NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday rested their sweeping sex trafficking and racketeering case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, as the rap mogul flattered the presiding judge while stating he wouldn’t testify in his own defense.

“I wanted to tell you, thank you. You are doing an excellent job,” Combs told Manhattan Federal Judge Arun Subramanian when confirming he wouldn’t take the stand.

Combs’ lawyers declined to put anyone else on either, despite previously telling Subramanian they would call three witnesses. His defense case consisted of attorneys introducing several pieces of evidence and resting after around half an hour at 3:30 p.m. After the prosecution rested, the record executive’s legal team asked the judge to acquit him, arguing the feds had failed to prove their case. Subramanian reserved issuing a decision.

The eight men and four women on the jury could start deliberating as soon as Friday after closing arguments, which are set to begin Thursday.

In all, the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office presented 34 witnesses over more than six weeks, including ex-girlfriends of Combs who alleged he had habitually sexually exploited and assaulted them, staffers from his Bad Boy Records empire and several law enforcement witnesses.

The last witness the jury heard from was an agent from the Department of Homeland Security, Joseph Cerciello, who verified a tranche of electronic evidence, including texts between Combs and his top staffers, whom he allegedly tasked with organizing sordid sexual performances in hotel rooms across the country, and explicit video footage that was not viewable to members of the press or public.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, racketeering conspiracy, transportation to engage in prostitution, and related counts. He could spend the rest of his life in prison if found guilty.

The feds’ case portrayed the mogul as a ruthless and micromanaging boss who, during the two decades before his September 2024 arrest, abused his larger-than-life status in the industry to control his employees and lovers alike through violence and intimidation.

He’s accused of tasking high-ranking members of his inner circle — such as bodyguards and various high-ranking staffers— with resorting to kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex trafficking, bribery and obstruction to carefully guard his reputation, strong-arm anyone who crossed him into silence, and fulfill his sexual desires on demand.

Chief among Combs’ impulses jurors have heard during the trial was the sexual exploitation of vulnerable young women at weekly marathon sex parties with male escorts that he dubbed “freakoffs,” “wild king nights” or “hotel nights.”

The women who testified about the highly orchestrated, marathon sexual performances directed by Combs — Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and anonymous witness “Jane”— described the encounters as coercive, degrading and sometimes violent.

Both Ventura and Jane alleged they were pressured to participate in sordid hotel nights with men hired from online services like Craigslist even after Combs had viciously beaten them.

Jurors saw text messages both women sent Combs saying they didn’t want to sleep with other men for his sexual gratification. They testified about Combs threatening to release footage of the sessions as blackmail and threatening to cut them off financially.

Combs’ defense team conceded from the outset that he had beaten women but maintained he’s innocent of the crimes charged and that “freakoffs” were consensual events. They have argued there is no evidence establishing the Bay Boy Records empire covertly operated like a criminal enterprise.

In addition to testimony from Ventura and Jane, jurors heard from a former assistant of Combs, who testified under the alias “Mia” and accused Combs of raping and sexually assaulting her. Another former assistant, Capricorn Clark, accused Combs’ alleged henchmen of subjecting her to days of lie detector tests in an abandoned Times Square skyscraper when his jewelry went missing.

She also said Combs turned up at her place with a gun and kidnapped her in late 2011 when he sought to hunt down and kill rapper Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi upon learning of his romantic involvement with Ventura.

Clark testified she saw Combs and a security guard break into Mescudi’s home. The “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper corroborated Clark’s testimony and testified about his Porsche being torched with a Molotov cocktail weeks after the break-in.

The rap producer, who launched the careers of iconic artists like the late Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige, has been incarcerated at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since being indicted, having failed to persuade multiple judges to release him to house arrest.

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