NEW YORK – Sean “Diddy” Combs’s lawyers will deliver their closing arguments in his defense Friday (Saturday Manila time), one day after the prosecution spent nearly five hours detailing a “climate of fear” they say he created as the alleged head of a decades-long criminal ring.
Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo is expected to take the floor for Combs, the 55-year-old music mogul who faces upwards of life in prison if convicted on charges including racketeering and sex trafficking.
Combs, who was once one of the most powerful figures in music and entertainment, denies all charges.
He opted against testifying on his own behalf, a common strategy of defense teams who are not required to prove innocence, only to cast doubt on government allegations of guilt.
For nearly five hours on Thursday US attorney Christy Slavik methodically walked the jury through the charges, weaving the thousands of phone, financial, travel and audiovisual records along with nearly seven weeks of testimony into an intelligible narrative.
She told them Combs “counted on silence and shame to keep his crimes hidden.”
“Up until today, the defendant was able to get away with these crimes because of his money, his power, his influence. That stops now,” she said.
In explaining the most serious charge of racketeering, the prosecution said Combs led a criminal enterprise of “loyal lieutenants” and “foot soldiers” who “existed to serve his needs.”
Core to the prosecution’s racketeering argument is that high-level employees including his chief-of-staff and security guards — none of whom testified — were well-aware of his crimes, and helped him carry them out.
“He became more powerful and more dangerous because of the support of his inner circle and his businesses,” Slavik said.
