On the ultimate day of the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial earlier than jury deliberations, the hip-hop mogul’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo enlivened the courtroom with an impassioned closing argument. Within the coming days, the jury will decide whether or not Combs is responsible of intercourse trafficking, racketeering and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. A conviction might land him behind bars for all times.
Agnifilo’s demeanor was animated and at occasions folksy, in contrast to the prosecution’s chilly, formal tone. He paced across the courtroom, starting his summations by gushing about Combs’ character and enterprise acumen, saying he was a champion of range. “Sean Combs has change into one thing that could be very, very laborious to be,” Agnifilo stated. “He’s a self-made, profitable, Black entrepreneur.” He recounted among the optimistic issues Combs’ former staff stated about him on the witness stand, including, “Did they at all times like him? No method. Let’s not even go there. However they beloved him. They didn’t wish to go away him.”
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The protection put a highlight on the presence of Combs’ kids and mom within the courtroom, saying, “The person takes care of individuals.” Taking a swipe at one among Combs’ alleged victims, “Jane,” Agnifilo stated, “I hope she’s having a pleasant day, however ya know the place she’s doing it? In a home he’s paying for.”
Agnifilo argued that Combs is on a “false trial,” that he’s not responsible of intercourse trafficking however is as a substitute a member of the “swingers way of life” who participated in consensual “threesomes” along with his ex-girlfriends and male entertainers.
“Nobody’s forcing her to do that,” Agnifilo stated of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, Combs’ ex who accused him of raping her and coercing her into lots of of “freak-offs,” drug-fueled intercourse events that lasted days on finish. On the middle of the trial is a 2016 surveillance video that depicts Combs beating Ventura in a resort hallway and allegedly making an attempt to pull her again right into a “freak-off.”
“We personal the home violence,” Agnifilo stated. All through the trial, the protection has admitted that Combs was violent with Ventura, however that the violence was not related to the “freak-offs.” Agnifilo painted Ventura as a powerful, good girl who loved her intercourse life with Combs. “She’s a girl who really likes intercourse,” Agnifilo stated. “Good for her! She’s stunning, she ought to. She’s intense. She’s unafraid.”
Agnifilo referenced Ventura’s testimony about her temporary love affair with the singer Scott Mescudi, aka Child Cudi. Ventura stated she tried to maintain her relationship with Mescudi a secret from Combs by buying a second cellphone. “Whoooaaa! A burner cellphone!” Agnifilo stated, his voice leaping up an octave. “Cassie is retaining it gangsta!” He stated Ventura “performed” each Combs and Mescudi, implying she wouldn’t have had a secret relationship if she was really “scared to loss of life of Sean Combs.”
Addressing the kidnapping allegations towards Combs, which pertain to his racketeering cost, Agnifilo referenced former assistant Capricorn Clark’s declare that she was held for 5 days in a Manhattan workplace constructing, pressured to take a lie detector check about stolen jewellery. “A door-to-door kidnap,” Agnifilo stated mockingly, emphasizing that Clark slept at dwelling, and that one among Combs’ safety guards drove her to and from the constructing every day. “You guys are right here for lengthy hours,” he advised the jury. “Anybody right here really feel kidnapped?”
Agnifilo’s tone was incredulous: “He’s charged with kidnapping. That’s actual!” And he advised the jurors they “have the proper” to query the federal government’s claims and disrespect witness testimony.
The lawyer picked aside the allegations of bribery, witness tampering and obstruction — and centered closely on the implication that Combs orchestrated an act of arson on Mescudi’s automobile. (Combs had allegedly stated beforehand that he was going to explode the automobile, however an investigation on the time discovered no proof resulting in Combs.) “That’s not his type,” Agnifilo stated, suggesting that Combs would like a man-to-man confrontation with Mescudi — “a very good old school John Wayne, eight-in-the-morning Hollywood Hills struggle.”
All through the closing argument, Combs nodded and listened intently, both leaning again in his chair or crossing his arms on the desk. Within the morning, one among his sons, Justin Combs, was sporting a shirt that learn “Free Sean Combs,” which isn’t permitted within the courtroom. A court docket marshal approached him, and Justin left and re-entered the room with out the message seen.
Agnifilo was theatrical in his summation — and infrequently used sarcasm to drive dwelling his arguments. He used a mocking tone when describing the raids on Combs’ properties, saying they made America “secure from Astroglide.” “Method to go fellas, you guys simply do you. They took Astroglide and child oil and that’s the proof on this case,” he stated. When pooh-poohing the drug distribution racketeering fees, Agnifilo admitted “there’s no query” Combs “had a drug drawback,” however that his medication have been for private use solely, and never a part of a felony enterprise. That when his workers picked up and delivered medication like Xanax and ecstacy to Combs, they weren’t conscious they have been committing crimes — they have been simply finishing up private assistant duties as is frequent within the leisure trade. “I don’t suppose we’ll see Beyoncé at CVS,” Agnifilo stated.
Addressing the racketeering fees, the lawyer stated there’s a “gaping lack of proof,” and with respect to the transportation to have interaction in prostitution fees, he repeated the protection’s stance that Combs paid male escorts for his or her “time,” not for intercourse.
Wrapping issues up, Agnifilo leveled with the jury. “It takes a number of braveness to acquit,” he stated. He stated the idea of a jury is without doubt one of the nice issues about America, and that it’s a tough factor for a juror to rule towards the federal prosecutors. “You guys are the USA of America,” he stated, elevating his voice. “It’s best to really feel daring, you need to really feel the braveness that you’ll want to name this as you see it, and I’m asking you to summon that braveness and to do what must be carried out and to do the proper factor.” He requested the jurors to acquit his shopper on all fees. “He sits there harmless. Return him to his household who’ve been ready for him.”
Starting her rebuttal, which is the final time the jurors will hear from the attorneys after seven grueling weeks of trial, prosecutor Maurene Comey sighed: “We’re virtually carried out.” Comey delivered her most fiery remarks but, taking the baton after fellow prosecutor Christy Slavik delivered a five-hour closing argument on Thursday. She laid into the protection, saying the notion that the male escorts weren’t paid for intercourse “doesn’t even go the chortle check.” When Combs handed them wads of money on the finish of “freak-offs,” it wasn’t for his or her “scintillating dialog,” Comey stated. She referred to an escort’s testimony that supported her argument. Regardless of what the protection posited, the escorts didn’t have to label themselves as prostitutes for his or her conduct to be thought-about prostitution.
Supporting the racketeering cost, Comey listed a handful of alleged crimes carried out by Combs’ staff on his behalf. “It is a man who can’t get his personal water bottle or plug in his personal cellphone charger,” she stated, implying that after all he wouldn’t commit his personal crimes. “He’s the overall. Not a foot soldier, not a lieutenant. He delegated. And his interior circle did the soiled work for him,” Comey added, pointing to his chief of workers Kristina Khorram as his main alleged co-conspirator.
With respect to the drug distribution fees, Comey stated, “There is no such thing as a requirement that medication be distributed for revenue or in massive portions to be unlawful.” In different phrases, Combs handing ecstacy drugs to Ventura and Jane would nonetheless be thought-about distribution beneath the legislation.
The tone of her rebuttal intensified as Comey addressed the protection’s underlying argument: that Ventura, one other rape accuser “Mia” and Jane are “mendacity.” She explored every alleged sufferer’s incentives to commit perjury. Ventura already gained a $20 million settlement towards Combs, so there’s no cash seize there. Mia equally already settled with Combs, and since she isn’t searching for fame or consideration, she testified beneath a pseudonym. And Jane, who by no means sued Combs and has no plans to, testified that the defendant continues to pay her hire and authorized charges. For that motive, if she had any incentive to lie, it could be in favor of Combs, Comey argued.
Since opening arguments again in Might, the protection has painted Combs’ accusers as “robust” ladies with company. “ what, they’re proper about that,” Comey stated. “They have been robust sufficient to outlive what the defendant put them by means of and testify at this trial.”
Comey returned to what she referred to as “probably the most clear-cut instance of intercourse trafficking on this case,” when, in June 2024, Combs allegedly violently attacked Jane earlier than giving her medication and arranging a “freak-off” with a male escort. “Is that this coercion?” Combs allegedly stated to Jane, mocking the federal investigation looming over him.
The trial reached an explosive climax as Comey rested her rebuttal. “For 20 years, the defendant bought away along with his crimes. That ends on this courtroom,” she stated. “The defendant will not be a god. He’s an individual. And on this courtroom, he stands equal earlier than the legislation. Overwhelming proof proves his guilt. It’s time to maintain him accountable. Discover him responsible.”
The jury might make its determination as early as subsequent week.
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