June 24, 2025 – Defense and prosecution rest in the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial

• Both sides rest: Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense team rested after presenting a roughly 30-minute case and calling zero witnesses in the music mogul’s federal criminal trial. Earlier today, the prosecution rested its case, which took just over six weeks.

• What happens next: Prosecutors said they do not intend to present a rebuttal case. The judge told the jury to return on Thursday for closing arguments. The lawyers will meet tomorrow for a charge conference, where both sides will discuss what instructions will be given to the jury.

• Federal charges: Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges that include racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to life in prison.

• Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with intimate partner violence, there are resources available, including the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Our live coverage has ended for the day, and we’ll be back on Thursday with coverage of the closing arguments. You can scroll through the posts below to read more about today’s testimony.

Before the lunch break, the prosecution rested their case after six weeks of testimony from 34 witnesses. Before the jury returned from lunch, the defense made a Rule 29 motion, arguing that the prosecution did not meet its burden to prove their case against Sean “Diddy” Combs. Once the jury returned from lunch, the defense presented and rested their case.

Here’s what happened in court this afternoon:

The jury will not be present at court on Wednesday. They will return on Thursday, when closing arguments are expected to begin. One of the prosecutors also told the judge that they don’t think the jury will begin deliberating until Monday.

Closing arguments in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ criminal trial are expected to begin on Thursday.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed to hold court from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on both Thursday and Friday.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey said she doesn’t think the jury will begin deliberating until Monday.

The defense team in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ criminal trial has rested its case.

Prosecutors do not intend to present a rebuttal case, prosecutor Maurene Comey said.

Judge Arun Subramanian told the parties to return at noon on Wednesday for the charge conference. He told the jury that they’ll be off tomorrow and should return Thursday morning to hear closing arguments.

The jury has been dismissed for the day.

Daniel Phillip, a man Sean “Diddy” Combs allegedly hired to have sex with Cassie Ventura, told law enforcement in a December 2023 meeting that a female client once called him and said her husband asked what she wanted, and she requested to be rubbed down in oil by another man.

In another meeting, Phillip said that during a “Freak Off,” when Combs would tell him to sit on the couch while Combs had sex with Ventura, he “would feel jealous,” as he liked Ventura romantically.

At four of seven meetings Dawn Richard, a former member of Danity Kane, had with the government, she did not say that Combs threatened her by saying “where he comes from, people go missing if they say things,” according to the stipulation.

At Mia’s first three meetings with law enforcement, she did not say that Combs initiated sexual contact with her, according to the stipulation.

Bryana Bongolan, a longtime friend of Ventura, did not tell prosecutors at a meeting prior to trial that Combs said he could kill her at a photoshoot, according to the stipulation.

Defense attorney Anna Estevao read part of a text conversation between Cassie Ventura and Sean “Diddy” Combs from March 2017.

“You think you can FO without getting high? Lol,” Combs wrote.

“Yeah I’ll just have to be at my level and what is good for me,” Ventura responded.

Estevao read part of an explicit text conversation from April 2017. Combs asked Ventura what she was going to do. “Be your little freak,” Ventura wrote back.

Defense attorney Anna Estevao is starting to present the defense team’s case and submitted several exhibits into evidence.

She is now reading messages from Cassie Ventura to Sean “Diddy” Combs into the record.

Estevao read a long message Ventura sent to Combs in December 2012 about how much she loved him. The message also referenced a “round” and said “even when it’s not super hot,” she still has fun. She said she would do another “party” before they left, saying, “I’m down for whatever. I love you and I’m sorry I’ve been mean.”

Judge Arun Subramanian is back on the bench. The jury is entering now.

Judge Arun Subramanian is now conducting the allocution of Sean “Diddy” Combs about his decision not to testify in his defense.

Subramanian asked Combs how he’s feeling.

Combs said, “I’m doing great, your honor. I’ve been wanting to tell you thank you, you’re doing an excellent job.”

The judge, chuckling, said, “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

Subramanian asked Combs if he understood that he had the right not to testify, and no one can draw any inference if he doesn’t. “Yes, your honor,” Combs responded twice.

The judge asked if he had discussed with his lawyers whether or not he should testify.

“Yes, thoroughly,” Combs responded.

Subramanian asked if it was his decision not to testify in this case.

“That is my decision, your honor,” Combs said.

“That is solely my decision,” he followed up before adding, “I mean, it’s my decision with my lawyers.”

The judge asked him if he understood that it was his decision to make.

“Yes, my decision, I’m making it,” Combs said.

The parties are taking a 15-minute break. Afterward, the defense will present its brief case before adjourning for the day.

Defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro argued in a motion for judgment of acquittal that the government did not prove the sex trafficking charge related to Cassie Ventura, saying prosecutors failed to show that Sean “Diddy” Combs knowingly coerced Ventura into commercial sex acts.

Shapiro said the jury did not see any texts to Combs that would indicate Ventura did not want to participate in the “Freak Offs.”

“A person in Mr. Combs’ position clearly would’ve understood that, on the contrary, she enjoyed the sexual activity and did not feel coerced,” Shapiro said.

She described Combs’ relationship with Ventura as “toxic for many reasons” and acknowledged that Combs was “regrettably violent towards her at times,” but reiterated the defense’s argument that domestic violence is not sex trafficking.

Shapiro argued that the evidence showed Ventura was not coerced by violence into participating in “Freak Offs,” and that when Combs became violent with her during those events, she left.

Judge Arun Subramanian said he’ll reserve decision on the motion.

Defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro said there’s no evidence that Kristina Khorram, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former chief of staff, knew or believed that Combs’ girlfriends were being coerced against their will.

Shapiro also said there’s no evidence that Khorram participated in facilitating any crimes for Combs, except potentially drugs for personal use.

Shapiro argued that some messages showed Combs sometimes lied to Khorram, even though she was alleged to be his co-conspirator.

“That’s not the way co-conspirators act with each other,” she said.

She also noted that prosecutors allege the conspiracy began in 2004, but Khorram did not become significantly involved until around 2016.

Defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro has made a defense motion for a judgement of acquittal on all counts, and she is now going count-by-count explaining how the defense believes prosecutors did not prove each alleged crime.

For the racketeering conspiracy count, she said prosecutors failed to show that anybody conspired with Sean “Diddy” Combs

Shapiro said his assistants “didn’t know much, if anything, about what went on between Mr. Combs and his girlfriends in the hotel rooms.”

Shapiro argued that Combs “actually took steps to conceal the nature of the sexual activity he was engaging in from his employees.”

The defense attorney said that’s evident through the fact that Combs, Cassie Ventura and “Jane” booked the “entertainers” and escorts instead of Combs’ employees. Shapiro also pointed to several text messages — including some shown to the jury earlier today — that show Combs and Jane communicated with “entertainers” about timing to avoid run ins with Combs’ staff.

Remember: This is a routine Rule 29 motion that is typically made by the defense in a criminal trial after the government rests its case. A Rule 29 motion is a defendant’s motion for an acquittal on the grounds that the government didn’t present enough evidence for the jury to reasonably convict the defendant. These motions are almost always denied.

Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello, the prosecution’s final witness, completed his testimony today and the prosecution officially rested their case.

Here’s what happened today in court so far today:

Prosecutors in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial have rested their case.

Judge Arun Subramanian has dismissed the jury for a lunch break, but the legal teams are still in court.

Defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro made a defense motion for a judgement of acquittal on all counts, arguing that the government failed to meet its burden to prove the counts against Combs.

About this motion: This is a routine Rule 29 motion that is typically made by the defense in a criminal trial after the government rests its case. A Rule 29 motion is a defendant’s motion for an acquittal on the grounds that the government didn’t present enough evidence for the jury to reasonably convict the defendant.

These motions are almost always denied.

The defense team is finished with their cross-examination of Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello.

Prosecutors are starting their re-direct.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos played additional explicit videos of Jane from around July 31 and August 1, 2024. The jury viewed more than six minutes of these clips.

Geragos says she has one more explicit video to play for the jury before concluding her examination. The video was created on December 17, 2021.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos showed the jury records from September and November 2023 indicating that Sean “Diddy” Combs paid invoices from his personal bank account to his travel management company for travel and accommodations for Jane and “entertainers” around alleged “hotel nights.”

“You didn’t write that Mr. Combs personally paid for these,” Geragos asked Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello, referring to the summary chart he helped prepare for the prosecution.

The government’s summary chart lists the travel manager as having paid for the expenses.

Flight records show Jane flew to Miami from Los Angeles in the days before Sean “Diddy” Combs posted his Instagram apology video in May 2024, responding to the release of surveillance footage showing the InterContinental assault of Cassie Ventura.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos confirmed with Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello that the records listed in the summary chart do not indicate any evidence of a third party meeting with Combs and Jane during that time in Miami.

Last week, the jury saw messages from February 19, 2024, between Kristina Khorram, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former chief of staff, and assistant Brendan Paul.

In the texts, Khorram asked if Combs was “wild king mode active or gucci bag active,” and Paul responded, “in between the two.” Paul previously testified that the messages referred to a “wild king night” at Jane’s home that he helped set up.

Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello confirmed that February 19, 2024, was not listed as an event on the summary chart, and that he did not review any messages between Combs, Jane, or a third party around that date.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos reviewed additional messages between Khorram and Paul from around that time, discussing Combs. In the messages, Khorram asked if they were “just chilling” at Jane’s home, and Paul confirmed they were.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos reviewed text messages between Jane and Sean “Diddy” Combs from late September 2023.

In the conversation, they discussed flight options for the “entertainer” Sly and exchanged explicit messages. “I love being kinky for you, I love driving you wild,” Jane texted Combs.

In later messages, Jane told Combs that she needed to get outfits from the “freak store” and that she was pale and hadn’t had her nails done.

“I f**king love it,” Combs responded.

The next day, Jane texted Sly in part, “Tonight was amazing as per usual.”