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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Closing arguments to begin in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial

The closing arguments are anticipated to wrap up on Friday.

7.12am, 26 Jun 2025

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CLOSING ARGUMENTS ARE expected to be delivered in the high-profile trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs today after weeks of painstaking testimony.

Both legal teams have said their climactic summations will last several hours each, as the fate of the once-powerful music mogul hangs in the balance.

Prosecutors say Combs masterminded a decades-long pattern of wrongdoing that saw him and an inner circle of employees carry out crimes including forced labor, arson, bribery and witness tampering.

They also alleged that the 55-year-old coerced two women – the singer Cassie Ventura and later a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane – into years of drug-fuelled sex with paid escorts. He also faces two charges of sex trafficking and two more for transportation for purposes of prostitution.

The charge of racketeering – which includes the existence of a criminal enterprise that committed a pattern of offenses – could send Combs to prison for life.

Combs denies all of the charges against him.

His lawyers have argued the artist’s relationships were consensual and have sought to convince jurors that many of the witnesses who testified were doing so for reasons including financial gain or jealousy.

Along with alleged victims, US government witnesses included former assistants and other employees, as well as escorts, friends and family of Ventura, and a hotel security guard who said he was bribed with $100,000 (€85,0000 in a paper bag.

Law enforcement officials and a forensic psychologist were also among the 34 individuals to take the stand.

A court sketch of Sean Combs on the first day of his trial.Alamy Stock Photo

Alamy Stock Photo

Combs 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 US government allegations of guilt.

The US government’s evidence included thousands of pages of phone and text records, and hours of testimony involved meticulous readings of some of the most explicit and wrenching exchanges.

Many of those records appear to indicate distress on the part of the alleged victims. But a lot of the messages appear to show affection and desire – texts the defence underscored again and again.

Jurors have seen video evidence of the sex parties prosecutors say were criminal, while the defense has exhibited exchanges they said imply consent.

Also in evidence are reams of financial records, including CashApp payments to escorts, as well as flight and hotel records.

Since early May the proceedings have gripped the Manhattan federal courthouse where they’re taking place.

Combs is incarcerated and does not enter or exit the courthouse publicly. But some of the high-profile attendees and witnesses do, including members of the music mogul’s family and figures like Kid Cudi, the rapper who testified that Combs’s entourage torched his car.

The closing arguments are anticipated to wrap up on Friday.

There is a slim chance jurors will go into deliberations that afternoon, but legal teams have indicated it’s more likely the panel of citizens will get the case on Monday.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

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