An icon in the shape of an angle pointing down.
Derek French/BI
- Sean “Diddy” Combs hired a new lawyer to try to get out of jail.
- The same attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, represents Sam Bankman-Fried.
- Diddy and SBF were placed in the same jail housing.
Sean “Diddy” Combs is appealing a judge’s decision to keep him locked up in a Brooklyn jail ahead of his trial on sex-trafficking charges.
The new lawyer he picked up is also representing his roommate, notorious fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
Court filings show that Combs has hired Alexandra Shapiro, an experienced white-collar appellate lawyer who clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Shapiro is representing Bankman-Fried on appeal after the FTX and Alameda Research founder was sentenced to 25 years in prison and convicted by a jury on fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges.
She filed a 102-page brief to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals last month, arguing the trial judge excluded evidence from the case in a way that stacked the deck against Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried has been living in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center as his appeals process plays out and before he’s moved to a more permanent facility.
Combs is being detained in the same facility after two judges rejected his $50 million bond offer, with one finding it would be too dangerous to allow him to remain free because he may cause violence or tamper with witnesses.
The two have been sharing a room in dorm-style living arrangements, a person familiar with the situation previously told BI. That person’s identity is known to Business Insider but spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the situation.
It’s not clear what Bankman-Fried and Combs may have talked about, and if the former crypto wunderkind gave Combs the tip to hire Shapiro.
A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
Shapiro didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did an attorney representing Combs in his earlier bond arguments.
