Two days of closing arguments in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ intercourse trafficking trial started on Thursday with a prosecutor telling the jury the hip-hop mogul used “power, violence and fear” to rule a prison enterprise that facilitated kidnapping, arson and brutal intercourse crimes that she mentioned have been on the coronary heart of the case.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Christy Slavik offered the jury with a street map for a closing argument anticipated to final a number of hours.
She described Combs as somebody “who doesn’t take no for an answer,” whereas he dedicated crimes of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy for 20 years.
Combs “counted on silence and shame” to allow and lengthen his abuse, Slavik mentioned. He used a “small army” of staff — an interior circle that included private assistants and bodyguards — to hurt girls and canopy it up, she mentioned.
The idea of racketeering legislation is that “when someone commits crime as part of a group, they’re more powerful and dangerous,” Slavik mentioned. “The defendant was a powerful man, but he became more powerful and dangerous because of his inner circle, his businesses — the enterprise.”
Prosecutors say Combs coerced and abused girls for years as he used his “power and prestige” as a music star to enlist a community of associates and staff to assist him whereas he silenced victims by blackmail and violence, together with kidnapping, arson and bodily beatings.
They are saying the Unhealthy Boy Information founder induced feminine victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male intercourse staff in occasions dubbed “Freak Offs.”
Protection attorneys have argued that Combs was concerned in home violence however dedicated no federal crimes.
They constructed their case for acquittal by prolonged cross-examinations of a lot of the authorities’s 34 witnesses. Some witnesses testified solely in response to subpoenas and made it clear to the jury that they did not wish to be there.
Earlier than Slavik started her closing, Decide Arun Subramanian informed the jury they might hear a closing argument from a protection lawyer on Friday and a rebuttal by a prosecutor earlier than he instructs them on the legislation and permits them to start deliberating as early as late afternoon.
Sources for victims of sexual assault can be found by the Nationwide Sexual Violence Sources Middle and the Nationwide Sexual Assault Phone Hotline at 800-656-4673.
