After hearing sharply divergent opinions from prosecutors and a defense attorney over whether Sean Diddy Combs was involved in sex trafficking for twenty years, a jury in New York will start deliberating on his fate on Monday.
Two prosecutors maintained that in order to fulfill his sexual desires, he had persuaded, intimidated, and even brutally forced two ex-girlfriends to have sex with male prostitutes. As evidence that they had no say, they pointed to other violent crimes he committed against them.
Subsequently, a defense attorney made fun of the government’s closing statement and cautioned that prosecutors were using a new strategy for sex crimes that could potentially convert Combs and his girlfriends’ swinger lifestyle into a criminal for all Americans.
The trial is ongoing, and Combs, 55, the creator of Bad Boy Entertainment, has entered a not guilty plea on counts of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. The judge will issue legal instructions to jurors before they start deliberating on Monday.
Key points from Thursday’s and Friday’s closing arguments are as follows:
Prosecutors demonstrated that they were not dropping their allegations against Combs.
When prosecutors said last week that they were eliminating the law’s directions about Combs being given jurors on Monday in response to the judge’s request to expedite the case for the jury, they created headlines suggesting that they had retracted or dropped the accusations of kidnapping and arson against Combs.
In a letter to the judge, prosecutors stated that since the government no longer intends to pursue these theories of responsibility, directions are no longer required.
However, when Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik began closings on Thursday, she prioritized the charges of kidnapping and arson in her initial sentences, listing them first.
You’ve learned a lot about Sean Combs during the past few weeks. He is in charge of a criminal organization. He doesn’t accept rejection. You are now aware of the numerous offenses the defendant and his business associates committed: She cited the following: forced labor, including the sexual assault of a worker by the defendant on multiple occasions; kidnapping one of the defendant’s employees; bribery of a security guard to conceal evidence against the defendant; and, of course, the heinous crimes at the core of this case: sex trafficking.
Evidence that Slavik claimed demonstrated Combs was responsible for the 2012 firebombing of rapper Kid Cudi’s Porsche gave rise to the arson allegation. Cudi was also involved in the kidnapping accusation. Slavik claimed that after discovering that Cudi was seeing his girlfriend, Combs broke into the rapper’s house and abducted a worker to accompany him.
A defense attorney retaliates by disparaging the government’s argument.
In an occasionally humorous presentation, lawyer Marc Agnifilo used little showmanship to deride the government’s case against Combs as an overreach, claiming that hundreds of agents barged into Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles to confiscate hundreds of bottles of baby oil and Astroglide lubrication.
Since they discovered the Astroglide, I suppose it was all worthwhile. They discovered it in Astroglide cartons that had been removed from the streets. He added: “The streets of America are safe from the Astroglide!” after saying, “Whew, I feel better already!”
Agnifilo attempted from the beginning to show that Combs was unfairly singled out by prosecutors after he was sued by Cassie Ventura, his ex-girlfriend of over 11 years, in November 2023. During the first week of the trial, she gave four days of testimony.
Her claims that she was subjected to hundreds of drug-fueled freak-offs, in which she claimed she was forced to perform sexual acts with male sex workers for days while Combs watched, recorded, and oversaw the action, sparked a criminal investigation even though the lawsuit was settled for $20 million the following day.
During the trial, a lady who gave testimony under the alias Jane also stated that she had freak-off-like hotel nights while dating Combs from 2021 until his arrest.
Agnifilo maintained that the case was an unfair assault on a well-known and extraordinarily prosperous Black businessman.
They took baby oil and Astroglide, and since his enterprises are exceptional, that becomes the proof in this case. Nothing can be found regarding the businesses. He stated that there is nothing to turn the enterprises into a criminal case.
By referring to it as an attack on your bedroom, the defense personalizes the case for the jurors.
Agnifilo attempted to portray the case for the jury as an assault on the privacy of everyone’s sex life and bedroom.
They enter the man’s sleeping quarters. They delve into the man’s most personal affairs. Where is the scene of the crime? Your private sexual life is the crime scene. As he stood in front of the jury, who were mostly silent while taking notes and watching the closings, he declared, “That’s the crime scene.”
“I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination that this is the only man in America making homemade porn,” the attorney stated, describing Combs’ habit of filming sex with his women as “sort of typical, you know, homemade porn.”
Nevertheless, he said that investigators “figuratively wrap yellow crime scene tape around his bedroom.” Your hotel room, your bedroom, and the places you go with your girlfriends are all crime scenes. scenes of crimes. Yellow tape, lots of it.
He then recited a famous quote from Hollywood history in reference to the 50th anniversary of the film Jaws: “We need a bigger roll of crime scene tape, because that’s just not going to be enough.”
The defense went too far in claiming that prosecutors singled out Combs, the judge agrees.
Agnifilo attacked the government’s case one more time in harsh words, claiming that the trial was “very different” from prior trials, shortly after telling jurors that it takes a lot of bravery to acquit.
He stated, “I believe the evidence shows, and you can conclude, that the government targeted Sean Combs,” adding that investigators started working the day after Cassie filed her case and that no one complained to the government to start an investigation.
The prosecutor, Slavik, protested Agnifilo’s remark regarding targeting after the jury had left the room after his four-hour summation.
Judge Arun Subramanian informed jurors that it is none of their business whether the government decides to investigate a person or whether a grand jury decides to indict a person after he took notice of Agnifilo’s comment about targeting Combs.
A prosecution informs jurors in rebuttal that Combs is not a god.
The last word was given by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey, who told the jurors in her rebuttal argument that the defendant is not a deity.
According to her, Combs was untouchable in his mind. One former personal assistant even called him a god among men, she said.
The criminal got away with his misdeeds for 20 years. She said, “That ends in this courtroom.” He is a human being. And he is on an equal footing with the law in this courtroom. His culpability is established by overwhelming evidence. We need to hold him responsible now. Convict him.
