UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ------------------------------x UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. 24 Cr. 542 (AS) SEAN COMBS, a/k/a "Puff Daddy," a/k/a "P. Diddy," a/k/a "Diddy," a/k/a "PD," a/k/a "Love," Defendant. Trial
New York, N.Y. June 26, 2025 9:30 a.m. Before: HON. ARUN SUBRAMANIAN, District Judge -and a Jury- APPEARANCES JAY CLAYTON Interim United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York BY: MADISON R. SMYSER EMILY A. JOHNSON MAURENE R. COMEY MEREDITH FOSTER MITZI STEINER MARY C. SLAVIK Assistant United States Attorneys APPEARANCES CONTINUED AGNIFILO INTRATER LLP Attorneys for Defendant BY: MARC A. AGNIFILO TENY R. GERAGOS -and- HARRIS TRZASKOMA LLP BY: ANNA M. ESTEVAO -and- SHAPIRO ARATO BACH LLP BY: ALEXANDRA A.E. SHAPIRO JASON A. DRISCOLL -and- XAVIER R. DONALDSON BRIAN STEEL NICOLE WESTMORELAND Also Present: Lucy Gavin Shannon Becker Paralegal Specialists Raymond McLeod, Paralegal
(Trial resumed)
THE COURT: Good morning, everyone. First thing, on the jury charge, we emailed out a copy of the charge after the conference yesterday. The one thing -- well, two things. I think that there were a couple instances where the government was still capitalized, so we will make those changes. And then I don't believe we fully implemented the changes to the immunized witnesses' instruction consistent with what we discussed at yesterday's conference. So we'll make those changes, as we discussed yesterday, and then send the revised version out to the parties. We'll do that in the next couple of minutes. Anything further with respect to the jury charge? Ms. Smyser.
MS. SMYSER: Yes, your Honor. One additional thing we noticed just reading through is I discussed the buyer-seller exception yesterday, which was the conspiracy charge, as your Honor knows, and I think when the conspiracy charge was moved to the bottom of the drug charge, that paragraph remained in the 841 section, which we don't think makes a lot of sense, unless it comes after the conspiracy charge or in the conspiracy charge.
THE COURT: Want to move that.
MS. SMYSER: So if we could just move that down. I'm happy to send the Court line numbers if that's helpful, but that's the general request.
THE COURT: Is there any issue with that movement?
MS. SHAPIRO: No, your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. I'll ask the government -- do you have the line -- well, what's the best way to do this? The best way is for you to send around the proposed redline, and then we'll make that change.
MS. SMYSER: We can do that, your Honor.
THE COURT: Very good. Thank you. So we have the verdict charge. We have the charge, which we will deliver tomorrow after closing argument. Just one note about closing arguments, there should be no disruptions in the courtroom during closings. So unlike how we've been handling, where people have been going out and in, please wait for a break for any people in the gallery to leave the courtroom. And turn your cell phones off, all the things that I'm sure you will do. When the jury comes in, I plan to fill them in on the upcoming schedule, so we'll have the government's closing today. We'll have the defense's closing tomorrow at 9 a.m., followed by the government's rebuttal, jury instructions and deliberations. So it will be a shorter day today and a longer day tomorrow. Once deliberations begin, the jurors who are deliberating will decide their schedule, and I'll give them guidance on that tomorrow. But generally, they'll be here at the usual time, at 9 a.m. Is there anything else that the parties want me to communicate to the jury or that the parties need to address before we bring the jurors in?
MS. COMEY: No, your Honor, although I'll note Ms. Slavik will be here at ten, as your Honor said was all right.
THE COURT: That's fine. In fact, yesterday, I realized that I told you to be here at nine and we were starting at ten, but it was late. It was, like, 8 p.m., and so I apologize for getting everyone here that early. But that's perfectly fine.
MS. COMEY: That's fine. Thank you, your Honor. Otherwise, nothing from us.
MR. AGNIFILO: Nothing from us either, Judge -- oh, something from us.
MS. SHAPIRO: I apologize, Judge. I just noticed this, and I don't know if it was deliberate or inadvertent, but on page 3 of the charge, the paragraph from lines 5 to 8, there are a bunch of italicized words and we would prefer that those words not be italicized.
THE COURT: That's easy enough. We'll unitalicize; we'll take those out. That is good. We'll be back here to start promptly at 10 a.m. Thank you very much. We'll take a brief break.
(Recess)
THE COURT: Please be seated. While we have a minute, Ms. Comey, do we have the laptop ready for deliberations, or are the parties still working on that?
MS. COMEY: I will defer to Ms. Geragos, who I believe has been reviewing the laptop.
MS. GERAGOS: Yes. We are going to review it again after court. I expect by tomorrow we'll have it ready for deliberations.
THE COURT: Very good. So at the beginning of the day tomorrow, I'll inquire to make sure that we have a laptop that everyone has reviewed and that has only the admitted exhibits.
MS. GERAGOS: Perfect. Thank you.
THE COURT: Great. All right. I'll ask the deputy to get our jury.
COURT CLERK: Yes, your Honor.
(Jury present)
THE COURT: Please be seated. Welcome back, members of the jury. I hope you had a great day off yesterday. Just to give you an update on the schedule, we have reached the time of closing arguments, so I'll ask you to give your close attention to the parties' arguments, as you've been doing through the entirety of this trial. And I thank you for all of the hard work and attention that you've given. In terms of the schedule -- We're going to fix that issue first. And then second, today is going to be a shorter day. We're going to hear the government's closing argument. And tomorrow's going to be a bit of a longer day. We're going to hear the defense's closing as well as the government's rebuttal, and I will give you my instructions on the law and the jurors who will be deliberating will commence their deliberations. I'll have some further instructions for you tomorrow on how that's going to work and then the schedule. For now, I'll ask you to give your close attention as we proceed with closing arguments. Is the government prepared to proceed?
MS. SLAVIK: Yes, your Honor.
THE COURT: Ms. Slavik, you may proceed.