June 27, 2025 – Closing arguments in the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial

• Jury deliberations set for next week: The jury will receive instructions from the judge in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal criminal trial on Monday and begin deliberating. The panel heard a closing argument from the defense and rebuttal from the prosecution on Friday.

• What the defense said: Attorney Marc Agnifilo argued that the prosecution exaggerated its case against Combs and has only shown evidence of his “swingers” lifestyle and personal drug problems, not a criminal enterprise.

• Prosecution gets the last word: In her rebuttal, Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey accused the defense of making excuses for the music mogul and blaming his victims. She urged the jury to find Combs guilty and show that he is not above the law.

• 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.

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. Scroll through the posts below to catch up on the day’s proceedings.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense team completed its closing argument this afternoon, followed by prosecutor Maurene Comey delivering a rebuttal on behalf of the government. The judge told the jury he’ll read them instructions Monday at 9 a.m. ET before they begin deliberating.

Here’s what Comey said during her rebuttal:

Before the rebuttal:

Prosecutor Maurene Comey has finished the government’s rebuttal to the closing argument from Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense.

The judge has dismissed the jury for the weekend. The parties are also finished for the day.

What happens next: The judge told the jury he’ll issue them instructions on Monday morning at 9 a.m. ET so they can begin deliberating.

Sean “Diddy” Combs never thought the women he’s accused of abusing would have the courage to speak, or that the men who testified at trial would back them up, but he was wrong, prosecutor Maurene Comey said to conclude her rebuttal.

“For 20 years, the defendant got away with his crimes. That ends in this courtroom,” Comey said. “The defendant is not a god. He is a person. And in this courtroom, he stands equal before the law. Overwhelming evidence proves his guilt. It is time to hold him accountable. Find him guilty.”

Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey said a violent 2024 episode involving “Jane,” one of the accusers who testified under a pseudonym, is the most clear-cut example of sex trafficking by Sean “Diddy” Combs because it’s the culmination of a persistent scheme of coercion.

Comey said the defense threw out “just about any excuse you can think of” to explain away the incident.

“The defense tries to suggest that Jane is somehow to blame for that night,” Comey said, referencing a portion of their closing argument in which Combs’ lawyers described Jane slamming the music mogul’s head against a counter. “Let me be very clear here: Nothing Jane did that night justifies the defendant’s actions.”

She detailed the way Combs physically assaulted Jane that night, saying he had “literally beaten her into submission.”

“Jane may have started that fight but he finished it — with a vengeance,” she said, adding that he then made her pay by making her have sexual interactions with an escort.

“Sean Combs won that fight and he made Jane pay by performing with Anton,” Comey said, referring to the escort. “She has no reason to lie about that.”

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.

Continuing her rebuttal to the defense’s closing argument, prosecutor Maurene Comey has brought up testimony of two instances of violence: The March 2016 assault of Cassie Ventura at the InterContinental Hotel in California, and the June 2024 altercation between Sean “Diddy” Combs and “Jane” at Jane’s Los Angeles home.

Both incidents were “so far over the line, they have tried desperately to spin them,” Comey told the jury.

“When violence is paired with unwanted commercial sex, it turns into trafficking,” Comey said.

Combs threw Ventura to the ground to stop her from leaving and kicked her to remind her he has the power, Comey said.

“Combs took Cassie’s phone because he knows she won’t leave if he has her phone,” Comey said.

Combs made a calculated decision to stay in the hallway with Ventura once she called security so he can keep control of the situation and prevent security from seeing an escort in the hotel room, Comey said.

Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey said any financial benefits gained by Cassie Ventura and “Jane,” another accuser who testified under a pseudonym, only served to give Sean “Diddy” Combs more control over their lives.

The prosecutor said Ventura and Jane both tried to leave Combs multiple times, but would get sucked back in, in part because of sharing a trauma bond with him, Comey said.

She referenced the defense’s suggestion that they engaged in sexual encounters orchestrated by Combs in order to reap the benefits that came with his lifestyle.

“Those supposed benefits — the homes, the money — kept them trapped. The defendant did that on purpose,” Comey said.

“The cost of doing that was just a drop in the bucket,” she said. “He was more than willing to spend that to trap Cassie and Jane,” the prosecutor added.

To convict on a sex trafficking charge, the jury has to find only one “Freak Off” or “hotel night” was sex trafficking, prosecutor Maurene Comey said, continuing her rebuttal against the defense’s closing argument. Sean “Diddy” Combs faces two counts of sex trafficking.

Sex trafficking, she says, involves getting someone to say yes through illegal means like force, fraud and coercion.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey is offering a rebuttal to the defense’s depiction of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ relationship with Cassie Ventura and her participation in sex performances.

Comey argued that Ventura was subjected to violence by Combs when she was just 21 years old, and he had control over everything from her career to her home and her car. Comey said that as the violence and fear became routine, Ventura was worn down.

“So when the defendant told Cassie to set up a ‘Freak Off,’ what choice did she have?” Comey said, referring to the drug-fueled sex performances Combs orchestrated

Comey said the defense team was trying to separate the violence from the sex.

The lawyer also rejected the defense’s suggestion that “Freak Offs” were enjoyable evenings that never involved violence.

“These are not beautiful evenings. They are the same things over and over set up for one man’s pleasure, one man’s enjoyment,” the prosecutor said.

She pointed back to testimony that Combs hit Ventura during some “Freak Offs,” and highlighted the InterContinental Hotel attack as an instance where Ventura faced violence because Combs was upset a “Freak Off” was interrupted.

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.

“Jealousy is not a defense to sex trafficking,” prosecutor Maurene Comey said, continuing her rebuttal against the defense’s closing argument.

“Jane,” one of Combs’ accusers who testified under a pseudonym and dated Combs from 2021 to 2024, was bothered by social media posts from other women Combs dated because it made her see how abusive her situation was, the prosecutor said.

Comey reminded the jury that Jane testified that she arranged for “entertainers” to participate in “hotel nights” because she could at least control what men she had sex with.

By 2023, when Combs was paying her rent, Jane was performing “hotel nights” out of obligation, Comey said.

“That’s coercion when she was afraid she’d lose her home if she didn’t,” Comey said.

Remember: Jane testified about going with Combs to what she called “hotel nights,” which she described as sexual encounters with a male “entertainer,” often in a hotel room, with Combs present.

Jane testified she and Combs entered into a “love contract” in 2023 in which he agreed to pay her $10,000-per-month rent at her Los Angeles home. He still is paying for her rent, she testified.

Comey said “Mia,” one of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ accusers who testified under a pseudonym, settled with Combs years ago in mediation and wasn’t expecting to get any more money from her testimony in this trial.

“She’s certainly not doing it for fame or attention. Remember, she asked to testify under a pseudonym for her privacy,” Comey said. “You know why she came here. She told you why: Because she felt like it was the right thing to do.”

Comey said testifying was terrifying for Mia, describing how she “physically shrank” when she talked about the sexual assaults, which she said were “the most traumatic moments of her life.”

The prosecutor also addressed defense attorney Marc Agnifilo’s claim that Mia was acting on the stand. “No one’s handing out Oscars or Tonys for performances in this courtroom. There’s no reason for her to put on a show for you. She was here to tell you what happened,” Comey said.

Comey said Agnifilo’s argument that another pseudonymous accuser, “Jane,” was making up her testimony for money also doesn’t make sense, since she hasn’t filed a lawsuit.

“Jane does have a financial incentive — but it’s to lie in favor of the defendant, to help him,” Comey said, reminding the jury that Combs is still paying her rent and paying for her lawyer.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey pushed back on the defense’s suggestion that Cassie Ventura and “Jane” enjoyed “Freak Offs” and “hotel nights,” and that they were a sexual preference they shared with Combs.

Comey described “Freak Offs” and “hotel nights” as “being in a dark hotel room awake for days covered in oil, wearing 8-inch heels, often with a UTI, … sitting in the same position … performing oral sex for hours.” She also described it as “having sex for hours, including with strangers” and “having unprotected sex with stranger after stranger — a rotation men for days.”

Comey said Ventura didn’t have a financial incentive to lie on the stand. She’d already secured $30 million in settlements from Combs and the InterContinental Hotel before testifying at trial, Comey said. Ventura already got paid and had the media on her side, Comey said.

“Why would she risk it all by perjuring herself at a federal trial?” Comey said.

Remember: Ventura testified about what she said Combs called “Freak Offs,” which she said involved her having sexual encounters with male “entertainers,” typically in hotel rooms, with Combs watching. Jane testified about similar encounters, which she called “hotel nights.” People who worked for Combs sometimes called such encounters “king nights” or “wild king nights,” according to testimony.

In her rebuttal to the defense’s closing argument, Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey painted a picture of Sean “Diddy” Combs delegating everything from mundane to illegal tasks to his associates.

“This is a guy who can’t get himself his own water bottle or plug in his own phone charger,” she said, arguing that he certainly needed his inner circle to help him do things like obtain drugs or kidnap Capricorn Clark.

“He delegated and his inner circle handled the dirty work for him,” she said.

She also rejected the defense’s suggestion that anyone in Combs’ inner circle didn’t know about his crimes, including his security guards.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey addressed a non-disclosure agreement that Eddy Garcia, who worked as a security officer at California’s InterContinental Hotel, said he signed.

(Background: Garcia testified that after Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulted Combs’ then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at the hotel in March 2016, Combs gave him $100,000 in cash in exchange for the surveillance video showing the incident. Garcia said he signed paperwork, including a non-disclosure agreement and a declaration noting it was the only existing copy of the video, on Combs’ company letterhead.)

The non-disclosure agreement shows, Comey said, that Combs was worried about law enforcement since it mentioned Garcia had to tell Combs if he received a court order.

Comey pointed to Garcia’s testimony that Combs told him not to make any big purchases with the money. The only reason Combs would say that is if he was worried the police may try to track down the video, Comey said.

“Of course the police and an investigation were on Sean Combs’ mind” when the payment was arranged, Comey said. “This is bribery.”

Prosecutors’ tampering allegation: Comey also responded to defense attorney Marc Agnifilo’s claim that recordings of phone calls with “Jane” following Ventura’s November 2023 lawsuit against Combs show that Combs was worried about civil lawsuits. Comey pointed out that on the recording, Combs says several times that he can’t be on the phone.

“Plaintiffs’ lawyers don’t get to tap phones,” Comey said. “Who taps phones? The feds. Who taps phone? Law enforcement. What he’s doing on those calls is tampering with a witness.”

Prosecutor Maurene Comey said testimony from Cassie Ventura and the rapper Kid Cudi corroborates ex-employee Capricorn Clark’s claim that she was kidnapped by Combs and forced to go with him to break into the rapper’s house.

Comey showed the jury a transcript excerpt from Kid Cudi’s testimony, when he said Clark called him from outside his house to warn that Combs was there and say that she had been forced to go with him.

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo told the jury that Clark lied when she said Combs had a gun when he took her to go to the rapper’s house. Agnifilo suggested Combs didn’t use guns and that he wanted a fist-fight with Kid Cudi.

“It makes total sense that when he’s going to kill another man he’s bringing a gun. When he’s beating on a woman half his size he doesn’t need a gun. But when he’s going after a man who can match him physically, he’s bringing a gun,” Comey argued.

Comey also said the defense offered up misleading theories about Kid Cudi’s car getting blown up. Comey said Combs didn’t personally throw the molotov cocktail into the rapper’s car, but he directed it.

Ventura testified that Combs told her Kid Cudi’s car would blow up while Combs was out of the country.

“He said he was going to blow up the car, and low and behold, it blew up,” Comey said.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey responded to the defense’s suggestion that Sean “Diddy” Combs couldn’t have had an enterprise because its purpose wasn’t illegal activity.

“An enterprise could have lawful and unlawful purposes,” Comey said said.

Prosecutors aren’t claiming Combs’ companies themselves were illegal, but that “they used some of the money to further the enterprise,” Comey said.

She said former Combs chief of staff Kristina Khorram and D-Roc, the former head of Combs’ security, were friendly with then-Combs girlfriend Cassie Ventura because it helped them get her back to Combs and do what he wanted.

“They played both sides,” Comey said.

Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey said Sean “Diddy” Combs is trying to “wiggle out” of federal transportation charges by saying he never tried to pay anyone for sex.

“He flew escorts across the country, watched them have sex while he masturbated and then he handed them cash,” she said.

Comey said the defense’s suggestion that those things had nothing to do with each other “doesn’t even pass the laugh test.”

“Common sense alone shows you that when the defendant flew those escorts out, it was not for their scintillating conversation. It was for sex,” she said.

“His money is for sex, the sexual performance, not for time. That’s prostitution,” Comey said.

The prosecutor allowed that some of the men might have been willing to do the acts regardless of money, “but when they got cash at the end of the night, they were getting paid for sex.”

Comey also said it’s irrelevant what the escorts thought about the interaction. The law pertains to Combs’ state of mind when he transported the men for prostitution, she argued.

Combs knew what he was doing was illegal because he said in text messages to Ventura that she needed to make sure escorts weren’t undercover cops, Comey said. The jury also saw Combs text an escort asking if he was a cop.

Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey has begun her rebuttal to the defense’s closing argument.

The defense just spent “a whole lot of energy trying to blame his (Sean “Diddy” Combs’) victims and the US government for his lies, his threats and for his inexcusable behavior,” Comey said. “Tossing up excuse after excuse for his inexcusable behavior.”

“Make no mistake: This trial was about how, in Sean Combs’ world, ‘no’ was never an option,” Comey said.

The judge is back on the bench and the jury is entering court after a brief break.

The prosecution will have the last word, making a rebuttal to the defense team’s closing argument. Prosecutors previously said they anticipated this would last about 90 minutes.

Sean “Diddy” Combs hugged defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, placing his head on the lawyer’s shoulder momentarily after he wrapped up his closing argument in the music mogul’s defense.