Dateline NBC - Sean Combs: The defense’s closing and the prosecution's rebuttal.

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo argued that Cassie Ventura was the winner of her relationship with Combs. "She is sitting somewhere in the world with $30 million," he said. "He's in jail." And he tried to make the prosecution of Combs relatable. "They take yellow crime scene tape, figuratively, and they wrap it around his bedroom," he said. "The crime scene is your private sex life." In its rebuttal, the prosecution said the defense "just spent a whole lot of energy trying to blame his victims and the U.S. government for his lies, his threats, and his violence."If you want to read NBC's coverage of the trial, check out our newsletter, “Diddy On Trial”: NBCNews.com/Diddy 

This is On Trial, a special series from Dateline's True Crime Weekly bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs racketeering trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Glene Alexander and it's Friday, June 27th. Just a heads up here in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter. At 9.30 this morning, for the first time since their opening statement more than a month ago, Sean Combs team directly told the jury their side of the story.

Lead defense attorney Mark Agnifilo said he'd give them a tale of two trials, one that's real and one that's fake. And then he presented in his words, Sean Combs, a successful black entrepreneur, a beloved CEO, a family man, a man who takes care of people. NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas was in the courtroom today and joins us now to tell us how this version of Sean Combs was received. Chloe, hi. Hey, Blaine. Chloe, you are the most in demand lady I know.

You have just been running around like crazy. Now you are in front of the courthouse, but this is a truly, truly big story. It is. And I have to say that we are surrounded by fans of Combs, people who are just interested in the trial and press from all over the world. It's quite a scene. So let's talk about the fact that we are now at defense closing. Four hours and three minutes, Chloe. That's how long the defense took today. It is. I mean, it was pretty equal on both sides.

The prosecution took right under five hours. The defense, though, really taking a more sarcastic and sassy tone today. Agnifilo made light of the raids of Combs' homes last year in both LA and in Miami. Remember, Blaine, they found Astroglide and baby oil. And Agnifilo said with a lot of bravado, kind of almost raising his voice at one point at the beginning saying, finally, you know, taking off the streets of America, safe from Astroglide.

You know, way to go, fellas. And they wrapped yellow crime scene tape around his bedroom. The world is so much safer now. Well, it's so interesting that he really leaned into those raids, Chloe, because I think for so many people, those were the moments, seeing Combs' homes raided last year, that made them say, oh my goodness, this is serious. We're talking about serious stuff here. But in a way, it sounds like Agnifilo was trying to make Combs almost more relatable

by bringing this up, talking about how this really was an invasion of his privacy. Sure. To say, look, we don't want the government in our sex lives. We didn't invite them into our bedrooms. And leaning in to these moments, he's a smart guy. Agnifilo knows that these quotes are going to go viral. A tale of two different trials. What did the defense mean by that?

So Mark Agnifilo said that the prosecution wants you to believe that Combs was running this criminal enterprise, this kingdom. The prosecutors called it during their closing argument. But he said that it's all fake, that it's exaggerated. And this is a man that is guilty of domestic violence and nothing else. Yeah, they didn't shy away from that domestic violence piece, right? Right out of the gate, as you said, Combs' defense attorney made it clear that they're fully admitting to domestic violence.

And then kind of surprisingly, they went a step further and played that video of Combs beating Cassie in the hotel. Can you kind of explain that approach? Right. I mean, they're trying to show that they're not scared of the video of Cassie being brutally beaten. What they're saying is, look, this is terrible. She has every right to be upset by this. But she walked away with 30 million dollars.

He said Cassie is the real winner. Agnifilo said, look, we own the domestic violence. I hope you guys know that. He said, look, it's happened. But he didn't kidnap anyone. He didn't obstruct justice and that he's going to, quote, fight to the death to defend himself against what he didn't do. It sounds like Agnifilo in his closing was also talking about the love, as he calls it, between Jane and Diddy and between Cassie and Diddy, kind of

talking about, at one point, talking about a great love story between them. We know that combs brutally beat Ventura, so this is not a great American love story, right? Like my marriage is a great American love story. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce is sort of like a great modern day love story. I don't see how you can equate black eyes and busted lips and, you know, gash on the side of your head because you threw them into a bed frame is a, Oh, well, you know, that's just a lover's quarrel, right? That was the part where he did lose me. But he said this, this whole trial,

it all is because of Cassie's suit and had she never come after him for money, had never filed that, that there would never have been a federal investigation. So basically he's saying this is a money grab that is somehow turned into a federal criminal trial. Okay. Well, when we come back, the prosecution gave a rebuttal to the defenses closing how they tried to reframe Sean Combs for the jury. Welcome back, everyone. So, Chloe, while the defense was giving the jury its closing argument, again, spanning

just over four hours, what was the prosecution doing during all of this time? How did they seem to be taking it all in? Well, as this was happening, some of the prosecutors were staring straight at the jury to get the reaction. And during a break, Maureen Comey, one of the lead prosecutors, urged the judge to tell the jury when they came back in the room to disregard portions of Agnifilo's closing arguments. And, you know, although Combs's team tried to fight it, they didn't win that battle. What were the things that she thought crossed the line? When he said that the domestic violence against Cassie at the Intercontinental Hotel was a misdemeanor

because he can't say what that would be charged as. Also, Agnifilo asked the jury to try to think about why prosecutors would want to pursue some of these charges. It was like an open-ended question. Like, why do you think they brought some of these charges? And Comey said that that is against the jury instructions that they've all decided upon and that no one is to speculate as to the motives of the prosecution. The prosecution had a rebuttal about an hour and 17 minutes or so.

Talk about the substance of the prosecution's rebuttal to the defense's closing. They essentially had the last word here. So this was delivered by Maureen Comey, who I just spoke about. And she just said, look, the defense just spent a whole lot of energy blaming the US government for his lies, excuse after excuse for inexcusable behavior. Make no mistake, this trial was how in Sean Combs's world, no was never an option. Shelsa responded to some of the defense's assertions. The defense had claimed that Combs did not violate the MAN Act, which is transporting people for the purposes of prostitution, because he didn't pay the men from Cowboys for Angels for sex,

he paid them for their time. And to this, Comey replied, the idea that the escorts were paid for their time and not for sex, it doesn't pass the laugh test. Common Sense tells you he did not pay them for their synth-lating conversation, it was for sex. Of course, the big question is how is this going over with the jury? Were there any interesting moments or anything that anybody seemed to be paying close attention to or taking in?

I mean, I really feel as though the jury's reactions have been mixed. Some people seem to be taking notes and intently listening, but there were some white men on the jury today who were kind of smiling and laughing along as Agnifilo spoke. It was the first time that I saw them break down that wall in a way and sort of like show any emotion. So Chloe, I know that there is a lot going on in and outside of the courthouse, but this was also a very wild day for you as well. I understand that you got stuck in an elevator. Oh my gosh. So during closing arguments, you're not allowed to leave the courtroom at all. And so finally at one o'clock, we were able to get out for a lunch break and I had to race uptown to 30 Rock

to do something for Dateline. And I got into an elevator with the New York Times, TMZ, one of Combs' nieces, there were 12 of us packed in there and the elevator got stuck on the 16th floor and they had to call like an emergency crew to come and get us out. I'm glad you're okay. I'm sorry you were stuck in this elevator. And then what a strange group, a group of reporters and then some of Combs's close family all stuck together there for an hour or so? About 20 minutes but it felt like an hour. But speaking of Combs's family, I was sitting behind his

daughters today in the courtroom and I saw a note that Combs had actually passed back through his attorney to his daughters. And I read it over their shoulder. It said something along the lines of, I'm so proud of you. I love you so, so, so much. And, you know, it's probably hard to reach their dad behind bars. Of course. Wow. Just such an interesting moment from there in the courtroom. And then there's a lot more to come.

We are looking ahead to a very big day on Monday, Chloe. Yes, Blaine. So the judge is going to charge the jury, which means giving them copious amounts of jury instructions. It's going to take potentially two hours, and then they have the case. So we could see them get the case right around lunchtime. And then we wait. Chloe, this has been a marathon and we'll see what next week brings. Thank you so much. I guess I'll talk to you on Monday. Thanks for listening. We'll be back with a new episode on Monday. If you want to read the latest developments and analysis from inside the

courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter Diddy on Trial. Go to NBCNews.com slash Diddy to find that. On Trial was produced by Franny Kelly with help from the Dateline True Crime Weekly team. Our senior producers are Alison Orr and Liz Brown-Kerloff. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.