Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ lawyer delivers closing arguments at sex-trafficking trial | Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs

A lawyer representing Sean “Diddy” Combs delivered the protection’s closing arguments on Friday morning within the music mogul’s federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial, telling jurors that the federal government’s case towards Combs was “false” and “exaggerated”.The protection’s closing argument introduced by Marc Agnifilo, the lead lawyer of Combs’s protection crew, marked the ultimate part of a seven-week trial that has drawn international consideration.On Friday, Agnifilo urged the jury to reject the prosecution’s case towards Combs and pushed again towards the federal government’s accusations that Combs used violence, threats, cash, medication and energy to coerce ladies into taking part in drug-fueled intercourse marathons with male intercourse employees and disputed the claims that he ran a legal enterprise that engaged in crimes corresponding to intercourse trafficking, drug distribution, kidnapping, pressured labor, arson and bribery.Combs, who was arrested in September, faces one depend of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of intercourse trafficking and two counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution. He has pleaded not responsible to all costs.If convicted on all counts, he might withstand life in jail.All through the trial and once more in closing arguments, Combs’s authorized crew acknowledged previous incidents of home violence, however maintained that each one sexual encounters have been consensual and a part of what they described as a “swingers way of life” . The protection has denied that Combs dedicated intercourse trafficking and have stated that no legal conspiracy existed.“We personal the home violence, I hope you guys know that,” Agnifilo informed the jury on Friday. “It occurred. That’s not charged. He didn’t do the issues he’s charged with.”Framing Combs as a profitable businessman, Agnifilo described his consumer as a “self-made, profitable, Black entrepreneur” who constructed “great, refined, actual companies which have stood the check of time”.All through the trial, the protection has sought to painting two ladies on the coronary heart of the case – singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a lady testifying underneath the pseudonym “Jane” – as prepared and consenting individuals within the intercourse events, which have been sometimes called “freak-offs”.Each Ventura and Jane testified throughout the trial that they have been coerced by Combs to take part within the drug-fueled “freak-offs” that they stated Combs directed, watched, masturbated to and typically filmed.In addition they described cases of bodily abuse, and alleged that Combs would threaten to launch specific movies of them or lower off monetary help in the event that they defied him.In his closing, Agnifilo challenged witness accounts, pushed again on the federal government’s allegations, and disputed the prosecution’s portrayal of Ventura and Jane as sex-trafficking victims.Agnifilo solid Ventura, the federal government’s star witness, as a lady with company, slightly than a sufferer.He pointed to the $20m settlement she acquired from Combs in 2023 after submitting a civil lawsuit accusing him of abuse, which triggered the federal investigation. He additionally pointed to the $10m Ventura is predicted to obtain from the proprietor of a lodge in Los Angeles the place she was assaulted by Combs in 2016.“Should you needed to decide a winner on this complete factor, it’s onerous to not decide Cassie,” Agnifilo stated. “This isn’t a couple of crime, that is about cash.”At one level throughout closing, Agnifilo appeared to mock the federal government’s 2024 raids on Combs’s properties, throughout which investigators reportedly seized greater than 1,000 bottles of child oil and lubricant.“Bins of Astroglide, taken off the streets, whoo! I really feel higher already,” Agnifilo stated sarcastically. “Solution to go, fellas.”Agnifilo additionally criticized the racketeering cost, saying nobody else was charged alongside Combs and that no witness testified to being a part of a legal enterprise.He closed his argument by urging the jury to acquit Combs.“He’s not a racketeer. He’s none of these items. He’s harmless,” Agnifilo stated. “Return him to his household who’ve been ready for him.”Combs’s six grownup kids have been current in court docket on Friday, as was his mom.Agnifilo’s closing argument lasted about 4 hours.The federal government then gave a one-hour rebuttal, which is the ultimate step earlier than the case goes to the 12-member jury to determine Combs’s destiny.Of their rebuttal, prosecutors claimed that the protection spent a “complete lot of vitality” throughout the closing argument making an attempt guilty Combs’s “victims and the US authorities” for Combs’s “lies, his threats and for his inexcusable conduct”.The choose stated on Friday that the jury will start deliberations on Monday.Exterior the courthouse in decrease Manhattan on Friday, some demonstrators gathered in help of sexual assault survivors.The protest was organized by gender justice group UltraViolet.In an announcement, Elisa Batista, the marketing campaign director at UltraViolet stated: “We’re right here for the courageous women and men who testified within the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial, sharing harrowing tales of systemic and violent abuse, in addition to those that weren’t in a position to.”“Irrespective of the decision on this trial, survivors nonetheless have energy,” she stated. “And after we stand collectively, accountability is achievable.”On Thursday, the federal government introduced its personal closing argument, with Christy Slavik spending practically 5 hours outlining the federal government’s case towards the music mogul.The US lawyer described Combs as “the chief of a legal enterprise” who refused to “take no for a solution” and as somebody who wielded “energy, violence and concern to get what he wished”.“The defendant was a really highly effective man,” she stated. “However he turned extra highly effective and extra harmful due to the help of his interior circle and his companies – the enterprise.”Slavik walked the jury by way of the weeks of testimony and proof the federal government introduced over the course of seven weeks.“Up till right this moment, the defendant was in a position to get away with these crimes due to his cash, his energy, his affect,” she stated. “That stops now. It’s time to carry him accountable. It’s time for justice. It’s time to search out the defendant responsible.”Jurors additionally heard for the primary time on Thursday about allegations that Combs engaged in witness tampering and obstruction – a part of the broader racketeering cost – close to “Jane” and one other girl, who testified underneath the pseudonym “Mia”.