Sean "Diddy" Combs got a standing ovation from fellow inmates when the music mogul returned to jail after winning acquittals on potential life-in-prison charges, providing what his lawyer says might have been the best thing he could do for Black incarcerated men in America. "They all said: 'We never get to see anyone who beats the government,'" attorney Marc Agnifilo told the AP in a weekend interview days after a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges. Combs, 55, remains jailed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn after his conviction Wednesday on prostitution-related charges, which could put him in prison for several more years. Any sentence will include credit for time already served. So far that's almost 10 months.
"I said: 'Maybe it's your fate in life to be the guy who wins,'" Agnifilo recalled during a telephone interview briefly interrupted by a jailhouse call from Combs. "They need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart." Agnifilo sees a long road ahead for Combs once he is freed as he works on personal demons, likely reentering a program for domestic batterers that he had just started before his arrest. "He's doing OK," said Agnifilo, who speaks with him four or five times daily. He said Combs genuinely desires improvement and "realizes he has flaws like everyone else that he never worked on." (See the full story for more on how Combs' "dream team" pulled it off, plus one final surprise for Agnifilo at the trial's conclusion.)