← Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
“She Wanted It”: Diddy’s Lawyer Makes His Wildest Argument Yet | United States vs. Sean Combs Defense Closing Arguments
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- [00:03]
Ashley Banfield
Hey, everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield, and this is drop dead serious. It is all over but the deciding. And I doubt Sean Diddy Combs is going to sleep well in his jail cell this weekend at the federal lockup in southern Manhattan. Both sides in his trial have had their say. Now it is time for the jury to start talking amongst themselves, though, and decide if he is a racketeering sex trafficker or just a successful black man who likes kinky sex and has done real well in his life. As his lawyer was sure to tell the jury today, he's a black man that the prosecutors targeted because he did well. There are some black people on the jury. Maybe they'll buy it. Maybe the other people on the jury won't. Maybe no one on the jury will. Maybe everybody will. This morning, it was the defense's turn to deliver closing arguments in Diddy's federal trial. And right away, lead defense attorney Mark Agnifolo made it clear he was taking a different approach. He told the jury, quote, I'm not going to go through texts or documents like the government did yesterday. I just want to talk to you. And freestyle he did. His closings were like extemporaneous conversations with the jurors. With tons of attitude, maybe a little too much attitude at times, and regular eye contact with the jurors. Agnifolo was clearly going for the casual, more personable approach, like he was trying to come across as the most reasonable guy in the room. He told the jury that this case is not about sex trafficking or racketeering. It's about a love story, A modern love story. A beautiful, modern love story, complete with swingers who took part in beautiful nights in hotel rooms. He said the case is merely about jealousy and complicated relationships and regret and homemade porn. I kid you not. This was an actual quote. If your partner likes anal and you don't like anal, but you really love your partner, your likes become their likes. That's actually what love is. As I was reading the court transcripts, I kept hearing the voice of Sarah Edmondson in my head. Sarah is the Nexium survivor who joined me on my News Nation show, Banfield, to talk about her experience inside that sex cult and what happened in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial that followed. Because Diddy's lawyer, Mark Agnifolo, also represented Keith Ranieri, the founder and the leader of that Nexium sex cult. And as a reminder, Keith Ranieri was convicted by a federal jury in June of 2019 of racketeering, racketeering, conspiracy, Sex trafficking, attempted sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, and wire fraud conspiracy. Yes. This was in the Southern District of Manhattan. And Keith Ranieri was sentenced to 120 years in prison and fined $1.75 million. Sarah Edmondson and I talked about this connection to Diddy on my News Nation show. Honestly, I'm shocked that somebody of Sean Combs wealth and influence hired somebody like Agnificlo, in my opinion, who clearly wasn't.
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Mark Agnifolo
Able to help Keith Renery, why he would hire him.
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Ashley Banfield
He failed at protecting Keith and his alternative lifestyle. Why would this defense work here as well? I'm shocked. It's a fair question. And depending on where you stand, as I walk you through the defense's closing arguments, you might find yourself nodding in agreement or you might find yourself rolling your eyes, revolted. But either way, this is the defense's final pitch to the jury. Because Mark Agnifolo's argument today wasn't just that Diddy is innocent, it's that this case was never about crime in the first place. So in this episode, we're breaking down exactly what the jury heard today and how the defense tried to reframe a federal sex trafficking case as nothing more than the personal life of a flawed celebrity who happened to, like, kink a lot of kink and who happened to be really, really abusive towards women. Also today on my News Nation show, Banfield. I spoke with two people who were inside the courtroom for those final arguments, the defense closing and the prosecution's rebuttal. And let's just say their take on what Mark Agnifolo said may surprise you. I'm going to play that conversation for you in a minute, but first, let's get into how the day played out from the moment Diddy walked into the courtroom wearing that now trademark sweater and collared shirt that he's been wearing every day. It's kind of like a uniform. And today, the color of the sweater again was sand. And as Mark Agnifolo stood up to begin his closing, he got personal right away, complimenting the jury, saying they were one of the most diligent panels he's ever seen, calling them, quote, a testament to the jury system and frankly, to the country. Not a bad idea. Make them feel like you're on their side right away. He was then wasting absolutely no time, drawing a stark line in the sand. He told the jury, quote, there are two trials here. One trial is about the evidence, about what you actually saw and heard. The other is a story told entirely by the prosecution. He reminded the jury that the prosecutors have charged one of the most serious, complicated and comprehensive statutes on the books, and that they have charged personal use, drugs and threesomes as racketeering. And then came his version of who Sean Diddy Combs really is. A self made man, he said, a black entrepreneur, a visionary who built lasting, sophisticated businesses from the ground up and gave his community, the Bronx, not just jobs, but livelihoods. Agnifolo said he built his business into a family. Then he leaned directly into the fact that his team hadn't called a single witness and told the jury they didn't need to, because even the prosecution's own witnesses, he said, had praised Diddy's work ethic, his creativity, and his leadership. Agnifolo looked at the jury and said, the hard parts of life, the real parts are the ones we remember. And what Diddy built, he said, was real. Messy maybe, but real. And that part of his business included embracing diversity. Agno said, quote, he did that in 1993 as a 24 year old, not because of some government DEI obligation, but because that's who he is. I don't know if Mark Agnifolo is appealing to the black members of the jury by saying these things, but it is an unusual thing to sort of bring up the politics of DEI with his closing. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. Then Igniflo introduced what he calls the second trial. He told the jury, the government wants you to believe that Sean Combs businesses, the empire he built, were part of a criminal enterprise. He called that the fake trial again, fake news, fake trial. Is this politics bleeding its way in? I don't know, but it sure sounds like it. Then Ignifolo motioned towards the courtroom gallery, to the family section. He pointed out that six of Diddy's seven children were in the courtroom today and the seventh not present because the seventh is only an infant. You should know that, he said to the jury. You should know who he is. You know his character. Agniphilo said, sean Combs is a man who takes care of people. And then he brought up Jane. He told the jury, quote, I hope she's having a great day, but wherever she is, he said, she's having a day in a home paid for by Diddy, end quote. And then he pivoted and he took a jab at the investigation itself. He mocked the items that were seized during the march raid, saying that federal agents found boxes of Astroglide. And then he poured on the sarcasm and joked, quote, the streets of America are Safe from the Astro Glide. I feel safer already. It was all worth it. They found the baby oil. They got like what, five Valium pills? Way to go, fellas. End quote. Agnifolo then turned his fire toward the government's entire approach to the case. He challenged their logic head on, asking the jury if every hotel room Diddy ever used is now considered a crime scene, then what are we talking about here? 200, 300? He smirked and said, gonna need a bigger roll of crime scene tape, end quote. And what's the alleged crime, according to Agnifolo? Someone's private sex life. He argued that this case isn't about justice, it's about money, plain and simple. Quote, nobody called the government, nobody called the FBI, nobody called the police. He reminded the jury they did call a civil lawyer. He said Cassie sued for $30 million. That's where this all started, he said. Agnifolo continued with a theme the jury hadn't heard yet. Love. He told them this case at its core was about love and that the word love had come up 881 times during the trial. As for violence, that certainly didn't look like love. Ignifolo told the jury, we own the domestic violence. He said the defense didn't deny what Cassie endured. And he reminded the jury that they didn't bring that up while cross examining Cassie. Instead, Agnifolo said it was their obligation to put those moments in context. Agnifolo told the jury, quote, yes, he did that, end quote. The violence you saw on that tape, there's no denying it, quote, but he didn't do what he's charged with and he will fight to the death against the things he didn't do, end quote. He reminded the jury that Cassie was the one who named domestic violence as the issue. Not forced sex, not freak offs, not trafficking. In a social media post shortly after CNN aired the infamous hotel hallway beating video, Agnifolo said Cassie had the chance to say anything. And what she chose to say publicly was, quote, the issue is domestic violence, end quote. Ignifolo underscored that. He said, believe her when she says the issue is domestic violence. Believe her. Ignifolo then returned to the heart of this argument, the relationship itself. He told the jury, quote, if there's one thing that's absolutely clear from the evidence, it's that Cassie and Diddy were in a relationship and that they were very much in love. He walked the jury back to the beginning. He said that when Cassie first got involved with Diddy, she was already in a relationship with someone else, and that she misled her boyfriend at the time, claiming she was headed to Miami to a party. But the truth? Diddy had rented a boat, and that's where the two of them had made love for the first time. Ignifolo described the relationship that followed as, quote, intense, long and beautiful. A relationship that lasted 11 years. But now he said, the government is trying to strip that history of all its context, making it feel one sided. And then Agniphilo said, quote, cassie is nobody's fool. Cassie has won. He said, Diddy is in jail and she's somewhere with the 30 million she won. I gotta say, bold move here. Agniphilo saying, a woman who endured years of brutal beatings by your client, things that he copped to, is somehow a winner because she got money. And then she got humiliated on the stand during this trial because she was forced to make public all of her most personal sexual secrets. And you called her a winner. But Agnifolo didn't just defend Diddy's relationship with Cassie. He romanticized it. In his words, this was a, quote, great modern love story. Let me repeat that. He called their relationship a great modern love story. I don't know what era he's living in, but even modern lovers are sickened when women are beaten by so many times, everyone lost count. Yes, it was complicated. Diddy's lawyer told the jury, yes, Diddy had faults. Yes, he had other women in his life, women he refused to give up. But even so, Agnifolo insisted that what Diddy and Cassie had was real. He reminded the jury that even Cassie herself once described being young and insanely jealous. He said the texts between Cassie and Diddy weren't evidence of control or fear. They were, in his opinion, some of the most beautiful things I've ever read. Yep, Igniflo said that. But then came the shift. Agnifolo pointed to the death of Kim Porter, the mother of Diddy's children, and to Diddy's continued relationship with a woman named Gina. That, he said, was the breaking point for Cassie. She decided to leave, and she could have done it at any time. Agnifolo argued she was always free to go. Yes, she claimed she was afraid. She said she didn't know what might happen if she left. But Igniflo looked at the jury and said, when she did leave, nothing happened. Of course, I think we can all say that's arguable, right? Because taking up with Kid Cudi cost Kid his Porsche. According to Cassie and Kid and Mia and according to prosecutors. So, yeah, things happened. If Cassie strayed, she once went to a party at Prince's house, and the testimony said he tracked her down there, grabbed her by the hair and beat her afterwards because she wasn't supposed to go to a party. Ignifolo then made one of the boldest claims of the day. Quote, if racketeering conspiracy had an opposite, it would be their relationship. He told the jury that no matter how salacious the government tried to make it sound, Cassie never once said she didn't like her sex life with Diddy. In fact, he argued, they were a match, intimately and emotionally. He said, quote, you can call it a lifestyle, you can call it swingers or whatever you want, but Cassie, he said, quote, was a woman who liked sex. Good for her. Ick, for starters. But also, Cassie did testify that she didn't like the. The sex with the other men. She liked it with Diddy, but kept asking him if it could just be with him instead of with the other guys, the escorts. So, a bit misleading. There was no ring on her finger, Agniphilo said, so she went for it. That was the implication. And yet she also claimed to be afraid of Diddy. So afraid, Igniphilo argued that she lied to him again and again. Cassie had a burner phone, Igniflo said, and not because she was trapped and because, quote, she was keeping it. Gangster. McNifolo then shifted to Capricorn Clark and what prosecutors described as two times she was kidnapped while working for Diddy. Diddy's lawyer insinuated that something was a little off about Capricorn Clark, saying she is, quote, a little off kilter. When asked on the stand how she'd define their relationship, Capricorn Clark said they were, quote, super platonic friends, more than she'd like, Agnifolo added, pointing to a text where she admitted, quote, I had a huge crush on him. And another text where Capricorn texted Diddy that, quote, they misused their dope chemistry all those years, suggesting, in Igniphilo's words, that Capricorn had wanted to be with Diddy all along. Then he took the jury right back into the 2004 incident, the so called kidnapping. Capricorn said she was once accused of stealing Diddy's jewelry and was taken to a vacant building by a Diddy bodyguard named Uncle Paulie to take a lie detector test for five days straight. But Ignifolo said each day she went home and he asked the jury, quote, would there be a Monday kidnapping, a Tuesday kidnapping, a Wednesday kidnapping? He called it a door to door kidnapping. And Ignifolo questioned whether the word kidnapping even applied here at all. He told the jury, quote, you've been kept here for long hours, days on end. Are you kidnapped? He argued there was no evidence Diddy even knew what was happening in that vacant building, let alone that he orchestrated it. Agnifolo told the jury that at the time Diddy was starring in a Broadway show, that he was leading the Vote or Die campaign, and that he was running multiple companies. Agnifolo asked how someone with that kind of schedule could possibly have had the time or interest to be involved in something like that, something that Capricorn Clark described in that vacant building. And then he argued that the jury has every right to ask why the government is stretching this so far. Next, Diddy's lawyer brought up the Kid Cudi arson incident, the firebombing of kids porn, Porsche, the confrontation, and the love triangle at the center of it all. He reminded the jury that even Kid Cudi testified, Cassie, quote, played him. But Agnifolo didn't stop there, quote, cassie played both of them, he said. Agnifolo also discussed Capricorn Clark's involvement in the Kid Cudi incident and her claims that there was a second kidnapping in her time working with Diddy. Capricorn had testified that Diddy had come to her home with a gun and demanded that she get in the car and travel with him to Kid Cudi's house to confront Kid Cudi, all because Cudi was now seeing Cassie. But Ignificlo questioned the entire premise. Why would Diddy have a gun? He pointed out that, according to Capricorn's own words, she loved Diddy. She said Diddy had never even been to her house before. And Igno argued that if Diddy had asked her to go to the moon, she would have. He told the jury that Diddy didn't need a gun, and if he had one, Capricorn wouldn't have kept working for him. She wouldn't have stayed in a job after being threatened at gunpoint. Agniphilo also pointed out that neither Kid Cudi nor Cassie, the two people Capricorn allegedly warned about what Diddy was about to do, neither one ever said anything about a gun. And if there really was a weapon involved, wouldn't Kid Cudi have included that in the police report that he filed? And then came the alleged car chase, a dramatic detail that Capricorn Clark said happened between Diddy's car and Cuddy's. Agnifolo pushed Back hard quote. Would Kid Cudi forget to mention a whole car chase? He asked the jury. It simply didn't happen. Ignifolo then told the jury exactly what he thinks. He doesn't believe there ever was a weapon. And he doesn't believe Sean Combs had anything to do with firebombing Kid Cudi's car. Quote, that's not his style. He reminded the jury that there's no evidence connecting Diddy to the firebombing. No fingerprints, no witnesses, just assumptions. But Diddy's lawyer told the jury there were only two things found in the Porsche. A failed Molotov cocktail and a glove. P.S. the glove belonged to Kid Cudi, not to the firebomber. And the jury actually heard that during the trial. Whether they'll remember, I don't know. The Gnifolo kept hammering the investigators. Flawed investigation. And suggested that the handling of the evidence was so careless, it was as if the investigators had never even heard the letters. DNA. And then he floated a possibility, not as an accusation, but as an example of how flimsy the evidence really was. In the defense's view, based on what's on the record, anyone could have been responsible for the firebombing, even Cassie or Capricorn. Let me repeat that. Diddy's lawyer suggested to the jury that maybe Cassie Ventura was. Or Capricorn Clark, Diddy's former assistant firebombed Diddy's car. And Mark Agnifolo backtracked that slightly, saying, I don't think they did it, but if you're just looking at the evidence, end quote. And then he pointed to the one piece of evidence the government is relying on the most. Cassie's email. The one claiming that Diddy once threatened to blow up Kid Cudi's car. Agnifolo noted that Kid Cassie's email never actually mentions arson and said the way she wrote it, referring to him as Sean Puffy Combs, made it sound like she was preserving the message for later. Next, Igniflo tackled the government's bribery claim. The accusation that Diddy and his team bribed the hotel security staff to hand over the beating video of Cassie for $100,000. Diddy's lawyer read directly from the jury instructions and reminded the jury that to prove bribery under California law, there has to be one critical element. Law enforcement involvement. And in the testimony of George Kaplan, Diddy's former assistant, Agnifolo said he never mentioned police, only terrible publicity. The assistant acknowledged one thing, though, that Diddy was a fool for sending a Few specific text messages to Cassie after the beating. And that while trying to get her attention, Diddy had lied to Cassie in the texts, saying that the police were going to arrest him. Even though the cops were actually never there. Igniflo argued, quote, but if there's no police, period, you can't be guilty of bribery under California law. Then he turned to the NDA, the non disclosure agreement tied to the hallway beating video. It had a carve out, Agnifolo said, an exception for speaking to law enforcement. He asked the jury, quote, why didn't they show you that? Why didn't they tell you what that carve out said? And then his voice sharpened. It's just not right. It's just not true. Next, Igniflo turned to the witness tampering charge. Specifically the claim that Diddy's bodyguard, Drock tried to pay off Mia after Diddy found himself under investigation for some very serious charges. Quote, they say Drock was trying to pay Mia, Agnifolo told the jury. Here's what they didn't tell you. And then he read a full text message from Mia to Drock. The one where Mia said she's out of skrilla, a hip hop term meaning money. Why does Drock offer her money? Agnifolo asked. Because she says she's out of it, not because he's trying to buy her silence. Next, the court took a 15 minute break, but the tension did not end. During that pause, the prosecutor, Maureen Comey, raised three formal objections, accusing Diddy's lawyer of making, quote, deeply objectionable commentary during his closing. I want you to note something here that's important. The prosecutor saved her objections until the break when the jury wasn't present. And wow, I have not seen that before. You know, talk about judicial deference. I've seen closings where lawyers have barked objections up and down non stop. So to wait until the break, to wait until the jurors weren't there to make these objections, I think that's class. I'm not sure it's a good idea, but I do think it's classy. First, the prosecutor appealed to the judge that Igniflo improperly told the jury to consider why charges were brought. Second, that he mischaracterized the intercontinental video as showing an assault that's only a, quote, misdemeanor. And third, that he falsely stated Diddy was, quote, charged with kidnapping, an arson rather than those being predicate acts of rico. Igniphilo agreed to clarify that last point, but defended the rest, insisting that he was quote, allowed to be sarcastic and dismissing the assault claim as a state issue. Prosecutor Comey pushed for a curative instruction, and the judge agreed, telling Ignifolo, quote, please don't do that again, and called his comments, quote, grossly improper, just to be blunt. End quote. When court resumed, Mark Agnifolo went straight into one of the biggest charges in this case, forced labor. And to fight it, he turned the jury's attention back to Mia. Not the Mia who testified about sexual abuse allegations and long work hours, but the one in the birthday videos, the text messages and the scrapbooks. He told the jury, quote, every indication is that Mia loved working at this company because if she didn't, she would have left. He said that instead, Mia texted KK that she was going to, quote, kill herself after she was fired. He pointed to a video that Mia once made for Diddy's birthday. Quote, that's the real her. What you saw in this courtroom, that was the act. End quote. He held up a scrapbook that Mia had made. He showed it to the jury and then turned and showed it to the gallery. It's hard to fake this kind of love, he told them, quote, if there was ever an act of love. And then he read from one of the handwritten letters inside. And Ignitolo's voice at this point actually caught and he looked visibly emotional. Quote, he makes people's worlds. I, Ignifolo said, don't lose sight of that. And then he pointed to a giant poster board, a photo that Mia had posted for Diddy's birthday. Surrounded by his staff, Agnifolo asked the jury, quote, think of a word that comes to mind. Looking at this, he offered a few. Joy. Diversity. Family. Quote, this is the inner circle. He. He said, there's kk, there's Drock, there's Fahim. This. This is your racketeering enterprise. He told the jury that Diddy didn't build a criminal organization. He built something remarkably special. Quote, he moved people, their hearts and their souls. Let me tell you right now, I am getting such Johnny Cochran vibes here. Like, this guy knows how to put on a show. None of that pertains to evidence, really. It's drama. It's sucking the jury in to fall in love with his client. And you know what? Maybe it works. It certainly is working, like, for a lot of the gallery. You're going to hear about that in a minute. How the courtroom got sucked into the performance of the four hour closing of Mark Agnifolo. And then came the text messages. Ignifolo read Messages that Mia had sent to KK and zeroed in on kk, repeating sarcastically, racketeering co conspirator kk, quote, the last thing Mia wanted to do was leave, he said, and he's charged with forced labor. Next, Agnificolo took on the drug distribution charge. He quoted the government's own closing where prosecutors said the amount of drugs involved was just a distraction. But agnifolo told the jury it matters. He read from the jury instructions highlighting that personal use doesn't equal distribution. Diddy's lawyer told the jury, quote, there hasn't been a single witness who said, I knew I was committing a crime. He reminded the jury, there's no allegation that Sean Combs was selling drugs. Did he use drugs? No doubt, Agnifolo said, but is that really proof of a racketeering enterprise? He argued this wasn't a criminal operation. It was a personal lifestyle. He added, quote, these are things he did with his girlfriends. They did it together. This is personal use. That's what it is. He told the jury that Cassie even testified that she believed Diddy was addicted to drugs. And then he addressed Diddy's assistants, the ones who allegedly helped him source or arrange the drugs. He told the jury, quote, what Mr. Combs is doing with his assistance is really not that different. You're not going to see Beyonce at CVS either. And finally, he closed the drug distribution argument with this quote, when it comes to drugs, they seem to be doing what people in the creative fields do. So I guess he's saying, if you're in the music biz, those hard drugs should be seen as less illegal. Well, okay, then. Then Ignifolo turned to the charge of sex trafficking, specifically the allegations regarding Cassie. He started by reading a few of the sexy messages that she sent Diddy, but quickly told the jury, you don't need me to do that, Implying that the content spoke for itself. He said, quote, look, she wants it. She likes it. And then came one of his most provocative lines. I suppose you can sex traffic your girlfriend. But he told the jury there was no evidence that Diddy made any money off what Cassie described. Quote, they were swingers. He said. This was their lifestyle. And then Diddy's lawyer argued that just because someone is in a relationship where they're still sexual preferences differ doesn't mean it's coercive. And I need you to hang on to your lunch, because I'm about to tell you the quote of the century, spoken aloud in this esteemed New York federal courtroom. Ready Ignifolo gave an example of when it's love, not coercion. Quote, if your partner really likes anal and you don't, but you really love your partner, your likes and their likes become one. That's actually what love is. I hope you hung on to your lunch, because I lost mine with that line. I mean, honestly, I wish I could have seen every one of those jurors and how they processed that. I don't know how they're going to apply it to this case, but I don't think they're ever going to forget it. Ignifolo continued and reminded the jury that Cassie wasn't just with Diddy. She later dated Michael B. Jordan. Quote, he's like the most handsome man in the world, Ignipolo said, suggesting that Cassie always had agency, always had options to move on to other guys, and said she was a very sexy woman and had a right to do that. Quote, this was her lifestyle choice too, he argued. Even if you didn't want it at first, you can come to want it over time. And then he got specific about the freak offs. He asked the jury to consider. Quote, is it that she Was okay doing 110 of them, but not three more? Once you open that door, where do we go? And again, quote, if 75 of them were consensual, what moment changed that into sex trafficking? End quote. In Agnifolo's telling, this wasn't exploitation. This was a relationship. Messy, yes, but mutual. Then Agnifolo turned to what may be the most widely discussed piece of evidence in this entire trial, the Intercontinental Hotel video. But Ignifolo argued that the video of Diddy beating Cassie wasn't evidence of sex trafficking at all. He said that the fight seen on tape wasn't about coercion or control or sex. It was, in his words, about a phone, and not even Cassie's phone. Agnifolo claimed the phone in Cassie's hand belonged to to Diddy and that that's what they were fighting about. The phone, not the sex, not the escort who was naked and waiting back in that hotel room. But then Diddy's lawyer pivoted, pointing to the hotel security guard named Israel Flores, the one who responded to what was going on on the sixth floor. He argued that Flores didn't appear concerned, didn't check for injuries, didn't act like a man who had just witnessed something serious. Agnifolo then read from Cassie's text messages in the days that followed, her response to Diddy's apology did not sound like someone Traumatized, she sounded casual, he said. And he read a message where Cassie said, quote, how would I know if the drugs are going to be so bad or that you won't drink too much, end quote. And argued that's what explained the violence at the Intercontinental Hotel. It wasn't part of a pattern of coercion, he said. It was drugs and alcohol. And then, in one final attempt to push back on the government's framing, Agnifolo looked at the jury and said, you're Sean Combs. If. If you went to Tokyo, a thousand people would be recognizing you. So why would you stay in a hotel hallway wearing just a towel if not for drugs? Diddy's lawyer acknowledged what everyone saw in the Intercontinental video. Quote, it's bad, it's a crime, it's illegal, he told the jury. But then he reminded them, Diddy isn't charged with domestic violence in this case. And then came the rape allegation. Cassie had described an incident where she was raped by Diddy, she said. But again, Ignifolo told the jury, there's no rape charge in this trial. He pointed them back to the transcript from Cassie's testimony when she was first asked what happened at her house that day. And she said that was it, but didn't continue to describe the rape. Now, I'll just butt in here for a moment. Maybe that was because she was asked about what happened in the day and the rape actually allegedly happened at night. But Ignifolo asked, did she miss a prompt or maybe it didn't happen? He told the jury that in her civil lawsuit and in meetings with prosecutors, Cassie said the alleged rape happened September of 2018. But then he showed them a warm and even flirtatious text message she sent Diddy that same month. September 27th. Quote, I had a lot of fun with you. Thanks for the night. I told myself I didn't want anything to happen, end quote. He reminded the jury that Diddy also texted her about a time after they'd split up where he and Cassie were having sex again. And suddenly a FaceTime call came in from her now husband. Cassie had claimed that she didn't know who was calling, but Ignifolo had a different take. Quote. She lies and says she was raped because her now husband was called her out. And because of the sweet texts from September, she couldn't stick to that timeline, so she had to move the alleged rape back to August. He read Diddy's August 20th message. I know I didn't turn you on. I fell off. But Agnifolo Told the jury, that's not a confession. That's not a confession of rape. He said, it's not evidence of anything. There was no rape. End quote. And then he turned to Cassie's career. He pushed back on the idea that Cassie was neglected or unsupported by Bad Boy Records. In fact, he pointed to Capricorn Clark, who admitted that Cassie received the lion's share of resources at the label. Capricorn even described Cassie as a, quote, studio musician, which Ignifolo said was a polite way of saying she wasn't great on stage. She's not Beyonce, end quote. Interesting here that Ignifolo is relying on Capricorn Clark to make his point now when he just shredded her moments earlier in his closing as being a liar. Can he have it both ways? Guess the jury's gonna have to decide. He told them that since leaving Bad Boy, Cassie hasn't done anything particularly meaningful in the music world. There's no evidence, he argued, that Diddy held her back or sabotaged her career in any way to force her or coerce her into those freak offs. In fact, he said Cassie cancelled her tour after receiving the proceeds from her lawsuit against Diddy. And then Ignifolo addressed one of the prosecution's central claims, that Cassie participated in free coughs under threat of violence. He didn't deny that Cassius described feeling pressured, but he told the jury that they needed to look at what was actually proven, not at what was just alleged. Agnifolo then turned to some of the most graphic evidence in the case, the videos of the so called freakoffs. He reminded the jury that Cassie and Jane never watched these videos in court, but that they, the jurors, had to. And as uncomfortable as it may have been, he said, it's still just a piece of evidence, no different than a doctor examining something clinical. Quote, we were never meant to see it, end quote. But he acknowledged you did. He added that the videos are evidence and if they need to divorce themselves from watching something that may feel initially inappropriate to watch, they should. Then he raised a detail that he argued was worth paying attention to. Those videos. They were stored on Cassie's own iPad and they remained there for six years after the fact. She claimed the iPad had been damaged, but when investigators got their hands on it, they were able to recover the videos with their software. Agnifolo told the jury, that's something they should consider. She kept them. And not just for a little while, for years. But did she? If Cassie thought the iPad was damaged, maybe she thought the videos were Damaged, too. Destroyed even. Or maybe Cassie felt she needed to keep those videos under guard lest anyone else get their hands on them, something the jurors are going to have to consider. Ignifolo circled back to the Free Cough videos and offered a very different interpretation than the government did. He told the jury that what they saw in those hotel rooms didn't look like violence or coercion. Diddy's lawyer said, quote, the hotel rooms are beautiful. The music is nice. I think there's Bryson, Tiller and Usher, and the music is beautiful. It's a nice mood. End quote. Not scenes of abuse, he argued, but of a lifestyle, however unconventional. One of the jurors at this point actually seemed to nod along with Ignifolo's description of the music in the hotel room. Even mouthed the words, yeah, there was. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in a little while. But that was sort of an interesting observation of a juror when Ignifolo is discussing free coughs, saying, they're beautiful, the music's great. Then Ignifolo addressed one of the most serious allegations, that Diddy threatened to release sex tapes to intimidate Cassie. Diddy's lawyer dismissed it outright. He was all talk. He said there was a 0%, 0%, 0% chance he was ever going to do that. He compared the threat to someone shouting, I'm going to kill you in a moment of anger. Not a plan, not an action, just a hollow outburst. But I ask you, remember this. After Diddy threatened Cassie that he would show her parents the freak off tapes, he demanded those same parents wire him $20,000 and used his bad boy staff to make the wire happen. Her parents had to mortgage their house to wire Diddy that money. And then, as if it never happened, Diddy wired the money back. The prosecutor said that was to show ultimate control, an ultimate controlling move. But Ignifolo continued reframing the government's portrayal of the Free Cough nights, stripping away what he called the taboo elements. He told the jury that before many of those nights, there were nice dinners, elegant settings, shared moments. Quote, when you take away the sex part, he said, these were beautiful nights. But can you. Can you take away the sex part? It's a sex trafficking trial, for heaven's sake. I mean, look, I see this as a hell of a snow job. What a nice dinner. Did you see what happened after the dinner? Sure, you can have a nice dinner. Then, for the first time, we, the public, got an actual description of what, what some of these Free Cough videos showed. Other than just the beautiful rooms and the music. It's a description, albeit from the defense. But here goes. Quote, the mood seems, you know, friendly and easygoing, and everyone is smiling and laughing. Forget the sex part. I mean, they're hanging out, they're eating food. At one point, Cassie is eating watermelon. People are hanging out, having a nice time, listening to music. And that was the escape as much as the physical intimacy. End quote. He pointed again to the videos and told the jury, what you saw wasn't aggression, it wasn't violent. It was, in his words, quote, homemade porn. Nothing wild, nothing criminal. And then he described the homemade porn this way. Quote, this is a popular thing these days. This is where I had to sit back for a moment because, friends, that is news to me. I did not know that this was a popular thing these days. To spend $10,000 for one hotel room, several escorts, and then to have your loved one have sex with those escorts in front of you while you masturbate and videotape it. I did not know that this was a popular thing these days. Maybe the jury will feel that way, maybe they won't. Then Ignifolo shifted his closing argument to Jane. He told the jury that Jane wanted beautiful things and made no secret of it. She was focused on getting what she wanted out of the relationship. Yachts and villas and a lifestyle worth posting about. She was motivated, he argued, by what people could see. But even so, Agnifolo said the relationship had real emotion. Quote, they really did love each other. Then he posed a question directly to the jury. Not every hotel night was sex trafficking. So which ones were? He reminded them that whenever Jane didn't like a man that she was paired with, quote, he was sent packing, meaning Jane also had control. As for the men themselves, Agnifolo began to undercut the government's claim that the men were trafficked or part of a scheme to transport them over state lines for prostitution. One of the charges that Diddy's facing, and this is a bit laughable, friends, honestly, I have said all along, but Diddy's lawyer looked right at the jury with a straight face and said, the men weren't paid for sex. They were compensated for their time. I know, I'm having a tough time even saying it. The men weren't paid for their sex. They were compensated for their time. But he did point to the now infamous incident involving, in his words, a bum ass cowboy, a male escort from Cowboys for Angels who apparently couldn't perform, and he didn't want to pay all that Money because, you know, the guy didn't perform. The agent at Cowboys for Angels said she didn't care if the escort couldn't perform. She didn't care if they were skydiving. She said Diddy was paying for their time. And Diddy's lawyer seized on those words, seized on the agent's words. He argued that this moment proves something important, that the escort was paid for their time, not their sex. But what a double edged sword Agnifolo used to make this point. Because again, Diddy was complaining to the agent at Cowboys for Angels that he didn't want to pay the sky high bill because the escort couldn't perform, couldn't give him the sexy part. So by that calculation, Diddy would have known that he was paying for the sex for the performance and not for the guy's time. He didn't want to pay because he didn't get the sex. I think the jury's going to see through this one. I mean, come on. A reasonable person would know that sex workers get paid for sex, not to come and chit chat. Then Ignifolo returned to Jane's own words on the stand. He reminded the jury that Jane had refused to use the word regret, instead saying she resented Diddy for everything that happened. But Igniflough really tried to get the jury to to believe that she really did regret. She just wouldn't say it. He said Jane agreed to these encounters at the time and only regretted them later. And then Ignifolo took aim at Jane's legal representation, calling her lawyer bad. He pointed out that she only receives paltry child support from the very wealthy father of her child. And said the only way to view the house that Diddy pays for is as an act of kindness. Quote, you know, talk about damned if you do, damned if you don't, and no good deed goes unpunished, he said. And then he argued the government wants the jury to believe that this house, that help somehow led to sex trafficking. Quote, that's just not right. He told the jury he painted Jane not as a victim, but as a fully willing participant and showed the jury messages where she reached out asking for, quote, my partner. He said their relationship had a clear dynamic. A homemade porn bent relationship. And then Ignifolo moved to a violent incident that was clearly laid out in the trial. An epic fight where Jane said she was beaten, beaten badly by Diddy right before a freak off. Agnifolo called it the closet incident, where Diddy allegedly kicked down three doors to get to Jane. Igniflo questioned Jane's whole story, including her claim that she changed into another dress after the beating. And before leaving, he reminded the jury that Jane also said she hid behind a wall for two hours. Something Igniflo said doesn't line up at all with the text messages that were sent that night. He said Diddy didn't hit her, though he could have, and that her injuries, quote, weren't even that bad, and that Diddy, quote, could have hit her harder if he wanted to. But that wasn't the case here. I'm not sure if he realized how that sounded out loud. I'm not sure if he bounced that part of his closings on off anybody else before launching into it. You know, there in the courtroom in front of everybody. I mean, wow, he could have hit her harder if he wanted to. Her injuries weren't that bad. I know what he's trying to say. It just really sounds awful. It sounds heartless. And if you're trying to get the hearts and minds of the jurors, I don't know that that's the way to do it. But he ended by acknowledging again that Diddy did hit his partners. Quote, I've been honest about that, but this situation wasn't one of them. Then he turned to the jury. You're here because you're good judges of people. He told them that if they felt a witness favored one side over the other, they should absolutely factor that into their deliberations. And when it came to Jane's testimony, he said her cross examination revealed something important, that she just kept repeating the same story, no matter what was asked next. Diddy's lawyer brought up that the government showed the jury photos of more than 30 escorts, but only called two of them, Daniel Phillips and Sheree Hayes. And both escorts said the same thing, that they never had sex for money, that they weren't prostitutes. Agnifolo told the jury this case is the perfect example of two trials in one. You have witnesses who come in and say they're not prostitutes. They say they were paid for their time, whether sex happened or not. But as soon as those witnesses leave the stand, the government turns around and claims that everyone was being paid for sex. But Agnifolo reminded the jury, even the escort service Cowboys for Angels is still in business, and paying someone for their time isn't illegal. Quote, if two adults meet and decide to have sex, that's not a crime. There's no evidence, he argued, that anyone was negotiating money for sex. He pointed the jury back to their instructions that their verdict must be based on evidence on or lack of it. And in this case, it was homemade porn. Yes, but there was no proof of prostitution. But here's where I got to tell you. The prosecutors would correct this in their rebuttal, saying that those escorts did indeed testify about getting paid extra for sex. And you're going to hear about that in just a moment because we're still in the defense closing. And as always, the prosecutors get the last word, so wait till you hear what the last word is. Agnifolo then tackled the centerpiece of the prosecution's case. Racketeering. He started with the definition, what exactly is an enterprise? Diddy, he reminded the jury, was indicted alone, telling the jury, quote, no one else has said I was part of an enterprise. No one testified I helped him sex traffic. No one said I helped him obstruct justice. And when the judge tells you to decide based on evidence, Signifolo argued, there just isn't any. He told the jury that an enterprise exists because of its racketeering. That's what gives it structure. So how was Diddy supposedly maintaining his enterprise through sex with his girlfriends? Agnifolo asked. He told the jury that even if assistants did things like buy baby oil, he said that was 1% of their job, if that. And if this case feels overly complicated, maybe it's not a criminal enterprise at all. Maybe, Ignifolo said, it's exactly what it looks personal sex, personal relationships and some drugs. He reminded the jury, Diddy is charged with conspiracy. But a conspiracy needs more than one person. They don't have a co conspirator. And then maybe he meant to lighten the tone just a bit. But he called out one name. Kk. Christina Coram. Diddy's longtime chief of staff. Igniphilo smiled and said, she's the single most helpful person. Everyone needs a kk. But I'll be honest, my friends, I am still waiting to see if KK is about to be charged as soon as this trial wraps up. So wait for that episode if that happens. Ignifolo then turned to how the government portrayed Diddy's security team, suggesting they made it sound sinister, like something to be feared. But the truth, he argued, is simple. Anyone at Diddy's level of fame and fortune would have security. It isn't criminal. It's standard. Igniflo suggested that the government's premise to call KK or anyone on Diddy's security team a co conspirator is false because Cassie and Jane admitted to calling KK when they needed help. With Diddy or anything else that might have been going on. Diddy's lawyer said, quote, I mean, God forbid, if John Gotti was at your door, would you call Sammy the Bull Gravano to get rid of him? No, because they're actually racketeering co conspirators. Okay? So they call. They call KK and Drock because KK and Drock would help them out, end quote. But if you follow the actual testimony, KK and Drock, according to prosecutors, were keeping Diddy in the loop throughout all of these moments. If the girls called for help, Diddy was made aware of it. We saw the text messages. We saw the communications. Diddy was in the loop if the women called these other employees asking for help. So it will be interesting if the jurors remember that testimony or if they can put that together. Diddy's lawyer accused the government of planting ideas, making suggestions without actual evidence. Quote, they're putting a seed in your head. He said, do you think that's a fair argument? End quote. Ignifolo told the jury that they had every right to question the government's motives and their methods. He then addressed one of the more graphic claims that Diddy asked escorts to urinate on Cassie. He said, Daniel Phillips, the escort involved, testified that it was Cassie who made that request, not Diddy. Again, friends, the feds are going to correct the record here in their rebuttal in just a moment, Reminding the jurors that Cassie actually testified that Diddy directed the escort to urinate into her mouth, during which, at one point, she asked them to stop, saying she felt like she was drowning, but that it didn't stop. And I, for one, will never forget that day of testimony. Agniphilo's closing continued, quote, ask yourself, when do I stop trusting the government? He pointed out that federal agents searched Diddy's house but still couldn't clearly say where the guns were found. Actually, there was testimony that they found them in the bedroom, master bedroom, very close to all of the sex items, which the government said puts fear and coercion guns right next to the free cough material. From start to finish. Agnifolo said this investigation was messy, incomplete, irresponsible. He asked the jury, quote, is this the best the government has to offer? As Agnifolo wrapped up four hours of closing arguments, he told the jury, quote, I think the evidence shows the government targeted Sean Combs. He argued that prosecutors piggybacked on Cassi Ventura's lawsuit and only built the case because of who Diddy is. But the judge immediately instructed the jury to disregard that statement, just as he had earlier in the day when Ignifolo suggested jurors consider why the charges were brought inappropriate twice. The judge reminded the jury that line of thinking isn't part of the law. And then Ignifolo looked the jury straight in the eye. Quote, it takes courage to acquit. He said, this is your courtroom. He said, this is your house. And then he asked them to do the hardest thing of all. Summon that courage and acquit on all counts. He is none of these things, Igniflo said. Return him to his family. And then it was time for the prosecutor's rebuttal and the last words that the jury will hear before being instructed to deliberate. And prosecutor Maureen Comey stood up to do the job. That makes it two female prosecutors doing two closings in this case. Ms. Comey told the jurors that Sean Diddy Combs lawyer spent his entire closing blaming victims and the US government for Sean Combs own lies and threats and violence. Quote, he's tossing up excuse after excuse for inexcusable criminal behavior. Comey said, make no mistake, this trial is about how in Sean Combs world, no was never an option, end quote. Maureen Comey told the jury that Diddy would have you believe the women are all liars. All of them. Cassie, Jane and Mia, Liars under oath, committing perjury. And for what? Money? The prosecutor reminded the jurors that Cassie and Mia had already been paid in their lawsuits. They had no motive to lie under oath in this trial. And as for Jane, Jane already told this court under oath that she doesn't intend to sue. She reminded the jury to look at Cassie in that beating video, lying, still not fighting back. This was a woman who had a lot of practice being beaten by Diddy. And she told the jury, again, if there was only one, one instance where these women did not want to participate in these free coughs, that is all the jury needed, just one. And it is sex trafficking under the law. Quote, the only question that matters is whether there was one. And of course there was one, end quote. That may be the most powerful line in Maureen Comey's rebuttal. This is the last word, right? So if the jurors go into deliberation saying, well, damn, I mean, the law says if there's only one freak off where the women didn't want it, the law says they're guilty, that this is, that he's guilty of sex trafficking. You would have to decide. I don't care. I don't care about the law because there was evidence, text messages, bruises, fighting, all the rest. That there were several free coughs where Jane and Cassie didn't want to do the freak offs. Maureen Comey said money and careers were tools that Diddy used to control and trap these women. As for the loving text messages, yes, she said, quote, they wanted to have sex with their boyfriend, not with the prostitutes, not with the escorts, the endless line of men that were filing in to do their thing so that Diddy could watch. Prosecutor Comey also took aim at the defense's claim that Diddy never hired male escorts for sex, only for their time. Quote, it doesn't even pass the laugh test. When he flew them out and paid them, it wasn't for scintillating conversation, it was for sex, end quote. The prosecutor said it didn't even matter if every encounter involved payment, just the intent to pay. And to transport escorts for sex was enough to prove prostitution. Sarcastically, she added, maybe some of these escorts would have sex in front of a masked masturbating celebrity for free. Then she addressed the most serious arguments that the defense made, that Combs couldn't tell the difference between consensual and coerced freak offs. About Cassie. She added, quote, to suggest that she was some kind of winner is ridiculous. What was her prize? End quote. She asked the jury, then answered her own question. Utis. Those are urinary tract infections, bruises. She told you, quote, she'd give back every dollar. The prosecutor challenged the defense's argument that Diddy didn't have a gun when he showed up at Capricorn's apartment in the alleged kidnapping. The prosecutor said, quote, and just because she didn't say the word gun doesn't mean the defendant didn't have a gun that night. Mr. Agnifolo said that Sean Combs is a hands and fists guy, something like that, sure, with his girlfriends, but with men like Suge Knight, you heard from Cassie and David James, he gets guns when he's dealing with men. Prosecutor reiterated the governments believe that Diddy thought he was above the law, committing crime after crime and nothing ever happened. Prosecutor Comey rejected that Diddy did anything alone at all. She told the jury, quote, this is a guy who can't get himself into his own water bottle or plug in his own phone charger. He's the general, not a foot soldier, not a lieutenant. He delegated and his inner circle handled the dirty work for him, end quote. She said, quote, in his mind he was untouchable, a God among men who would Ever stand up to a God, end quote. And she closed with this quote. The defendant is not a God. He's a person. And it's time to hold him accountable, find him guilty. If there was a theme of the prosecution's closing, it was quote, no was never an option. And Maureen Comey repeated that phrase over and over again. Don't forget, the prosecutors get a rebuttal argument, the last word, a final bite at the apple because they, they have the burden of proof. And earlier today on my News Nation show, Banfield, I spoke with two people who were in the courtroom for all of this. Armand Wiggins and Emily Hagen. And their reactions to Agniphilo's closings were eye opening, to say the least. Here's our conversation. Okay. Wow. I was, I was thinking about you guys all day. I couldn't wait for this interview. Emily, I'm going to start with you. You talked about the vibe yesterday how the oxygen was just sucked out of the room as the prosecutors went down the checklist and made it real, real easy for this jury to legally see how the charges could actually stick. What about today?
- [67:55]
Mark Agnifolo
It was a completely different vibe. It was like Johnson and Johnson the Musical. And I realized everybody loves it when the defense is on the stand because they forget they're at a trial. They are getting a full on show and Mark surely gave them one.
- [68:12]
Ashley Banfield
All right, Armand, what's your take on how today went compared to yesterday?
- [68:18]
Armand Wiggins
I feel like he definitely gave a show, but it was all over the place. It didn't feel calculated and it just was a little bit sloppy to me.
- [68:27]
Ashley Banfield
And I actually, Emily, I saw a post, I thought so. Cause I saw a post of yours today where you were walking and drinking something. I don't know what it was. It looked like energy drinks because I think you needed the energy after what you'd been through. But you said he was freelancing. He was just doing this with no notes. Is that real? Is that true?
- [68:47]
Mark Agnifolo
Yes, 100%. And I saw Armand in the hallway and we kind of rebuttal a little bit. Cause I thought he was gonna be like, this was an amazing performance. And he's like, I didn't like it. I was like, really? Because the whole courtroom, they were moved because I was in the actual courtroom and I could see that he did not have a script. Like he had a little notebook and he was just moving around and I'm like, wait, he's actually doing this all off the top. It's like off the cuff. It's like an improv show at the Ground Lanes. And because of that, I think he was able to connect to some of the jurors who were treating it like they were his friend, like, nodding and smiling and reacting. And I have not seen jurors react like that to anyone since the court case started. And there was two jury members today that were actually showing emotion back to Mark, and he was totally taking advantage of it and leaning into it more. I feel like they were feeding off of each other's energy.
- [69:46]
Ashley Banfield
So that's interesting. I'm always fascinated, not only in the arguments that are made in closings, but how they land, what the facial expressions are. Although I will tell you, I had a colleague at Court TV years and years ago, Jack Ford, who told me he was sure when he was, you know, up in summations and looking at his jurors, that this old lady was smiling at him the whole time and voted against him. You know, so you can never.
- [70:08]
Armand Wiggins
That's what I was trying to tell. That's what I was telling Emily earlier today. Just because they're smiling and laughing does not mean that they won't vote against you.
- [70:17]
Ashley Banfield
You're right. You're right. I wanted to ask you, Armand, about something, because one of the things I thought that Mark Agnipolo was going to do, he did. And he focused on Sean Combs being a black man who had risen to the top of the 1%, right, a billion dollar empire. He was scrappy, made of nothing, and that the government was going after him effectively because he was this black successful man. Do I have that wrong? Did that feel like what the argument was? And if so, did it resonate with any of these jurors?
- [70:51]
Armand Wiggins
So that's exactly what happened. But we know from the beginning that was the undertone, because we gotta remember that Mark, even in the jury selection, he painted the picture that the prosecution had been trying to eliminate every black juror. So you already set the stage that this is a pack of six white women coming against this black man. And they don't want black jurors on the stand. So you've got everybody of color feeling like, all right, even if you think Diddy is guilty, you don't want these six white federal prosecutors to win. So he leaned all the way into that today by committing a foul to me, because he ended up getting checked it on later on by saying, you cannot trust the federal government. He literally pleaded with the jurors not to trust the government, not to trust those lawyers and understand why would they come after Diddy? They're coming after him, they targeted him. And to be honest with you, I don't think he was talking to all of the jurors. I think he was just talking to the one or two. And specifically, I think he may have been talking to the black jurors. And over in the overflow room, I was kind of gagging because a lot of people in the room, once he actually finished, they started clapping. And it was a lot of black people, a lot of young people, they were clapping for the defense. So I definitely think he made his point and he got in those people's heads.
- [72:05]
Ashley Banfield
Speaking of jurors, there was one juror in particular who seemed to be speaking volumes with her reactions to the closing arguments. Early in Ignipolo's closing, she looked almost sad as she described Diddy's assistants calling their jobs, quote, the single greatest experience of their lives. But then she nearly laughed out loud when Diddy's lawyer joked, I guess it's all worth it because they found the astroglide. She didn't seem amused, though. I'll say this, when Ignifolo accused Cassie of being in it for the money, her face turned serious, maybe even disapproving. Still, she smiled at the mention of Cassie, quote, sitting somewhere with 30 million. And again, when Ignifolo mocked Capricorn Clark's constant it's possible responses, when he brought up the Bryson Tiller and Usher tracks playing in the background of the free cough videos, she nodded and even mouthed, yeah, there was. And when he said the whole case was jealousy over a yacht, she nodded again, mouthing something that court watchers couldn't catch. But she definitely seemed more receptive to criticism of D. Jane than criticism of Cassie. Later, during the government's rebuttal, she laughed at the masked, masturbating celebrity line. And when the prosecutor said, who would ever stand up to a God? The juror nodded slowly and solemnly. Jurors in Diddy's trial have been sent home now for the weekend. After all the closing arguments wrapped up Friday afternoon. The judge is expected to give the jurors instructions when they return on Monday. And then they begin deciding whether that rapper should be convicted on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution or not. It will soon be in their hands. And the weight of those decisions, it is just enormous. What began with a bombshell lawsuit from Cassie Ventura has now become one of the most high, high profile federal criminal trials in the entertainment world. And Diddy's entire future hangs in the balance. His freedom for life hangs in the balance. We'll be watching every moment of deliberations. And as soon as a verdict is in, you'll hear it here first. I'm Ashley Banfield. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious. Sam.