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(NewsNation) — Prosecutors volition person their past changeable astatine convincing a assemblage Thursday successful their transgression lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs arsenic the authorities begins closing arguments.
The seven-week ineligible proceeding has culminated successful its last days of the highly anticipated trial with the past of 34 witnesses taking the stand.
The authorities volition beryllium fixed 4 hours to marque its closing statement, and aft that, defence attorneys volition marque their last plea to jurors.
The assemblage is expected to statesman deliberations connected Monday.
Combs is facing imaginable beingness successful situation aft being charged with 1 number of racketeering conspiracy, 2 counts of enactment trafficking and 2 counts of proscription to prosecute successful prostitution.
He has pleaded not guilty.
The government’s lawsuit brought connected respective erstwhile employees of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment companies, but its astir noteworthy witnesses were 2 erstwhile partners, vocalist Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and “Jane,” a societal media influencer who testified nether a pseudonym.
Ventura, who was precocious word successful her gestation astatine the time, testified implicit 4 days astir the decade-long maltreatment she faced astatine Combs’ hands. She said she felt pressured to prosecute successful hundreds of intersexual events, dubbed “Freak Offs,” with enactment workers. These encounters were often filmed, and Ventura said she was threatened by Combs, who utilized the videos arsenic leverage implicit her.
Jane testified for six days astir intersexual performances she called “hotel nights,” saying she felt coerced into engaging successful them arsenic precocious arsenic past August but did truthful due to the fact that she loved and inactive loves Combs.
Ventura was successful a narration with Combs from 2007 to 2018, portion Jane was with him from 2021 until his apprehension past year.
Prosecutors and defence lawyers played respective minutes of recordings of the “freak offs” and “hotel nights.”
While the prosecution presented a robust case, defence attorneys wrapped up theirs wrong hours and with nary witnesses.
Much of their statement rested connected the mentation that each of the accusers were consenting adults and that nary 1 was forced to enactment successful Combs’ intersexual events.
They relied mostly connected substance messages betwixt Combs and his ex-partners to amusement that the women were consenting and adjacent arranged for the intersexual encounters astatine times.
Prosecutors, however, portrayed a web of nefarious enactment that occurred astir Combs’ "Freak Offs” and relationships with women.
Prosecutors connected Tuesday said they removed immoderate of the charges related to Combs’ indictment successful bid to absorption the jury's instructions for deliberation, tribunal filings showed.
Namely, they got escaped of instructions from charges related to attempted kidnapping, aiding and abetting enactment trafficking and attempted arson.
“The Government is nary longer readying to proceed connected these theories of liability truthful instructions are nary longer necessary,” prosecutors wrote successful a missive to Judge Arun Subramanian connected Tuesday.
The arson complaint stemmed from an incidental to which Kid Cudi, whose ineligible sanction is Scott Mescudi, testified arsenic a witness. Mescudi said that successful 2012, his Porsche 911 was firebombed successful the driveway of his Hollywood Hills home. Combs had allegedly breached into Mescudi’s location weeks earlier aft uncovering retired astir his narration with Ventura.
The assemblage besides faced its stock of play erstwhile Subramanian excused a juror for not being truthful during the enactment process astir his spot of residence.
The juror had casually mentioned to a subordinate of the tribunal unit that helium moved successful with his woman successful New Jersey, which is retired of the jurisdiction of the Southern District of New York.
