Sean 'Diddy' Combs is being warned not to take the stand in his federal sex trafficking trial
The 55-year-old rapper's federal trial is continuing in New York, and has seen a series of big-name witnesses take to the stand so far too testify against the Bad Boy Records founder - and legal analyst Lisa Bonner has now insisted Combs giving his testimony during proceedings would open him up to questioning on a range of damaging allegations.
30 May 2025
She told Page Six: "Once you take the stand, everything you've ever done - related to any of these alleged crimes - become fair game.
"You are under oath and you can go to jail for... perjury, so you want to avoid taking the stand."
Combs is on trial on charges including sex trafficking, racketeering and obstruction.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and faces life behind bars if convicted on all allegations.
His trial, now in its third week, has seen high-profile testimony from witnesses including his singer ex Cassie Ventura, 38, as well as rapper Scott Mescudi - known as Kid Cudi - and singer Dawn Richards.
Ms Bonner added Combs would be risking exposure to uncomfortable cross-examination if he also took the stand.
She said: "There is a lot of evidence that will be presented, even up until now, that I wouldn't want to answer if I was Diddy.
"For example, 'Did you drop the Molotov cocktail in the car or did you have any involvement in that?'" she added, referring to a 2012 firebombing of Kid Cudi's car.
Meanwhile, Combs' defence team have requested a mistrial.
They are alleging prosecutorial misconduct over the questioning related to the apparent destroying of evidence in the arson case involving a car belonging to Combs' fellow performer Kid Cudi.
Combs' lead lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, has criticised the prosecution for making an "outrageous" suggestion his client could have been involved in the destruction of fingerprint evidence connected to the 2011 Molotov cocktail attack on Kid's Porsche. Mr Agnifilo argued the implication was unfairly presented to the jury during the cross-examination of arson investigator Lance Jimenez.
Lance had testified fingerprint evidence from the Molotov cocktail bottle was destroyed in 2012 without his knowledge, on orders from the Los Angeles Police Department, which was not part of his investigative team.
After a brief recess and with the jury excused, Mr Agnifilo said the prosecution's remarks "implied that someone in this courtroom was responsible for the destruction of the fingerprint cards".
He urged Judge Arun Subramanian to dec lare a mistrial on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct, but the motion was denied. The judge agreed to strike the fingerprint evidence discussion from the record and instructed the jury to disregard it as irrelevant to the case.
Day 11 of Combs' trial began on Wednesday (28.05.25) with testimony from a Los Angeles police officer who responded to the break-in at Kid Cudi's property in December 2011.
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