Prosecutors in the criminal trial against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs yesterday set out their final arguments for why the musician should be found guilty of racketeering on the basis he used his entertainment business to facilitate and cover up a criminal enterprise.
“Money, power and influence” allowed that to happen for two decades, but the jury can now end that criminal enterprise for good, they were told, by finding Combs guilty.
Summing up at the end of a seven week trial, prosecutor Christy Slavik told the court that Combs built a “small army” to help him break the law on a prolific basis, including a chief of staff who was paid $600,000 a year and at least five bodyguards.
According to Law 360, Slavik claimed that Combs “became more powerful and more dangerous because of the support of his inner circle and his businesses”, before adding, “it’s his kingdom - that’s what a racketeering conspiracy is”.
Combs denies the allegations against him. He insists that the many allegations of sexual assault - in the criminal case and a stack of civil lawsuits - misrepresent what were consensual acts.
And while his lawyers haven’t sought to excuse the physical assaults that were captured on camera, they insist the claim that their client ran a mafia style criminal enterprise - the kind of set-up more commonly associated with ‘racketeering’ - simply isn’t credible. This entire case, they said at one point, centres on “love, jealousy, infidelity and money”.
For the jury to find Combs guilty of racketeering, they must be convinced that the musician and his employees together committed at least two criminal acts.
Slavkik said there were at least eight: drug distribution, kidnapping, arson, bribery, sex trafficking, transporting women for prostitution, forced labour and witness tampering.
Going into more detail, the prosecutor reminded the jury there were three instances of alleged kidnapping; the allegation Combs orchestrated the firebombing of Kid Cudi’s car after discovering that the rival rapper was dating his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura; and two instances of bribery, including attempts to stop the footage of him physically beating Ventura in an LA hotel from being made public.
And then there are the dozens of times Combs allegedly moved victims across state lines to force them to take part in his sex parties, the so called ‘freak offs’. Given the scale of that conduct, the prosecution hopes that the jury will find Combs guilty of sex trafficking as well as racketeering.
Concluding, Slavik told the court that Combs “was able to get away” with running his extensive criminal enterprise for two decades “due to his money, power and influence”. But, “that stops now - it is time to hold him accountable. It is time for justice. It is time to find him guilty”.
The defence were presenting their closing arguments today before jury deliberations begin.