Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson displays text messages between Sean (Diddy) Combs and Casandra (Cassie) Ventura as she questions special agent DeLeassa Penland during Mr. Combs’s sex-trafficking trial in New York on Tuesday in a courtroom sketch.Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
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 defence presentation lasting as little as two days and a judge said jurors could begin deliberations as early as next week.
Lawyer Marc Agnifilo offered the hint when Judge Arun Subramanian asked him for an estimate on the length of the defence case, and the lawyer said their presentation could last less than two days – but not more than five.
If Combs testified, it was likely his testimony would take longer than a week. 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.
Explainer: What to know about the Sean (Diddy) Combs sex-trafficking trial
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said prosecutors would rest as early as Wednesday and no later than Friday morning.
The estimates were provided Tuesday after the irate judge scolded prosecutors and defence lawyers, saying information about a closed court proceeding involving a juror last Friday had leaked to a media outlet.
The judge said he believed someone who was at the sealed court hearing violated his secrecy order. In the future, Subramanian said, he would hold Comey and Agnifilo responsible for any slip-ups, and any violations of his orders could result in criminal contempt penalties “at the most extreme level.”
“This is the only warning I will give,” he said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors resumed showing jurors evidence Tuesday of text messages, phone calls, hotel records to support charges that Combs oversaw a racketeering conspiracy that utilized his employees and associates and his stature in the hip-hop industry to help him control and abuse women, including two former girlfriends.
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.
Defence lawyers say prosecutors were trying to criminalize consenting sex between adults by targeting Combs.
Ventura’s relationship with Combs lasted from 2007 to 2018 while Jane dated him from 2021 until his arrest last fall.