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On Thursday, Southern District of New York prosecutors began tying together their sprawling sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy case against Sean Combs to convince jurors the hip-hop mogul is guilty of all five felony charges leveled against him.
Over the last seven weeks of trial, jurors had a front-row seat for testimony from 34 witnesses, including Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, the musician Kid Cudi, and several of Combs’ former assistants. They heard how the magnetic and charming Combs allegedly wielded his wealth and influence as tools to coerce and defraud Ventura and another ex-girlfriend known as “Jane” into sex with male escorts.
The 55-year-old Bad Boy Records founder, who faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged, is accused of twisting the women’s love for him into coerced compliance. The women told jurors they felt “obligated” to participate in, and sometimes facilitate, the drug-fueled sexual encounters to fulfill Combs’ voyeuristic fantasies. Prosecutors said Combs personally paid the escorts and sometimes flew them cross-country to join the days-long sex marathons. The women said they came to know these highly degrading, ecstasy-induced nights as “freak-offs,” “hotel nights,” and “debauchery.”
In her closing argument, Assistant U.S. Christy Slavik said Combs relied on an inner circle of security staffers and “loyal lieutenants” to trap the women under his control in a racketeering conspiracy. Whenever the relationships needed attention or were on the brink of collapse – or dreaded public exposure – the group of “foot soldiers” jumped into action, committing so-called “predicate” crimes including bribery, arson, kidnapping, witness tampering, and drug distribution, she said. One chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, was paid $600,000 per year as she allegedly helped keep Combs’ criminal enterprise afloat, Slavik said.
“The defendant was a very powerful man, but he became more powerful and more dangerous because of the support of his inner circle and his businesses,” Slavik said, according to CNN. She told jurors Combs was the boss, and his co-conspirators worked to “protect” him.
“It’s his kingdom,” she said of Combs. “Everyone was there to serve him.”
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To convict Combs of the government’s racketeering charge, jurors must find that Combs and at least one other member of his alleged enterprise agreed that someone would commit at least two of the predicate acts listed in his indictment, Slavik said.
For their part, Combs’ legal team has pushed back on the prosecution’s narrative throughout the trial. They’ve said Combs’ relationships may have been “toxic” and sometimes physically abusive, but they weren’t criminal. Though Combs’ high-powered defense lawyers declined to call any witnesses of their own, they focused their cross-examinations on every detail they could find allegedly showing Combs kept his personal life separate.
Demonstrating the extent of his influence and power, Combs is accused of suppressing damning hotel footage of him attacking Ventura by pulling out a brown paper bag stuffed with $100,000 in cash. His romantic rival Kid Cudi’s Porsche exploded in the musician’s driveway in broad daylight, and the case remains unsolved. Three witnesses alleged Combs or people acting on his behalf made direct threats on their lives — and they believed the warnings.
As part of the case, prosecutors have relied on thousands of pages of text messages, email exchanges, explicit videos, photographic evidence, note app entries, law enforcement reports, and bank and travel records dating back years.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik’s closing arguments are expected to last the entirety of Thursday, with the defense prepared to give their side on Friday before the jury begins deliberations on Monday. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian assured the jury that he expected the case to be completed by the July 4th holiday.
The courtroom’s rows reserved for Combs’ family were packed with his sons and loved ones on Thursday. In the final days of the trial, Combs appears to be pleased with his all-star legal team’s handling of the case — evident in the hugs he gave to his attorneys after they rested their defense within 25 minutes on Tuesday. The music executive rejected a plea deal before the trial date commenced and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Prosecutors say Combs instilled fear in both of his girlfriends. Ventura said physical violence in their decade-long relationship began early on. In January 2009, prosecutors and Ventura allege that a 39-year-old Combs had beaten and stomped on the then-22-year-old’s face so severely that Combs forced her to hide out at a hotel for a week until her injuries healed. In addition to domestic violence, when the couple would fight, Combs is accused of weaponizing his control over Ventura’s music career, threatening to release freak-off tapes, kicking Ventura out of the apartment he gifted her, and taking away her phone and car.
“Jane” testified to one physical abuse incident in June 2024 and said Combs would routinely threaten to break up with her when she voiced hesitation at continuing the sexual encounters with other men. When Combs started paying for Jane’s $10,000-a-month rent in 2023 as part of a “love contract,” Jane claimed Combs would often hold his financial support over her head so that she’d continue participating in hotel nights.
Some staffers said they were aware of Combs’ capacity for violence — a former assistant said witnessing a dispute between Combs and a girlfriend, Gina, was the last straw of his tenure — but they became so consumed by the tight-knit Bad Boy family that Combs fostered, the employees were terrified and distraught at the idea of walking away from what many described as a dream job.
Prosecutors allege that Combs’ trusted inner circle also carried out acts of the racketeering conspiracy. Security guards allegedly helped in three alleged kidnapping acts pertaining to Ventura and Combs’ former assistant, Capricorn Clark.
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His longtime chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, allegedly hounded an InterContinental Hotel security guard until Combs successfully secured footage of Combs attacking Ventura in March 2016. When Ventura’s sex trafficking lawsuit against Combs broke in November 2023, prosecutors found an audio recording on Khorram’s device of Combs attempting to assure Jane that she’d have “nothing to worry about” if she continued to support Combs.
Several personal assistants were tasked with setting up the red lights and candles, delivering baby oil, and sometimes picking up and delivering drugs and thousands of dollars in cash for freak-offs. When Combs and his girlfriend finally emerged from the messy, “nightmare” rooms, assistants were sent in to sweep for drug residue, collect left-behind sex items, and throw bodily fluid-stained sheets and towels into a pile to minimize hotel damage charges.
