Jurors are likely to decide early this week whether music mogul Sean Diddy Combs is accountable for a startling string of alleged sex crimes and conspiracies that date back years, making it one of the most dramatic celebrity trials in decades.
Graphic testimony from inside Combs’ music empire has characterized the trial in New York. Prosecutors have compared the alleged pattern of violence, threats, and cover-ups to a criminal operation akin to a mob.
Whether Combs, who was once worth over $1 billion, exploited his wealth and influence to hide alleged crimes—often with the aid of his extensive organization—is one of the case’s central questions.
During closing arguments, prosecutors emphasized this purported conspiracy. According to the Associated Press, Assistant U.S. Atty. Christy Slavik the jurors that Combs utilized a small army of employees to damage women and conceal it, and that he relied on shame and quiet to allow and extend his abuse.
“Combs doesn’t accept no,” she continued.
However, according to legal experts, the issue might not be as straightforward as the tabloid headlines indicate.
Combs’ defense has openly admitted that the mogul acted inappropriately. However, they contend that the accusations against him are exaggerated and point out that some important witnesses failed to disclose Combs’ wrongdoings at the time.
According to legal scholar and former federal prosecutor Jeff Chemerinsky, the defense’s approach appears to be that Diddy committed truly heinous acts, but they don’t fit the criteria of the offenses charged.
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Sean Diddy Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment was a show business juggernaut at its peak, combining fashion, style, music, video, and liquor to create a company that made Combs a billionaire. Was it a criminal operation, indeed?
Combs’ lawyer attacked some of his accusers on Friday, calling the prosecution’s case inflated. According to Marc Agnifilo, Combs was addicted to narcotics and led a swinger lifestyle. Although he acknowledged that Combs had engaged in domestic abuse, he said the allegations of sex trafficking and racketeering were overruled.
He said that he is not a racketeer. He is not guilty. Innocently, he sits there.
Undoubtedly, Combs, the hip-hop artist who amassed a sizable music, fashion, and lifestyle empire and interacted with the most powerful and influential members of American society, was portrayed in a negative light by the trial. Jurors will need to decide if the severity and sheer number of federal charges align with the evidence, according to Dmitry Gorin, a former prosecutor for sex offenses in L.A. County. In the well-known case, Gorin questioned if federal prosecutors overcharged.
Combs and his collaborators are accused in the federal indictment of luring female victims, frequently by posing as love partners. Then, while he occasionally observed at events he called “freak-offs,” Combs allegedly used compulsion, threats of coercion, assault, and controlled narcotics to get women to have sex with male prostitutes. Prosecutors claim that Combs used ketamine, ecstasy, and GHB to keep the women submissive and cooperative throughout the performances.
Prosecutors claimed that Combs’ criminal enterprise threatened and mistreated women, used members of his organization to engage in forced labor, sex trafficking, prostitution-related interstate transportation, prostitution-related coercion and enticement, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said in their opening statements that Combs had the assistance of a group of company workers, security personnel, and aides in pursuing the alleged RICO charges. They are accused of covering up the accidents after assisting in the planning of the freak-offs.
Combs is accused of two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison; two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; and one count of racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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Combs and his collaborators are accused in a federal indictment of luring female victims, frequently by posing as love partners.
For six weeks, 34 witnesses gave gruesome and explicit testimony to the jury.
Three women, including Combs’s ex-lover Casandra Cassie Ventura, who the defense conceded was a crucial witness for the prosecution, are at the center of the case because they testified to horrific sexual assaults.
Ventura’s 2023 lawsuit, which contained facts of sex, violence, and freak-offs, was the catalyst for Combs’ business to collapse. According to witness testimony, Combs used GHB, ecstasy, and ketamine to keep the women in line throughout the performances.
His latest ex-girlfriend, who was simply called Jane in court, talked about how the forced sex and freak-offs persisted until his arrest last year, despite the lawsuit and a 2023 Homeland Security Investigations raid. Another former worker who testified under the alias Mia also claimed to have experienced sexual assault.
Two of the women were allegedly seduced by Combs and his friends under the guise of a romantic relationship, according to the federal indictment. Combs then allegedly coerced women into having sex with male prostitutes by using controlled narcotics, coercion, threats of coercion, and assault.
Early in the trial, R&B singer Ventura, who had a lengthy relationship with Combs, gave testimony.
Ventura told jurors that the relationship included 11 years of beatings, sexual blackmail, and rape, and that she felt caught in a cycle of physical and sexual abuse.
She claimed that while Combs observed and planned the freak-offs, he threatened to release films of her having sex with multiple male sex workers while high on drugs and drenched in baby oil.
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Cudi claimed that during their brief courtship, he took Cassie to a hotel to get her away from the irate Combs during his testimony at the Combs federal sex trafficking trial in Manhattan.
According to Ventura’s testimony, one of those purported freak-offs resulted in a notorious hotel beating. Combs is shown hitting and kicking Ventura on camera that night in March 2016 as she cowers and tries to defend herself in front of a bank of elevators at a hotel in Los Angeles. Then he pulls her toward their hotel room down the hallway while holding her hooded hoodie.
Combs is seen tossing a vase at her from a second camera point. Two days later, when she wore sunglasses and a lot of makeup on the red carpet for a movie premiere, prosecutors revealed that she still had noticeable bruises on her eye, lip, and other areas.
Prosecutors claim that a cover-up followed. According to Ventura, the cops came to her apartment. Despite answering some of their inquiries, she informed the jury that, at the moment, she still wished to keep Combs safe.
She informed the jurors, “I would not say who I was talking about.” I didn’t want to do him that kind of harm at the time. Too much was happening. There was a lot.
According to Eddie Garcia’s testimony, Combs handed him a brown paper bag filled with $100,000 in cash in exchange for the film at the InterContinental Hotel.
Garcia claimed that he met with Combs, Combs chief of staff Kristina Khorram, and a bodyguard after his boss consented to sell the video recording. He claimed that Combs called Ventura on FaceTime after Garcia expressed worries about the police, gave him the phone, and instructed Ventura to inform Garcia that she also wanted the video to disappear. Reports from inside the courtroom then state that Garcia claimed he took the money and divided it with colleagues.
According to the prosecution, this demonstrates the conspiracy.
According to the AP, Slavik told jurors in her closing argument that the racketeering law applies when a group of people commit crimes together. In the Combs case, the defendant was a powerful man, but his inner circle and business ventures made him more dangerous and powerful.
Federal prosecutors must demonstrate a pattern including at least two overt acts as part of a criminal enterprise in order to prosecute a defendant for any of the 35 specific charges listed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.
Usually, the mafia, street gangs, or drug cartels come to mind. However, Neama Rahami, a former federal prosecutor and defense lawyer, stated that any casual affiliation of two or more people is sufficient, such as Combs’ entourage.
While the testimony against Combs was graphic and detailed, Rahami said the defense hopes jurors will question why those on the stand did not report the behavior to authorities at the time and in some cases stayed in Combs orbit.
Rahami claimed that, considering the significant and intricate allegations the prosecution brought, she thought several aspects of their case were lacking.
Although the defense has a fair chance of winning not guilty verdicts, particularly on the sex trafficking counts, I still believe Combs is guilty, she added.
During cross-examination, the defense used forceful tactics to question witnesses about why they either chose to ignore Combs or failed to report him at the time. Following the purported attacks, they also displayed text messages of love and support. The money and other items they received from Combs were also emphasized by the defense.
This isn t about a crime. Money is at issue here. It s about money, Agnifilo said, according tothe AP.
But the level of graphic testimony might be hard for jurors to ignore.
Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Ventura, testified that Combs dangled her over a 17-story balcony and tossed her onto balcony furniture in September 2016.
Capricorn Clark, a former assistant to Combs, told jurors Combs forced her from her apartment at gunpoint to go with him to musician Kid Cudi s home in December 2011. Once there, Combs and Clark entered the empty house, and then Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, showed up.
To avoid getting law enforcement involved, Clark testified, Combs ordered her to call Ventura, who was at that time Combs ex-girlfriend, and said they needed to convince Cudi not to snitch to the cops. If you guys don t convince him of that, I ll kill all you m , Clark quoted Combs saying.
Cudi testified that his Porsche was later firebombed in his driveway with a Molotov cocktail.
Prosecutors got the last word Friday before the jury went home for the weekend, reminding them of the Cudi car explosion.
He delegated and his inner circle handled the dirty work for him, prosecutor Maurene Comey said, accordingto CNN.He said he was going to blow up the car, and lo and behold, it blew up.
For 20 years, the defendant got away with his crimes. That ends in this courtroom, Comey added. The defendant is not a god. He is a person.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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