A lawyer for Sean “Diddy” Combs protested the rising tide of secrecy at the hip-hop icon’s federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial on Thursday (Jun 12) after Combs and the public were excluded from arguments over whether another famous rapper’s name could be disclosed.
Defence attorney Marc Agnifilo complained to Judge Arun Subramanian after Combs was excluded from a meeting outside the courtroom between lawyers and the judge.
That meeting delayed the final day of weeklong testimony from a woman identified in court only by the pseudonym “Jane”, who dated Combs from 2001 until his September arrest.
When her emotional testimony ended, she hugged a prosecutor, Maureen Comey, in front of the jury, which would have drawn an outcry from the defence except she hugged defence attorney Teny Geragos too.
Her testimony likely helped both sides. She admitted still loving Combs, but she said she now resents that she felt forced to have sex with strangers to satisfy his sexual fantasies.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that carry a potential prison sentence of 15 years to life in prison. Prosecutors say he used fame, fortune, violence and threats to manipulate girlfriends into sex with paid sex workers in multi-day events that they later regretted.
Defence attorneys say the government is prosecuting consensual sex between adults.
Under cross-examination by Geragos, Jane testified Thursday that she flew to Las Vegas in January 2023 with a famous rapper and his girlfriend.
Geragos didn’t identify the rapper but asked Jane if he had recorded with Combs, “an individual at the top of the music industry as well … an icon in the music industry”. She also asked if Combs and the rapper were “really close”.
“Yes,” Jane replied.
Once in Las Vegas, Jane testified, she went with a group including the rapper to dinner, a strip club and a hotel room party, where a sex worker had sex with a woman while a half-dozen others watched.
She said there was dancing and the rapper said, “hey beautiful”, and told her he’d always wanted to have sex with her. Jane said she didn’t recall exactly when but she flashed her breasts while dancing.
The testimony followed the closed-door session Thursday, when lawyers discussed what facts could be disclosed about the hotel room encounter.
Agnifilo said the need for a public trial was “an important issue, a constitutional issue” and objected to so much happening out of the earshot of his client.
In response, the judge offered more secrecy, saying “If your client wishes to be heard … we can clear this courtroom if need be to address it.”
Agnifilo rejected the offer.
“Part of the reason trials are fully public is so if other people realise they know something about an event discussed in a public courtroom, they can come forward and share their recollection of it,” the lawyer said, adding: “That is kind of the practical side of the constitutional right to a public trial.”
A monitor that is used to show exhibits to spectators has been shut off throughout Jane’s testimony, although lawyers, the judge, Combs and jurors can view them. Some sidebar conversations between lawyers and the judge have been sealed.
The judge also has banned the public from viewing any exhibits containing sexual content, even though the defence has said images from the group sex episodes proves they were consensual acts between adults, and not proof of crimes.
And many of the letters to the judge from lawyers each day are filed under seal, preventing the public from quickly knowing, for instance, the details about why prosecutors want a black juror ejected from the jury in mid-trial. The judge has said he’ll decide the juror’s fate Friday.
Defence attorney Alexandra Shapiro has called the prosecution’s quest a “thinly veiled effort to dismiss a black juror”.
Jane and Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who testified for four days in the trial’s first week about her relationship with Combs from 2007 through 2018, both said they participated in the sex marathons for years, with Cassie calling them “freak-off” nights and Jane referring to them as “hotel nights”.
Agnifilo said the defence consented to Jane testifying with a pseudonym but did not consent to other events related to her testimony and the testimony of other witnesses not being public.
Comey, the lead prosecutor, attacked Agnifilo’s rationale for disclosing more information publicly with the risk that it would be easier for someone to guess Jane’s identity, saying it was an “attempt to harass and intimidate this witness”.