NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyer implored a jury on Friday to acquit the hip-hop mogul, arguing overzealous federal prosecutors twisted his drug use and swinger lifestyle into a sex trafficking and racketeering case that could put him behind bars for life.
“He is none of these things. He is innocent,” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said, glancing at Combs during a four-hour closing argument. “He sits there innocent. Return him to his family who have been waiting for him.”
Jurors are expected to begin deliberating Monday.
Agnifilo repeatedly mocked the government’s case, peppering his presentation with folksy quips and bawdy observations. He said prosecutors “badly exaggerated” the charges, and he belittled federal agents who seized baby oil and lubricant in raids last year at Combs’ Los Angeles and Miami-area homes.
“Way to go, fellas,” the defense lawyer said.
Agnifilo accused the government of targeting Combs, irritating prosecutors and the judge, and questioned why no one else was charged in what the prosecution alleges was a racketeering conspiracy involving Combs’ personal assistants, bodyguards and other employees. Judge Arun Subramanian instructed jurors not to consider why or how the government obtained an indictment.
In a rebuttal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said Agnifilo spent “a whole lot of energy” trying to distract from Combs’ “inexcusable criminal behavior.”
“Make no mistake,” Comey told jurors, “this trial was about how in Sean Combs’ world, ‘no’ was never an option.”
Agnifilo called Combs’ prosecution a “fake trial” and ridiculed the notion that the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer engaged in racketeering.
“Are you kidding me?” Agnifilo asked. “Did any witness get on that witness stand and say, ‘Yes, I was part of a racketeering enterprise — I engaged in racketeering?’” No, those accusations were a figment of the prosecution’s imagination, he argued.
Combs, in a sweater and khakis, watched Agnifilo with rapt attention after looking down and slouching during Thursday’s prosecution closing. He didn’t testify during the seven-week trial, and his lawyers called no witnesses of their own.
Combs’ family, including six of his children and his mother, sat behind him. When the day was finished, Combs hugged one of his lawyers and smiled as he conversed with others. As the jury filed out of the courtroom for the last time this week, Combs watched them, but the jurors didn’t look his way.
Combs’ ex-girlfriends R&B singer Cassie and a woman testifying under the pseudonym “Jane” told jurors that Combs coerced them into participating in “freak-offs” or “hotel nights” — drug-fueled sex marathons with male sex workers while Combs watched, directed, masturbated and sometimes filmed them.
Agnifilo argued prosecutors had invaded Combs’ most intimate personal affairs, warning jurors: “Where’s the crime scene? The crime scene is your private sex life.”
He also mocked the prosecution’s assertion that Combs and his underlings engaged in hundreds of racketeering acts, as well as the government’s suggestion that many of the sex marathons at the heart of the case were crimes.
If that’s so, he said, “we need a bigger roll of crime scene tape,” a reference to a famous line from the movie “Jaws.”
Agnifilo argued there’s another factor at play in the allegations that women have lobbed against him: the prospect of draining him of his wealth through lawsuits.
“This isn’t about a crime. This is about money. It’s about money,” Agnifilo said.
Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, sued Combs in November 2023 over abuse allegations. He settled with her the next day for $20 million, but the allegations prompted federal law enforcement to open the criminal investigation that led to his arrest. Dozens of other lawsuits followed.
“If you had to pick a winner in this whole thing, it’s hard not to pick Cassie,” Agnifilo said.
Agnifilo reiterated that the defense “owns” the fact that Combs was violent but argued that behavior does not justify the grave charges against him.
Combs and Cassie had a “loving, beautiful relationship,” albeit a “complicated” one, Agnifilo said.
“If racketeering conspiracy had an opposite, it would be their relationship.” Agnifilo said. “They were truly, deeply in love with each other, for real.”
Echoing prosecutor Christy Slavik’s closing argument on Thursday, Agnifilo showed jurors part of the now-infamous security camera footage of Combs attacking Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Agnifilo acknowledged that the video clearly shows domestic violence, but he disputed the prosecution’s theory that the assault was evidence of sex trafficking by force. He insisted Combs may have been angry not that Cassie was trying to flee a “freak-off,” but that she was taking his cellphone.
In her rebuttal, Comey said: “Being a domestic abuser is not a defense to sex trafficking.”
