Sean „Diddy“ Combs‘ attorney delivered closing arguments in the hip-hop mogul’s sex-trafficking and racketeering trial on Friday.
Sean „Diddy“ Combs‘ attorney tried to turn the hip-hop mogul’s indictment inside out in daylong closings Friday — arguing that his client’s violence and drug use do not make him guilty and that the real „winner“ of his trial is accuser Cassie Ventura.
„Cassie is nobody’s fool. She is sitting somewhere in the world with $30 million“, Combs‘ lead defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo told the jury in Combs‘ Manhattan federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial.
Agnifilo was referring to the $20 million Combs paid his ex Ventura to settle her 2023 lawsuit against Combs and the $10 million she testified that she was set to get from the Los Angeles hotel where Combs was caught on security footage beating her.
„So if you had to pick a winner in this whole thing, it’s hard not to pick Cassie. Cassie, at a certain point, just flat won“, Agnifilo said. „And he’s in jail.“
Like Agnifilo’s co-counsel did in opening statements, he leaned into Combs‘ violent side, arguing that domestic violence is not sex trafficking.
Agnifilo added, „Anyone who tells me, ‚Yeah, Cassie, she’s a victim, Cassie, she’s naive, Cassie, she couldn’t see what’s coming‘, let’s look at the facts.“
Prosecutors have alleged that Combs coerced Ventura and another ex, who testified under the pseudonym „Jane“, into sex performances with male escorts. Combs would direct, masturbate to, and often record these marathons — called „freak offs“, „hotel nights“ or „wild king nights“, prosecutors alleged.
A third woman, a former Combs personal assistant who testified as „Mia“, told the jury that he sexually abused her at least four times, including a rape she said happened when he crawled into her bed as she slept in the staff bedroom of his Los Angeles mansion.
