Key moments from the closing arguments at Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ intercourse trafficking trial

Two prosecutors insisted that he had coerced, threatened and generally viciously compelled two ex-girlfriends to have intercourse with male intercourse employees to fulfill his sexual pleasure. They cited a number of acts of violence he carried out in opposition to them as proof that they’d no say.

A protection lawyer then mocked the federal government’s closing argument and warned that prosecutors have been using a novel method to intercourse crimes that risked turning the swinger way of life that Combs and his girlfriends loved into potential crimes for all Americans.

Combs, 55, the founding father of Bad Boy Entertainment, has pleaded not responsible to intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy fees within the trial, which continues Monday when the decide will learn directions on the legislation to jurors earlier than they start deliberations.

Here are key moments from closing argument on Thursday and Friday:

Prosecutors triggered headlines final week that they’d backed off or eradicated claims of arson and kidnapping in opposition to Combs after they mentioned they have been eradicating directions on the legislation concerning them to be given jurors on Monday in response to the decide’s request to streamline the case for the jury.

“The Government is not planning to proceed on these theories of legal responsibility so directions are not obligatory,” prosecutors wrote in a letter to the decide.

But when Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik launched closings on Thursday, she gave the allegations of arson and kidnapping a starring position in her first sentences, naming them earlier than any others.

“Over the final a number of weeks, you’ve discovered so much about Sean Combs. He’s the chief of a prison enterprise. He doesn’t take no for a solution. And now you realize about many crimes the defendant dedicated with members of his enterprise: Kidnapping of one of many defendant’s workers; arson by attempting to explode a automobile; compelled labor, together with of an worker the defendant repeatedly sexually assaulted; bribery of a safety officer to maintain damning proof in opposition to the defendant buried; and naturally, the brutal crimes on the coronary heart of this case — intercourse trafficking,” she mentioned.

The arson declare stemmed from proof that Slavik mentioned confirmed Combs was behind the firebombing of rapper Kid Cudi’s Porsche in 2012. The kidnapping allegation additionally associated to Cudi. Slavik mentioned Combs kidnapped an worker to affix him when he broke into Cudi’s residence after studying the rapper was relationship his girlfriend.

Attorney Marc Agnifilo in an at-times folksy presentation spared few theatrics in mocking the federal government’s case in opposition to Combs as overreach, saying a whole bunch of brokers poured into Combs’ residences in Miami and Los Angeles to grab a whole bunch of bottles of child oil and Astroglide lubricant.

“I assume it’s all price it as a result of they discovered the Astroglide. They discovered it in bins, bins of Astroglide taken off the streets. Whew, I really feel higher already,” he mentioned, earlier than including: “The streets of America are secure from the Astroglide!”

From the beginning, Agnifilo tried to painting prosecutors as unjustly focusing on Combs after a former girlfriend of almost 11 years — Casandra “Cassie” Ventura — sued him in November 2023. She testified for 4 days within the trial’s first week.

The lawsuit was settled for $20 million the following day however she touched off a prison probe along with her allegations of being subjected to a whole bunch of drug-fueled “freak-offs” by which she alleged she was compelled to carry out sexually for days with male intercourse employees whereas Combs watched, filmed and directed the motion.

A girl who testified beneath the pseudonym “Jane” additionally testified in the course of the trial that she skilled “resort nights” just like “freak-off” in a relationship with Combs from 2021 till his arrest.

Agnifilo maintained the prosecution was an unjust assault on a outstanding and wildly profitable Black entrepreneur.

“They took Astroglide and so they took child oil, and that finally ends up being the proof on this case, as a result of his companies are excellent. There’s nothing in regards to the companies to search out. There’s nothing in regards to the companies to make right into a prison case,” he mentioned.

Agnifilo tried to solid the case for the jury as an assault on everybody’s bed room and the secrets and techniques of 1’s intercourse life.

“They go into the person’s bed room. They go into the person’s most non-public life. Where is the crime scene? The crime scene is your non-public intercourse life. That’s the crime scene,” he mentioned as he stood earlier than jurors, who have been largely expressionless as they took occasional notes and watched the closings.

The lawyer mentioned it was not unusual that Combs preferred to movie sexual occasions together with his girlfriends, calling it “kind of typical, you realize, home made porn” and including that “I do not suppose by any stretch of the creativeness that is the one man in America making home made porn.”

Still, he mentioned, investigators “take yellow crime scene tape, figuratively, and so they wrap it round his bed room. Crime scene — your bed room, your resort rooms, the place you go together with your girlfriends. Crime scenes. Plenty of yellow tape.”

Then, he gave a nod to the fiftieth anniversary of the film “Jaws,” resurrecting a traditional line from Hollywood historical past when he mentioned: “We want a much bigger roll of crime scene tape, as a result of that’s simply not going to be sufficient.”

Just after Agnifilo instructed jurors that it “takes a variety of braveness to acquit,” he ripped the federal government’s case a remaining time in stark phrases, saying the trial was “very totally different” from some other trial.

“I feel that the proof exhibits, and you may conclude, that the federal government focused Sean Combs,” he mentioned, noting that no person complained to the federal government to instigate a probe, however investigators as a substitute started their work a day after Cassie filed her lawsuit.

After the jury left the room on the conclusion of Agnifilo’s four-hour summation, his assertion about focusing on drew an outcry from the prosecutor, Slavik.

When the jury returned, Judge Judge Arun Subramanian famous the comment Agnifilo had made about focusing on Combs and instructed jurors that “the choice of the federal government to research a person or the choice of a grand jury to indict a person is none of your concern.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey received the ultimate phrase with a rebuttal presentation to jurors, telling them: “The defendant is just not a god.”

She mentioned that Combs in his thoughts “was untouchable.” She famous that one former private assistant even described him as a “god amongst males.”

“For 20 years, the defendant received away together with his crimes. That ends on this courtroom,” she mentioned. “He is an individual. And on this courtroom, he stands equal earlier than the legislation. Overwhelming proof proves his guilt. It is time to carry him accountable. Find him responsible.”

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