Jury deliberation ongoing : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2250+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F98%2F35%2Fcd24a7a84ebbbd44fd9937441494%2F2025-06-30t184934z-1427539992-rc2zcfazjq0r-rtrmadp-3-people-sean-combs.JPG" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2250+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F98%2F35%2Fcd24a7a84ebbbd44fd9937441494%2F2025-06-30t184934z-1427539992-rc2zcfazjq0r-rtrmadp-3-people-sean-combs.JPG" class="img" alt="Defense attorneys confer with Sean Combs in this courtroom sketch. The jury began deliberations at Combs' sex trafficking trial in New York City on Monday." fetchpriority="high"/> Protection attorneys talk to Sean Combs on this courtroom sketch. The jury started deliberations at Combs' intercourse trafficking trial in New York Metropolis on Monday. Jane Rosenberg/Reuters disguise caption

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Jane Rosenberg/Reuters Because the jury started deliberating within the high-profile federal prison trial of Sean Combs on Monday, a transparent narrative wrestle got here into focus, one that may determine whether or not or not these jurors at a decrease Manhattan federal courtroom will discover Combs responsible.

The hip-hop mogul is charged with intercourse trafficking, transportation to interact in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy. The trial centered on allegations involving two of his former girlfriends, the singer Casandra "Cassie" Ventura and a lady who testified on the stand below the pseudonym "Jane." He has pleaded not responsible.

All through the almost two-month proceedings, the federal government painted Combs as violent, domineering and possessive, a tyrannical determine with huge sources who compelled or coerced his companions into unlawful intercourse acts throughout cities and utilizing his companies to orchestrate them. The protection didn't dispute the home abuse that each ladies and different witnesses testified about; as an alternative, it has countered that the sexual encounters Ventura and Jane had with male intercourse staff below Combs' route, which he regularly filmed, have been solely consensual.

In contrast, each ladies testified that they have been coerced into collaborating in these marathon periods, which Combs also known as "freak-offs," "resort nights" or "wild king nights."

Former federal prosecutor and co-founder of West Coast Trial Legal professionals Neama Rahmani tells NPR that the three units of expenses towards Combs are fairly disparate in how straightforward or tough they might be to show to a jury past an inexpensive doubt.

"The best, in fact, is the prostitution, of the Mann Act violation," Rahmani says. (The prosecution offered receipts of assorted escorts' journey throughout state strains in addition to their resort bookings.)

"In all probability probably the most tough is the intercourse trafficking," Rahmani continues, "not due to the weather, however due to the potential protection of consent in proving drive, fraud or coercion. Racketeering, or RICO, is the broadest. And there are lots of potential RICO predicate acts akin to bribery, extortion, prostitution, drug distribution and compelled labor. So the jurors, with respect to racketeering, must discover a prison enterprise. They'll have to search out an illegal settlement [between Combs and multiple former employees], and so they'll have to search out two or extra racketeering acts. The truth that it is so broad might result in the opportunity of a consensus on a number of of the simpler predicate acts."

"Racketeering conspiracy does have a variety of components," he says. "The protection spent a variety of time saying that there was no enterprise and this was simply Combs doing issues on his personal. These have been all private bills. Then they assault the conspiracy, saying that there was no illegal settlement. Clearly, the federal government placed on six totally different government or private assistants of Diddy, and so they have been actively concerned in organising the resorts for the free coffees and procuring among the authorized and prescribed drugs. A few of them have been concerned within the extortion and the bribery, regardless that they weren't known as as witnesses."

In all, 34 witnesses testified towards Combs over six weeks. The primary witness to look on the stand was Ventura, who took the stand pregnant. She alleged that Combs had repeatedly bodily assaulted her, raped her, trafficked her and sought to manage each facet of her private {and professional} life. (Ventura, who dated Combs on-and-off from 2007 to 2018, filed a civil swimsuit towards the mogul in November 2023 that was settled out of courtroom a day later for $20 million, an quantity she confirmed throughout her testimony on this trial.) She painted her relationship with Combs as coercive and abusive, and mentioned {that a} resort surveillance video from 2016, through which Combs could be seen violently attacking her within the hallway, reveals her attempting to flee a "freak-off."

Throughout six days of testimony that adopted, "Jane" painted an identical image. She alleged that her relationship with Combs, which started in 2021, oscillated between "love bombing" and "sexual exploitation" all the way in which as much as his arrest and indictment in September 2024. Combs launched her to "resort nights" that would run anyplace from 12 and 30 hours. "Jane" mentioned she turned financially depending on Combs, and that if she tried to withstand a "resort evening" he would convey up these funds. "I could not say no to him," she instructed the courtroom.

To construct its case, the prosecution offered greater than 30 different witnesses — together with a number of former staff — and extra proof in an try to indicate that Combs was manipulating these ladies into illegal intercourse acts and in addition utilizing his enterprise empire to cowl up associated crimes that reach to bribery, obstruction of justice and drug distribution.

Because the prosecution's case drew to an in depth on every week in the past Monday, protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo instructed Choose Arun Subramanian that his staff wouldn't name any witnesses, and that it will current proof that Ventura and "Jane" have been keen companions and never victims.

Final Tuesday was a whirlwind day in courtroom, as each the prosecution and protection rested their instances inside hours of each other. The federal government's case, which lasted six weeks, sought to assemble its argument round trafficking. Prosecutors aimed to steer the jury that Combs used his energy and affect to maneuver Ventura, "Jane" and intercourse staff throughout state strains to interact in "freak-offs" — and preserve it clandestine by way of coercion.

Jurors have been proven receipts, telephone data and textual content messages referring to a few of these interstate journeys. Additionally they heard testimony from brokers of Homeland Safety Investigations who raided Combs' properties in March 2024 and located weapons, medicine and 1000's of bottles of child oil and lubricant. A number of male intercourse staff have been known as to testify, as have been staff who labored cleanup for "freak-offs." The jury was proven video clips and screengrabs of some "freak-offs," although this proof was shielded from the remainder of the courtroom, together with the press.

After a lunch break on Tuesday, one lawyer on the protection staff, Alexandra Shapiro, moved for acquittal on all 5 expenses Combs faces — two counts of intercourse trafficking, two counts of transportation for prostitution and one depend of racketeering conspiracy — saying that the federal government failed to satisfy the burden of proof. Throughout the trade, Combs instructed Choose Subramanian that he was "doing a wonderful job."

The protection — which revealed that Combs wouldn't take the stand as a part of its case that afternoon — then wrapped up in below half-hour. The proof it offered to the jury appeared set on underscoring a story established throughout opening arguments and strengthened throughout a number of cross-examinations: that the artist and businessman could also be an unsavory character, and even a prison, however that he's not responsible of the issues he's at present charged with. The protection argued that his intercourse life was "unconventional" and poisonous, however that his relationships have been consensual and never coercive. In its transient presentation, the protection shared textual content messages from Ventura to Combs saying she liked him and entered one other doc as proof declaring minor inconsistencies within the testimony of a number of authorities witnesses. "Sean Combs is an advanced man, however this isn't an advanced case," protection lawyer Teny Geragos instructed the jury throughout opening arguments. "You aren't right here to evaluate him for his sexual preferences."

On the finish of the week, each groups delivered closing arguments that attempted to bolster their respective framings. In her remarks Thursday, prosecution lawyer Christy Slavik outlined the federal government's case, portray Combs as a robust determine who used violence and intimidation to get no matter he wished. Protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo didn't dispute the violence, but additionally sought to reframe Combs and his companions; he known as the connection between Combs and Cassie "an incredible trendy love story." Whereas acknowledging Combs' "swinger's way of life" as unconventional, Agnifilo claimed not one of the prosecution's witnesses have been "a part of an enterprise."

In a rebuttal from prosecutor Maurene Comey, the lawyer alleged that Combs' sample of violence amounted to a prison conspiracy spanning twenty years, that he believed himself to be above the regulation and that it's the courtroom's accountability to carry him accountable. "In his thoughts, he was untouchable, a god amongst males … and who would stand as much as a god?" she mentioned. After its six-week presentation, the federal government is now asking the jury to take that stand.