Diddy trial updates: Sean Combs' attorneys say case is about 'love,' 'jealousy'

USA Today

3 hours ago

This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
As closing arguments in Sean "Diddy" Combs' criminal trial wind down, attorneys for the embattled hip-hop mogul will offer their final defense before jury deliberations.
Combs and his legal team were back in Manhattan court on June 27 to plead his case to jurors in the sweeping federal sex-crimes probe.
Combs' lawyer Marc Agnifilo kicked off the defense's closing arguments by framing the case as a "tale of two trials," claiming the government distorted the mogul's consensual sexual "lifestyle" into criminal acts while witnesses spoke of the "successful Black entrepreneur" as a respected and generous figure.
Agnifilo praised Combs' past, suggesting the accusations against him paint a "false," "exaggerated" picture. Agnifilo argued the case is about love, jealousy and money, not trafficking or racketeering, and accused the government of putting on a show to target a wealthy celebrity.
For the government to call this a racketeering enterprise, Agnifilo said, "Are you kidding me? That's the fake trial I'm telling you about."
This comes after prosecutors kicked off closing arguments on June 26, which lasted about six hours.
Combs, 55, was arrested in September and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.
Diddy on trial newsletter: Step inside the courtroom as music mogul faces sex-crimes charges.
Diddy lawyer claims mogul had a consensual relationship with ex-assistant, Cassie's friend Mia
Agnifilo attempted to push back against the woman called "Mia," who testified under a pseudonym during the trial. He said there is every reason to think that what Mia did in the courtroom was acting.
"There's every indication that Mia loved working at this company," Agnifilo said. He said that the birthday video that Mia made for Combs was "the real her. She put on a false persona in the courtroom." In the video, "she was bubbly, she was outspoken, she was happy," Agnifilo added.
Diddy trial recap: Ex-assistant Mia was 'young and manipulated,' says mogul caused PTSD
In terms of the allegations that Combs sexually assaulted Mia multiple times, Agnifilo said that "this was undoubtedly a series of consensual things." He told the court the only reason Combs and Mia covered it up was to hide it from Ventura Fine, who was close friends with Mia. Agnifilo said platonic relationships are possible, but "the feelings that Mia had for Mr. Combs went way deeper."
Agnifilo talked about all of Mia's effusive social media posts and how she made a book of press clippings for Combs' 45th birthday. "This was not a part of her job. If there ever was an act of love, this is it," Agnifilo said. Agnifilo put on a show with the book, saying, "Look at this. This is a young man, his whole life ahead of him. It's remarkable." Agnifilo then read Mia's birthday message she had written in the book. "She loves him. You can't fake that," Agnifilo said.
Discover WITNESS: Access our exclusive collection of true crime stories, podcasts, videos and more
Diddy's lawyer Marc Agnifilo attempts to cast doubt on Cassie rape
In court, Agnifilo discussed Combs' alleged 2018 rape of Casandra "Cassie" Ventura Fine.
Agnifilo said Ventura Fine's now-husband Alex Fine called when she was having sex with Combs, and she told him that she had been raped, so she had to stick with the story.
"She's in a bind," Agnifilo said. "She has to do the oldest trick in the book. … She has to say he raped her," because her now-husband calls while they were having sex. "She doesn't want to give up on the rape because she already told that to her husband," Agnifilo said.
Agnifilo cast doubt on the rape timeline, claiming Cassie wouldn't have had sex with Combs in September if he raped her in August.
Agnifilo also talked about Ventura Fine's testimony about the pain she said she faced. "I was gripping my chair. Whoa! What is she gonna say?" Agnifilo said sarcastically, before quoting Ventura Fine, who said the most painful thing was the shame. Agnifilo said only someone in love can respond that way.
Diddy lawyer calls Michael B. Jordan 'most handsome man in the world'
In court, Agnifilo said that Combs and Ventura Fine arguing about "freak offs" was the same as some couples disagreeing over going to the beach or drinking strawberry lemonade, adding that "your likes become one" as a couple.
Then, he invoked Ventura Fine's brief ex-boyfriend, "Sinners" star Michael B. Jordan. While seemingly attempting to describe Ventura Fine's sex appeal, Agnifilo said that she dated "Michael B. Jordan, who's the most handsome man in the world."
Combs' attorneys previously scrutinized Ventura Fine's other relationships, saying that Combs suspected that she was in a relationship with the Emmy-nominated actor after the pair broke up in 2015.
At the time of their split, the singer-actress was filming a movie in South Africa (Ventura Fine starred in the musical drama "Honey 3: Dare to Dance," which was set in South Africa and reportedly concluded filming in December 2015.)
Diddy lawyer says mogul, Cassie were swingers
In his closing arguments, Combs' lawyer Agnifilo pushed back against the idea that the Bad Boy Records founder sex trafficked his ex-girlfriend Ventura Fine.
"There's a lot more dirty talk in this case than most criminal cases by a long shot," Agnifilo said. He went on to say that it wasn't trafficking: "It's the sex that they're having. He's not making any money from this. They're swingers, it's their lifestyle. The evidence is overwhelming that Cassie wanted to do this."
Sexual "swinging," a consensual but nonmonogamous sexual behavior, takes place when singles or partners in committed relationships engage in intimate acts.
During a court hearing April 25, less than two weeks before the trial began May 5, Agnifilo started laying the groundwork for his client's legal defense, suggesting behavior prosecutors have painted as illegal was simply the result of sexual swinging.
At the time, Agnifilo said in court that it was "a lifestyle" that Combs had, adding to "call it swingers."
Agnifilo said Cassie, Diddy were afraid of 'bad press,' not police
Referencing an incident in which Ventura Fine allegedly stayed in a London hotel room for a week to hide the injuries Combs had inflicted, Agnifilo sarcastically said, it was "a one for the ages kidnapping."
Saying that she wanted to go to Combs' house but was forced to stay at the hotel, Agnifilo told jurors: "When you wanna go to the house of the guy charged with the kidnapping, it's not a kidnapping."
"They don't want bad press," he said of the former couple. Turning to the hotel coverup, in which Combs allegedly paid large sums of cash to make a video of him beating Ventura Fine go away, Agnifilo said: "They're not worried about police, they're worried about bad publicity."
"It's a horrible video, it's a misdemeanor," he added, saying repeated calls from Combs to Ventura Fine after the incident were "just trying to get her attention."
Diddy's lawyers say Combs planned fist fight with Kid Cudi
Agnifilo did not deny that Combs went over to rapper Kid Cudi's house, noting they were fighting over a woman, Ventura Fine.
"At the risk of sounding sexist, they were going to do what men do: Have a good old-fashioned fist fight. A good old-fashioned, John Wayne, 8 in the morning in the Hollywood Hills fist fight," he said. There were no weapons; they were going to settle it like men do, Agnifilo argued.
"Blowing up a man's car is cowardly. He's going to fight him because that's who he is – he's not going to blow up his car," he said, adding that the Los Angeles Fire Department investigation into the alleged arson attack "stunk." The investigation leader "tried to track down Cassie. He tried to track down Capricorn. I wonder if that's a coincidence," he said to jurors.
Kid Cudi takes the stand in Diddy trial: What he revealed, from car explosion to his dog
Diddy's lawyer says Capricorn Clark was obsessed with him
Returning to a December 2011 incident in which Combs is alleged to have shown up at Capricorn Clark's apartment with a gun, Agnifilo said: "I'm gonna go through five reasons why he didn't have a gun."
One of those reasons, he suggested, was that Clark was obsessed with Combs. "She was probably waiting for him to come over at 5:30 in the morning for years. She loved him. He didn't need a gun," he told jurors, adding that Clark would go to the moon with Combs if he asked.
Diddy trial recap: Capricorn Clark alleges Sean Combs kidnapped, threatened to kill her
Another reason he cited was that Combs "had everything to lose and nothing to gain from having a gun."
"There's no way on God's green earth" that Combs would show up with a gun, he said. "Capricorn would not have stayed employed if he had pulled a gun on her."
Kid Cudi and Ventura Fine never testified that Clark had told them Combs had a gun, Agnifilo pointed out, noting that "gun" and "kill" are two of the most memorable words in the English language, and they would have remembered Clark saying that.
Agnifilo reiterated that it "was not a kidnapping."
"She doesn't want to say that she was there of her volition," he argued, "so she makes up 'gun.'"
Diddy's lawyer Marc Agnifilo zeros in on Cassie's 'domestic violence is the issue' comments
During the trial, Agnifilo zeroed in on Ventura Fine's Instagram post from May 2024, where she said, "Domestic violence is the issue." The "Me & U" singer made the comments in a statement following public outcry after leaked hotel security footage surfaced of Combs kicking, dragging and hitting her at a now-closed Los Angeles luxury hotel.
"She could have said, 'Coerced sex with men is the issue.' She could have said 'Running away from freak offs is the issue.' No, domestic violence is the issue. Her words in an Instagram post," he said. "When she says domestic violence is the issue, I say believe her."
Diddy's lawyer says Sean Combs was DEI pioneer in closing arguments
As Combs' lawyer's closing arguments continued, he invoked race and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
"It was real. It was diversity," Agnifilo said about working for Combs. He brought up DEI, saying that Combs was "doing this in 1993 as a 24-year-old."
"Not because some government told him to, but because that's just who he is," Combs' lawyer Agnifilo said. For the government to call this a racketeering enterprise, Agnifilo said, "Are you kidding me? That's the fake trial I'm telling you about."
Diddy's lawyer say trial was about 'love'
Still defiant, Agnigilo said the trial had been about multiple things – none of which are sex trafficking, racketeering or transportation to engage in prostitution, the charges that Combs is facing.
The trial is about love, he said, noting the word has been said 881 times throughout the proceedings. The trial is about infidelity, and it is "so much about jealousy," Agnifilo added.
He then turned to Ventura Fine's testimony, noting that in their cross-examination of her, "We didn't ask her a single thing about being hit, being kicked, being dragged – we own it. It happened. That's not charged. That's part of the fake trial." Combs' defense team is hinging their success on the idea that jurors will decide that the music mogul may be a domestic abuser, but that does not make him a criminal kingpin.
"We wouldn't all be sitting here because he would have pled guilty," Agnifilo said of the possibility of a trial on domestic violence charges. Instead, he said, Combs is going to "fight to the death to defend himself," against the racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
Diddy's lawyer Marc Agnifilo slams 'false' and 'exaggerated' trial
During his comments, Agnifilo went on to call the trial "the false trial, the exaggerated trial," and effusively thanked the jurors for their attention. He said they are "a credit to the jury system and to our country."
Agnifilo began by calling Combs a "successful Black entrepreneur," adding that he would like to think that there are thousands of them, but sadly, " I don't think there are." Agnifilo reiterated how many witnesses came into the courtroom and said they were moved by Combs, recounting how witnesses described working for him as "going to Harvard Business School. The single greatest experience of my life. He made my world so much bigger. He taught me to have a work ethic."
Combs' lawyers have long stated that Combs may not be likable, but he is also not guilty of the federal sex charges against him.
"Did they always like him? No way, let's not even go there. But they loved him, even the ones who are suing him, they love him. They didn't want to leave him," Agnifilo said. "The woman who testified as Mia," Agnifilo continued, said she was suicidal after leaving Combs' employ. "Was it always easy? No, but sometimes the best things in life are hard. That is how you build character," Agnifilo said.
Diddy lawyer strikes defiant, sarcastic tone in final arguments
As his closing statement continued, Agnifilo became more forceful, adopting an almost sarcastic tone with jurors.
Mentioning one of the prosecution's key witnesses, Combs' ex-girlfriend anonymously identified as Jane, he said: "I hope she's having a nice day. But do you know where she's doing it? In the house he's paying for." In her testimony, Jane alleged that Combs used the fact that he paid for her home to coerce her into sex acts, and confirmed that he still pays her rent.
Agnifilo then turned to the federal raids on Combs' various homes. "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 responses team. They got the baby oil, way to go fellas."
In the photos of the hotel rooms and houses that federal agents had raided, Agnifilo suggested that the government was putting on a show with excessive yellow crime tape.
"You know, it's the 50th anniversary of 'Jaws.' We need a bigger boat, we need a bigger crime scene tape," he continued, hammering home his point that the whole ordeal had been for show.
"This isn't about a crime. It's about money," he said. "Cassie Ventura sued Sean Combs for $30 million because he has $30 million." In 2023, Ventura Fine filed a civil suit against Combs, which was settled within a day. She later revealed on the stand that the lawsuit was settled for $20 million.
A 'tale of two trials,' Diddy's lawyer Marc Agnifilo says
As Combs' defense lawyers began to make their final arguments, Agnifilo characterized the proceedings as "a tale of two trials."
There's one trial of evidence and "one from the mouths of prosecutors," he said. The prosecutors' version of events, he said, is "nothing like" what the evidence shows.
He continued to describe Combs' behavior, which included days-long "freak-off" sex parties and heavy drug use, as "a lifestyle."
"You wanna call it swingers, you wanna call it threesomes, whatever it is," he said, chastising prosecutors for trying to claim Combs' sex life was "one of the most serious, complicated, comprehensive" criminal acts.
Prosecution details times Diddy sex-trafficked Cassie
Ventura Fine was the victim of sex trafficking multiple times, Slavik told jurors on June 26, detailing three specific instances.
The first was when Combs assaulted her at the Los Angeles InterContinental Hotel in 2016. Pointing to a text message Ventura Fine had sent Combs at the time that read "We can have fun, I don't want you thinking I don't want to," Slavik said: "She knows that the defendant won't take no for an answer." The prosecutor also noted the "freak off" did not need to have been completed for Combs to be found guilty of sex trafficking.
The other two incidents, which Slavik said are not the only times Combs trafficked Ventura Fine, involved Combs paying Daniel Phillip to have sex with Cassie between 2012 and 2014, as well as an alleged incident at the Cannes Film Festival, during which Combs kicked Ventura Fine off a boat.
Prosecutors lay ground for racketeering charge
Slavik alleged during the June 26 hearing that Combs is "the head of a criminal enterprise" as she walked jurors through racketeering charges against the mogul. She pointed to allegations that Combs physically and sexually abused Ventura Fine and Jane over and over again — and worked with his staff to force the women into "freak offs."
Slavik described racketeering as the act of committing a crime as part of a group. "Remember, it's his kingdom. Everyone was there to serve him," she said, alleging Combs' staffers "made it their mission" to promote his power and stature.
Diddy trial bombshells: What his inner circle said about baby oil, 'freak offs'
Was Diddy found not guilty?
No, a verdict has not yet been reached in Combs' criminal case.
After more than a month of harrowing testimony from several of Combs' associates, the prosecution rested its case on June 24. Meanwhile, Combs' lawyers rested their case in less than half an hour, with the defense opting not to call any witnesses to the stand.
Diddy trial is ending, closing arguments underway: What to expect
Although the music mogul's alleged abuse is at the center of the trial, Combs told the court he would not be testifying.
Closing arguments began Thursday, June 26, and are expected to conclude Friday, June 27.
Did Diddy's charges get dropped?
No, none of the charges from Combs' federal indictment have been formally dropped. But in a June 24 letter to Judge Arun Subramanian, prosecutors revealed they were withdrawing some of their criminal allegations ahead of closing arguments.
U.S. attorneys said they don't want jurors to consider their previous claims that Combs allegedly engaged in racketeering by attempting kidnapping in California and New York, attempting arson in California, and aiding and abetting sex trafficking. The move was made as part of an effort to "streamline" jury instructions.
Despite the tossed allegations, Combs' indictment accused him not just of attempting arson and kidnapping, but also of committing these crimes outright as part of a criminal conspiracy.
Is Diddy in jail?
The disgraced music mogul is in custody, and despite repeated attempts at bail, has remained confined to the Special Housing Unit in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center. He has been in jail since his arrest on Sept. 16, 2024.
When is the Diddy trial over?
Subramanian has said he's hopeful proceedings will wrap up by the July 4 holiday, and that schedule is still on track. Jurors will begin deliberating either Friday, June 27, or Monday, June 30.
How much time is Diddy facing?
If convicted on all counts, the Bad Boy Records founder faces a minimum 15-year prison term and could be sentenced to life behind bars.
How many kids does Diddy have?
Combs has seven children. He had his first biological son, Justin Combs, 31, with fashion designer and stylist Misa Hylton.
The rapper shared four children with longtime girlfriend Kim Porter, including Porter's son Quincy Brown, 34, whom she had with R&B singer-songwriter Al B. Sure! The couple's other children include son Christian "King" Combs, 27, and twin daughters D'Lila and Jessie Combs, 18.
Combs has two other daughters: 18-year-old Chance Combs, whom he shares with businesswoman Sarah Chapman; and 2-year-old Love from his relationship with model and cybersecurity specialist Dana Tran.
What is Diddy on trial for?
Combs is facing federal sex-crimes and trafficking charges in a sprawling case that has eroded his status as a power player and kingmaker in the entertainment industry.
He was arrested in September 2024 and later charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. The rapper has pleaded not guilty to the five counts against him.
What is racketeering?
Racketeering is the participation in an illegal scheme under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute, or RICO, as a way for the U.S. government to prosecute organizations that contribute to criminal activity.
Using RICO law, which is typically aimed at targeting multi-person criminal organizations, prosecutors allege that Combs coerced victims, some of whom they say were sex workers, through intimidation and narcotics to participate in "freak offs" — sometimes dayslong sex performances that federal prosecutors allege they have on video.
How to stream the Diddy trial
The trial will not be televised, as cameras are typically not allowed in federal criminal trial proceedings.
USA TODAY will be reporting live from the courtroom. Sign up for our newsletter for more updates.
Contributing: USA TODAY staff
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text "START" to 88788.