From Hollywood to Home: Black Voices in Entertainment
The prosecution and defense rested their cases Tuesday in the sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The prosecution rested after calling more than 30 witnesses, including former employees and male escorts. Two former girlfriends, including Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman using the pseudonym “Jane” took the stand and told the jury they did not want to participate in so-called “freak offs,” described as drug fueled sexual encounters with male escorts they said Combs would direct.
Jurors saw pictures of guns, drugs, baby oil and other lubricant, and they saw a video of a 2016 Los Angeles hotel incident during which Combs was seen attacking Ventura.
On cross-examination, the defense showed texts and other messages, arguing it showed the women were willing participants.
As soon as the prosecution rested, Combs’ defense team moved for acquittal, claiming the government failed to meet its burden in proving the charges. The judge said he’d reserve judgment on the motion.
“You’re doing an excellent job,” Combs tells judge
Combs’ defense team did not call any witnesses.
The judge asked Combs how he was doing, and Combs replied he was doing great.
“You’re doing an excellent job,” Combs told the judge.
The judge then asked Combs about his decision not to testify.
“That is my decision, your honor,” Combs said Tuesday. “That is solely my decision.”
Combs’ attorneys entered exhibits, including law enforcement notes of interviews, then rested.
“I don’t see what the upside would have been for the defense to put him on the stand to try and quibble about the technicalities of the claims against him, and then he would be cross-examined for days about every bad thing he did,” said attorney Richard Schoenstein, who is not involved in the case.
About the charges
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to five counts and faces up to life in prison if he’s convicted.
The first count is racketeering conspiracy, which alleges combs “abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.” Prosecutors allege Combs relied on employees, resources and influence of his business empire to create a criminal enterprise that engaged in, or attempted to engage in, “sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for the purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.”
The other four counts are sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
“I think they’ve proved that prostitutes were moved from one state to another and that Diddy was involved,” Schoenstein said.
Schoenstein said the other counts are more debatable.
“Sex trafficking by force, and that’s going to be more of an assessment of what the relationships between Diddy and Cassie and what Diddy and Jane were like and what the jury thinks of all that,” Schoenstein said.
Closing arguments are set for Thursday at 9 a.m. Attorneys indicated that closing arguments may take all day Thursday and Friday, meaning that deliberations may not begin until Monday.
The trial is in its seventh week. A juror was dismissed as the prosecution neared the end of its case over questions about where that juror actually lived. And rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, stopped by the trial to observe the proceedings briefly at one point.
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