Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Defense closes; deliberations set for Monday

The idea Sean Combs had anything to do with firebombing Kid Cudi's car is "nonsense," defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said during his closing argument.

"There is no evidence, I mean no evidence, that he had anything to do with the Porsche," Agnifilo argued.

Federal prosecutors argued in their summation yesterday that "the evidence and basic logic" suggest Combs did have something to do with it, out of jealousy over Kid Cudi's relationship with Cassie Ventura. The defense told the jury Combs was more direct.

"They were going to do what men do. They were going to have a fistfight," Agnifilo said. "You messing with my girl, I'm coming to your house and we're going to fight."

In an email following the car's destruction, Ventura told her mother and Combs' assistant Capircorn Clark that Combs had threatened to release sex tapes of her and physically harm Mescudi. That the email did not mention firebombing Mescudi's car, Agnifilo argued, raised doubts about Combs' culpability for the racketeering predicate act of arson.

The defense also sought to raise doubt about the bribery predicate.

Federal prosecutors argued Combs and his associates were worried about getting arrested after the attack on Ventura was caught on 2016 hotel surveillance cameras and sought to bribe a security guard for the footage. Agnifilo said Combs had a different motive: distrust of hotel staff.

"Money is involved, and people want a payday," Agnifilo said, telling the jury hotel staff may have been willing to sell video of someone as famous as Combs. "They're not worried about the police."

In a theatrical closing argument, Sean Combs' lead defense attorney, Marc Agnifilo, paced in front of the jury, shouted his disbelief at the prosecution's case and gestured in mock outrage at the amount of lubricant found in Combs' garage.

"Boxes of AstroGlide! Take him off the streets!" Agnifilo sarcastically told the jury.

Other defense attorneys suppressed laughter at the defense table, while prosecutor Maurene Comey rested her head in her palm.

Agnifilo argued sex played a positive role in Cassie Ventura and Sean Combs' relationship, suggesting she could not have been a victim of trafficking.

"She's a woman who actually likes sex," Agnifilo said. "Good for her. She's beautiful."

Agnifilo spoke in more staccato when he questioned former Combs employee Capricorn Clark's account of submitting to a five-day lie detector test, which the government said amounted to kidnapping.

"She went home. Everyday. So, what is the government alleging?!" Agnifilo half shouted. "I have no doubt that she was unsettled. She was not kidnapped."

The defense similarly doubted Clark was kidnapped at gunpoint when Combs came to her home early one morning on the way to confront Kid Cudi.

"He doesn't need a gun. He didn't have a gun," Agnifilo said.

The defense told the jury the case against Sean Combs is not about sex trafficking, racketeering or transportation to engage in prostitution.

"Domestic violence is the issue," defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said. "We own it. That's not charged."

Agnifilo insisted that Combs would have pleaded guilty had he been charged with domestic violence.

"He didn't kidnap anybody. He didn't obstruct justice. He didn't bribe anyone," Agnifilo said. "He did what he did but he's going to fight to the death to defend himself against what he didn't do."

Agnifilo asked the jury to see the case as a "great modern love story" of an intense, loving relationship that had its ups and down.

"This trial is about love. This trial is about jealousy. So much about jealousy. So much about jealousy. It's about infidelity," Agnifilo said.

He urged jurors to read the text messages Cassie Ventura and Combs sent to one another.

"You will cry. They are some of the most beautiful things you have ever read," Agnifilo said. "If racketeering conspiracy had an opposite, it would be their relationship."

He said they "truly, truly loved each other" and Ventura is no victim.

Sean Combs waved to his family, flashed a thumbs up and blew kisses on his way to the defense table to hear his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, deliver his closing argument to the jury.

Speaking from a podium in front of the jury box and sometimes pacing back and forth, Agnifilo sought to cast Sean Combs as a self-made entrepreneur committed to diversity, equity and inclusion.

“He was doing this in 1993 as a 24-year-old by himself,” Agnifilo said. “Not because some government told him to.”

He introduced the jury to Combs’ six grown children and his mother, who are seated in the gallery.

“The man takes care of people,” Agnifilo said, pointing to his ex-girlfriend, known by the pseudonym “Jane.”

“I hope she’s having a nice day. I don’t know what she’s doing but I know she’s doing it in a house he paid for,” Agnifilo said.

Responding to the prosecution's allegation that Combs is a racketeering kingpin, the defense attorney exclaimed, “Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” 

He mocked the government’s case.

“Thank goodness for the special response team. They found the baby oil. They found the AstroGlide,” Agnifilo said. “The only crime scene is your private sex life.”