veteran Atlanta defense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[362,453,1367,296,738,107,1366,461,1886,342,1094],"class_list":["post-5316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-abuse","tag-ahead","tag-combs","tag-diddy","tag-hires","tag-lawyer","tag-sean","tag-sex","tag-thugs","tag-trial","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}