After 34 witnesses and 6 weeks of brutal and graphic testimony, federal prosecutors rested their case in opposition to Sean “Diddy” Combs this week.
And his protection crew took an sudden tactic: opting to not current a single witness, together with the hip-hop mogul himself.
In doing so, authorized specialists mentioned they have been taking a bet and sending a message: That for all of the proof, the feds didn’t show the slew of felonies like racketeering and intercourse trafficking.
From the start, Diddy’s authorized crew has mentioned that for all of the mogul’s flaws and questionable conduct, the fees went too far.
“The burden of proof is 100% on the prosecution, and so it’s not unusual in felony trials that the protection rests with out placing on a single witness,” mentioned Dmitry Gorin, a former intercourse crimes prosecutor. The protection crew believes there’s “affordable doubt primarily based on the prosecution’s case.” Jurors, he mentioned, will possible endorse Combs’ not-guilty plea.
Jeff Chemerinsky, a former federal prosecutor, mentioned the Combs’ legal professionals consider the jury is listening to their narrative. “The speculation of the protection appears to be that Diddy did actually horrible issues, however they don’t meet the weather of the crimes charged.” He mentioned they didn’t name their very own witnesses as a result of “that they had already made that time via cross-examination of the federal government witnesses.”
It’s not possible to understand how the jury took within the prosecution‘s case, which included surprising testimony of violence, threats, payoffs and different dangerous conduct by Combs and his interior circle.
Prosecutors hammered house their case in closing arguments Thursday.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Christy Slavik informed jurors Combs “counted on silence and disgrace” to allow and delay his abuse and used a “small military” of staff to hurt ladies and canopy it up, in accordance with the Related Press.
Combs “doesn’t take no for a solution,” she added.
On the coronary heart of the case are three ladies who described graphic sexual assaults, together with Combs’ one-time lover, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who the protection acknowledged was a key witness for prosecutors.
It was Ventura’s lawsuit in 2023 that set off the unraveling of Combs’ enterprise with its particulars of intercourse, violence and freak-offs. Witnesses testified Combs gave the ladies ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to “maintain them obedient and compliant” through the performances.
His final former girlfriend, referred to solely as Jane in courtroom, described how the freak-offs and coerced intercourse continued even after the lawsuit and a raid by Homeland Safety Investigations in 2023 till his arrest final 12 months. A former worker, testifying below the pseudonym Mia, additionally testified that she was sexually assaulted.
The federal indictment alleges that Combs and his associates lured two of the ladies below the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used pressure, threats of pressure, coercion and managed substances to get ladies to have interaction in intercourse acts with male prostitutes.
“By resting with out calling a single witness, the protection should be ok with the case they constructed via cross-examination,” mentioned Neama Rahami, a former federal prosecutor and protection lawyer.
Whereas the testimony in opposition to Combs was graphic and detailed, Rahami mentioned the protection hopes jurors will query why these on the stand didn’t report the conduct to authorities on the time and in some circumstances keep in Combs orbit.
Combs’ alleged “felony enterprise” threatened and abused ladies and utilized members of his enterprise to have interaction in intercourse trafficking, pressured labor, interstate transportation for functions of prostitution, coercion and enticement to have interaction in prostitution, narcotics offenses, bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors mentioned.
On Wednesday, prosecutors dropped the fees of tried kidnapping, tried arson and aiding and abetting intercourse trafficking as they sought to streamline the jury directions. The strikes don’t change the underlying case concept and prosecutors can nonetheless argue he kidnapped Ventura and Cassida Clark, a former assistant, and orchestrated the fireplace bombing of Child Cudi’s sports activities automotive.
Below the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, often known as RICO, there are 35 particular offenses, together with homicide, bribery, and extortion, and federal prosecutors want to point out a sample involving at the very least two overt acts as a part of a felony enterprise.
Individuals usually consider the mob, avenue gangs or or drug cartels. However any unfastened affiliation of two or extra individuals is sufficient, like Combs’ entourage, Rahami mentioned.
Prosecutors should additionally present a sample of racketeering or two or extra RICO predicate acts over a 10-year interval.
That’s why the proof of bribery, kidnapping, obstruction, witness tampering and prostitution is necessary to the prosecution’s case, authorized specialists say.
In her closing argument, Slavik mentioned racketeering regulation applies when somebody commits crimes as a part of a bunch, and in Combs’ case, “The defendant was a strong man, however he grew to become extra highly effective and harmful due to his interior circle, his companies — the enterprise,” she informed jurors, in accordance with AP.
Will probably be as much as the jurors to find out whether or not federal prosecutors have confirmed the RICO cost.
R&B singer Ventura, who had an extended relationship with Combs, testified early within the trial.
Ventura informed jurors she felt “trapped” in a cycle of bodily and sexual abuse, and that the connection concerned 11 years of alleged beatings, sexual blackmail and a rape.
She claimed Combs threatened to leak movies of her sexual encounters with quite a few male intercourse staff whereas drug-intoxicated and coated in child oil as he watched and orchestrated the freak-offs.
A kind of freak-offs led to an notorious lodge beating, Ventura testified. Video footage from that March 2016 evening reveals Combs punching and kicking Ventura as she cowers and tries to guard herself in entrance of an L.A. lodge elevator financial institution. He then drags her down the corridor by her hooded sweatshirt towards their lodge room.
A second angle from one other digicam captures Combs throwing a vase towards her. She suffered bruising to her eye, a fats lip and a bruise that prosecutors confirmed was nonetheless seen throughout a film premiere two days later, the place she donned sun shades and heavy make-up on the pink carpet.
A canopy-up then ensued, in accordance with prosecutors. Ventura said that the police visited her house. She answered a couple of of their questions, however informed the jury she nonetheless needed to guard Combs on the time.
“I’d not say who I used to be speaking about,” she informed the jury. “In that second, I didn’t need to damage him in that manner. There was an excessive amount of happening. It was quite a bit.”
Eddie Garcia, the InterContinental Lodge safety guard, testified that Combs gave him a brown paper bag containing $100,000 in money for the video.
Garcia mentioned after his supervisor agreed to promote the video recording, he met with Combs, Combs’ chief of employees Kristina Khorram and a bodyguard. After Garcia raised issues concerning the police, he mentioned Combs known as Ventura on FaceTime, handed him the cellphone and informed Ventura to inform Garcia that she additionally needed the video “to go away.” After that, Garcia mentioned he took the cash and break up it with co-workers.
Capricorn Clark, a former assistant to Combs, recalled a 2011 violent incident with Combs. Clark informed jurors Combs pressured her from her house at gunpoint to go together with him to musician Child Cudi’s house in December 2011. As soon as there, Combs and Clark entered the empty home, after which Cudi, whose actual title is Scott Mescudi, confirmed up.
To keep away from getting regulation enforcement concerned, Clark testified, Combs ordered her to name Ventura, who was at the moment Combs’ ex-girlfriend, and mentioned they wanted to persuade Cudi to not snitch to the cops.”For those who guys don’t persuade 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.
Bryana Bongolan, a buddy of Ventura, testified that Combs dangled her over a 17-story balcony and tossed her onto balcony furnishings in September 2016, saying “I’ll always remember him holding me on that balcony.”
Combs attorneys, nonetheless, then supplied proof that he was throughout the nation on the time of the alleged incident.
