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A federal prosecutor at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking and racketeering trial painted the hip-hop mogul as the “powerful” head of a criminal enterprise who knew how to get his way.
“He thought that his fame, wealth, and power put him above the law. But over the course of this trial, his crimes have been exposed,” Assistant US Attorney Christy Slavik told the jury in closing arguments on Thursday.
Combs, the prosecutor said, “doesn’t take no for an answer.” He used his “money and influence,” she said, to commit two decades of narcotics and sex-trafficking crimes with the help of his criminal enterprise — the inner-circle employees of his music and lifestyle businesses.
“The defendant was a very powerful man, but he became more powerful and more dangerous because of the support of his inner circle and his businesses — the enterprise,” Slavik said.
Prosecutors estimated late Wednesday that their closings will take a little more than four hours.
The defense closings are due to begin Friday morning, followed by an hour or so of prosecution rebuttal arguments. Jury deliberations are on track to begin later on Friday.
Closing arguments in the Manhattan criminal trial of Combs — a self-made entrepreneur who was once worth close to a billion dollars —follow more than six weeks of testimony.
Over those weeks, prosecutors called 34 witnesses, including Combs’ ex-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie Ventura, as they tried to prove that over the last two decades, Combs ran his sprawling business empire as a criminal enterprise.
Combs stands accused of sex trafficking Ventura and another ex, who testified under the pseudonym “Jane,” as well as running a racketeering conspiracy with the help of a trusted inner circle that prosecutors say committed multiple underlying crimes, including arson, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering, forced labor, and drug distribution.
“He was in charge,” Slavik told the jury of Combs in her closing arguments. “He was the through line, and the other members worked with each other and with him throughout the entire conspiracy.”
The “Combs enterprise,” said Slavik, “existed to serve his needs.”
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If Combs is convicted on the top charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, the 55-year-old Bad Boy Records founder faces up to life in prison.
On Tuesday, shortly before the defense rested its half-hour-long case, Combs complimented US District Judge Arun Subramanian as he said he would not be testifying in his own defense.
“I’m doing great. How are you, your honor?” Combs responded after Subramanian asked the music tycoon how he was feeling.
Combs then told the judge, “I want to tell you thank you. You’re doing an excellent job.”
Combs’ defense team called no witnesses after the prosecution rested its lengthy case and instead read a small selection of texts and a half dozen stipulations into the record.
“We’ve been together for a long time, and I feel like we’re finally starting to understand each other. We might drive each other crazy sometimes, but baby, you really do make me happy,” defense lawyer Anna Esteavao read aloud from one 2017 text from Ventura to Combs.
During Ventura and Jane’s testimony, both women said Combs beat them, testimony corroborated by texts, photos of bruises, and accounts of witnesses. The women also recounted the anguish and fear they said they suffered from participating in years of “freak offs” or “hotel nights” — drug-fueled sex performances with male escorts that Combs would arrange, masturbate to, and often record.
Slavik on Thursday called sex trafficking “the brutal crime at the heart of this case.”
“You heard all about how the defendant again and again forced, threatened, and manipulated Cassie into having sex with escorts,” Slavik told the jury.
“Dozens of witnesses agreed: he doesn’t take no for an answer,” the prosecutor said, repeating the point.
Combs’ lawyers have argued that the sexual interactions cited in the case were consensual and that Combs’ business was not a criminal racket.
“Domestic violence is not sex trafficking,” defense attorney Teny Geragos told the eight-man, four-woman jury in her opening statements on May 12.
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