Sean Diddy Combs is being warned by legal experts to stay far away from the witness stand as his federal sex trafficking trial in New York hits its eleventh day.
The 55-year-old rap mogul, who’s facing some of the most serious charges of his life, including sex trafficking, racketeering, and obstruction, has pleaded not guilty, but if convicted, he could be staring down a life sentence.
The federal case has already seen a storm of attention, with high-profile names like ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, rapper Kid Cudi, and singer Dawn Richards taking the stand to testify against him. But now legal analyst Lisa Bonner is strongly advising Diddy not to testify himself. She says if he does, he’s opening Pandora’s box, and everything he’s ever done related to any alleged crime becomes fair game.
Bonner explained it simply: “Once you take the stand, everything you’ve ever done – related to any of these alleged crimes – becomes fair game.” She made it clear that by taking the oath, Diddy could risk a perjury charge if he lies, and the cross-examination could get brutal. Her message? Stay off the stand.
And honestly, things are already getting messy. One of the major turning points in this trial was a shocking implication during testimony from arson investigator Lance Jimenez, who said that fingerprint evidence from a 2011 Molotov cocktail attack, allegedly on Kid Cudi’s Porsche, was destroyed by the LAPD without his knowledge. During cross-examination, prosecutors hinted that someone in the courtroom might’ve had something to do with that destruction of evidence.
That’s when Diddy’s lead lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, went off. He called the suggestion outrageous and asked for a mistrial, accusing the prosecution of misconduct for implying Diddy might’ve been behind destroying the prints. He argued that this bombshell was totally unfair and had no place in the current case.
The judge, Arun Subramanian, didn’t bite. He shut down the mistrial request but did agree to strike all the fingerprint-related testimony from the record. He also told the jury to ignore it entirely, saying it had no bearing on the charges Diddy is actually facing.
Still, that didn’t stop the tension from skyrocketing inside the courtroom. Bonner pointed to the Molotov cocktail incident as the kind of stuff Diddy would be grilled about if he testified. “There’s a lot of evidence I wouldn’t want to answer if I were Diddy,” she said. “For example, ‘Did you drop the Molotov cocktail in the car or did you have any involvement in that?’” It’s exactly the kind of moment that could sink a defense, and she knows it.
This federal trial isn’t just about what happened in hotel rooms or private jets, it’s also about years of behavior, power moves, and incidents like this one. That’s what makes the stakes so high. And even though the defense team’s push for a mistrial didn’t work, it shows they know how dangerous this evidence really is for their client.
As of Wednesday, Day 11 kicked off with a Los Angeles police officer testifying about the December 2011 break-in at Kid Cudi’s property. Every detail like this adds pressure, and every new name or event brought up on the stand pulls more attention to the case.
At this point, Diddy’s strategy seems clear, let the lawyers do the talking, keep the spotlight off himself, and hope the jury forgets the wildest parts of the story. But with high-profile witnesses, Molotov cocktails, and destroyed evidence already shaping the trial, that’s easier said than done. And with Bonner’s warning ringing loud, it’s pretty obvious that one wrong move could completely wreck his defense.
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