Protection attorneys consult with Sean Combs on this courtroom sketch. The jury started deliberations at Combs’ intercourse trafficking trial in New York Metropolis on Monday.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
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Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Because the jury started deliberating within the high-profile federal prison trial of Sean Combs on Monday, a transparent narrative battle got here into focus, one that can determine whether or not or not these jurors at a decrease Manhattan federal courtroom will discover Combs responsible.
The hip-hop mogul is charged with intercourse trafficking, transportation to interact in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy. The trial centered on allegations involving two of his former girlfriends, the singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a lady who testified on the stand underneath the pseudonym “Jane.” He has pleaded not responsible.
All through the almost two-month proceedings, the federal government painted Combs as violent, domineering and possessive, a tyrannical determine with huge sources who compelled or coerced his companions into unlawful intercourse acts throughout cities and utilizing his companies to orchestrate them. The protection didn’t dispute the home abuse that each ladies and different witnesses testified about; as an alternative, it has countered that the sexual encounters Ventura and Jane had with male intercourse employees underneath Combs’ path, which he steadily filmed, have been completely consensual.
In contrast, each ladies testified that they have been coerced into taking part in these marathon periods, which Combs also known as “freak-offs,” “resort nights” or “wild king nights.”
Former federal prosecutor and co-founder of West Coast Trial Attorneys Neama Rahmani tells NPR that the three units of costs towards Combs are fairly disparate in how simple or tough they might be to show to a jury past an inexpensive doubt.
“The best, after all, is the prostitution, of the Mann Act violation,” Rahmani says. (The prosecution supplied receipts of assorted escorts’ journey throughout state traces in addition to their resort bookings.)
“In all probability probably the most tough is the intercourse trafficking,” Rahmani continues, “not due to the weather, however due to the potential protection of consent in proving pressure, fraud or coercion. Racketeering, or RICO, is the broadest. And there are a lot of potential RICO predicate acts equivalent to bribery, extortion, prostitution, drug distribution and compelled labor. So the jurors, with respect to racketeering, should discover a prison enterprise. They will have to seek out an illegal settlement [between Combs and multiple former employees], they usually’ll have to seek out two or extra racketeering acts. The truth that it is so broad might result in the opportunity of a consensus on a number of of the simpler predicate acts.”
“Racketeering conspiracy does have lots of components,” he says. “The protection spent lots of time saying that there was no enterprise and this was simply Combs doing issues on his personal. These have been all private bills. Then they assault the conspiracy, saying that there was no illegal settlement. Clearly, the federal government placed on six totally different government or private assistants of Diddy, they usually have been actively concerned in establishing the motels for the free coffees and procuring among the authorized and pharmaceuticals. A few of them have been concerned within the extortion and the bribery, though they weren’t known as as witnesses.”
In all, 34 witnesses testified towards Combs over six weeks. The primary witness to look on the stand was Ventura, who took the stand pregnant. She alleged that Combs had repeatedly bodily assaulted her, raped her, trafficked her and sought to regulate each side of her private {and professional} life. (Ventura, who dated Combs on-and-off from 2007 to 2018, filed a civil go well with towards the mogul in November 2023 that was settled out of courtroom a day later for $20 million, an quantity she confirmed throughout her testimony on this trial.) She painted her relationship with Combs as coercive and abusive, and mentioned {that a} resort surveillance video from 2016, through which Combs will be seen violently attacking her within the hallway, exhibits her attempting to flee a “freak-off.”
Throughout six days of testimony that adopted, “Jane” painted an analogous image. She alleged that her relationship with Combs, which started in 2021, oscillated between “love bombing” and “sexual exploitation” all the best way as much as his arrest and indictment in September 2024. Combs launched her to “resort nights” that would run wherever from 12 and 30 hours. “Jane” mentioned she turned financially depending on Combs, and that if she tried to withstand a “resort night time” he would carry up these funds. “I could not say no to him,” she informed the courtroom.
To construct its case, the prosecution offered greater than 30 different witnesses — together with a number of former workers — and extra proof in an try to point out that Combs was manipulating these ladies into illegal intercourse acts and in addition utilizing his enterprise empire to cowl up associated crimes that stretch to bribery, obstruction of justice and drug distribution.
Because the prosecution’s case drew to an in depth on every week in the past Monday, protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo informed Decide Arun Subramanian that his crew wouldn’t name any witnesses, and that it will current proof that Ventura and “Jane” have been keen companions and never victims.
Final Tuesday was a whirlwind day in courtroom, as each the prosecution and protection rested their circumstances inside hours of each other. The authorities’s case, which lasted six weeks, sought to assemble its argument round trafficking. Prosecutors aimed to steer the jury that Combs used his energy and affect to maneuver Ventura, “Jane” and intercourse employees throughout state traces to interact in “freak-offs” — and preserve it clandestine by way of coercion.
Jurors have been proven receipts, cellphone data and textual content messages referring to a few of these interstate journeys. Additionally they heard testimony from brokers of Homeland Safety Investigations who raided Combs’ properties in March 2024 and located weapons, medication and hundreds of bottles of child oil and lubricant. A number of male intercourse employees have been known as to testify, as have been workers who labored cleanup for “freak-offs.” The jury was proven video clips and screengrabs of some “freak-offs,” although this proof was shielded from the remainder of the courtroom, together with the press.
After a lunch break on Tuesday, one legal professional on the protection crew, Alexandra Shapiro, moved for acquittal on all 5 costs Combs faces — two counts of intercourse trafficking, two counts of transportation for prostitution and one rely of racketeering conspiracy — saying that the federal government failed to satisfy the burden of proof. Throughout the trade, Combs informed Decide Subramanian that he was “doing a wonderful job.”
The protection — which revealed that Combs wouldn’t take the stand as a part of its case that afternoon — then wrapped up in underneath half-hour. The proof it offered to the jury appeared set on underscoring a story established throughout opening arguments and strengthened throughout a number of cross-examinations: that the artist and businessman could also be an unsavory character, and even a prison, however that he’s not responsible of the issues he’s at the moment charged with. The protection argued that his intercourse life was “unconventional” and poisonous, however that his relationships have been consensual and never coercive. In its temporary presentation, the protection shared textual content messages from Ventura to Combs saying she liked him and entered one other doc as proof stating minor inconsistencies within the testimony of a number of authorities witnesses. “Sean Combs is an advanced man, however this isn’t an advanced case,” protection legal professional Teny Geragos informed the jury throughout opening arguments. “You aren’t right here to evaluate him for his sexual preferences.”
On the finish of the week, each groups delivered closing arguments that attempted to bolster their respective framings. In her remarks Thursday, prosecution legal professional Christy Slavik outlined the federal government’s case, portray Combs as a robust determine who used violence and intimidation to get no matter he needed. Protection legal professional Marc Agnifilo didn’t dispute the violence, but in addition sought to reframe Combs and his companions; he known as the connection between Combs and Cassie “a fantastic trendy love story.” Whereas acknowledging Combs’ “swinger’s life-style” as unconventional, Agnifilo claimed not one of the prosecution’s witnesses have been “a part of an enterprise.”
In a rebuttal from prosecutor Maurene Comey, the legal professional alleged that Combs’ sample of violence amounted to a prison conspiracy spanning twenty years, that he believed himself to be above the legislation and that it’s the courtroom’s accountability to carry him accountable. “In his thoughts, he was untouchable, a god amongst males … and who would stand as much as a god?” she mentioned. After its six-week presentation, the federal government is now asking the jury to take that stand.
Jury deliberations are set to proceed on Tuesday morning.
