Sean “Diddy” Combs wants to testify in his trial, lawyer says: “I don’t know if I can keep him off the witness stand”

CNN
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Sean “Diddy” Combs plans to testify in his criminal trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, according to his attorney.

“I don’t know if I can keep him out of the stands. He’s very interested in telling his story,” said Marc Agnifilo, the embattled rap mogul’s attorney, in an interview for a new TMZ documentary.

When contacted by CNN, a representative for Combs declined to elaborate on Agnifilo’s comments or say whether Combs would actually take the stand.

A source familiar with the current case told CNN that the investigative phase has not yet begun and therefore it is too early to confirm witnesses or people who may be called to the stand during the upcoming trial.

On September 17, prosecutors dropped the three-count indictment against Combs, accusing the artist of using his business empire to orchestrate “a criminal enterprise” that involved, among other things, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping and decades of physical abuse of women.

The indictment against him cited hotel surveillance video, first published by CNN in May, that showed Combs attacking his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Prosecutors claim the footage illustrates Combs’ decades-long pattern of physical abuse.

When asked by TMZ about Combs’ video, Agnifilo said that if Combs testifies, he would explain his actions in the video.

“I think he will tell every part of his story, including what you see on the video, so I expect both of us to explain,” Agnifilo said in the interview. “He has his story, and he has a story that I think only he can tell the way he can tell it in real time.”

Prosecutors accuse Combs of “bribing” a hotel employee in 2016 “to ensure silence.” (Ventura’s now-settled November 2023 lawsuit alleged that he paid the hotel $50,000 to obtain the security footage of the hallway attack.) Bribery allegations, payments to the government and multiple accusers have covered up alleged misdeeds in 11 civil lawsuits and filmed alleged sexual assault, which Combs has denied.

In charging Combs, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York alleged that Combs held so-called “freak offs,” i.e. Around a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricants were seized during a search as part of the investigation.

“I can’t imagine there are thousands. And I’m not really sure what the baby oil has to do with it,” Agnifilo said in his interview with TMZ. “A bottle of baby oil goes a long way. I don’t know why you need a thousand. I mean, he has a big house. He buys in bulk. I believe there are Costcos wherever he has a home. Have you ever sat in the parking lot of a Costco and seen what people are picking up?”

In an interview with CNN after Combs was indicted last week, Agnifilio downplayed the number of victims he believes are involved in the criminal charges, after prosecutors said more than 50 witnesses or victims had spoken to federal investigators .

“It’s a sacrifice,” he told host Kaitlan Collins. “That’s all the indictment says.”

Combs is currently awaiting trial at New York City’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center, a facility that has housed singer R. Kelly, “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. Combs is being held in the same housing unit at MDC as former cryptocurrency expert Sam Bankman-Fried and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a source told CNN, explaining that their shared facility is reserved for high-level inmates and isolated from the general public.