The chance that music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs would possibly testify at his federal intercourse trafficking trial all however vanished Tuesday after his lawyer predicted a protection presentation lasting as little as two days and the decide mentioned jurors might be deliberating subsequent week.
Lawyer Marc Agnifilo informed Choose Arun Subramanian that the protection presentation might final lower than two days and less than 5, an estimate that will probably 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 responsible to intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy fees.
He has been jailed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn since his September arrest at a Manhattan resort.
Assistant US Lawyer Maurene Comey mentioned prosecutors anticipated to relaxation on Friday.
Earlier within the trial, Combs’ ex-girlfriends Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a lady who testified below the pseudonym “Jane” informed jurors that Combs used threats and financial incentives to coerce them into frequent multi-day intercourse marathons the place Combs watched, directed and generally filmed them partaking with male intercourse staff. Each ladies mentioned they simply wished to be with Combs.
On Tuesday, the jury was proven almost 20 minutes of express video recordings of these “freak-off” encounters from 2012 and 2014 as a protection lawyer cross examined a regulation enforcement agent in regards to the tapes.
Ventura’s relationship with Combs lasted from 2007 to 2018 whereas Jane dated him from 2021 till his arrest final fall.
Because the recordings have been performed, one juror appeared to show away from his video display screen for more often than not though he stored on earphones carrying the sound to jurors. Spectators have been blocked from seeing or listening to the graphic proof.
Different jurors sat again of their seats because the recordings performed on the screens in entrance of them.
A day earlier, prosecutors had proven jurors about two minutes of snippets of the recordings.
In her opening assertion on Could 12, protection lawyer Teny Geragos known as the movies “highly effective proof that the sexual conduct on this case was consensual and never based mostly on coercion.”
“A few of you might discover them onerous to look at. Not as a result of they’re violent, not as a result of they’re non-consensual, however as a result of they have been by no means meant to be seen by individuals exterior of that room. They’re in a single phrase — intimate. They usually have been at all times meant to stay that approach,” she mentioned.
She added: “These movies will really feel invasive, however the authorities has charged him with intercourse trafficking, and the proof of the alleged intercourse trafficking is on these movies. For this reason you’ll have to see them.”
In her opening assertion, Assistant US Lawyer Emily Johnson mentioned Combs “used lies, medication, threats, and violence to pressure and coerce, first, Cassie, and later Jane, to have intercourse with him in entrance of male escorts. The defendant insisted that the intercourse happen in a really particular, extremely orchestrated approach.”
Earlier Tuesday, the irate decide scolded prosecutors and protection legal professionals, saying details about a closed courtroom continuing involving a juror final Friday had leaked to a media outlet as a result of “a number of individuals on this courtroom clearly violated the courtroom’s order.”
Sooner or later, Subramanian mentioned, he would maintain Comey and Agnifilo answerable for any slipups, and any violations of his orders might lead to felony contempt penalties “on the most excessive stage.”
“That is the one warning I’ll give,” he mentioned.
