{"id":11852,"date":"2025-06-24T22:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T22:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11852\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T22:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T22:20:07","slug":"sean-diddy-combs-confirms-he-wont-testify-and-praises-the-trial-judge-for-an-excellent-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11852\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean \u2018Diddy\u2019 Combs confirms he won’t testify and praises the trial judge for an \u2018excellent job\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/a> told the judge at his sex trafficking trial that he\u2019s doing an \u201cexcellent job\u201d as he confirmed Tuesday that he won\u2019t testify. <\/p>\n

Combs made the comment to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian after being asked about testifying.<\/p>\n

The question was posed by the Manhattan jurist after the prosecution rested following a more than six-week-long presentation of evidence against the hip-hop maven. Later in the afternoon, the defense rested without calling any witnesses.<\/p>\n

In a routine occurrence after prosecutors rest at criminal trials, Combs\u2019 lawyers made arguments to toss out the charges, arguing the charges weren\u2019t proven. The judge said he\u2019ll rule at a later date.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Sean \u2018Diddy\u2019 Combs confirms he won\u2019t testify and compliments the trial judge for an \u2018excellent job\u2019\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports Sean \u2018Diddy\u2019 Combs confirms he won\u2019t testify in his own defense as his legal team rests their case.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have called 34 witnesses to try to prove sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges that resulted in Combs\u2019 September arrest, including two ex-girlfriends of Combs who testified they felt coerced into marathon sex events with male sex workers that were called \u201cfreak-offs\u201d or \u201chotel nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense lawyers, though, say they were consensual sexual encounters consistent with the swingers lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty and has remained incarcerated without bail in a federal lockup in Brooklyn after multiple judges concluded last fall that he was a danger to the community.<\/p>\n

It is standard practice at federal criminal trials for the judge to directly question the defendant about the decision to testify or not, in part to ensure that the defendant knows it is his decision, regardless of what his lawyers have told him.<\/p>\n

When it came time for Subramanian to question Combs after prosecutors rested, the judge asked him how he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing great, your honor,\u201d the Bad Boy Entertainment founder answered, before volunteering a compliment to the judge before another question could be posed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to tell you thank you, you\u2019re doing an excellent job,\u201d Combs said.<\/p>\n

Combs said he \u201cthoroughly\u201d discussed the matter with his lawyers before deciding not to testify.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is my decision, your honor,\u201d Combs said, adding: \u201cThat is solely my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prodded by the judge, he clarified further: \u201cI mean, it\u2019s my decision with my lawyers. … My decision to make. I\u2019m making it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the trial began in early May, government witnesses have included former employees of Combs\u2019 companies, but the bulk of its proof has come from the testimony of two former girlfriends: Casandra \u201cCassie\u201d Ventura and a model and internet personality known to jurors only by the pseudonym \u201cJane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ventura, 38, testified for four days<\/a> during the trial\u2019s first week, saying she felt pressured to engage in hundreds of \u201cfreak offs\u201d because the encounters would enable her to be intimate with Combs after performing sexually with male sex workers while he watched them slather one another with baby oil and sometimes filmed the encounters.<\/p>\n

Jane testified<\/a> for six days about the sexual performances she labeled \u201chotel nights,\u201d saying that she was putting them into perspective after beginning therapy three months ago. She said she felt coerced into engaging in them as recently as last August, but did so because she loved and still loves Combs.<\/p>\n

Ventura was in a relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018, while Jane was frequently with him from 2021 until his arrest, which canceled her plan to meet him at the New York hotel where he was taken into custody.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press doesn\u2019t generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has done.<\/p>\n

Throughout the trial, defense lawyers have made their case for exoneration through their questioning of witnesses, including several who testified reluctantly or only after they were granted immunity from any crimes they may have committed.<\/p>\n

Combs has been active in his defense, writing notes to his lawyers and sometimes helping them decide when to stop questioning a witness. <\/p>\n

He was admonished once by the judge for nodding enthusiastically toward jurors during a successful stretch of cross-examination by one of his lawyers. Prosecutors complained that his gestures were a form of testifying without being subject to cross-examination. The judge warned that he could be excluded from his trial if it happened again.<\/p>\n

In the past week<\/a>, prosecutors and defense lawyers have shown jurors over 40 minutes of recordings Combs made of the \u201cfreak offs\u201d or \u201chotel nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several jurors occasionally seemed squeamish as they viewed and listened to audio of the encounters, but most did not seem to react.<\/p>\n

In her opening statement, Geragos had called the videos \u201cpowerful evidence that the sexual conduct in this case was consensual and not based on coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Closing arguments were scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs told the judge at his sex trafficking trial that he\u2019s doing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[12587,4219,171,57,9621,4228,12588,362,405,403,404,406,12589,12586,8007,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-11852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-arun-subramanian","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-human-trafficking","13":"tag-indictments","14":"tag-juries","15":"tag-legal-proceedings","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-new-york-city-wire","19":"tag-ny-state-wire","20":"tag-sexual-misconduct","21":"tag-t-j-warren","22":"tag-trials","23":"tag-u-s-news","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114740672855217800","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}