Diddy lawyer quits sex trafficking case: “Under no circumstances can I continue”

nme.com:

Diddy” Combs’ lawyers has quit the disgraced rap mogul’s criminal sex trafficking case, new court papers show.Anthony Ricco filed a motion on Friday (February 21) to withdraw as one of Diddy’s six defence attorneys, writing: “Under no circumstances can I continue to effectively serve as counsel for Sean Combs, consistent with the ABA Standards for Criminal Justice.”The Bad Boy Records artist was arrested and charged with crimes including sexual trafficking and racketeering last September and is currently in a federal jail awaiting trial, and has consistently denied all allegations raised against him.Documents obtained by Rolling Stone show Ricco had “respectfully but regrettably” requested that Judge Arun Subramanian allow him to remove himself from the case, although the two-page motion did not go into further detail about why Ricco was abruptly departing.The Harlem-born lawyer has become prolific for working on several high-profile cases, including the Embassy Bombing case in 1998, United States v.

Usama Bin Laden in 2001, as well as taking on 45 federal death penalty cases in New York alone before the practice was outlawed.The attorney suggested the cause for his affidavit’s “brevity” is that he didn’t want to divulge any information protected by attorney-client privilege, and assured the judge his resignation wouldn’t delay the trial.Set for May 5, Combs “will continue to be represented by five other attorneys of record” at trial.News of Ricco’s departure from his case comes just after a rare legal win for Combs, following a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by Diddy and Jay-Z in 2000 voluntarily withdrawing her lawsuit last week.The suit was first filed back in December by Jane Doe, who alleged she was.