Sean Combs’ main lawyer wasted no time today in his closing argument in the Bad Boy Records founder’s sex-trafficking trial trying to sweep away claims of rape and racketeering, and reducing everything to cold hard cash.
“This isn’t about a crime, this is about money,” Marc Agnifilo told the jury Friday, pointing to the quickly settled November 2023 lawsuit against Diddy from ex-long-term girlfriend (and prosecution star witness) Cassie Ventura.
“Cassie Ventura sued Sean Combs for $30 million because Sean Combs has $30 million,” the a ex- Manhattan assistant district attorney stated this morning of the All About the Benjamins performer. “This very investigation came out of that civil case. No $30 million, no lawsuit. No $30 million, no lawsuit, no criminal case. That’s why we’re here. We’re here because of money.”
Initially sidestepping many of the vices and less than appealing character traits of Combs that the defense preemptively raised in their opening statement last month, Agnifilo instead praised his Grammy winning client for building “wonderful, sophisticated, real businesses that have stood the test of time,” With no apparent irony, the seasoned defense lawyer called Combs a man who “takes care of people.”
On the other hand, Ventura (who testified very very pregnant in the first week of the May 12 starting trial) is a “gangster,” according to the increasingly hyperbolic Agnifilo. In the lawyers’ eyes, as presented to the jury Friday, Me & U singer’s street cred comes from having a burner phone to get in touch with short-term love Kid Cudi without Combs knowing. “She played him good too,” Agnifilo said, with reference to testimony rapper Cudi gave back in May. .”She played them both.”
Wearing his customary middle-aged man sweater, Diddy sat today with his 10-lawyer defense team in the lower Manhattan courtroom room today as he has been at almost every hearing since being arrested last fall and since this criminal trial began.
Up against an ever-increasing docket of civil abuse and assault cases as well as this criminal case, the much-accused Combs has entered a not guilty plea, rebuked a deal with the feds, and yet did not testify on his own behalf during this trial. The 55-year old Combs is looking at life behind bars if he is found guilty on the racketeering, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and more, charges.
Set to start at 9 a.m. ET, today’s proceedings were delayed due to a late juror. Surprisingly, such tardiness has only occurred a couple of times before in a trial that has last over six weeks so far.
As expected, making it about money in a very different way, the prosecution meticulously went over the case against Combs in their own closing argument Thursday.
Citing the violence, the manipulation, the threats of blackmail and the tight purse strings and of course the drug driven and filmed “freak-off” sex sessions with male escorts, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik on June 26 came back again and again to the alleged abuse and sexual assaults suffered by Combs’ ex-girlfriends Cassie Ventura and “Jane” and former employees like “Mia.” In a full day of speaking directly to the jury, Slavik alternated between reading from notes on the lectern in front of her and looking straight at the four women and eight men of the panel. “It’s time to hold him accountable,” the prosecutor said of the “fame, wealth and power” protected Combs. “It’s time for justice. It’s time to find the defendant guilty.”
“The defendant doesn’t deny the abuse,” exclaimed AUSA Slavik, adding “but over the course of this trial, his crimes have been exposed” and listing off sexual abuse, “physical, emotional, psychological” abuse. “They just want you to call it ‘domestic violence’ and to believe that it has nothing to do with the crimes charged here,” she went on to say.
“Up until today, the defendant was able to get away with these crimes,” Slavik stated, “but over the course of this trial, his crimes have been exposed.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York will have another kick at the judicial can later today when they are given the opportunity of rebuttal to the defense’s closing argument.
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