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Black America Web
07-07-2025
- Black America Web
What Is The Mann Act? Understanding Diddy's ‘Guilty' Verdict
Source: ANGELA WEISS / Getty The sex trafficking trial against Sean 'Diddy' Combs captivated audiences for weeks. A jury ultimately rendered a verdict acquitting the disgraced mogul of the most serious charges and found him guilty on two counts of violating the Mann Act. Diddy is an icon, but the Bad Boy Records founder has a mixed reputation. His contributions to music and the culture have earned him love and praise, but there have always been whispers of his abuse across the industry. It wasn't until video of him assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie at the Intercontinental Hotel gave credence to the rumors. His mask had been torn away, and the monster underneath unveiled through hours of harrowing testimonies. While the jury didn't find him guilty of racketeering and conspiracy, aka RICO, Cassie's brave testimony paved the way for him to be found accountable through the Mann Act. The United States passed The Mann Act into law in 1910. James Robert Mann authored the law. Mann was an Illinois congressman with deep concerns about what he considered immoral behavior infiltrating the fabric of the nation, especially via the corruption of White women. Legislators called it the 'White-Slave traffic Act' previously. It represented moral panics that followed the loosening of social restrictions following the Industrial Revolution. According to archives from the U.S. Department of Justice, this law currently 'prohibits transporting any individual in interstate or foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in prostitution or other sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, and related crimes.' In 1910, the act had a broader definition. It stated women could not be transported across state lines 'for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.' Citizens criticized for its broadness, prompting amendments. Lawmakers updated the definition in the 1980s. They repealed the highly subjective phrase 'immoral purpose.' The jury in the Diddy trial heard from several self-professed sex workers. They described traveling to engage in the 'freakoffs' that were at the center of the trial. The Mann Act carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine. The government prosecuted several other Black celebrities and other high-profile figures under the Mann Act. R. Kelly received Mann Act charges. Jurors convicted him of several counts of violating the Mann Act in 2021. Kelly attempted to have his convictions overturned on appeal recently. He was denied. The government used the law to prosecute the rock musician Chuck Berry and Jack Johnson, the first Black man to become a heavyweight boxing champion. Johnson was convicted in 1912, shortly after the law was enacted, despite the 'prostitute' in question being his white girlfriend who would later become his wife. Berry's 1960 arrest was fictionalized in the 2008 film Cadillac Records . Courts used the law to broadly condemn consensual interracial sex legally, in come cases. That does not explain every application. Johnson's paramour, turned spouse, wholly refused to testify against him. Witnesses testified against Combs. Each charge of the Mann Act carries a potential maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Defense lawyers argued the Mann Act was being selectively enforced in Combs' case. They accused prosecutors of being employed to destroy a successful Black man for engaging in a common, but technically criminal, practice, the New York Times reported. Juries convict average people under the Mann act. But it is overall rare and 'a very small percentage of prosecuted federal cases,' according to Bobby Taghavi, who spent over a decade serving at the Orange County District Attorney's office, where he dealt with well-known cases and prosecuted violent sex offenders. He explained his understanding of the frequency of the law's use in a statement to HelloBeautiful . 'It is more commonly used in high-profile, complex, or cross-jurisdictional cases, such as cases involving transportation of minors, sex trafficking rings, and celebrities, or public figures,' continued Taghavi who is currently a National Managing Partner of the personal injury firm Sweet James. 'Normally, such human trafficking and prostitution cases are prosecuted in State Court, and commonly in federal court it is a supplemental charge to RICO.' Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and legal commentator, told PEOPLE that it's likely Combs will get 'little to no time.' 'He may even get time served and prostitution has a 10 year maximum,' he said. 'But the fact that he was acquitted of the most serious counts. The government would not have brought this case had they thought they could only get prostitution.' The court declined to release Combs after the verdict. DON'T MISS: Horrifying Surveillance Footage Shows Diddy Physically Attacking Cassie In 2016 Janice Smalls Combs Breaks Her Silence Regarding Her Son, Sean 'Diddy' Combs Misa Hylton Reacts To Diddy's Leaked Assault Hotel Video SEE ALSO What Is The Mann Act? Understanding Diddy's 'Guilty' Verdict was originally published on
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jurors reach verdict on 4 counts at Sean ‘Diddy' Combs sex trafficking trial, remain deadlocked on 1
NEW YORK — Jurors weighing the sex trafficking and racketeering case against Sean 'Diddy' Combs on Tuesday told the court they had reached a verdict on all counts but one. In a note sent out after 4 p.m., the eight men and four women on the jury said they had decided on two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. The note did not indicate what their verdict was on those counts. The outstanding charge accuses Combs of racketeering conspiracy, which alleges he ran his Bad Boy Records empire like a criminal organization. Manhattan Federal Judge Arun Subramanian asked lawyers for the government and Combs' team to email him their proposals about what to do next. He said he could tell them to keep deliberating or accept a partial verdict. Combs appeared shell-shocked in court and was seen dabbing his eyes after his attorneys received the note. The development came as a thunderstorm broke out amid darkening skies above the courthouse. Earlier Tuesday, in a morning note, the jury asked to review the testimony of Combs' ex, Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura, regarding Combs brutally assaulting her in March 2016 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. Explosive footage of the assault shows Combs pummeling Ventura in a hallway, dragging her by the hair, kicking her while she curls up on the floor, and hurling a vase at her. Ventura on May 13 testified that the assault occurred after she tried to leave a 'freak-off' session after Combs punched her in the face. Jurors also wanted to look back over Ventura's testimony regarding her interactions with Daniel Phillips, a former male revue performer, whom she and Phillips testified was hired multiple times to sleep with Ventura for Combs' sexual gratification between 2012 and 2013. The panel also asked to review Phillips' testimony, during which he said he was once directed to urinate on Ventura, that she was once so heavily drugged he could not sleep with her, and that the only time he communicated with her alone, she appeared 'terrified.' Phillips said he stopped meeting the couple after witnessing Combs physically assault Ventura. The jury note also requested a review of accounts that Ventura shared about traveling with Combs to the Cannes Film Festival one year. In her testimony about the trip to the French film festival, Ventura said Combs had accused her of stealing his drugs and kicked her off his yacht without her shoes or her passport. After the tense trip, Ventura said she had swapped seats with someone on a commercial flight back to New York, but Combs switched them back. She said he spent the flight playing humiliating footage of her at freakoffs that she thought had been deleted, and then when they got back to the city, she felt she had no choice but to submit to another of the depraved events. Combs, 55, could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. He's pleaded not guilty to all charges. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office alleges Combs abused his notoriety and his wealth for two decades to sexually exploit women at weekly sex parties, directing them to perform sordid sex acts with a rotation of male escorts while high on his supply of drugs. Prosecutors say members of Combs' Bad Boy Records empire helped organize the vile sessions and resorted to crimes like kidnapping, arson, witness tampering and bribery to intimidate women into submission and terrorize anyone who threatened Combs' authority. Combs, a New York native who launched the careers of iconic hip hop artists like the Notorious B.I.G., maintains that he never pressured women into sexual performances against their will, that he paid escorts for their time, not sex, and that his employees were not hired to commit crimes. The trial continues Wednesday. _____
Winnipeg Free Press
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
What the key witnesses at Sean ‘Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial told the jury
NEW YORK (AP) — The jury deliberating at Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial heard testimony from 34 witnesses over the last seven weeks. They included Combs' ex-girlfriends Cassie and Jane, who said he forced them into drug-fueled sex marathons they called 'freak-offs' and 'hotel nights,' a sex worker they knew as 'The Punisher,' personal assistants who said they witnessed his violence and facilitated his sexual exploits, and other women who accused him of abuse. All of the witnesses were called by the prosecution. Combs waived his right to testify — not unusual for criminal defendants — and his defense team declined to call any witnesses of their own. Instead, they sought to undercut the allegations via cross-examination during the prosecution's case. Here are some of the key witnesses and what they said: Cassie Cassie, the R&B singer whose real name is Casandra Ventura, dated Combs from 2007 to 2018 after he signed her to his Bad Boy Records label. Over four days, she told jurors Combs beat her and ordered her to have 'disgusting' sex with male sex workers during multi-day 'freak-offs.' She also said Combs raped her after she said she was ending their relationship. In 2016, security cameras captured Combs hitting, kicking and dragging Cassie as she left his room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. The video was shown repeatedly throughout the trial. A hotel guard testified that Combs paid $100,000 to hide the video. It remained secret until CNN aired it in May 2024. Jane Jane, testifying under a pseudonym, dated Combs from 2021 until his arrest last September. The model said she repeatedly told Combs she didn't want to have sex with other men but that he kept pressuring her. She said she felt 'obligated' in part because he paid her rent. Last year, Jane said, Combs put her in a chokehold, punched her in the face and forced her into an encounter with a sex worker. She said he told her: 'You're not going to ruin my night like this.' Both women said Combs threatened to release their sex videos if they refused his demands. Kid Cudi Rapper Kid Cudi testified that Combs broke into his home in late 2011 after learning he and Cassie were dating. His Porsche was firebombed a few weeks later. Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, said he knew Combs 'had something to do' with it, but Combs told him he wasn't involved. Cudi said he thought Combs was lying when he claimed he knew nothing about the car. Daniel Phillip Daniel Phillip, an exotic dancer involved in 'freak-offs' from 2012 to 2014, said he was paid $700 to $6,000 to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and barked orders at them. He recalled the hip-hop mogul telling them: 'You need to rub more baby oil on each other. You don't have enough on.' Another time, Phillip said, Cassie jumped into his lap — her body shaking — after it sounded like Combs was slapping and slamming her around an adjoining room. He said he stopped meeting the couple after seeing Combs throw a bottle at her before dragging her by her hair into a bedroom as she screamed. 'The Punisher' Sharay Hayes, an exotic dancer known by the stage name 'The Punisher,' said Cassie used the ruse of a birthday striptease to lure him to his first 'freak-off.' He recalled seeing baby oil bottles in bowls of water and getting handed $800 in cash. Later, after Combs watched him have sex with Cassie, he said he was handed $1,200 more. Combs kept his face hidden during their initial meetings, and Hayes said he didn't realize it was him until he saw a message on a hotel room TV screen that said: 'Essex House would like to welcome Mr. Sean Combs.' Capricorn Clark Ex-Combs employee Capricorn Clark said Combs came to her home waving a gun the day of the break-in and demanded she get dressed and go with him because 'we're going to kill Cudi.' After the break-in, Clark said, Combs told her she had to convince Cudi 'it wasn't me.' 'If you don't convince him of that I'll kill all you,' he said, punctuating his threat with an expletive, Clark recalled. Mia A former personal assistant testifying under the pseudonym 'Mia' said Combs put his hand up her dress and forcibly kissed her at his 40th birthday party in 2009, forced her to perform oral sex on another occasion and raped her in 2010. His lawyers say the claims are false. Confronted on cross examination with loving texts she sent Combs long after her employment had ended, she said: 'I was still brainwashed.' Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan Cassie's friend Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan testified that Combs dangled her over the railing of Cassie's 17th floor balcony and threw her onto patio furniture in September 2016, leaving her bruised and traumatized. But defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland exposed holes in her story on cross examination, showing that Combs was on tour on the East Coast in 2016 when she said she suffered the bruises shown to jurors in a picture she had taken of her injuries. George Kaplan George Kaplan said he'd toss out liquor bottles and drugs and clean up baby oil from Combs' hotel rooms. He said he quit after seeing Combs fighting with Cassie but didn't report it to authorities. Kaplan said he still sends Combs birthday greetings and invited him to his wedding. Kaplan told jurors he was grateful to work for Combs and still has 'a great deal of respect' for him. David James David James testified that Combs had him stock hotel rooms with baby oil, condoms, Viagra and other supplies while he worked up to 20-hour days as a personal assistant from May 2007 to May 2009. James said he saw Combs with three handguns on his lap as they drove to confront Combs' record industry rival Suge Knight in 2008. On another occasion, he testified, Combs asked him to bring his iPod from his residence to his hotel and, when nobody answered the door, he went in and saw Cassie on the bed in a white comforter and a 'completely naked' man he did not recognize who walked 'across the room and kind of scurried away.' Brendan Paul Brendan Paul, who worked as a personal assistant to Combs for about 18 months ending in March 2024, said he bought drugs for Combs including cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy and marijuana. His employment ended when he was arrested at a Miami, Florida airport for possession of cocaine, which he testified came from Combs' room. Deonte Nash Combs' lawyers confronted celebrity stylist Deonte Nash with messages he sent expressing love for Combs. Some of them were from 2019 and 2020, two years after their professional relationship ended. A reluctant witness for prosecutors, he nonetheless gave them insight into the relationship between Cassie and Combs, saying Cassie was 'quite often' left with bruises to her legs, arms and neck, besides an incident when Combs left her with a large, bloody gash above her eye during a beating. Dawn Richard Dawn Richard, a singer in the Bad Boy Records groups Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, testified that she witnessed Combs acting violently toward Cassie, including swinging at her with a skillet and beating her in 2009. She says Combs made a threat, which she took as a death threat, if she didn't keep quiet. Combs' lawyers contend Richard's story has been inconsistent and that she is motivated to speak against him because she is suing him
Irish Independent
29-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Ambassador Martin Fraser's residence in London costs taxpayer €43,500 a month
The department confirmed it paid estate agency Knight Frank €522,394 in 2024 to cover just a single-year lease on the English property, which is home to ambassador Martin Fraser. The colossal bill was part of at least €3.95m paid out last year in rental costs for residences for senior Irish diplomats across the globe. Other lease costs included payments of €485,000 for the official residence in Tokyo, €291,000 for an apartment in New York and €204,000 in payments in San Francisco. The rental bill in Tel Aviv was almost €200,000, it was around €176,000 in Boston, and €135,000 in Seoul in South Korea. The department also ran up 15 separate hotel and accommodation bills in excess of €5,000 last year, according to figures released under FOI laws. This included €30,480 at the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin 4 to host a delegation during the state visit by the president of Vietnam last October. There was a bill of €9,300 from the same hotel for a visit by the Egyptian president in December while €5,241 was paid for accommodation at the Seven Alpina Hotel as part of Ireland's participation in the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. The department said an €8,408 bill at the four-star Fifty Sonesta Hotel in New York was for a staff member taking up a new diplomatic posting. Among other bills last year were €24,054 paid to the Dublin Airport Authority for platinum services for visiting dignitaries. The Department of Foreign Affairs said this covered three separate delegations from Vietnam, South Africa and China. To offset the carbon emissions of globe-trotting diplomatic staff, a sum of €99,623 was paid to the Government's climate action fund. The department said these payments are government policy since 2020 and that the fund was used to support climate-related projects and initiatives in Ireland. A total of €97,000 was paid in legal 'settlement costs' at the Passport Office, a database of departmental expenditure for 2024 showed. However, the department was tight-lipped on what was involved and said that 'further details can't be released on confidentiality grounds.' ADVERTISEMENT Learn more Other bills from last year included €62,418 to SOS International Assistance, a UK-based company who provides health and security services. The department said this included medical and security advice, digital risk mitigation, training and personal safety. A furniture removal bill of €26,019 was incurred last December, which covered the cost of bringing art back to the National Gallery and the Office of Public Works from the continent. The department said: 'Pieces from Berlin and pieces from Stockholm were transported and returned to Ireland. 'The artworks on display in our mission properties are key promotional tools, helping us to promote Irish culture, values and heritage.' The art transport bill was part of at least €900,000 that was spent on removal and storage costs for staff packing up and moving to missions across the world. Other costs for the department included €4.65m for passport booklets and €8.6m for postage and courier costs. Around €64,000 was spent on chauffeured cars, €11,600 for a BMW vehicle in Washington DC and €43,000 for 'items of artistic value'. There was €3.7m worth of invoices for major maintenance on residences overseas, including redecoration and construction. Asked about the high rental bill for the London residence, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the property had been chosen following a market assessment process. On hotel and other VIP costs, it said: 'We are responsible for the effective management of incoming visits by heads of state and government and other high-level foreign dignitaries to Ireland. 'These visits advance Ireland's values and interests, unlock opportunities, strengthen bilateral and multilateral relationships and position Ireland as a proactive and influential global partner.'
The Hindu
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Death of R&AW officer in Dhaka in 1974 linked to Mujib assassination plot, claims book
The mysterious death in 1974 in Dhaka of a senior officer of India's external intelligence agency, who had been serving as a secret emissary of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was a precursor to the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975, a new book has revealed. Veteran journalist Manash Ghosh, in his recently published book Mujib's Blunders: The Power and the Plot Behind His Killing, has written that Phanindra Nath Banerjee, Joint Director of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), was found dead in his room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dhaka in July 1974. The incident, he noted, was never thoroughly investigated by either India or Bangladesh. 'It was the mysterious death of Phanindra Nath Banerjee [popularly known as Nath Babu or PNB], Calcutta-based Joint Director of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), that disturbed us, the Dhaka-based Indian correspondents, immensely,' Mr. Ghosh writes. Mr. Banerjee was the direct liaison between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh. 'For Nath Babu, nurturing his relationship with a leader like Mujib was vital for his professional success. But then Ms. Gandhi had wanted his relationship with Mujib to assume both professional and personal dimensions as he was Bangladesh's man of destiny. He directly reported to Ms. Gandhi and got his instructions straight from her without any intermediary,' the author writes, explaining the R&AW officer's access to the top echelons of power in Dhaka. Mr. Banerjee had reportedly earned the trust of Sheikh Mujib's family, including Begum Mujib, and maintained a low profile in Dhaka's diplomatic circles while having frequent meetings with senior Bangladeshi leaders such as Tajuddin Ahmed and members of the Mujib household. His closeness to power in Bangladesh and his influential position attracted curiosity and speculation. Mr. Ghosh claims that serving officers - colonels, majors, and captains - allegedly involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were in contact with certain Western embassies in Dhaka and were lobbying for 'regime change.' These conspirators, he suggests, may have viewed Mr. Banerjee as an obstacle. 'They probably suspected that Nath Babu had got wind of the conspiracy that was being hatched against the entire Mujib family and had been officially assigned by his government to protect Mujib's life and also that of his family members. They could have thought that with Nath Babu around in Dacca, it would be difficult to execute their conspiracy to eliminate Mujib,' Mr. Ghosh writes. Though Mr. Banerjee's death was officially attributed to a heart attack, the post-mortem report was never released. 'The officer in charge of the Ramna thana, who was the first among Bangladeshi officials to reach his hotel room, told reporters that he had been instructed by his higher ups that the cause of Nath Babu's death should not be discussed with any media representatives,' Mr. Ghosh writes. He adds that the National Security Intelligence (NSI) officials in Bangladesh 'remained tight-lipped and refused to entertain our phone calls.' The author also hints at the possibility that the R&AW official may have died due to poisoning after consuming a meal during a meeting with a prominent leader from a minority community in Dhaka.
