{"id":12121,"date":"2025-06-27T07:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T07:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=12121"},"modified":"2025-06-27T07:10:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T07:10:15","slug":"diddy-trial-day-33-recap-prosecutors-say-combs-used-power-violence-and-fear-to-commit-a-decade-of-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=12121","title":{"rendered":"Diddy trial day 33 recap: Prosecutors say Combs used ‘power, violence and fear’ to commit a decade of crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“It’s time to find the defendant guilty, ” prosecutor Christy Slavik on Thursday told the federal jury that will decide the fate of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.<\/p>\n

After a seven-week trial, Slavik delivered a nearly five-hour closing statement that sought to tie together the mountain of evidence against Combs, urging the eight men and four women of the jury to find that Combs, behind the scenes, used “power, violence and fear to get what he wanted.”<\/p>\n

Slavik took the jury through a tour of the case against Combs, arguing that the rapper and onetime tastemaker used his influence and business empire to pull off years of criminal conduct.<\/p>\n

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Sean “Diddy” Combs listens alongside his lawyers Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos as Assistant Attorney Christy Slavik makes her closing arguments as District Judge Arun Subramanian presides during Combs’ sex trafficking trial in New York City, June 26, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jane Rosenberg\/Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“No one could stop him,” Slavik claimed, “and he managed to do this for two decades, because he used his inner circle, his money and his influence to cover up his crimes.”<\/p>\n

Combs has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prosecution. He could spend the rest of his life in prison, if convicted on all counts. His lead defense attorney, Marc Agnifilo, is scheduled to present his closing arguments to the jury Friday.<\/p>\n

The case against Combs is centered on more than a hundred days-long drug-fueled sex orgies during which the rapper’s romantic partners were allegedly forced to have sex with male prostitutes to satisfy Combs’ unconventional sexual desires. According to the testimony, Combs would choreograph the sessions and then watch them while masturbating.<\/p>\n

Combs’ attorneys have acknowledged that the mogul is a violent man who has abused illegal drugs and leads a “polyamorous” lifestyle. But they insist that all sex acts detailed for the jury were the voluntary private conduct of consenting adults and not the business of law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Calling 34 witnesses across 28 days of testimony, prosecutors allege Combs used his music empire as a criminal organization that allowed him to get away with sex trafficking, drug distribution, kidnapping, arson, bribery, forced labor and witness tampering over a decade-long stretch of alleged criminality.<\/p>\n

“Up until today, the defendant was able to get away with his crimes because of his money, his power and his influence,” Slavik told the jury. “That stops now. It’s time to hold him accountable. It’s time for justice.”<\/p>\n

Prosecutors eye a racketeering conspiracy conviction<\/h3>\n

The prosecution’s summation positioned Sean Combs squarely atop a criminal enterprise that relied on an inner circle of employees who they called “loyal lieutenants,” including his chief of staff and bodyguards. The prosecutor argued Combs also relied on numerous assistants she called “foot soldiers” in the enterprise.<\/p>\n

“They were young,” Slavik said. “They didn’t blink an eye.”<\/p>\n

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Sean “Diddy” Combs listens alongside his lawyers Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos as Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik makes her closing arguments during Combs’ sex trafficking trial in New York City, June 26, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jane Rosenberg\/Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Prosecutors alleged those crimes included an agreement to distribute drugs, kidnapping, arson, bribery, sex trafficking, obtaining labor by force and threats, arranging travel for the purposes of commercial sex and helping Combs cover up other crimes. She told the jury there were “hundreds” of drug distribution offenses alone that would be enough to convict on the racketeering conspiracy charge. Slavik also highlighted for the jury three instances of alleged kidnapping, the firebombing of rapper Kid Cudi’s car, two instances of alleged bribery, and dozens of times when Combs’ alleged victims traveled across state lines for the purposes of the sex parties.<\/p>\n

To pronounce Combs guilty of racketeering, the jury must unanimously find that he and another member of the alleged conspiracy agreed that two crimes would be committed.<\/p>\n

“Here, though, you have far more than two acts,” Slavik told jurors.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say testimony of Cassie Ventura and “Jane” prove sex trafficking<\/h3>\n

The singer Cassie Ventura called them “freak-offs.” Combs’ ex-girlfriend, known by the pseudonym Jane, called them “hotel nights.” His assistants knew them as “wild king nights.”<\/p>\n

Whatever they’re called, those episodes are evidence of sex trafficking because Combs used force, threats, fraud and coercion to cause Ventura and Jane to participate, Slavik said during the government’s closing argument.<\/p>\n

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Sean “Diddy” Combs watches as his former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura is sworn in as a prosecution witness before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian at Combs’ sex trafficking trial in New York City, May 13, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jane Rosenberg\/Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“The charge is about the defendant’s use of illegal actions to get Cassie and Jane to say yes,” Slavik said. “This is not an attempt to criminalize dysfunctional relationships or unconventional sexual conduct.”<\/p>\n

Slavik told the eight men and four women in the jury box they do not need to find that all the freak-offs were the products of force, fraud or coercion.<\/p>\n

“You only need to find the elements of sex trafficking are met on one occasion,” she said, answering a question that has been the subject of endless hours of media coverage of the Combs case. “So, if there was one time, one single freak-off, when the defendant knew or recklessly disregarded that Cassie or Jane was participating because of his lies, his threats or his violence, that’s it.”<\/p>\n

The jury was shown a collage of male escorts prosecutors said Ventura and Jane were made to have sex with in a “slow progression from masturbating and touching to oral sex to intercourse,” often multiple times over multiple nights.<\/p>\n

“They were done when the defendant said they were done and not any sooner than that,” Slavik said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors try to nail down prostitution counts<\/h3>\n

Among the charges against Combs are two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution, which carry smaller possible prison sentences than the charges of sex trafficking or racketeering conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors argued they easily proved Combs violated the law when he paid for his former girlfriends to travel across the country for “freak-offs.” In one example, from August 2009, Slavik showed jurors text messages from Combs coordinating travel with an escort named Jules. She then showed Combs’ American Express statement that indicates Combs paid for Jules’ flight, car from the airport and the $2,000 bill from The London hotel in New York City.<\/p>\n

“Freak-offs did not occur in isolation. The defendant wanted them all the time,” Slavik told the jury. “You heard about many instances when the defendant flew in escorts from across the country so he could watch them have sex.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It’s time to find the defendant guilty, ” prosecutor Christy Slavik on Thursday told the federal jury that will decide the fate of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. After a seven-week trial, Slavik delivered a nearly five-hour closing statement that sought to tie together the mountain of evidence against Combs, urging the eight men and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12123,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12121\/revisions\/12123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}