Sean Diddy Combs is unlikely to testify as judge says jury could get case next week
The possibility that music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs might testify at his federal sex trafficking trial all but vanished Tuesday after his lawyer predicted a defense presentation lasting as little as two days and the judge said jurors could be deliberating next week.Attorney Marc Agnifilo told Judge Arun Subramanian that the defense presentation could last less than two days and not more than five, an estimate that would likely not apply if Combs testified.Testimony by two of his former girlfriends consumed two of the trial’s six weeks.Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.
He has been jailed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn since his September arrest at a Manhattan hotel.Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey said prosecutors expected to rest on Friday.Earlier in the trial, Combs’ ex-girlfriends Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” told jurors that Combs used threats and monetary incentives to coerce them into frequent multi-day sex marathons where Combs watched, directed and sometimes filmed them engaging with male sex workers.Both women said they just wanted to be with Combs.On Tuesday, the jury was shown nearly 20 minutes of explicit video recordings of those “freak-off” encounters from 2012 and 2014 as a defense lawyer cross examined a law enforcement agent about the tapes. Ventura’s relationship with Combs lasted from 2007 to 2018 while Jane dated him from 2021 until his arrest last fall.As the recordings were played, one juror seemed to turn away from his video screen for most of the time although he kept on earphones carrying the sound to jurors.
Spectators were blocked from seeing or hearing the graphic evidence.Other jurors sat back in their seats as the recordings played on the screens in front of them.A day earlier, prosecutors had shown jurors about two minutes of snippets of the recordings.In her opening statement on May 12, defens...