Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs (Photo by Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images)
Earlier this week, Sean “Diddy” Combs, the man behind many of the greatest 90s rap hits, was arrested and charged with three criminal counts in a federal indictment, accusing the music mogul of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The Bad Boy Records founder pleaded not guilty during his arraignment hearing and was denied bail — but not for lack of effort from his legal team.
In a 10-page letter to Judge Robyn Tarnofsky of the Southern District of New York, Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos of Agnifilo Intrater proposed that Combs be released on a $50 million bond, claiming that the rap impresario is not a flight risk. Agnifilo and Geragos go on to detail Combs’s history and characteristics, speaking of his philanthropic efforts and the many ways that he has “championed minorities and underrepresented communities.” Unfortunately, this segment of the attorneys’ plea to curry favor for their client was marred by an embarrassing editing error.
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Hmm… what’s that? It seems that someone forgot to turn off track changes in the document, leaving behind a little comment bubble. Let’s take a look and see what it says.
Yikes!
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“This reads awkwardly to me, and I’m not quite sure what it’s going for.” Katie Renzler represents Diddy in another case, but his attorneys in this case apparently ignored her comment because can’t nobody take their pride, can’t nobody hold them down, oh no, they’ve got to keep on movin’.
Lawyers, please let this serve as a reminder to turn off track changes before submitting documents that will be widely read in incredibly high-profile cases. This is cringeworthy.
UPDATE: A source says that because this document is a PDF, to get rid of the comment, one would have to use the “remove hidden information” button. “It’s something that everyone should know but no one includes in their workflow,” they tell us. Don’t let this happen to you.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs indicted on federal sex trafficking charges [Courthouse News Service]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.