June 29, 2025

by Sheldon Pearce

Our editor of NPR's Sean Combs trial coverage sets the stage for a verdict.

Defense attorneys Alexandra Shapiro and Jason Driscoll leave the Sean Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial at Manhattan Federal Court on June 27, 2025 in New York City. (Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images)

As the high-profile federal trial of Sean Combs began to wind down this week and the two sides finished presenting their cases against and in defense of the hip-hop mogul, a clear narrative struggle came into focus, one that will decide whether or not a jury at a lower Manhattan federal court finds him guilty.

Combs is charged with sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy; he has pleaded not guilty. Throughout the month-and-a-half-long proceedings, the government has painted him as violent, domineering and possessive, a tyrannical figure with vast resources forcing his partners into illegal sex acts across cities and using his businesses to orchestrate them. The defense does not dispute the domestic abuse; instead it has countered that the relationships were not trafficking, or part of a broader criminal conspiracy, and that they were driven by jealousy, not intimidation and extortion.

The prosecution’s case is built around two witnesses who at various points were girlfriends of Combs: the singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and another woman testifying under the pseudonym “Jane.” Both say they were coerced into participating in “freak-offs,” or marathon sexual exhibitions, that involved taking drugs to perform sexually with male sex workers in front of Combs as he directed their activities while filming them.

For four days to begin the trial, Ventura, who took the stand pregnant, alleged that Combs had repeatedly physically assaulted her, raped her, trafficked her and sought to control every aspect of her personal and professional life. (Ventura, who dated Combs on-and-off from 2007 to 2018, filed a civil suit against the mogul in November 2023 that was settled out of court a day later for $20 million.) She painted her relationship with Combs as coercive and abusive, and said that a hotel surveillance video from 2016, in which Combs can be seen violently attacking her in the hallway, shows her trying to leave a “freak-off.”

Across six days of testimony that followed, “Jane” painted a similar picture. She alleged that her relationship with Combs, which began in 2021, oscillated between “love bombing” and “sexual exploitation” all the way up to his arrest and indictment in September 2024. Combs introduced her to “hotel nights” (another name for “freak-offs”) that could run anywhere from 12 and 30 hours. “Jane” said she became financially dependent on Combs, and that if she tried to resist a “hotel night” he would bring up those payments. “I couldn’t say no to him,” she told the court.

To build its case, the prosecution presented nearly 30 other witnesses — including several former employees — and additional evidence in an attempt to show that Combs was manipulating these women into unlawful sex acts and also using his business empire to cover up crimes that extend to kidnapping, arson and bribery.

As the prosecution's case drew to a close on Monday, defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo told Judge Arun Subramanian that his team would not call any witnesses, and that it would present evidence that Ventura and “Jane” were willing partners and not victims.

Tuesday was a whirlwind day in court, as both the prosecution and defense rested their cases within hours of one another. The government's case, which lasted six weeks, was centered on trafficking. Prosecutors aimed to persuade the jury that Combs used his power and influence to move Ventura, “Jane” and sex workers across state lines to engage in “freak-offs” — and keep it clandestine through coercion.

Jurors were shown receipts, phone records and text messages referring to some of those interstate trips. They also heard testimony from agents of Homeland Security Investigations who raided Combs' properties back in March 2024 and found guns, drugs and thousands of bottles of baby oil and lubricant. Some of the male sex workers were called to testify, as were employees who worked cleanup for “freak-offs,” and the jury was shown video clips and screengrabs of some “freak-offs” under seal.

After a lunch break on Tuesday, one attorney on the defense team, Alexandra Shapiro, moved for acquittal on all five charges Combs faces — two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation for prostitution and one count of racketeering conspiracy — that the government failed to meet the burden of proof. During the exchange, Combs told Judge Subramanian that he was “doing an excellent job.”

The defense — which revealed that Combs would not take the stand as part of its case that afternoon — then wrapped up in under 30 minutes. The evidence presented to the jury seemed set on underscoring a narrative established during opening arguments and reinforced across several cross-examinations: that the artist and businessman may be an unsavory character, and even a criminal, but that he is not guilty of the things he is currently charged with. The defense argued that his sex life was “unconventional” and toxic, but that his relationships were consensual and not coercive. In its brief presentation, the defense shared text messages from Combs to Ventura saying she loved him and entered another document as evidence pointing out minor inconsistencies in the testimony of several government witnesses. “Sean Combs is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case,” defense attorney Teny Geragos told the jury during opening arguments. “You are not here to judge him for his sexual preferences.”

At the end of the week, both teams delivered closing arguments that tried to bolster their respective framings. In her remarks Thursday, prosecution attorney Christy Slavik outlined the government’s case, painting Combs as a powerful figure who used violence and intimidation to get whatever he wanted. Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo did not dispute the violence, acknowledging the 2016 surveillance video in particular, but characterized it as the byproduct of toxic relationships and not one befitting a conspiracy. While acknowledging Combs’ “swinger’s lifestyle” as unconventional, Agnifilo claimed none of the prosecution’s witnesses were “part of an enterprise.”

In a rebuttal from prosecutor Maurene Comey, the attorney alleged that Combs’ pattern of violence amounted to a criminal conspiracy spanning two decades, that he believed himself to be above the law and that it is the court’s responsibility to hold him accountable. “In his mind, he was untouchable, a god among men … and who would stand up to a god?” she said. After its six-week presentation, the government is now asking the jury to take that stand.

Deliberation is expected to begin this week with a verdict to follow.

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The latest

NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas discusses the closing arguments in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial of hip-hop mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs. Hear her report for All Things Considered.
NPR Music's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento and Rodney Carmichael explain why discussion of the trial within an ecosystem of podcast and YouTube hosts — the rap manosphere — have made it loud and clear that we're in a post-MeToo era. Hear the Weekend Edition Sunday segment.

Photos by Chris Graythen / Joe Raedle / Bertrand Guay / Steve Granitz / Kevin Winter / Michel Gangne / Tobias Rostlund / AFP and Getty Images / Illustration by Jackie Lay / NPR

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