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      What Happened in the Closing Arguments of the Sean Combs Trial

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      The jurors will begin deliberating on Monday. The music mogul has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.The federal government and Sean Combs’s defense team presented their closing arguments this week after extensive testimony in which the music mogul’s ex-girlfriends said they were pressured to have sex with male escorts in drug-dazed marathon sessions.Mr. Combs is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, and has pleaded not guilty, saying the sexual encounters were consensual. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating on Monday, which will mark the eighth week of the trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan.Here are some key observations from the closing arguments:The ChargesSex TraffickingThe federal prosecutor who delivered the government’s closing argument on Thursday, Christy Slavik, emphasized to jurors that convicting Mr. Combs of sex trafficking required only one example of him coercing his girlfriends into sex with prostitutes.For examples of such coercion, Ms. Slavik pointed to Mr. Combs’s 2016 assault on Casandra Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel that was captured on surveillance video, and a fight between “Jane” and Mr. Combs in 2024 before he directed her to have sex with another man.Jane, who was identified by a pseudonym, testified that she repeatedly said “I don’t want to” before Mr. Combs asked, “Is this coercion?”The next day, the defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo argued that Ms. Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, was a willing participant in the frequent sex sessions that Mr. Combs called “freak-offs.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial: Takeaways From Defense’s Closing Arguments

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      Mr. Combs’s lead lawyer made a final appeal to the jury, arguing in often sarcastic tones that the government’s evidence contradicted its case against the hip-hop mogul.Sean Combs’s lawyer made a final appeal to the jury at his racketeering and sex trafficking trial in New York on Friday, arguing in often sarcastic tones that the government’s evidence contradicted its case against the hip-hop mogul.The lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, portrayed his client as a deeply flawed man who led a swinger’s lifestyle, had a drug problem and sometimes physically assaulted his girlfriends. But he argued government’s accusation that Mr. Combs was a sex trafficker or the ringleader of a racketeering organization was “badly exaggerated.”“He did what he did,” Mr. Agnifilo said. “But he’s going to fight to the death to defend himself from what he didn’t do.”Here are some takeaways from the defense’s closing argument.The defense focused on consent, credibility and overreach.Friday’s summation was the most substantive argument made to date by the defense, which called no witnesses during the trial and declined to put Mr. Combs on the stand.Mr. Agnifilo devoted long stretches of his four-hour closing argument to highlighting testimony, texts and video evidence, that he said demonstrated that Casandra Ventura and “Jane,” who testified under a pseudonym, consensually participated in the marathon sex parties that are central to the government’s claim that the women were sex trafficked.“You want to call it swingers, you want to call it threesomes,” he said, “whatever you want to call it, that is what it is — that’s what the evidence shows.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean Combs’s Son and Kanye West Release New Song, ‘Diddy Free’

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      The track, which also features North West, includes a chorus where the rapper known as King Combs promises not to sleep “’til we see Diddy free.”Marketing prowess may run in the family.On the day Sean Combs’s defense was set to present its closing argument to jurors, the music mogul’s son Christian, who raps as King Combs, released a long-teased set of seven new songs, including one track called “Diddy Free.”The song, credited to King Combs and Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, includes lyrics about those who “try to play the victim” and states plainly “[expletive] the world, critics and the witness.” Later, King Combs, 27, raps, “this Bible might come in handy / this rifle might come in handy” with a chorus that promises not to sleep “’til we see Diddy free.”A previous demo version of the song by Ye — without King Combs — had leaked online last month. The superstar rapper and producer, who has become a pariah in the music industry for his persistent, button-pushing antisemitism, has been the highest-profile celebrity to offer public support for Mr. Combs, who is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Earlier this month, he briefly appeared at the Manhattan courthouse where the trial is being held in a show of solidarity.Ye is credited as the executive producer of King Combs’s new music, the “Never Stop” EP, which uses a photo that appears to depict the dilapidated headquarters for Bad Boy Worldwide, Mr. Combs’s entertainment company, as its cover art. The EP also includes a featured appearance by North West, Ye’s eldest daughter with his former wife, Kim Kardashian. Her appearance on an earlier version of the song had, according to Ye, been a source of contention between the two parents.King Combs was among the six of Mr. Combs’s seven children who appeared in court to support the mogul on Friday. (The seventh, Mr. Combs’s lawyer pointed out, is an infant.) He wore a jacket that includes an illustration of his late mother, Kim Porter, who died in 2018 and has been evoked at trial as Mr. Combs’s “soul mate.”“You always told me to chase my dreams and be a go-getter,” King Combs raps on another track, titled “Kim.”“In this studio right now, I feel alone in it.” More

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      Cannonball With Wesley Morris: My Love Affair With Bruno Mars

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      Wesley Morris has a confession to make: He loves Bruno Mars. Nothing wrong with that, right? With the help of the culture writer Niela Orr, Wesley untangles his crush from his discomfort with the pop star’s cozy relationship to Blackness.You can listen to the show on your favorite podcast app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio, and you can watch it on YouTube:Cannonball is hosted by Wesley Morris and produced by Janelle Anderson, Elyssa Dudley, and John White with production assistance from Kate LoPresti. The show is edited by Wendy Dorr. The show is engineered by Daniel Ramirez and recorded by Maddy Masiello, Kyle Grandillo and Nick Pitman. It features original music by Dan Powell and Diane Wong. Our theme music is by Justin Ellington.Our video team is Brooke Minters And Felice Leon. This episode was filmed by Alfredo Chiarappa, and edited by Jamie Hefetz and Pat Gunther.Special thanks to everyone who helped launch this show: Daniel Harrington, Lisa Tobin, Sasha Weiss, Max Linsky, Nina Lassam, Jeffrey Miranda, Mahima Chablani, Katie O’Brien, Christina Djossa, Kelly Doe, Shu Chun Xie, Dash Turner, Benjamin Tousley, Julia Moburg, Tara Godvin, Elizabeth Bristow, Lynn Levy, Victoria Kim, Jordan Cohen, Clinton Cargill, Bobby Doherty, Dahlia Haddad, Paula Szuchman, and Sam Dolnick.And an extra special thanks to J Wortham. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Thanks the Judge at His Federal Trial as His Defense Rests

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      After 28 days of testimony in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial, both sides rested. The music mogul did not take the stand.Federal prosecutors and defense lawyers rested their cases at Sean Combs’s sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial on Tuesday, and the music mogul announced that he would not be testifying in his own defense.After six weeks of letting his lawyers speak for him, Mr. Combs stood up at the defense table and addressed the court, out of the presence of jurors.Asked by the judge, Arun Subramanian, how he was doing, Mr. Combs said, “I’m doing great, how are you, your honor?” and quickly added, “I wanted to tell you, thank you, you’re doing an excellent job.”Mr. Combs, wearing a brown sweater and a white collared shirt, told the judge he had discussed the issue “thoroughly” with his lawyers, and then confirmed that he had decided not to testify.“That is solely my decision,” Mr. Combs said, leaning in to speak into the microphone with his hands resting on the defense table. He clarified that the decision was made “with my lawyers.”Prosecutors have argued that Mr. Combs coerced two women into participating in drug-fueled sex marathons with male escorts that he directed, masturbated during and sometimes filmed. Over 28 days of testimony at Federal District Court in Lower Manhattan, government attorneys sought to establish a pattern of criminal activity by Mr. Combs and an inner circle of employees, walking the jury through allegations of kidnapping, arson, drug violations and forced labor.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Pusha T and Malice Reunite as Clipse, With Vengeance on Their Minds

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      For over two decades, Pusha T and Malice — the Virginia brothers who make up the rap duo Clipse — have tended to a very specific corner of hip-hop. As a unit and apart, they have been the purists, the moralists, the keepers of a traditionalist flame that lies perilously close to nostalgia, but somehow remains alive with possibility. While the genre has iterated countless times around and beside them, the pair remained faithful to a subject (drug dealing) and a style (ice pick-sharp minimalism) that might not have made them superstars, but has cemented them as a connoisseur’s pick, immune to trends.“Let God Sort Em Out,” out July 11, is the fourth Clipse studio album and first since 2009. Produced in full by Pharrell Williams, a longtime collaborator and benefactor, it is like a familiar cold plunge: harsh, reassuring, invigorating. The LP is a clear continuation of the work they did in the 2000s that made them favorites of street-rap realists and internet-fueled curio seekers.But the duo has also focused its single-minded pugnaciousness, turning it into a refined marketing savvy. For years, Clipse’s commitment to form and code has put them at odds with key figures in the genre. The most recent is Travis Scott, rap’s big-tent carnival barker, whom Pusha T calls on the carpet on a new single, “So Be It.”Once cordial acquaintances in the Kanye West universe, the two diverged following an incident in Paris, when Scott premiered new music for Clipse and Pharrell while withholding that he was collaborating with Drake, a known foe. “That was corny,” Pusha T said recently in an interview for Popcast, The New York Times’s music podcast. “He’s shameless.”Pusha T’s long-running feud with Drake — it was he who announced to the world, in “The Story of Adidon,” from 2018, that Drake had a son — has hovered over much of the music Pusha T has released in the last few years.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      As Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Took a Victory Lap, He Planned Sex Nights, Prosecutors Say

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      Questioning its final witness, the government laid out flight plans, escort prices, hotel reservations and a web of payments for sexual encounters in 2023.It was September 2023, and Sean Combs was on top of the world.On the 12th day of that month, he accepted the global icon award at the MTV Video Music Awards, celebrating his decades of success as a trailblazing record producer and media mogul.Three days later, he released “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” his first solo studio LP in 17 years, and Mayor Eric Adams of New York gave him the key to the city, recognizing Mr. Combs as “the embodiment of the New York City attitude.”That month, Mr. Combs was also busy planning sexual encounters involving his girlfriend “Jane” and hired male escorts, at hotels in New York and Miami Beach, Fla. These encounters, which the government has described as elaborate, drug-fueled sex marathons that Mr. Combs coerced two women to participate in, are central to the prosecution’s case; he is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.The arrangements for those encounters — flight plans, hotel reservations, negotiations over escort rates and a web of payments — were laid out in detail at Mr. Combs’s trial on Monday. Maurene Comey, the lead prosecutor, asked a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations to read from text messages, American Express bills and other records as the 34th and final witness for the government before it rests its case.Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty and denied the accusations against him. His lawyers have argued consistently throughout the seven-week trial that Mr. Combs’s sexual arrangements were all consensual, and that no criminal conspiracy exists.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Aide Who Was Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s ‘Right Hand’ Draws Scrutiny at His Trial

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      Kristina Khorram, the mogul’s former chief of staff, was not charged in his indictment, but the government has identified her and other staff as co-conspirators.For years, anyone who wanted access to Sean Combs had to go through Kristina Khorram first.An employee at his company since 2013, becoming his chief of staff in 2020, Ms. Khorram was the mogul’s “right hand,” as he once called her. Before leaving her role in the last year, she commanded a rotating army of personal assistants for Mr. Combs and was the central go-between for his multifaceted business empire.While much of her work related to Mr. Combs’s businesses, she also made doctor’s appointments for his girlfriends. Made sure their rent was paid. Apprised them of the boss’s daily moods.“Don’t know how I’d function without her,” Mr. Combs wrote in a Facebook shout-out in 2021.The actions of Ms. Khorram and others who worked for Mr. Combs over the years are now being scrutinized in federal court, where prosecutors are trying to convince jurors that Mr. Combs is guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, asserting that he ran a “criminal enterprise.”Ms. Khorram, 38, has not been charged in the case, has not been called as a witness and has denied wrongdoing in the past. But her presence is woven through various accounts given at the trial of wrangling hotel logistics for the sex marathons that are at the heart of the case, or of arranging for drugs to be transported by plane to the music mogul.“Her duties as Mr. Combs’s chief of staff were extremely broad,” Meredith Foster, a prosecutor, told the judge this month. “They involved setting up hotel nights,” she added, “facilitating the transportation of narcotics, various items such as that.”During the trial, prosecutors have described the behavior of various bodyguards and staff at Mr. Combs’s companies, as well as Ms. Khorram, as they argue to the jury that the conduct of the employees was not just the work of dutiful assistants, but of racketeering co-conspirators.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More