A lawyer representingSean “Diddy” Combsbegan delivering the defense’s closing arguments on Friday morning in the music mogul’s federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial, marking the final chapter in a case that has drawn global attention over the last seven weeks.
Marc Agnifilo, a defense attorney, is expected to push back against the government’s allegations that Combs coerced women into participating in drug-fueled sex marathons with male sex workers and that he ran a criminal enterprise that engaged in crimes such as sex trafficking, drug distribution, kidnapping, forced labor, arson and bribery.
Combs, who wasarrested in September, faces one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
If convicted on all counts, Combs could face up to life in prison.
Throughout the seven-week trial, Combs’s legal team hasacknowledged past incidents of domestic violence, but has maintained thatall sexual activity was consensualand part of what it described as a “swingers lifestyle”. The defense has also denied that any criminal conspiracy existed.
The defense has sought to portray two women at the heart of the case,singer Casandra “Cassie” Venturaand a woman testifying under the pseudonym“Jane”, as willing and consenting participants in the sex parties, which were often referred to as “freak-offs”.
Agnifilo is expected to take roughly four hours to make the defense’s closing argument on Friday. Afterward, prosecutors will deliver a one-hour rebuttal before the case goes to the 12-member jury to decide Combs’s fate.
The government presented its own closing argument on Thursday, with Christy Slavikspending nearly five hoursoutlining the government’s case against the music mogul.
The US attorney described Combs as “the leader of a criminal enterprise” who refused to “take no for an answer” and as someone who wielded “power, violence and fear to get what he wanted”.
“The defendant was a very powerful man,” she said. “But he became more powerful and more dangerous because of the support of his inner circle and his businesses – the enterprise.”
Slavik walked the jury through the weeks of testimony and evidence the government presented over the course of seven weeks.
“Up until today, the defendant was able to get away with these crimes because of his money, his power, his influence,” she said. “That stops now. It’s time to hold him accountable. It’s time for justice. It’s time to find the defendant guilty.”
Jurors also heard for the first time on Thursday about allegations that Combs engaged in witness tampering and obstruction – part of the broader racketeering charge – with regards to “Jane” and another woman, who testified under the pseudonym “Mia”.
Several members of Combs’s family were in attendance in court on Thursday.