Diddy beat one criminal trial after testifying. Will he make the same gamble again?
Lawyers for Sean "Diddy" Combs haven't said if he will testify at his federal sex-trafficking trial.
Legal experts warn that testifying could open him to damaging cross-examination.
Combs took the stand at his 2001 guns and bribery trial and was acquitted.
Sean "Diddy" Combs made a bold move when he testified at his Manhattan gun and bribery trial more than two decades ago.
Combs, who was facing up to 15 years in prison on state charges related to a 1999 Times Square nightclub shooting, ultimately walked away a free man.
"I thought I was being shot at," Combs, then 31, told jurors, turning the tables by playing the victim rather than the aggressor. "My hands were up."
Back then, the jury believed the hip-hop mogul, listening to his life story, laughing at his jokes, and ultimately awarding him a full acquittal.
"God has blessed me," the rap entrepreneur told jurors.
"She's my mother — it's like a full-time job," he said when asked to name Janice Combs' profession, eliciting warm laughs from female jurors.
If Combs decides to testify in his Manhattan federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial, now in its sixth week, he might not be as lucky.
Combs' team of attorneys has yet to hint at whether the graying, now-55-year-old will take the witness stand.
But lawyers who are not involved in Combs' case told Business Insider that testifying could backfire badly and expose the onetime near-billionaire to potentially damaging cross-examination from the prosecution.
"It's a very risky move," attorney and former federal prosecutor Mark Chutkow said, adding that it would likely have to be a last resort, "Hail Mary situation" for the defense to put Combs on the stand.
Chutkow, who has handled racketeering and sex trafficking cases during his time leading the criminal division of the US attorney's office in Detroit, called it "very rare" for a criminal defendant "to succeed in the way they envision when they testify."
If Combs does take the stand, damaging new information may emerge, and prosecutors will surely revisit the most damning evidence presented so far, including the infamous hotel-beatdown video showing him kicking and dragging R&B singer Cassie Ventura, said Chutkow.
"That videotape of him beating Cassie Ventura will be one of the first items that they will cross-examine him with," Chutkow said. "And how does one explain that away? You can't really explain it away, and if you even try, you're going to only dig yourself deeper into a hole."
Defense attorney Michael Bachner, who was part of Combs' legal team during the music tycoon's 2001 Manhattan trial, told BI that he'd be "shocked" if Combs took the stand again.
Combs' lawyers have already "done a good enough job raising doubts" among the eight-man, four-woman jury, said Bachner, a former prosecutor.
The rapper's defense attorneys have tried to use their cross-examinations of his two sex-trafficking accusers — Ventura, the prosecution's star witness, and another ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym "Jane" — as jealous at the time and financially motivated now.
Combs' attorneys have argued that the sex he engaged in with the women was consensual.
While Ventura and Jane both testified about being beaten and forced into dayslong, drug-fueled sex performances with male escorts referred to as "freak offs" or "hotel nights," Combs' defense has pointed to affectionate message exchanges with him.
"Their defense is, 'Ladies and gentlemen, Sean Combs has already told you what this is about. You saw his emails and texts. You saw what he was saying contemporaneously, what was being said back and forth,'" Bachner said. "So there's no reason for him to take the stand here."
Spencer Kuvin, an attorney who has represented multiple accusers of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, agreed that by testifying, Combs risks damaging his case.
"The pro of testifying is that he will be able to humanize himself with the jury and possibly be able to try and convince the jury about the consensual nature of his actions," Kuvin said. "The downside of testifying is the ability of cross-examination beyond the limited testimony he will try to offer."
The defense does not need Combs to take the witness stand in order to pursue their argument that while Combs was, at times, a violent drug user with an unconventional sex life, he was not involved in sex trafficking or racketeering, said former Manhattan federal prosecutor Sarah Krissoff.
"The defense was able to get this narrative in during the cross-examination of the government's witnesses," Krissoff, a white-collar defense attorney.
Still, Krissoff said, "At the end of the day, it is Combs' decision whether or not he wants to testify."
"The court will make sure that Combs understands that it is his decision, not his lawyer's decision," she said.
Attorneys for Combs did not respond to a request for comment regarding whether he will take the witness stand.
Prosecutors will soon rest their case after they called more than thirty witnesses over the course of six weeks to testify against Combs. The defense is expected to start presenting its side to the jury next week.
The defense plans to call two employees of Combs Global, his lifestyle and music empire, to testify next week on his behalf, lead attorney Marc Agnifilo told the judge Monday. A forensic psychiatrist is also on deck to testify as an expert witness for the defense.
"His children might be introduced because they can introduce him and show that he's not the monster that has been portrayed by the prosecution, but is a devoted, caring, loving father," said Chutkow.
"Oftentimes that kind of character evidence comes in without a lot of searing cross-examination," he said. "So it's a safer way for the defense to soften the portrayal that the prosecution had earlier made."
If convicted of the top charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, Combs faces up to life in prison.
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