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This is On Trial, a special series from Dateline True Crime Weekly, bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs racketeering trial.
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He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Blaine Alexander, and it's Friday, June 27th.
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Just a heads up here in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter.
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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.
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Lead defense attorney Mark Ignifolo said he'd give them a tale of two trials, one that's real and one that's fake.
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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.
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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.
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Chloe, hi. Hey, Blaine. Chloe, you are the most in-demand lady I know. You have just been running around like crazy.
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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.
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It's quite a scene. So let's talk about the fact that we are now at defense closing four hours and three minutes.
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Chloe, that's how long the defense took today. It is. I mean, it was pretty equal on both sides.
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The prosecution took right under five hours. The defense, though, really taking a more sarcastic and sassy tone today.
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Agnifilo made light of the raids of Combs' homes last year in both L.A. and in Miami.
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you remember, Blaine, they found Astroglide and baby oil. And Agnifilo said with a lot of bravado,
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kind of almost raising his voice at one point at the beginning, saying, finally, you know,
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taken off the streets of America, safe from Astroglide. You know, way to go, fellas. And they
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wrapped yellow crime scene tape around his bedroom. The world is so much safer now.
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Well, it's so interesting that he really leaned into those raids, Chloe, because I think for so
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many people, those were the moments seeing Combs' homes raided last year that made them say,
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oh my goodness, this is serious. We're talking about serious stuff here. But in a way,
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it sounds like Ignifilo was trying to make Combs almost more relatable by bringing this up,
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talking about how this really was an invasion of his privacy Sure To say look we don want the government in our sex lives We didn invite them into our bedrooms And leaning in to these moments he a smart guy Agnifolo knows that these quotes are
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going to go viral. A tale of two different trials. What did the defense mean by that?
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So Mark Agnifolo said that the prosecution wants you to believe that Combs was running this criminal
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enterprise, this kingdom. The prosecutors called it during their closing argument. But he said that
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it's all fake, that it's exaggerated. And this is a man that is guilty of domestic violence
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and nothing else. Yeah, they didn't shy away from that domestic violence piece, right? Right out of
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the gate, as you said, Combs defense attorney made it clear that they're fully admitting to domestic
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violence. And then kind of surprisingly, they went a step further and played that video of Combs
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beating Cassie in the hotel. Can you kind of explain that approach? Right. I mean, they're
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trying to show that they're not scared of the video of Cassie being brutally beaten.
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What they're saying is, look, this is terrible. She has every right to be upset by this.
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But she walked away with $30 million. He said Cassie is the real winner. Agnifilo said, look, we own the domestic violence.
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I hope you guys know that. He said, look, it's happened. But he didn't kidnap anyone.
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He didn't obstruct justice and that he's going to, quote, fight to the death to defend himself
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against what he didn't do. It sounds like Ignifilo in his closing was also kind of talking about the love,
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as he calls it, between Jane and Diddy and between Cassie and Diddy, kind of talking about, at one point,
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talking about a great love story between them. We know that Combs brutally beat Ventura,
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so this is not a great American love story, right? Like, my marriage is a great American love story.
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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey is sort of like a great modern day love story. I don't see how you can equate black eyes
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and busted lips and, you know, gash on the side of your head because you threw them into a bed frame
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as a, oh, well, you know, that's just a lover's quarrel, right? That was the part where he did lose me.
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But he said, this, this whole trial, it all is because of Cassie's suit. And had she never come after him for money,
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had never filed that, that there would never have been a federal investigation. So basically he's saying,
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this is a money grab that has somehow turned into a federal criminal trial. Okay.
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Well, when we come back, the prosecution gave a rebuttal to the defense's closing
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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?
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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.
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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.
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And, you know, although Combs' team tried to fight it, they didn't win that battle.
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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
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misdemeanor because he can't say what that would be charged as. Also, Agnifolo asked the jury to
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try to think about why prosecutors would want to pursue some of these charges. It was like an
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open-ended question. Like, why do you think they brought some of these charges? And Comey said that
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that is against the jury instructions that they've all decided upon and that no one is to speculate.
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as to the motives of the prosecution. The prosecution had a rebuttal about an hour and 17 minutes or so.
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Talk about the substance of the prosecution's rebuttal to the defense's closing.
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They essentially had the last word here. So this was delivered by Maureen Comey,
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who I just spoke about. And she just said, look, the defense just spent a whole lot of energy
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blaming the U.S. government for his lies, excuse after excuse for inexcusable behavior.
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Make no mistake, this trial was how in Sean Combs's world, no was never an option.
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She also responded to some of the defense's assertions. The defense had claimed that Combs did not violate the MAN Act,
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which is transporting people for the purposes of prostitution because he didn't pay the men from Cowboys for angels for sex.
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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,
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it doesn't pass the laugh test. Common sense tells you he did not pay them for their scintillating conversation.
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It was for sex. Of course, the big question is how is this going over with the jury?
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Were there any interesting moments or anything that anybody seemed to be paying close attention
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to or taking in? I mean, I really feel as though the jury's reactions have been mixed.
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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
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and sort of like show any emotion. So Chloe, I know that there is a lot going on in and outside
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of the courthouse, but this was also a very wild day for you as well. I understand that you got
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stuck in an elevator. Oh my gosh. So during closing arguments, you're not allowed to leave
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the courtroom at all. And so finally at one o'clock, we were able to get out for a lunch break
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and I had to race uptown to 30 Rock to do something for Dateline. And I got into an elevator with the
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New York Times, TMZ, one of Combs's nieces. There were 12 of us packed in there and the elevator
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got stuck on the 16th floor and they had to call like an emergency crew to come and get us out.
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I'm glad you're okay. I'm sorry you were stuck in the elevator. And then what a strange thing
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group, a group of reporters, and then some of Combs' close family all stuck together there for
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an hour or so? About 20 minutes, but it felt like an hour. But speaking of Combs' family,
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I was sitting behind his daughters today in the courtroom, and I saw a note that Combs had
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actually passed back through his attorney to his daughters. And I read it over their shoulder.
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It said something along the lines of, I'm so proud of you. I love you so, so, so much. And,
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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.
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And then there's a lot more to come. We are looking ahead to a very big day on Monday, Chloe.
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Yes, Blaine. So the judge is going to charge the jury, which means giving them copious amounts of jury instructions.
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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.
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And then we wait. Chloe, this has been a marathon. And we'll see what next week brings.
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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.
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If you want to read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter, Diddy on Trial.
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Go to NBCnews.com slash Diddy to find that. On Trial is produced by Frannie Kelly with help from the Dateline True Crime Weekly team.
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Our senior producers are Alison Orr and Liz Brown-Kurloff. Original music by Jesse McGinty.
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Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.