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Sean “P Diddy” Combs’ legal team will not call witnesses to testify on his behalf.
The disgraced hip-hop mogul is currently facing five charges across three federal indictments, including sex trafficking, conspiracy racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The disgraced hip-hop mogul has entered a plea of not guilty to all charges leveled against him.
Diddy’s defence team told the judge that they plan to not have any witnesses testify and defend the disgraced hip-hop mogul on the stand.
They plan to only submit some evidence, CNN reported from the courtroom.
This means that closing arguments are expected to be done tomorrow.
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello continued to testify as the trial began to draw to a close.
Attorneys are expected to meet for a charge conference today and closing arguments would be set for tomorrow.
Cerciello confirmed that several sexually explicit videos showed his ex-girlfriend, who used the pseudonym “Jane”, with other men are cited in a summary chart.
Diddy can also be seen in the videos, he added.
The videos are collectively hours long, with the jury viewing clips and listening through headphones.
The public and press do not have access to the videos, which are under seal.
Around 50 explicit videos were recorded between Dec 17, 2011, and Dec 21, 221, according to the Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent.
Diddy’s lawyers believe prosecutors “haven’t met the burden of proof on the charges against Diddy,” TMZ added, and therefore are not calling any witnesses of their own.
The sources say the defence will likely rely on testimony from several male escorts who were paid to partake in Diddy’s drug-dazed, baby-oil-doused marathon sex sessions, known as “freak-offs,” on separate occasions with the rapper’s ex-partners Cassie Ventura and a woman identified under the pseudonym “Jane.”
They may argue that the escorts were paid for their time and discretion, not for sex, the sources added.
The defence is also expected to state that any sexual encounters involving Ventura and Jane were consensual, a claim at odds with testimony from the prosecution’s star witnesses.
Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey and the high-profile pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes have both publicly denied attending parties hosted by embattled Diddy.
On social media, unsubstantiated claims and AI-generated images have linked both Winfrey and Jakes to these events.
According to reports in EEW Magazine, the publication of Christian organisation Empowering Everyday Women, the pair addressed the scurrilous rumors while onstage at the Good Soil Forum in Dallas, Texas.
Billionaire businesswoman and television host Winfrey, 71, said: “I have never been near a Puff party.”
She continued: “Anybody who knows me knows if there is a party, I’m the first one out. The nature of my personality is that I am not a party person.
“That is not who I am. I like to sit at home with my thoughts by the fire, with the dogs.”
Bishop Jakes, 68, who recently stepped down as senior pastor of Dallas megachurch The Potter’s House of Dallas, said he had briefly visited one of Diddy’s parties during the daytime.
“I stopped by Puffy’s house for 30 minutes to say happy birthday to him during the day at two o’clock with staff people,” said the pastor.
As for online rumors connecting him romantically to Diddy, he said: “I am almost 70 years old. What do I look like? I am a grandfather.”
TD Jakes announced earlier this year that he is handing leadership of the church he founded to his daughter, Sarah Jakes Roberts, and son-in-law, Toure Roberts. − Agencies
Mathew Masinge