Sean 'Diddy' Combs’ lawyer mocks sex trafficking case in closing, calls charges 'badly exaggerated'

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs' lawyer implored a jury on Friday to acquit the hip-hop mogul, arguing overzealous federal prosecutors twisted his drug use and swinger lifestyle into a sex trafficking and racketeering case that could put him behind bars for life.

“He is none of these things. He is innocent,” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said, glancing at Combs during a four-hour closing argument. "He sits there innocent. Return him to his family who have been waiting for him.”

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating Monday.

Agnifilo repeatedly mocked the government’s case, peppering his presentation with folksy quips and bawdy observations. He said prosecutors “badly exaggerated” the charges, and he belittled federal agents who seized baby oil and lubricant in raids last year at Combs’ Los Angeles and Miami-area homes.

“Way to go, fellas,” the defense lawyer said.

Agnifilo accused the government of targeting Combs, irritating prosecutors and the judge, and questioned why no one else was charged in what the prosecution alleges was a racketeering conspiracy involving Combs’ personal assistants, bodyguards and other employees. Judge Arun Subramanian instructed jurors not to consider why or how the government obtained an indictment.

In a rebuttal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said Agnifilo spent “a whole lot of energy” trying to distract from Combs’ “inexcusable criminal behavior.”

“Make no mistake," Comey told jurors, "this trial was about how in Sean Combs’ world, ‘no’ was never an option.”

Agnifilo called Combs’ prosecution a “fake trial" and ridiculed the notion that the “I'll Be Missing You” singer engaged in racketeering.

“Are you kidding me?” Agnifilo asked. “Did any witness get on that witness stand and say, ‘Yes, I was part of a racketeering enterprise — I engaged in racketeering?’” No, those accusations were a figment of the prosecution’s imagination, he argued.

Combs, in a sweater and khakis, watched Agnifilo with rapt attention after looking down and slouching during Thursday’s prosecution closing. He didn't testify during the seven-week trial, and his lawyers called no witnesses of their own.

Combs’ family, including six of his children and his mother, sat behind him. When the day was finished, Combs hugged one of his lawyers and smiled as he conversed with others. As the jury filed out of the courtroom for the last time this week, Combs watched them, but the jurors didn't look his way.

Combs’ ex-girlfriends R&B singer Cassie and a woman testifying under the pseudonym “Jane” told jurors that Combs coerced them into participating in “freak-offs” or “hotel nights” — drug-fueled sex marathons with male sex workers while Combs watched, directed, masturbated and sometimes filmed them.

Agnifilo argued prosecutors had invaded Combs’ most intimate personal affairs, warning jurors: “Where's the crime scene? The crime scene is your private sex life."

He also mocked the prosecution’s assertion that Combs and his underlings engaged in hundreds of racketeering acts, as well as the government’s suggestion that many of the sex marathons at the heart of the case were crimes.

If that’s so, he said, “we need a bigger roll of crime scene tape,” a reference to a famous line from the movie “Jaws.”

Agnifilo argued there's another factor at play in the allegations that women have lobbed against him: the prospect of draining him of his wealth through lawsuits.

“This isn’t about a crime. This is about money. It's about money," Agnifilo said.

Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, sued Combs in November 2023 over abuse allegations. He settled with her the next day for $20 million, but the allegations prompted federal law enforcement to open the criminal investigation that led to his arrest. Dozens of other lawsuits followed.

“If you had to pick a winner in this whole thing, it’s hard not to pick Cassie,” Agnifilo said.

Agnifilo reiterated that the defense “owns” the fact that Combs was violent but argued that behavior does not justify the grave charges against him.

Combs and Cassie had a “loving, beautiful relationship,” albeit a “complicated” one, Agnifilo said.

“If racketeering conspiracy had an opposite, it would be their relationship." Agnifilo said. "They were truly, deeply in love with each other, for real."

Echoing prosecutor Christy Slavik’s closing argument on Thursday, Agnifilo showed jurors part of the now-infamous security camera footage of Combs attacking Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

Agnifilo acknowledged that the video clearly shows domestic violence, but he disputed the prosecution’s theory that the assault was evidence of sex trafficking by force. He insisted Combs may have been angry not that Cassie was trying to flee a “freak-off,” but that she was taking his cellphone.

In her rebuttal, Comey said: “Being a domestic abuser is not a defense to sex trafficking.”

FILE - Attorney Marc Agnifilo arrives to the courthouse in New York, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Prosecutor Christy Slavik enters court during the Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial on Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

FILE - Defense attorney Brian Steel, center, cross examines Kid Cudi, far right, as Sean "Diddy" Combs, far left, looks on during Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan federal court, May 22, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP, File)

FILE - This courtroom sketch depicts Sean "Diddy" Combs sitting at the defense table during his bail hearing in New York on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (Elizabeth Williams via AP, File)

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.

The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.

The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.

The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”

The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.

Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.

The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.

On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.

Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.

“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”

Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.

Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.

“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.

Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)