Prosecutor casts Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs as a legal who abused others by way of energy, violence and concern

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik offered the jury with a highway map for a closing argument anticipated to final a number of hours.

She described Combs as somebody “who does not take no for a solution,” whereas he dedicated crimes of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy for twenty years.

Combs “counted on silence and disgrace” to allow and lengthen his abuse, Slavik stated. He used a “small military” of workers — an inside circle that included private assistants and bodyguards — to hurt ladies and canopy it up, she stated.

The principle of racketeering regulation is that “when somebody commits crime as a part of a gaggle, they’re extra highly effective and harmful,” Slavik stated. “The defendant was a robust man, however he grew to become extra highly effective and harmful due to his inside circle, his companies — the enterprise.”

Prosecutors say Combs coerced and abused ladies for years as he used his “energy and status” as a music star to enlist a community of associates and workers to assist him whereas he silenced victims by way of blackmail and violence, together with kidnapping, arson and bodily beatings.

They say the Bad Boy Records founder induced feminine victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male intercourse staff in occasions dubbed “Freak Offs.”

Defense attorneys have argued that Combs was concerned in home violence however dedicated no federal crimes.

They constructed their case for acquittal by way of prolonged cross-examinations of many 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 need to be there.

Before Slavik started her closing, Judge 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 regulation and permits them to start deliberating as early as late afternoon.

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