The cross-examination of the prosecution’s final witness at Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ sex trafficking trial on Tuesday brought the government close to ending its over six-week-long presentation of evidence against the hip-hop maven.
Defense lawyer Teny Geragos highlighted numerous text messages Combs exchanged over the past decade with two former girlfriends in a bid to show that the women were enthused about frequent multiday sex marathons that included male sex workers. She did so while questioning the final witness: Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Security Investigations agent.
Prosecutors have cited the “freak offs” as proof of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges that resulted in Combs' arrest last September.
Defense lawyers, though, say they were consensual sexual encounters consistent with the swingers lifestyle.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty and has remained incarcerated without bail in a federal lockup in Brooklyn after multiple judges concluded last fall that he was a danger to the community.
The government's case has consisted of 34 witnesses, including former employees of Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment companies, but the bulk of its proof has come from the testimony of two former girlfriends: Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a model and internet personality known to jurors only by the pseudonym “Jane.”
Ventura, 38, testified for four days during the trial's first week, saying she felt pressured to engage in hundreds of “freak offs” because the encounters would enable her to be intimate with Combs after performing sexually with male sex workers while he watched them slather one another with baby oil and sometimes filmed the encounters.
Jane testified for six days about the sexual performances she labeled “hotel nights,” saying that she was putting them into perspective after beginning therapy three months ago. She said she felt coerced into engaging in them as recently as last August, but did so because she loved and still loves Combs.
Ventura was in a relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018, while Jane was frequently with him from 2021 until his arrest, which canceled her plan to meet him at the New York hotel where he was taken into custody.
The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has done.
After prosecutors rest on Tuesday, a defense presentation is expected to be completed by the end of the day without any witnesses.
Throughout the trial, defense lawyers have made their case for exoneration through their questioning of witnesses, including several who testified reluctantly or only after they were granted immunity from any crimes they may have committed.
Combs has been active in his defense, writing notes to his lawyers and sometimes helping them decide when to stop questioning a witness.
He was admonished once by the judge for nodding enthusiastically toward jurors during a successful stretch of cross-examination by one of his lawyers. Prosecutors complained that his gestures were a form of testifying without being subject to cross-examination. The judge warned that he could be excluded from his trial if it happened again.
In the past week, prosecutors and defense lawyers have shown jurors over 40 minutes of recordings Combs made of the “freak offs” or “hotel nights.”
Several jurors occasionally seemed squeamish as they viewed and listened to audio of the encounters, but most did not seem to react.
In her opening statement, Geragos had called the videos “powerful evidence that the sexual conduct in this case was consensual and not based on coercion.”
Closing arguments were tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
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