\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter six weeks of testimony and more than 30 witnesses, both the prosecution and defense in the Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs case are set to rest their cases this week, with a the case going to the jury as soon as Friday.<\/p>\n
\n\tProsecutors told the court on Monday that they plan to rest their case on Tuesday, after Homeland Security Special Agent Joseph Cerciello finishes his testimony, which began Friday. Combs\u2019 lead attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said last week that the defense\u2019s case could take between two and four days, although he amended his position and said they could rest as early as Tuesday as well. The defense\u2019s case may include the submission of exhibits into evidence, but they told the court they will not be calling any witnesses.<\/p>\n
\n\tBy choosing not to call any witnesses to the stand, Combs\u2019 legal team is leaning on its cross-examinations of the government\u2019s witnesses to make their case. Combs\u2019 attorneys have repeatedly argued that he never coerced his accusers and that the women took part in \u201cfreak-offs\u201d voluntarily.<\/p>\n
\n\tClosing arguments \u2014 each side expected to last four hours \u2014 are expected to start on Thursday. Jurors will likely start their deliberation on Friday and a verdict is expected before the July 4 holiday.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0Combs has pleaded not guilty to five felony charges: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He is accused of using his billion-dollar empire as a criminal enterprise. <\/p>\n
\n\tProsecutors accused Combs of sex trafficking his ex-girlfriend Casandra \u201cCassie\u201d Ventura and another woman, \u201cJane,\u201d along with two counts of transporting individuals to engage in prostitution. They presented extensive records, aiming to show how Combs allegedly used his companies to pay for flights for Ventura, Jane, and male escorts to take part in multi-day sexual encounters.<\/p>\n
\n\tLinking back to a range of documents \u2014 including photos, text messages, bank statements, hotel records, and travel itineraries \u2014\u00a0prosecutors were able to identify more than a dozen instances where Combs paid for the flights of a male escort to fly cross-country between 2009 and 2024.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
\n\tLast Friday, prosecutors shared new texts between Combs and Ventura included as part of a summary chart compiling the dozens of times Combs and Ventura organized freak-offs, as prosecutors allege Ventura was a sex trafficking victim through physical force and coercion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
\n\tIn one crass text, Combs wrote to Ventura: \u201cYou really think you can have me jerk my dick for ten hours and not come\u2026 Your [sic<\/em>] nuts. One minute you down asking about shit. Then the next minute you acting like you doing something you don\u2019t want to. Make up your minds. I\u2019m trying to figure out how I get this nut out my dick.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLast week also brought Combs\u2019 recent former employee to the stand,\u00a0Brendan Paul, who has been referred to as Combs\u2019 alleged drug \u201cmule\u201d\u00a0in various civil lawsuits. The 26-year-old was arrested for cocaine possession when federal officials pulled up on Combs during the March 2024 raids on his homes. When asked by Combs\u2019 defense attorney Brian Steel if he agreed with the \u201cmule\u201d descriptor, Paul laughed. \u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After six weeks of testimony and more than 30 witnesses, both the prosecution and defense in the Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs case are set to rest their cases this week, with a the case going to the jury as soon as Friday. Prosecutors told the court on Monday that they plan to rest their case on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1844,1843,1842,1845,1846,1841,365],"class_list":{"0":"post-9514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-case","9":"tag-combs","10":"tag-diddy","11":"tag-expected","12":"tag-jury","13":"tag-sean","14":"tag-week"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}