Hours after prosecutors rested their sprawling sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy case against Sean Combs on Tuesday, prosecutors filed a late-night letter to the court saying they’d be dropping three predicate acts of the racketeering charge against the hip-hop mogul.
The government is “no longer planning to proceed” on theories of attempted arson, alleged incidents of kidnapping in California and New York, and the aiding and abetting of sex trafficking when giving charging instructions to the jury.
Combs is still facing separate counts of sex trafficking his ex-girlfriends Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman using the pseudonym Jane, as well as two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution for allegedly paying for male escorts to fly across the country to have sex with his girlfriends while he watched.
In addition, there are still six other predicate acts included in the racketeering conspiracy count, including bribery, witness tampering, forced labor, and the possession and distribution of drugs. However, the fire-bombing of Kid Cudi’s car and the alleged kidnapping of Combs’ assistant Capricorn Clark, who claimed she was threatened and given a lie detector test over five consecutive days in a locked office building, were among the most bombshell allegations from the case.
The 55-year-old, who seemed to be in good spirits in the final days of his trial, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
To Mark Chutkow, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit who specialized in racketeering and human trafficking cases, prosecutors dropping the predicate acts serves two purposes: minimizing confusion for jurors and warding off a possible defense strategy of accusing the government of overreaching.
“Probably in reviewing the evidence here, as the case is closing, the prosecution realizes that the quantum of evidence that they have for those particular counts aren’t quite as strong as it is for the others,” Chutkow tells Rolling Stone. “One thing you don’t want to do as a prosecutor is be susceptible to the argument that you’ve overreached. By keeping those predicate acts in here, the defense may latch on to those things and say, ‘This is an example of the government presenting you evidence that truly is not beyond a reasonable doubt.’
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“I wouldn’t see that as a victory for [Combs] per se,” Chutkow, now a trial attorney at Dykema Gossett, adds. “I see it more as the government is comfortable that its proof came in on the other racketeering predicate acts and didn’t feel like it was necessary to continue to present on this … That’s just something that happens in large, complex cases where you want to make sure that the jury doesn’t get confused. The prosecution wants the cleanest case that they can present to the jury, so that there aren’t a lot of disputes and arguments there.”
The alleged kidnapping of Clark in 2004 marked the start of the government’s racketeering conspiracy count against Combs. The former assistant testified that Combs accused her of stealing diamond jewelry and had a security guard ransack her apartment looking for the items. Finding nothing, Clark said she was escorted to a locked, dilapidated office building in midtown where an unknown man administered five consecutive days of lie-detector tests. “He said if you fail these tests, they’re going to throw you in the East River,” Clark claimed the man told her.
Years later, in December 2011, Clark said she was in Los Angeles working for Combs when he arrived at her apartment. Livid and allegedly toting a gun, Combs had just come from a freak-off with Ventura and discovered the R&B singer was dating rapper Kid Cudi (real name Scott Mescudi). “Get dressed; we’re going to go kill that n—a,” Combs allegedly said. Clark said she was terrified, but when she tried to protest, Combs told her, “I don’t give a fuck what you want to do.”
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Obeying, Clark claimed that as she rode in Combs’ SUV with his driver over to Mescudi’s Hollywood Hills home, the gun was visible in Combs’ lap. She said she stayed in the car as Combs roamed around Mescudi’s house, making a panicked call to Ventura when he wasn’t looking.
Weeks later, in January 2012, Mescudi testified that after rebuffing Combs’ attempts to talk about his fling with Ventura, he received a call that his Porsche had been fire-bombed. A hole was cut into the roof, and a Molotov cocktail had been dropped into the driver’s seat of the luxury vehicle, charring the car’s interior and destroying the car. Ventura testified that Combs had earlier threatened to explode Mescudi’s car in his driveway, and Mescudi said he suspected Combs had something to do with the arson attempt.
The third alleged kidnapping incident occurred in January 2009, stemming from Combs allegedly stomping on Ventura’s face in the back of a car after a night out. “I never experienced anything like that before where I was getting really, really badly beaten,” Ventura testified.
Afterward, Ventura said Combs’ security members had to “sneak” her into a hotel, where she stayed for a week as her injuries healed. Although Ventura said she told Combs that she wanted to leave, Combs allegedly refused. “I don’t think I would have gotten out of there smoothly,” Ventura explained when questioned why she didn’t just leave the hotel by herself. “It was not safe. I didn’t have just the resources I need[ed] to get out and move and not have anybody stop me,” she said.
The government’s decision comes hours after they rested its case, which spanned six weeks and included tearful testimony from more than 30 witnesses.
Combs is accused of using his billion-dollar music, fashion, and liquor empire as a criminal enterprise. A team of loyal bodyguards, high-ranking staffers, and some assistants were allegedly tasked with carrying out their boss’s demands, accused of committing acts of bribery, arson, kidnapping, witness tampering, and drug distribution between 2004 and 2024. Prosecutors claimed that many of these alleged acts revolved around fostering Combs’ tumultuous relationships with his girlfriends, who he is accused of sex trafficking.
Before Combs’ defense team put on a 25-minute defense, with no witnesses called to the stand, Combs’ attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, submitted a motion for a mistrial, claiming the government failed to meet its burden of proof across all five charges. (U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian reserved his decision on the motion.)
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Although typically a procedural motion, Shapiro took the opportunity to argue there was especially “thin proof” that Combs’ employees had “knowingly participated in crimes with or for Mr. Combs” other than picking up “personal” quantities of drugs. When it came to freak-offs, where the alleged sex trafficking took place, Shapiro claimed Combs and his girlfriends went out of their way to hide the details of Combs’ personal sex life from his staffers, booking male escorts themselves.
“The assistants set up and cleaned hotel rooms, but they didn’t know much, if anything, about what went on between Mr. Combs and his girlfriends in the hotel rooms, other than they used a lot of baby oil and Astroglide and drank alcohol and perhaps used drugs,” Shapiro said.
