The husband-wife legal team working on two of today’s biggest criminal cases

Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Mark Agnifilo enter Manhattan Criminal Court on December 23. (Photo by Christina Matusi/Cipa USA via CNN Newsource)

Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Mark Agnifilo have adopted a similar defense strategy for two high-profile defendants: hire one Agnifilo, or even two.

Mark Agnifilo is defending Sean “Diddy” Combs on charges of bribery and sex trafficking conspiracy, while Karen Friedman Agnifilo is leading the defense of Luigi Mangone in his murder case, with Mark as his co-defendant.

Over the past few decades, the law couple has often faced off in such complex cases — she on the defense, he on the criminal charges. Now, they’ve found themselves embroiled in two of the nation’s most high-profile criminal cases.

Karen was the first deputy U.S. attorney for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office from 2014 to 2021, and has been involved in high-profile cases against defendants including Harvey Weinstein and Alan Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer. She left the department in 2021 and has since moved into the media, including as a legal analyst for CNN.

Mark has also previously worked on various defense cases against the likes of “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, Nexium founder Keith Raniere, and former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng. He worked at the law firm of Brafferman & Associates from 2006 until he founded his own firm, Agnifilo Intrater, this year.

The couple, who are parents to three adult children, first met through the law. They met in 1992 at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office during a complicated case in which two bread vendors got into a fight and one of them cut off the other's hand with a sword.

Karen worked for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for two decades, where she played a key role in the prosecution of high-profile cases. In a recent interview, she said that her perspective on rights and defending defendants changed when she entered the defense.

Mark Agnifilo continues to work on complex criminal cases, such as the defense of Sean Combs, and has consistently asked the court to release him before trial.

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