Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Defense Begins Closing Argument

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One day after a prosecutor called Sean Combs the “vicious” leader of a criminal enterprise in the government’s closing arguments, the music mogul’s lead attorney, Marc Agnifilo, stood before a jury in lower Manhattan Friday and said his client was simply living a “lifestyle” of swingers, threesomes, and “personal” drug use.

“Sean Combs has become something that is very, very hard to be. Very hard to be. He is a self-made, successful, Black entrepreneur,” Agnifilo said, according to CNN. Maybe his former employees didn’t always like him, “but they loved him,” the lawyer argued.

A seasoned criminal defense lawyer known for representing other high-profile defendants such as Luigi Mangione and convicted Nxivm sex cult leader Keith Raniere, Agnifilo said Combs built “wonderful, sophisticated, real businesses that have stood the test of time.” He called the government’s narrative that Combs was the violent leader of a racketeering enterprise false and “exaggerated.”

Pacing in the courtroom with animated gestures, Agnifilo scoffed at the government’s focus on salacious details in the case. “Boxes of Astroglide, taken off the streets, whoo! I feel better already,” he reportedly said, referring to the Homeland Security agents who raided Combs’ homes last year. “Thank goodness for the special response team. They found the Astroglide! They found the baby oil! They found like five valium pills. Way to go fellas.”

In a nod to the fact prosecutors never called any of the security guards or chiefs of staff who allegedly made up Combs’ “inner circle” to the witness stand, he questioned why the jury never heard from anyone saying under immunity or with a plea deal that they were part of a racketeering enterprise. “You didn’t hear that from the evidence. You didn’t hear that from a witness,” he reportedly said.

“This isn’t about a crime. This is about money,” Agnifilo argued, claiming Combs is the victim of shakedowns in civil court. He said jurors wouldn’t be even be hearing the case if Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, never filed her sex trafficking and rape lawsuit against Combs in 2023. The case settled within 24 hours, and jurors later learned Ventura received a settlement.

“She is sitting somewhere in the world with $30 million dollars,” Agnifilo said of Ventura, referring to the $20 million settlement she received from Combs and the subsequent $10 million she received from the Los Angeles hotel where she was assaulted by Combs in 2016. Jurors heard evidence during the trial that security guards at the hotel accepted a $100,000 cash “bribe” from Combs to cover up the hallway surveillance video showing the assault.

“If you had to pick a winner in this whole thing, it’s hard not to pick Cassie,” Agnifilo said, according to CNN. He described Ventura as a strong woman who made her own decisions and was enthusiastic about her unorthodox sex life with Combs.

“Cassie’s no joke, and that why he loved her,” the lawyer reportedly said. “She matched him. She was like him.”

Agnifilo called the couple’s relationship “a great modern love story,” referencing texts they exchanged professing their love for one another. It was a stark statement considering Ventura gave four days of gut-wrenching testimony about the many times Combs allegedly beat her during their decade-long relationship. She described Combs stomping on her face in the back of an Escalade in 2009 and kicking and punching her repeatedly over the years. She said he threatened to release her intimate videos, harmed people she loved and stifled her career to keep her under his control.

Combs, 55, was arrested last September and has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted as charged, he faces a minimum of 15 years and up to life in prison.

In her nearly five-hour summation Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik told jurors that Combs’ alleged criminal enterprise used a “methodical pattern of violence, coercion and manipulation” to traffic Ventura as well as a more recent ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym “Jane.” Slavik said the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Combs’ inner circle of security staffers and “loyal lieutenants” engaged in crimes including the purported sex trafficking as well as drug distribution, forced labor, arson, kidnapping and witness tampering – all to “satisfy his every desire” and protect his reputation in the process.

But throughout the seven-week trial that included testimony from 34 witnesses, Combs’ deep bench of high-powered lawyers pushed back on the government’s narrative. In her opening statement delivered May 12, defense lawyer Teny Geragos said Combs simply indulged in a “swingers lifestyle” filled with “threesomes” and “kinky sex,” and while those pursuits may not be conventional, they did not amount to sex trafficking.

The defense didn’t shy away from Combs getting physical with Ventura. After the lawyers lost their bid to keep video of Combs’ 2016 assault of Ventura inside a Los Angeles hotel out of the trial altogether, they met it head on, characterizing their client as a “flawed individual” with substance abuse and anger issues. They called it unfortunate that Combs ended up in relationships that were “toxic at times,” but were adamant he didn’t run a decades-long RICO conspiracy that used force, fraud, or coercion to make Ventura and Jane submit to unwanted sex with male escorts that Combs choreographed and recorded while masturbating.

“You will see that these women are strong, capable, and they were in love with him. You will see that breaches of trust, infidelity, and jealousy are what drove the domestic violence you will hear about. You will see that alcohol and drugs played a major role in his temper. The evidence is going to show you a very flawed individual, but it will not show you a racketeer, a sex trafficker, or somebody transporting for prostitution,” Geragos said.

After prosecutors deliver their final rebuttal argument Friday, the case is expected to go to the jury after judge’s instructions them on the law. They’re expected to begin their deliberations Monday.

This story is developing