'Are you kidding me?' Diddy's lawyers scoff at racketeering charges in closing

MANHATTAN (CN) — Domestic violence, personal drug use and romantic jealousy don’t make a criminal sex trafficking conspiracy, lawyers for producer mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs told jurors in New York federal court in his defense’s final overture on Friday morning as his two-month RICO trial neared a close.

“This isn’t about a crime, this is about money,” New York defense attorney Marc Agnifilo told jurors in closing summation for Combs’ defense. “Cassie Ventura sued Sean Combs for $30 million because Sean Combs has $30 million. This very investigation came out of that civil case … No $30 million, no lawsuit, no criminal case.

“That’s why we’re here. We’re here because of money,” he said.

Agnifilo conceded that Combs had subjected Ventura to domestic violence, and said Combs would have pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges. Instead, he is standing trial on racketeering and sex trafficking counts. “We own the domestic violence,” he said.

“He did not do the things he’s charged with,” the attorney said. “He didn’t kidnap anybody, he didn’t obstruct justice, he didn’t bribe anybody.”

Agnifilo mocked the conclusion that Combs was at the top of a racketeering enterprise as charged by federal prosecutors.

“Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” he said in a tone of overwrought consternation. “Did any witness get on that witness stand and say ‘yes, I was part of a racketeering enterprise, I engaged in racketeering’?”

Combs’ defense lawyer told jurors that the prosecution’s case for sex trafficking conspiracy was not backed up by Ventura’s testimony or her accusations in her underlying civil lawsuit.

“The first person to say the issue is domestic violence was Cassie Ventura,” he said. “She could have said sex trafficking is the issue, she could have said having coerced sex with men is the issue, she could have said running away from ‘freak offs’ is the issue. … She was very precise about what the issue was for her … domestic violence is the issue.”

“If racketeering conspiracy had an opposite, it would be their relationship," Agnifilo said later in the summation, describing Combs and Ventura’s relationship and sexual chemistry.

Pacing in front of the jury box and intermittently abandoning the lectern microphone, Agnifilo feigned astonishment at the significance of the hundreds of bottles of sexual lubricants found by federal investigators’ searches of Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.

“Boxes of Astroglide, taken off the streets — whoo! I feel better already,” he said. “Artificial lubricant, not for me!”

“The streets of America are safe from the Astroglide,” Agnifilo continued. “And they got the baby oil. And they found the personal use drugs. They did it. It’s all worth it. Thank goodness for the special response team. They found the Astroglide, they found the baby oil, they found like five valium pills. Way to go fellas.”

Combs’ defense team, who opted to call no witnesses at trial, have insisted that the evidence shows “a lifestyle,” not a sex trafficking conspiracy. “You want to call it swingers, you want to call it threesomes,” he said.

“The crime scene is your private sex life,” he continued.

Combs’ mother and sister were seated in the family section of the courtroom gallery, along with six of his sons and daughters.

His 27-year old son Christian “King” Combs released a surprise EP on Friday in collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Kanye West ­— who briefly attended part of one day of Combs’ Manhattan trial two weeks prior — titled “Never Stop,” which features a song called “Diddy Free.”

For nearly five hours on Thursday, federal prosecutors laid out the interconnecting evidence buttressing the five criminal charges he faces: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik told jurors Combs “used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted.”

“He doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” she said, in various forms, upwards of a dozen times during the prosecution’s closing argument.

Slavik spent a significant chunk of the prosecution’s closing enumerating various predicate acts that fall under the umbrella of the top charge of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, including arson, kidnapping, bribery, forced labor, narcotics distribution, witness tampering, and transportation for purposes of prostitution.

To convict on the racketeering count, jurors need to find members of Combs’ enterprise committed at least two instances of any of the predicate acts.

After Agnifilo completes his summation on Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey is slated to deliver the prosecution’s rebuttal summation before the judge instructs jurors on the law of the charges.

The jury is not expected to begin deliberations until Monday.

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