Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lead attorney kicked off his powerhouse defense team’s closing arguments at the hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking and racketeering trial on Friday morning, telling jurors the notion that the defendant used his company as a racketeering enterprise is part of a “fake trial” and claiming the prosecution is distorting consensual, non-traditional sex into criminal acts.
Attorney Marc Agnifilo, who leads the team of attorneys that includes Teny Geragos, Brian Steel, and Alexandra Shapiro, among others, launched into their closing arguments early Friday morning. The defense opted not to call any witnesses after the prosecution rested its case on Wednesday, stating that it would only submit new evidence. The same day, Combs told Judge Arun Subramanian that he would not be taking the stand to testify in his defense. Agnifilo’s final remarks rebuff, often sarcastically, the sprawling case laid out over the past six weeks by the federal prosecutors. It comes a day after an attorney for the prosecution spent four-and-a-half hours on Thursday recapping the elements of the case and explaining to the jury how evidence and testimony relate to the five charges in the indictment issued in September.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to five counts contained in an indictment, including sex trafficking and racketeering. He has remained incarcerated without bail in Brooklyn since September and throughout his federal trial, which began on May 5.
Agnifilo framed the events on the 23rd floor of the federal courthouse on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan over the past six weeks of testimony as a “tale of two trials.” One version involved the federal prosecutors twisting the nature of Combs’ non-traditional but consensual sex life into the endgame of multiple criminal acts, while the other, said the top attorney, saw witnesses who spoke of the “successful Black entrepreneur” who is a respected member of his community.
Of the two trials he spoke of, there was “one from the mouths of prosecutors” and one that consisted of evidence, he told the jurors on Friday.
“This isn’t about a crime. It’s about money,” he said, then referring to the civil lawsuit filed by the rap titan’s ex-girlfriend in October 2023, the legal move that began the unraveling of Combs’ public persona and caught the eye of the feds: “Cassie Ventura sued Sean Combs for $30 million because he has $30 million.”
Ventura told the court during her marathon week of testimony, which came at the beginning of the seven-week-and-counting trial (since jury selection began on May 5), that the $30 million civil case, which was settled the next day, netted her $20 million. She also revealed a lawsuit against the Intercontinental hotel in L.A., where she was filmed being beaten and dragged by Combs in footage that leaked to CNN.
Heightening his display of outrage, Agnifilo mocked prosecutors over their framing of his client’s sex life as criminal. With both Ventura and “Jane,” a victim who used a pseudonym in court, Combs was accused of arranging and filming “freak-off” or hotel night marathon sessions, where a male sex worker or workers would engage his partner in lengthy sessions of drug-fueled intercourse, which involved Astroglide lube and baby oil and would frequently be filmed by Combs as he looked on. At a point during “Jane’s” testimony, she floated the idea she’d had that Combs was bisexual but too uncomfortable with the idea to ever engage with a same-sex partner himself; she also referred to Combs as a “cuckold,” which she described on the stand as a man who enjoys watching his female partner have sex with another man. (The term is defined as the husband of an adulterous wife.)
“You wanna call it swingers, you wanna call it threesomes, whatever it is,” he said, adding that it is absurd for the prosecution to frame his sex life as “one of the most serious, complicated, comprehensive” criminal acts.
Moving on, the top attorney then got onto the notion that Combs Global (née Combs Enterprises) is truly a racketeering enterprise, as prosecutors have argued. Agnifilo suggested that the idea is preposterous.
“Are you kidding me? That’s the fake trial I’m telling you about,” the lead attorney told jurors.
Agnifilo then mocked “Jane,” who dated Combs from 2021 until his arrest in 2024. She had told the court that while she was involved with him, the near–billionaire would pay her $10,000 monthly rent; she also admitted from the stand that her rent is still being paid by the incarcerated mogul.
“I hope she’s having a nice day. But do you know where she’s doing it? In the house he’s paying for,” Agnifilo quipped.
The sensational raid last year of Combs’ properties was the next element of the government’s treatment of the fallen mogul. In March, federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations descended on the mogul’s home in Miami and one in Los Angeles reportedly connected to Combs’ company, Bad Boys Film Production, storming the properties to seize computers and other items. At the time, Combs’ attorney criticized the raids as overkill. Agnifilo took a moment to mock the discovery of large amounts of lubricants, a fact that became something of a punchline when news of the raids broke.
“I guess that’s all worth it,” he said, “Boxes and boxes of Astroglide. They got it, the streets of America are safe from the Astroglide. Thank God for the special response team. They got the baby oil, way to go fellas.”
Continuing to mock the large-scale raid, he added: “You know, it’s the 50th anniversary of Jaws. We need a bigger boat, we need a bigger crime scene tape.”
Maurene Comey, the feds’ lead prosecutor on the case, complained before the lunch break to Judge Subramanian about what she called improper arguments made by the defense that were sarcastic toward the prosecution, according to reporting from NBC News.
Agnifilo was quick with a reply, telling the judge, “I think I’m allowed to be sarcastic.”
This is a developing story. More to come.