The Diddy Trial: “A Trial of a Lifestyle”

Hey, they're folks.

It is Friday, June twenty seventh, and the defense closing argument is underway in the Ditty trial, and lead attorney Mark Agnaphillo is on fire. Welcome everybody to this Ditty update edition of Amy and t J. I get his name right today, Yes, yes.

Well we at least knew what it was instead of some Italian last name that begins with an A.

Okay, everybody's going to know how to say his name after today. This dude is on fire. He is right now Robes performing in stark contrasts to what it seemed the prosecution did in their five hour closing yesterday.

He is actually making fun in a lot of ways of the prosecution's seven week long presentation. And you and I both said this, if I were charged with a crime, this is the man who I would want defending me, because he's found a way to use common sense and humor to appeal to the jurors. He comes off as making a lot of logical sense and connecting the dots that completely point away from the prosecution's argument.

No charts, no graphics, no nothing. He made that point when he started. He said, I'm not gonna do that I'm not gonna put some more screens something for you to read, because you know what they say, screens are bad for yas. Anyway, Like he's speaking in that kind of colloquial way that everybody can understand, and I say speak, we're sitting here acting as if we can hear his audio. You and I have been reading a live book.

I said, I've never actually been sitting in a room and been so entertained. And that's exactly how I described it. It says, if I'm turning a page and reading a fascinating book that's happening in real time. That's the best way I can describe what it's been like all morning long for us as we have been following along. Note by note, we've got multiple news outlets, court reporters, live updates popping up, and we'll say, did you just see

Yeah, and he warned it. I say he warned, but he gave everybody a heads up. He said, I'm not gonna use screens like we mentioned, but he said, I'm going to be pacing a lot, And sure enough, they said, he is essentially racing, moving back and forth right in front of the jury box. His voice is going high, so high pitch is cracking at times, like he is just putting on. They are not bored today, No, in the court.

Room, and they said, he's gesticulating. He's he's theatrical, I mean, and so you can't take your eyes off of him. And the one thing that's missing from the reporting that you and I have noted, and we talked about this a little bit yesterday and we looked up if there was some law or some rule against court reporters describing jurors reactions. And our reaction has been fairly animated here hearing what Mark is saying, or at least reading what

Oh yeah, because he's cracking jokes.

We got we're going to give you more of his quotes in a second, but rose before he even got to get started. This morning, here we go once again there was another juror issue. Nothing too terrible, but it seems once again the juror throwing off the schedule.

There was a transit issue.

That's how all they said.

It was a transit issue. I mean, look, we live in New York City. We understand it's tough. It's a commuting every day, so you always have to give yourself, literally, no matter where you're going, at least an extra thirty minutes, and sometimes you'll be early, and sometimes you'll even still be a little late. I mean, you cannot know what you're commute. It's going to be day in and day out.

Okay, well, a transit issue, this is kind of a big one. Thirty minutes. Court was delayed a full thirty minutes today. Of all days I ropes, I have to say it was there are more highly antictate. We've had highly anticipated witnesses that delivered on testimony we were expecting, but this maybe is the most highly anticipated day of this trial, and sure enough we were left waiting even longer. It was just weird that it happened on this day, of all days.

I would say, in the entire time, we have been watching this and many of the I say watching, I always say this because it feels like we've been watching it, monitoring what's going on in the courtroom. This has been and I hate to use the word entertaining, but it has been the most entertaining day that I can recall of this entire trial.

Yeah, and well you'll understand why here in just a second. But rope, we talked about Agnefillo. Yes, there were a lot of theatrics, but he was much more than style. He brought the substance, and he made clear at the top it seemed the direction he was going to go. Said, this is a trial of a lifestyle.

Correct, This is not a criminal enterprise. This is not some mob boss enterprise. He said, this is someone's lifestyle. And he said, okay, so he liked threesomes. Okay, so he likes some kinky stuff. Basically is what he was saying. But that's not a crime. That's certainly not racketeering, and it's not all of the other He was making light and making fun of the charges that the government brought

It was as close as to a legal really, dude as you can get.

Yeah.

Yeah, he said, you want to call it swingers, you want to call it threesomes. That's what it is. That's what the evidence shows. That was his quote.

But we go through and again we're talking about, Yes, I mean, what did he did behind closed doors? Fine, but he's being charged for doing that stuff behind closed doors the same way they prosecuted mobsters. And he made that point about the racketeering. He called this, he said, one of the most serious, complicated, comprehensive statutes on the books. They applied it to personal use drugs and threesomes.

Yeah, that's just he kind of broke it one sentence. He said, this is what we're doing here.

We talked about this yesterday in both of our episodes. With the prosecution's presentation they're closing arguments, it, in one word, was complicated. We felt overwhelmed, and yes, that's why they had graphs and charts and displays because it is so confusing how they're trying to take specific instances and then apply them to this very confusing but very serious charge that in one case, and the racketeering charges could put Diddy away for life. And so it was and dark

It's a legal and technical and I guess you're supposed to take this all by the book, right, but we're human beings and a lot of this stuff goes beyond just what's.

In a statute.

And he could this dude makes common sense if you're just talking to him and listening to both of them. I was like, yeah, of course, yeah, of course this doesn't make any sense while we're here for this. He likes him sex and now you're trying racketeering. What that's just kind of common sense.

So as a juror, you're sitting there and you kind of said, he reminded you a little bit just in terms of what we're reading and how he's been able to simplify the issues and make it feel relatable in a weird way. Kind of you said, he felt very Johnny cochranesque to you.

Johnny was brilliant.

We all know that, but he was a performer in the We saw him perform for months on television and to this day, anybody right now, I Sayannie Conchran, Hey, give me a quote of Johnny Conchrane. You can tell me one.

If it doesn't fit, you must quit.

This is what this guy is doing. It feels like in court today. He is speaking to you in colloquial, common sensical terms you can relate to and go, ah, that makes sense.

And he also brought in the DEI thing. I thought he had a couple current event moments where he related what was going on, and he talked about di I. He said, Sean Diddy Combs has been deiing since the nineteen nineties. You know, he has employed all of these folks. He and he said this, Shawn Combs has become something that is very, very hard to be. He's a self made, successful black entrepreneur. And that had to hit home for some of the jurors.

Yeah, he wait, he's this rare thing and that why does he end up here for that?

Because he likes threesomes and because he likes to swing, so why.

Is this rarity in the black community being brought to this type of scrutiny that seems kind of rare too. Of these things, he found a way in just making a factual statement to put something in your mind to think about.

Yeah. He also made a reference to the Jaws fiftieth anniversary and like, you know the famous line from Jaws, We're going to need another boat another sorry, we're gonna need a bigger boat. He said something, We're gonna need more crimes tape scene. It's a crime scene tape because of what they're trying to piece together and pull together to create this seemingly elaborate criminal enterprise. You know, He's like, they're just trying to make more out of something that actually isn't a crime.

We should make the point. We were talking about this yesterday after hearing the prosecution's case. We were like, wow, wow, we were you know what that sounds right?

Yep? To count two cases, Yep, that sounds right.

I mean, how are they going to get out of that? Because like what they're saying. He actually probably did so like, wait, how are they going to get out of this?

We predicted that sure enough, we're going to hear defense and sure enough, listening to him today, like wow that.

Oh wow, oh wow on.

Everything he said. Now we're talking about how entertaining he was Robes, he flat out made fund yes of the investigators in some of these searches, and how they are getting bad people and things off the streets.

Oh my goodness. Yes, he went off about making America safe from astroglide is what he basically said. He's like, thank goodness we had those raids. Thank goodness that we were able to have these federal prosecutors swoop in to Ditty's house to find boxes of astroglide taken off the streets. He said, who I feel better already artificial lubricant, Not for me. The streets of America are safe from the astroglide. It's hard not to chuckle when he puts.

It like that. You can, you can, you can hear sarcasm in words. That's remarkable. He actually gave them an Ada boy said, way to go, Fellas. That's a quote. He said, way to go Fellas. You guys just do you. They took astroglide and baby oil and that is the evidence in this case.

Man.

It's effective.

It is so effective.

Because we're talking about some of the most serious charges.

But we go through what they collected from this serious criminal.

Not guns right there, some of the house, but he's not.

Accused of There is no gun related violence other than I believe with the Capricorn Clarkin since she said he brought a gun with her, But there's no evidence of him brandishing a gun or threatening someone with the gun. So the guns don't really.

Terms of hit.

You got the FBI raiding a home in terms of the threat that they just got off the street from the search were boxes and boxes of astroglide, not drugs to be distributed astroglide. And so he's the way I'm saying it here is the way you can imagine them hearing it, like oh.

Really, yeah, it was like a I think the worst thing in terms of the drugs, was it a Gucci fanny pack or a Gucci bag that had some drugs in it? Yeah, even that was just comical because of how what it was housed in, not even the fact that there were so if there were just unbelievable amounts of drugs, they would have pointed out there was this amount of this, there was that amount of this, they couldn't even do that, you know.

The other he saved a lot of his mocking for Capricorn. Clark, who was an assistant, said she was okay. Two different occasions she said she was kidnapped. One of them robes was when he said she said did he came to her house, said he had a gun, said you're coming with me right now. And this is when they were

To town on that one.

He certainly did. He said she was kidnapped and then returned back to her home each night, and then returned back with the kidnapper each day. And he kind of made it, well, he didn't kind it. He made a reference to the jurors. He said, kind of like you all being forced to come back to court each day and sit here and listen to this. Do any of you feel kidnapped?

That's effective?

Once again, what do you do with that? He also made a joke about the time that Capricorn Clark you just mentioned it and said she felt like she had to go with Diddy to go confront kid Cuddy, that she believed he had a gun. He said, she was probably so excited that he came to her house she would have gone to the moon with him.

He didn't need to show a gun, it's his point, like he didn't have he didn't need to threaten her.

With anything, and there's no proof that he did have one.

Yeah, So it's those ways that we listened to all that testimony and it sounded like a harrowing.

Scary night.

And I'm sure a lot of what they talked about she testified to was true, but he simplified it in such a way that makes you simply have to question what you heard.

And they this was a.

Good point on the Capricorn testimony. He told them during his closing today, like the judge is going to instruct you that if you know that a witness lied to you once, that means you have the right to disregard everything that came out of their mouth and testimony.

Wow. Wow, And so we knew obviously he was going to Mark was going to have to address this domestic violence issue, and he handled it so well, and it's hard to that's hard to even have that come out of my mouth. He handled the domestic violence issues so well in the way that he said it. He said, we own it. Did he did it? And if he had been charged with it, you wouldn't be here because

All right, well, folks, stay with us here when we come back, we're gonna get more into that money argument he was making and why the attorney called Cassie Ventura Fine.

Gangsta in court today.

All right, folks, we're going to continue now discussion of what has been the first half I guess of closing arguments delivered by the lead attorney for the defense team, Mark ag Agniphillo Agniphilo in one of these days. I'm gonna get it right, mister Agnifilo. My apologies, but wrote before we took a short break there we were talking about and he was talking about Cassie Ventura Fine plenty today and you know, part of she was an eight

He certainly did he And again he did not deny that she was beaten. He did not deny that his client beat her. But he made this very direct point that he said, Cassie right now is sitting somewhere in the world with thirty million dollars. She filed that lawsuit, which of course call the attention of the feds. Did he paid her twenty million dollars the following day, And I did not know this the Hotel Intercontinental where that beating that we all saw on that surveillance video took place.

No one is arguing that she earned was old, maybe even old more than the twenty million that he gave her. The point there in front of a jury in a criminal case, though, is that she didn't even want to bring charges.

It's that this is maybe.

Something else to this that is not about criminal enterprise, right, And that is the effective way he made the case. He didn't just call her a bad person, but he did make some suggestions during his closing that she was being manipulative and play two guys.

He said she was playing both Kid Cuttie and Sean Ditty Combs, that she was not being truthful to either one of them. And when he started going down that narrative, he said she even had a burner phone to basically keep two guys on the side without the other one knowing about the other. And that's when he said Cassie's keeping a gangster with the ooh, with the burner phone. I mean he really went to town with her on

The suggestion being she could have done that at any point.

That's the legal arguments.

Look, they have to consider laws that they're going to get all that stuff to go through. But just sitting there as a human being on the jury that he's appealing to common sense and emotion. He's appealing to them in a different way outside of a legal book. And it seems right now, at least on paper, we're not in the room. But it sounds like he is putting on a show.

Oh my goodness. Yeah. And speaking of money, he didn't just point out Cassie. He pointed out Jane, who of course was Ditty's other girlfriend who testified under that pseudonym, who was such a big part of the prosecution's case. He said, on Jane, I hope she's having a nice day, but you know where she's doing it in a house he's paying for.

That was a part of a whole section where he was talking about he has taken care of he is what he does, He takes care of people, and that was one of the things he pointed out, but he pointed it out in a sarcastic way.

Yeah, but again one that reads true for all the jurors. In fact, when you talked about him caring for people. He started his closing arguments pointing out all of Ditty's family who have been in the courtroom for most of the trial, including his children. He said, these folks are here because they love them and because he takes care of his own. And he even talked about all the folks who were his employees. He said, Okay, they didn't maybe always like him, but they loved him. And they've

Well was it? He confessed though, that working for Ditty is.

Like drinking out of a fire huse. Yeah so yeah, so, Like there's honest acknowledgments and admissions. He has a strong personality that isn't for everyone, and certainly violent at times, but he's not this mob boss evildoer that the prosecution is trying to paint, according to the defense.

The last thing here I want to point out that he said which was very powerful and quietly effective, and he used Cassie even to refine as his witness with her own words. And Rosey went back to when the video first came out on CNN, we all saw him beat her in the hallway. She had an outpouring of people reaching out to her with sympathy and support and things like that, and she went online and she made an Instagram boast I believe it was in which she said domestic violence is the issue.

And that is when Mark said, believe her, believe Cassie, domestic violence is the issue, and that has been I would say the foundation of the defense's argument that Diddy isn't responsible and certainly isn't and can't be proved, that all of these other he claims made up charges are trumped up charges against him, have nothing to do with the actual issue, which is domestic violence and that they've admitted it and they want that to be what the

He was like, yeah, don't take our word for it. Listen to her.

Man.

That is fascinating. So he has been look and there is a difference. It's hard for us to read the prosecution for five hours talking about legal statutes and if it's matches this time over here with this person over here is a part of the enterprise but doesn't know. But then they have so that that's tougher to read. We have to admit this has been entertaining as hell just to read, just to read. So have two totally different approaches and styles. You can see.

You gotta wonder as a juror, you know, if you're presented with all of these overwhelming facts and flow charts and then you get this larger than life theatrical attorney speaking to you in common sense terms. Which one are you gonna feel? Which one are you gonna remember? Which one are you gonna take with you into the deliberation room.

You know, you make a good point, and you reminded me of something I want to make sure I read to our audience. Here here it is, and I don't know, damn it. I want to give her credit. I think it's from the Washington Post, the reporter. But to your point about the attorney agna Fillo, and I'm just gonna quote everything she says about what she saw in the room in contrast and start contrast to the prosecutions, very

Yeah, you know, and we're not in the room, so we don't know how he's coming off. It's reading very, very relatable, but maybe he's coming off as inauthentic. Maybe he's coming off as too much It's hard to know, Yeah, performative, it's hard to know what these jurors are thinking. Are they looking at him skeptically? Are they looking at him as if maybe it's even like some last like almost where he's being overly dramatic because he's afraid of what

But the other side of that about him, is it possible they're eating it up.

It is possible, and that's why watching courtrooms is fascinating because in each juror could respond to each attorney very differently. It's hard to know collectively what they're thinking, and we won't know until they get into that deliberation room. But certainly we will continue to monitor the wild events in that Lower Manhattan courtroom throughout the day. Today we will have a part two, a bonus episode dropping when the