Jurors started deliberating Monday in Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ sex trafficking case, weighing charges that could put the hip-hop mogul in prison for life.
Judge Arun Subramanian began reading instructions on the law on Monday morning to the jury of eight men and four women. Now, they’ll sift through seven weeks of sometimes graphic and emotional testimony about the rap, fashion and reality TV impresario’s propensity for violence and his sexual predilections, including drug-fueled sex marathons dubbed “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking — relating to two of his ex-girlfriends — and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution for allegedly arranging to fly sex workers across state lines.
CBS News legal contributor Caroline Polisi, a criminal defense attorney, said the prosecution’s best chance at getting a conviction could be with the sex trafficking charges.
“The prosecution made clear there only has to be one instance, out of these hundreds of ‘freak-offs,’ one instance where it was coerced by force, fraud or coercion, and that can include threats of harm that doesn’t even include physical harm,” Polisi said. “So that can include fear of financial harm, fear of reputational harm. Remember, he videotaped all of these encounters, and the government laid out specific instances where he threatened to release those tapes.”
In closing arguments last week, federal prosecutors and Combs’ defense team took their last shots at convincing jurors to convict or acquit the Grammy Award-winning founder of Bad Boy Records.
“The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik said. “He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.”
She said that he used his “close inner circle and a small army of personal staff, who made it their mission to meet the defendant’s every desire, promote his power and protect his reputation at all costs.”
Defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo countered, “This isn’t about crime. It’s about money.” He noted that one of Combs’ accusers in the criminal case also sued him in civil court.
“He is not a racketeer. He is not a conspirator to commit racketeering. He is none of these things. He is innocent. He sits there innocent. Return him to his family, who have been waiting for him,” the lawyer told jurors.
In all, 34 witnesses testified, headlined by Combs’ former girlfriends Cassie — the R&B singer born Casandra Ventura — and “Jane,” who testified under a pseudonym. Both women said he often was violent toward them. Cassie said he forced her into hundreds of sexual encounters with paid male sex workers while Jane recounted numerous “hotel nights.”
Jurors also saw now-infamous security camera video of Combs beating, kicking and dragging Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 and clips from videos of sexual encounters.
Combs chose not to testify, and his lawyers didn’t call any witnesses in their defense case. His attorneys elected instead to challenge the accusers’ credibility during lengthy cross-examination questioning.
The defense has acknowledged that Combs veered into violence, but his lawyers maintain that the sex acts were consensual. They contend that prosecutors are intruding in Combs’ personal life and that he’s done nothing to warrant the charges against him.
