On July 2, 2025, Shapiro Arato Bach was part of a “dream team” of several lawyers that obtained acquittals for Sean Combs on the three most serious charges against him following a high-profile, two-month criminal trial before Judge Arun Subramanian in the Southern District of New York.
Shapiro Arato Bach successfully defended Combs against the government’s RICO conspiracy charge, which alleged that he oversaw a criminal enterprise that committed a range of different crimes, as well as the two sex trafficking charges, which alleged that Combs coerced his two longtime adult girlfriends into participating in certain sexual activity. The jury rejected the government’s allegations, finding that there was no criminal enterprise and that the sexual activity at issue was consensual. Combs was convicted of only two lesser charges of transportation for purposes of “prostitution,” which he is now challenging on appeal.
Alexandra Shapiro led a team that authored key legal motions and briefs both before and during trial, provided oral advocacy on critical issues throughout the trial, and obtained multiple favorable rulings on evidentiary issues and the jury instructions for Combs. Jonathan Bach effectively cross-examined expert witness Dawn Hughes, whom the government had relied on to prove its “coercion” theory that the jury later rejected. Christopher Johnson also assisted with Combs’s defense.
Combs’s trial victory was covered by virtually every major media outlet, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and many others.