Two of New York City’s highest profile criminal defendants have one thing in common: Their lawyers are married.
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who was retained Saturday by accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione, is married to Marc Agnifilo, who is representing Sean “Diddy” Combs in his case for sex trafficking and racketeering.
Friedman Agnifilo was previously a top prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office before leaving in December 2020. She joined her husband’s firm, Agnifilo Intrater, earlier this month, according to her LinkedIn page.
The firm is already quite busy. Marc Agnifilo and his team have been preparing a defense for Combs while trying and failing to have their client released on bail.
The Agnifilos have been prominent in the New York legal scene for over a decade. During her time with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Friedman Angifilo was known for her work on homicide, sex crimes and other high-profile cases. The couple was famously on opposite sides of a sexual assault case against International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2011.
“It’s never been awkward,” Marc Agnifilo told the New York Times during the case, from which his wife recused herself. “We’re pretty regimented about it. If she’s recused from a case, we really don’t talk about it.”
No such restrictions will limit the Agnifilos in this instance. Not only are they both working as defense attorneys this time, but the cases will play out in different courts. While Combs is facing federal sex trafficking charges, Mangione was charged in state court with second-degree murder for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Prior to hiring Friedman Agnifilo in New York, Mangione has been represented by Thomas Dickey, a local lawyer in Altoona, Pa.
“I have not seen one scintilla, one speck, one drop of any evidence yet,” Dickey proclaimed last week, indicating that Mangione would plead not guilty to all charges he faced.