On the final day of the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial before jury deliberations, the hip-hop mogul’s attorney Marc Agnifilo enlivened the courtroom with an impassioned closing argument. In the coming days, the jury will determine whether Combs is guilty of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. A conviction could land him behind bars for life.
Agnifilo’s demeanor was animated and at times folksy, unlike the prosecution’s cold, formal tone. He paced around the courtroom, beginning his summations by gushing about Combs’ character and business acumen, saying he was a champion of diversity. “Sean Combs has become something that is very, very hard to be,” Agnifilo said. “He is a self-made, successful, Black entrepreneur.” He recounted some of the positive things Combs’ former employees said about him on the witness stand, adding, “Did they always like him? No way. Let’s not even go there. But they loved him. They didn’t want to leave him.”
The defense put a spotlight on the presence of Combs’ children and mother in the courtroom, saying, “The man takes care of people.” Taking a swipe at one of Combs’ alleged victims, “Jane,” Agnifilo said, “I hope she’s having a nice day, but ya know where she’s doing it? In a house he’s paying for.”
Agnifilo argued that Combs is on a “false trial,” that he is not guilty of sex trafficking but is instead a member of the “swingers lifestyle” who participated in consensual “threesomes” with his ex-girlfriends and male entertainers.
“No one’s forcing her to do this,” Agnifilo said of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, Combs’ ex who accused him of raping her and coercing her into hundreds of “freak-offs,” drug-fueled sex parties that lasted days on end. At the center of the trial is a 2016 surveillance video that depicts Combs beating Ventura in a hotel hallway and allegedly attempting to drag her back into a “freak-off.”
“We own the domestic violence,” Agnifilo said. Throughout the trial, the defense has admitted that Combs was violent with Ventura, but that the violence was not connected to the “freak-offs.” Agnifilo painted Ventura as a strong, smart woman who enjoyed her sex life with Combs. “She’s a woman who actually likes sex,” Agnifilo said. “Good for her! She’s beautiful, she should. She’s intense. She’s unafraid.”
Agnifilo referenced Ventura’s testimony about her brief love affair with the singer Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi. Ventura said she tried to keep her relationship with Mescudi a secret from Combs by purchasing a second cellphone. “Whoooaaa! A burner phone!” Agnifilo said, his voice jumping up an octave. “Cassie is keeping it gangsta!” He said Ventura “played” both Combs and Mescudi, implying she would not have had a secret relationship if she was actually “scared to death of Sean Combs.”
Addressing the kidnapping allegations against Combs, which pertain to his racketeering charge, Agnifilo referenced former assistant Capricorn Clark’s claim that she was held for five days in a Manhattan office building, forced to take a lie detector test about stolen jewelry. “A door-to-door kidnap,” Agnifilo said mockingly, emphasizing that Clark slept at home, and that one of Combs’ security guards drove her to and from the building each day. “You guys are here for long hours,” he told the jury. “Anyone here feel kidnapped?”
Agnifilo’s tone was incredulous: “He’s charged with kidnapping. That’s real!” And he told the jurors they “have the right” to question the government’s claims and disregard witness testimony.
The lawyer picked apart the allegations of bribery, witness tampering and obstruction — and focused heavily on the implication that Combs orchestrated an act of arson on Mescudi’s car. (Combs had allegedly said previously that he was going to blow up the vehicle, but an investigation at the time found no evidence leading to Combs.) “That’s not his style,” Agnifilo said, suggesting that Combs would prefer a man-to-man confrontation with Mescudi — “a good old-fashioned John Wayne, eight-in-the-morning Hollywood Hills fight.”
Throughout the closing argument, Combs nodded and listened intently, either leaning back in his chair or crossing his arms on the table. One of his sons, Justin Combs, was wearing a shirt that read “Free Sean Combs,” which is not permitted in the courtroom. A court marshal approached him, and Justin left and re-entered the room without the message visible.
The defense’s closing argument follows Thursday’s incredibly detailed, nearly five-hour summation from federal prosecutors. Agnifilo will continue speaking into the afternoon, when the prosecution will then have the chance for a short rebuttal. A verdict could come as early as next week.
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