Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial finally neared its end on Friday, June 27, as the defense delivered their closing argument at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in New York City.
“Sean Combs has become something that’s very, very hard to be: a self-made successful black entrepreneur,” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said of Diddy, 55, noting that numerous witnesses praised the disgraced mogul’s impact in the entertainment world. “Did they always like him? No way, let’s not even go there. But they loved him. They didn’t want to leave him. When they left him, they talked about being suicidal.”
One day earlier, the prosecution delivered their own closing argument, outlining how the testimony supported the specific charges against Diddy. He was arrested in New York in September 2024 after a grand jury indicted him on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution. He subsequently pleaded not guilty to all counts.
On Thursday, June 26, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik claimed that drug distribution is one the more “straightforward” crimes Diddy is accused of that supports the racketeering charge. She also referenced the former Bad Boy employees who testified over the past six weeks, saying, “The defendant’s assistants and staff facilitated the Combs enterprise.”
Slavik also mentioned the multiple kidnapping claims that were discussed during testimony as well as the alleged firebombing of Kid Cudi’s car. Referencing the alleged bribe Diddy and his team offered guards at the InterContinental hotel, Slavik said, “This is the perfect illustration of the Combs enterprise at work.”
Agnifilo pushed back against the racketeering charge on Friday, saying, “Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” He then pointed to Diddy’s eldest children and his mother, Janice Combs, sitting in the courtroom, claiming their presence proves that “the man takes care of people.” (Diddy shared sons Quincy Brown, 34, and Christian, 27, and twin daughters D’Lila and Jessie, 18, with ex Kim Porter, who died at age 47 in 2018. He also shares son Justin, 31, with ex Mysa Hilton, daughter Chance, 18, with Sarah Chapman and daughter Love, 2, with Dana Tran.)
Agnifilo also repeated the defense’s central claim that freak offs were not criminal but simply part of Diddy’s “private sex life.” He also acknowledged that his client owns that domestic violence happened in his relationship with Cassie but noted, “That’s not charged.”
Slavik, meanwhile, told the jury on Thursday that they need only find one example of a freak off where coercion took place in order to find Diddy guilty. She further argued that Cassie and other women’s participation in the freak offs was forced labor. “This was not for Cassie’s pleasure. This was work,” Slavik said, referring to Cassie’s testimony in May when she claimed that she continued participating in freak offs while battling UTIs.
“It’s time to hold him accountable,” Slavik said. “To find justice. To find the defendant guilty.”
Much of Agnifilo’s argument centered on the defense’s claim that the prosecution’s evidence does not support the charges against Diddy. “I think that the evidence shows that the government targeted Sean Combs,” he told the court. “He is not a racketeer. He is not a conspirator. He is none of those things. He is innocent. Return him to his family who is waiting for him.”
Prosecutor Maurene Comey then delivered the government’s rebuttal, reminding the jury that hired escorts don’t have to label themselves as prostitutes. “What matters is that the defendant intended to pay them for sex when transporting them over state lines,” she said.
Comey also claimed that Diddy knew freak offs were illegal because he stopped having them in hotels after Cassie filed her lawsuit against him in November 2023. She further pushed back on the defense’s claims that Cassie and other female witnesses were seeking a payday. If that were the case, Comey argued, Cassie (real name Casandra Ventura) would have “cashed her paycheck and rode the wave of positive media attention” rather than endure days of grueling testimony. She went on to remind the jury that Cassie, 38, testified she would have given the settlement money back to avoid the experiences she allegedly had with Diddy.
Comey concluded her rebuttal by asking the jury again to find Diddy guilty. “In his mind, he was intouchable. A god among men, as [former assistant] George Kaplan put it. For 20 years, the defendant got away with his crimes. Today it ends in this courtroom. He is not a god, he is a person. Find him guilty.”
Once closing arguments finished, Judge Arun Subramanian advised the jury “to keep an open mind” until they receive instructions for deliberation on Monday, June 30.
After Diddy was taken into custody last year, Agnifilo told Us Weekly in a statement that his client was “an imperfect person” but “not a criminal.”
“Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts,” Agnifilo said. “These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
The following month, a judge ruled that Diddy’s trial would begin in May 2025. While his legal team filed a motion in April requesting to delay the trial by two months to further prepare his defense amid a revised indictment, a judge denied the request.
The trial ultimately began on schedule, with jury selection starting on May 5 followed by opening statements on May 12.
“This is Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said in the prosecution’s opening statement. “But there is another side to him. A side that ran a criminal enterprise … but he didn’t do it alone.”
Johnson claimed that Diddy’s case was “not about a celebrity’s private sexual choices” and revealed that his ex-girlfriend Cassie and an anonymous Jane Doe’s allegations against him would be “the main focuses of the trial.”
Diddy’s attorney Teny Geragos then shared her own opening statement, telling the jury, “Sean Combs is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case.”
Geragos acknowledged that Diddy had a history of violence, admitting, “We take full responsibility that there is domestic violence in this case. Domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”
While addressing Cassie and Jane Doe’s claims, Geragos alleged, “Every witness in this case had free choice to make the choices they made.”
Diddy has been behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since his arrest after his attempts at bail were repeatedly denied.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
