Sean Combs Prosecutor Says ‘It's Time for Justice' in Closing Argument

Yahoo

02-07-2025

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Sean Combs acted as the all-powerful kingpin atop a racketeering conspiracy that used violence, silence, and 'shame' to trap two women in episodes of sex trafficking where they had no choice but to perform drug-fueled sex acts with male escorts for his voyeuristic fantasies, a federal prosecutor told jurors Thursday.
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During closing arguments at Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik walked jurors through the government's five felony charges against the music mogul that have been the subject of his closely watched, seven-week trial in lower Manhattan. Slavik called Combs the 'leader of a criminal enterprise' who refused to 'take no for an answer' and always got what he wanted.
'The defendant was a very powerful man, but he became more powerful and more dangerous because of the support of his inner circle and his businesses — the enterprise,' Slavik said. She told jurors Combs made it clear to his alleged victims that he commanded an 'armed and ready' security staff willing to 'protect' him against any perceived threats.
'It's his kingdom,' she said of Combs. 'Everyone was there to serve him.'
Tying together the government's case after weeks of sometimes disjointed testimony, Slavik told jurors they could find Combs guilty of racketeering conspiracy if they determine he and just one other alleged co-conspirator agreed to two of the eight so-called 'predicate' acts listed in his indictment. She said the acts could be two separate instances of the same crime, such as drug distribution or instances of bribery, arson, kidnapping, sex trafficking, forced labor, witness tampering or transportation to engage in prostitution.
Slavik meticulously laid out testimony related to each option, including the time Combs allegedly handed a hotel security guard a $100,000 cash 'bribe' for what he believed was the only copy of surveillance video showing Combs beating Ventura at Los Angeles' InterContinental Hotel in March 2016. She said forced labor could include the 'grueling' sex marathons that Combs allegedly forced his ex-girlfriend Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura and a more recent ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym 'Jane' to endure over multiple days in darkened hotel rooms.
Slavik also clarified that Combs could be found guilty of sex trafficking if jurors decide he coerced the women into just one unwanted sex act with a paid male escort. 'This is not an all-or-nothing situation,' she emphasized. Slavik noted that it doesn't matter if the women previously expressed some level of enthusiasm for the encounters. If there was just 'one instance' where Ventura or Jane felt coerced into a freak-off through 'force, threats of force, fraud or coercion,' that's enough, she said, 'Mr. Combs should be found guilty of sex trafficking.'
At the end of her nearly five hour presentation, Slavik said Combs committed 'crime after crime' over a span of two decades, and he should face consequences.
'It's time to hold him accountable. It's time for justice,' she concluded. 'It's time to find the defendant guilty.'
The defense will begin their closing argument on Friday ahead of the government's final rebuttal, with the jury set to begin deliberations on Monday.
The 55-year-old Bad Boy Records founder, who faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged, has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. (Combs' lawyers said his relationships may have been 'toxic' and sometimes physically abusive, but not criminal.)
On Thursday, the courtroom's rows reserved for Combs' family were packed with his mother, three sons and three eldest daughters. In the final days of the trial, Combs appeared to be pleased with his all-star legal team's handling of the case — evident in the hugs he gave to his attorneys after they rested their defense within 25 minutes on Tuesday. But the start of closing arguments was markedly different. Combs appeared nervous, steadying his hands while pouring himself a cup of water. He sat mostly still, facing straight ahead and taking occasional glances at the jury.
Speaking to jurors while members of Combs' family watched on, Slavik pointed to both Ventura and Jane's tearful testimony where they told jurors they felt 'obligated' to participate in, and sometimes facilitate, the sexual encounters with male escorts to keep Combs happy. Slavik said Combs personally paid the escorts and sometimes flew them cross-country to join the days-long sex marathons. The women said they came to know these highly degrading, ecstasy-induced nights by a variety of names. For Ventura, they were freak-offs, but for Jane, they were known as 'hotel nights' and 'debauchery.'
But Slavik said domestic violence was a key factor in Combs' multifaceted coercion of Ventura in order to keep her under his control and for her to continue to give Combs his sexual fantasy. She said for Ventura, the idea she would pay a price for any defiance — whether in the form of a beating or threats to release her sex tapes — became her 'new normal.'
'It became her job,' Slavik said, referring to Combs' demands Ventura dress up in sky-high platform heels, slather herself in baby oil, have sex with strangers for days at a time, then spend the rest of the week recovering from the come down of drugs. 'It became her shame.'
The prosecutor said Combs expected 'total compliance,' and if he didn't get it, he would lash out with aggression. 'She's knew that when he was happy, she was safe,' Slavik said. 'If the defendant wanted a freak-off, it was going to happen.'
Slavik pointed to a 2023 cross-country trip to New York that Jane initially refused because she didn't want to have a freak-off, but eventually agreed to when Combs insisted it would be a romantic weekend together. Unbeknownst to Jane, text messages show that Combs was still organizing a freak-off for that night. Slavik said Combs 'tricked' Jane into making the trip, pulling the 'rug out from under her.' In that moment, 'before the plane even lands,' Slavik added, 'that is a completed act of sex trafficking.'
Slavik also zeroed in on one night last June when Combs allegedly choked, kicked, and punched her in a fight at her house and forced her into a subsequent freak-off. Referencing Jane's testimony, Slavik said when Jane protested, Combs even leaned in and whispered, 'Is this coercion?' – an alleged nod to his awareness he was already under investigation for the alleged sex trafficking of Ventura. Slavik said Combs was 'taunting' Jane and 'brazenly acknowledging that he was breaking the very same law, the very same law that he'd broken repeatedly before.'
In her arguments Thursday, Slavik said Combs coerced Ventura and Jane through both threats and violence and making them turn down work so they became financially dependent on him. She added that he would ply them with drugs that made them helpless to resist. She said with Ventura, a then 37-year-old Combs took a 'moldable' 19-year-old aspiring singer and took advantage of her naiveté, grooming her for freak-offs amid a relationship with a clearly skewed power dynamic.
She said Ventura also understood Combs was a danger to others around her. Ventura watched as Combs allegedly assaulted her friend Deonte Nash when he once stepped in to protect her, Slavik said, and she was present the day Combs allegedly dangled designer Bryana Bongolan off her 17th-story balcony. Ventura also knew Combs paid her friend Kerry Morgan after allegedly choking and chucking a wooden hanger at Morgan's head. (The three friends all corroborated the alleged attacks in testimony.)
Prosecutors said on Thursday that Ventura knew that Combs broke into Kid Cudi's house with a gun and explicitly threatened the rapper's life, Slavik said. Combs also allegedly told Ventura he planned to blow up Mescudi's car. Days later, Kid Cudi's Porsche exploded in his driveway in broad daylight, she said. 'Of course the defendant was behind this,' Slavik said.
In yet another point of clarification, Slavik told jurors that Combs' alleged criminal enterprise was separate from his highly public, billion-dollar business empire. She said the enterprise operated in the shadows, only known to a trusted group of handsomely paid co-conspirators. One chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, was paid $600,000 per year, Slavik said.
The prosecutor said the evidence provided by the government's 34 witnesses proved beyond a reasonable doubt that whenever Combs' relationships with Ventura or Jane needed attention or were on the brink of collapse – or worse yet, dreaded public exposure – the mogul and his minions did whatever was necessary to fulfill his desires and ward off bad publicity. She said while the defense claims Combs purchased the hotel video solely to safeguard Combs' reputation, that was an obvious goal that wasn't mutually exclusive from keeping his enterprise afloat.
Though the high-powered defense lawyers declined to call any witnesses of their own, they focused their cross-examinations on undermining the credibility of key government witnesses and amplifying details they say showed Combs keeping personal details of his sex life separate from his employees.
But prosecutors claim that even if Combs tried to keep his hiring of male escorts hidden, there were several people on his payroll — outside of his most trusted inner circle — who had seen a naked man scurrying away in a hotel room, a stranger entering Combs and Ventura's suite late at night, and an explicit video of an unknown man having sex with Jane while Combs watched. 'If all these people figured it out, it defies logic' that Combs' co-conspirators weren't aware of the hiring of male escorts, Slavik said.
Some staffers testified they were aware of Combs' capacity for violence. One former assistant said witnessing a dispute between Combs and a girlfriend identified as Gina was the last straw that led him to quit. But they said working for the mogul was an all-consuming proposition, and they soon became so isolated and desensitized, they became convinced that walking away from the tight-knit Bad Boy family and what many considered a dream job would be a grave mistake.
Prosecutors allege that security guards and even Khorram sent confusing signals, making them think they had allies and that things would improve. But Slavik said Thursday that the bodyguards and Khorram's loyalty was with Combs, reminding jurors that Khorram allegedly kept close tabs on Ventura for her boss and purportedly helped broker the purchase of the hotel video.
Slavik reminded jurors of Combs' extreme willingness to use violence and fear 'to get what he wanted' in any situation. 'He doesn't take 'no' for an answer,' she told the jury. 'Up until today, the defendant was able to get away with these crimes because of his money, his power, his influence. That stops now.'
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