Online Reporter
NEW YORK. − Sean “Diddy” Combs was “the leader of a criminal enterprise,” Assistant US Attorney Christy Slavik said yesterday as she presented the government’s closing arguments in the criminal trial against the music mogul.
Slavik first touched on the racketeering conspiracy charge against Diddy before breaking down the sex trafficking counts related to “Jane” and Cassie Ventura.
Here’s what she said:
· The sex-trafficking charge regarding “Jane,” a former girlfriend of Diddy who testified under a pseudonym, is based on Diddy’s years-long pattern of fraud, coercion and ultimately force to get her to do “hotel nights.” She recalled three “hotel nights” in particular that Jane testified about as the most clear-cut examples of sex trafficking with Jane adding that “there are many other hotel nights that Jane agreed to because of the defendant’s pattern of coercion.”
· She illustrated how the government alleges Diddy coerced Jane into sex trafficking during each of three aforementioned dates: In September 2023 when he lured Jane to New York with false promises and then coerced her into performing a “hotel night”; in October 2023 during the “sobriety party”; and in June 2024 following a physical altercation that took place at the home Jane lived in that Combs was paying rent for.
· Diddy’s coercive pattern “picked up steam” when he started paying Jane’s rent and would threaten to cut off her rent and end their relationship when she tried to resist the “hotel nights,” causing Jane to feel “obligated” to perform for Diddy.
In order to find Combs guilty of sex trafficking, the jury has to find that Diddy used force, fraud, threats or coercion to make Jane participate in “hotel nights.”
Slavik added the jury can find he used any of those means alone or any combination of them.
Diddy’s conduct had “one purpose,” Slavik said, “to get Jane to agree to do ‘hotel nights.’ … snd because the defendant knew exactly what he was doing, this was sex trafficking.” − CNN
