On the last day of Sean “Diddy” CombS trial before the jury’s deliberations, hip-hop mogul’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo’s court with a suffering closing argument. In the coming days, the jury will determine whether Combs is guilty of sex trafficking, racketeering and transport to get involved in prostitution. A conviction could land him behind bars for life.
Agnifilo’s behavior was animated and sometimes folk -sized, unlike the cold, formal tone of the prosecution. He walked around the courtroom and began his summaries by Gushing about Comb’s character and business condition and saying he was a master of diversity. “Sean Combs has become something that is very, very difficult to be,” Agnifilo said. “He is a self -made, successful, black entrepreneur.” He told us about some of the positive things that Comb’s former employees said about him on the witness stand and added, “Did they always like him? No way. Let us not even go there. But they loved him. They didn’t want to leave him.”
The defense put a spotlight on the presence of Comb’s child and mother in the courtroom and said, “The man takes care of people.” With a swipe against one of Comb’s alleged victims, “Jane,” said Agnifilo, “I hope she has a nice day, but you know where she does it? In a house he pays for.”
Agnifilo claimed that Combs is in a “false trial”, that he is not guilty of sex trafficking but is instead a member of “Swingers Lifestyle” who participated in consensus “Threesome” with his ex-girlfriends and male entertainers.
“No one forces her to do this,” Agnifilo said of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, Combs’s ex who accused him of raping her and forced her into hundreds of “freak-offs,” drug-driven sex parties that lasted at the end. In the middle of the trial there is a surveillance video 2016 showing Combs that beats Ventura in a hotel hall and is said to try to retract to a “freak-off.”
“We own the home violence,” Agnifilo said. Throughout the trial, the defense has admitted that Combs was violent with Ventura, but that the violence was not linked to “freak-offs.” Agnifilo painted Ventura as a strong, smart woman who liked 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 not afraid.”
Agnifilo referred to Ventura’s testimony about her brief love affair with singer Scott Mescudi, alias Barn Cudi. Ventura said she was trying to keep her relationship with Mescudi a secret from Combs by buying a second mobile phone. “Whoooaaa! A burner phone!” Agnifilo said, his voice jumped up an octave. “Cassie keeps that gangsta!” He said that Ventura “played” both Combs and Mescudi, which meant she would not have had a secret relationship if she was actually “afraid of Sean Combs.”
Agnifilo referred to former assistant Stenare Clark’s claim that she was held in a Manhattan office building, forced to take a run -out test about stifled jewelry. “A door to the door kidnapping,” Agnifilo said cute, emphasizing that Clark was sleeping at home, and that one of Comb’s security guards drove her to and from the building every day. “You’re here for long hours,” he told the jury. “Anyone here feels kidnapped?”
Agnifilo’s tone was incredible: “He is accused of kidnapping. It is real!” And he told the lawyers that they “are right” to question the government’s claims and disregard testimony.
The lawyer disassembled the allegations of bribes, witness manipulation and obstacles – and focused strongly on the implication that Comb’s orchestrated a murder fire on Mescudi’s car. (Combs had said to have said earlier that he would blast the vehicle, but an investigation at that time found no evidence that led to Combs.) “It is not his style,” said Agnifilo, suggesting that Combs would prefer a man-to-man confrontation with mescudi- “a good old-fashioned John Wayne.
Throughout the closing argument, Combs nodded and listened intensely, either leaning back in the chair or crossed the arms on the table. One of his sons, Justin Combs, wore a shirt that read “Free Sean Combs”, which is not allowed in the courtroom. A court of court approached him, and Justin left and entered the room without the message visible.
The defense’s closing argument follows Thursday’s incredibly detailed, almost five hours summary from federal prosecutors. Agnifilo will continue to talk in the afternoon, when the prosecution will then have the chance for a brief rejection. A judgment could come as early as next week.