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After more than six weeks of graphic and often grueling testimony, the sex-trafficking trial of Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/a> is nearing its conclusion. Since proceedings opened in May, prosecutors have called more than 30 witnesses to the stand, their testimony painting a despicable picture of the mogul. His ex-girlfriend Casandra \u201cCassie\u201d Ventura described a pattern of alleged physical, sexual, emotional, and financial abuse<\/a> sustained throughout their 11-year relationship. Various employees recalled working for days without sleep<\/a>, in one case telling the court they endured kidnapping and, in another, rape. \u201cJane,\u201d a recent ex of Combs\u2019s, said the rapper ensnared her in a cycle of coerced sex<\/a>, which she was still struggling to understand. The government\u2019s witnesses testified to bribery, extortion, drug distribution, and a suite of other crimes they claimed Combs covered up by leveraging his business networks and formidable influence in the entertainment industry. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t take \u2018no\u2019 for an answer,\u201d as Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik put it in her closing arguments<\/a>. \u201cThe defendant used power, violence, and fear to get what he wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n Combs faces five counts of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Legal experts have cautioned from the start that this case is a tricky gambit. Because domestic violence, sexual abuse, and extortion are not federal crimes, \u201cthe Feds have taken what is essentially a lot of disparate state crimes and charged them as a federal case,\u201d explains Sarah Krissoff, a trial attorney at Cozen O\u2019Connor and former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York. \u201cThey\u2019ve tried to do that coherently by putting it under the umbrella of racketeering and sex trafficking, but it just doesn\u2019t fit perfectly within those frameworks.\u201d The defense consistently sought to exploit the gaps, arguing that while Combs engaged in intimate-partner violence and drug abuse, he is not guilty of the particular crimes he has been charged with. Instead, the team said, he is a man with out-of-the-box tastes in the bedroom, which were always consensual, if also kinky.<\/p>\n Combs\u2019s team did not call any witnesses of its own, a potential signal to jurors that the defense felt there was nothing to rebut and that the government failed to meet its burden of proof in the case. In his closing arguments, lead defense attorney, Marc Agnifilo, told jurors that prosecutors had taken Combs\u2019s \u201cswingers\u2019\u201d lifestyle and spun it into a \u201cbadly, badly exaggerated\u201d tale of trafficking. \u201cHe did what he did,\u201d Agnifilo said. \u201cBut he\u2019s going to fight to the death to defend himself from what he didn\u2019t do.\u201d As jurors prepare to find that line, here\u2019s a breakdown of the charges against Combs and the sticking points the jury may face as it deliberates beginning on Monday.<\/p>\n The federal government defines sex trafficking<\/a> as using \u201cforce, fraud, or coercion\u201d to get someone to participate in a commercial sex act<\/a>: a scenario predicated on the exchange of sex for something of value, whether given, promised, or received.\u00a0Racketeering, as defined under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act<\/a>, generally speaks to organized crime: A person \u2014 or, more often, a group of people \u2014 engaged in a pattern of criminal behavior in order to turn a profit. The RICO Act has historically been used to prosecute the Mafia and requires the commission of at least two \u201cacts of racketeering\u201d; in Combs\u2019s case, the government says those acts include bribery, arson, kidnapping, extortion, and forced labor. Transportation to engage in prostitution, meanwhile, is exactly what it sounds like: bringing a person across state lines to engage in a commercial sex act.<\/p>\n While it may be a stretch to argue that Combs\u2019s entire portfolio of businesses \u2014 his record, production, and clothing companies; his alcohol label \u2014 was a front for a system of sexual abuse, the RICO statute can still apply if legitimate business occurred alongside the alleged criminal activity. \u201cWhat seems to be the biggest thing,\u201d explains Julie Rendelman, a former Brooklyn prosecutor and current defense attorney, \u201cis the desire to protect himself from any type of reputational and criminal exposure.\u201d If Combs had committed crimes, and then directed his employees to commit crimes in order to bury anything that might damage his standing in the entertainment industry, that would fall under RICO. \u201cThat would include the payoffs to the hotel workers,\u201d Rendelman notes, and \u201cthe threats to expose certain things about people who speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n For former Manhattan prosecutor Jeffrey Chabrowe, however, the fact that none of Combs\u2019s alleged accomplices has been charged \u201cdoes look weird.\u201d Chabrowe notes that RICO cases usually involve more than one defendant, often dozens of them. \u201cThe idea would be that the bigger the organization and the longer their reach \u2014 the more people he needs to run a record label and\/or do everything that he\u2019s doing with these victims \u2014 the more help he needs,\u201d Chabrowe says. \u201cHe can\u2019t be doing all this on his own.\u201d<\/p>\n In court, several names came up repeatedly in connection with Combs\u2019s alleged crimes. According to witness testimony, his longtime chief of staff, Kristina Khorram<\/a>, helped him buy back\u00a0security-camera footage<\/a> \u2014 in which Combs can be seen brutally assaulting Ventura in an elevator bank \u2014 from the Intercontinental Century City hotel in Los Angeles. Khorram was also accused of encouraging Jane to fly with narcotics in her checked bag after Combs told her to bring him drugs. The rapper\u2019s close friend and head of security, D-Roc, was said to be present for many instances of abuse and once took Ventura to a plastic surgeon after Combs split her eyebrow on a bed frame<\/a>. That so many people supposedly involved in Combs\u2019s alleged criminal enterprise have not been charged, Chabrowe says, \u201cI think that\u2019s going to make a jury wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n For Chabrowe, the sex-trafficking charges are more straightforward. Many people might conceive of sex trafficking as the kind of crime Agnifilo described in his closing statements (\u201cI suppose you can sex-traffic your girlfriend if you sell her into prostitution,\u201d he said). But according to Chabrowe, it doesn\u2019t always work that way. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to necessarily use violence to traffic someone,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey could be free to leave. They can have ID. They can have a phone. They could even be getting paid. But if they\u2019re somehow being coerced, it\u2019s still sex trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n In Ventura\u2019s case, that manipulation is easy to spot. As a Bad Boy artist, her career was in Combs\u2019s hands; as she and several other<\/a> witnesses testified<\/a>, her ability to take professional opportunities hinged on Combs\u2019s approval. If he was upset with her, she testified, he might take away her car, confiscate her phone, or beat her so badly that she had to spend the following week recovering in a hotel. Because Combs often watched Freak Offs from the sidelines, directing and recording each encounter, he also had a lot of damaging footage at his disposal, which Ventura said he routinely used to blackmail her into cooperating. Other witness testimony backed up her claim: Ventura\u2019s mother testified to sending Combs $20,000<\/a> after he threatened to release two sex tapes of Ventura, which a transaction email and financial records corroborate. The Intercontinental video, too, might help jurors understand the consequences Ventura faced if she didn\u2019t comply with his wishes \u2014 particularly if they buy her claim that the beating occurred in the context of a Freak Off and that the mogul chased her down as she tried to escape.<\/p>\n Jane also testified to bouts of explosive violence, including one argument in which she said Combs kicked down a series of doors as she tried to hide from him, then \u201cpicked me up in a choke hold and choked me,\u201d as Vulture<\/a> reported. That alleged assault continued for hours and ended with her agreeing to a \u201chotel night\u201d she did not want after Combs got in her face and asked her, \u201cIs this coercion?\u201d Jane insisted she deeply loved Combs and wanted a substantive, monogamous relationship with him, but she was also financially reliant on him. The mogul sent her $10,000 per month to cover her rent. \u201cI feel obligated to perform these nights for you in fear of losing the roof over my head,\u201d she said in a text to Combs.<\/p>\n The defense also showed text messages in which Jane and Ventura seemed to express consent, and even, occasionally, eagerness, when it came to Combs\u2019s sexual fantasies. The team has returned to those messages again and again to demonstrate that whatever abuse may have occurred in these relationships, the women\u2019s participation was voluntary. But \u201csex crimes can happen even in sometimes-loving, long-term relationships,\u201d says Rendelman; for Combs to be convicted on the trafficking charges, the jury must \u201caccept that someone can be\u00a0forced to do something because of what\u2019s hanging over their head, whether it be financial or, in Cassie\u2019s case, fear of being physically abused.\u201d<\/p>\n Although it\u2019s certainly possible that a juror could be confused about whether Combs\u2019s behavior was coercive or \u201cpart of the story of a really horrific relationship,\u201d Krissoff says, they don\u2019t need to find that the women\u2019s participation was forced in every sex act; \u201cyou just have to find that one of them was.\u201d That\u2019s a point prosecutors hit in their closing arguments<\/a>, reminding jurors that if there is \u201cone single Freak Off that jurors find was the product of force, threats of force, fraud, or coercion, Mr. Combs should be found guilty of sex trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n The sheer volume of evidence and the length of the proceedings may make it difficult for panelists to keep the timeline of the case straight. \u201cThe reason the government uses the racketeering statute a lot is that you can fold up tons of disparate criminal acts into one charge,\u201d Krissoff explains. That\u2019s useful for prosecutors. But it\u2019s potentially confusing for jurors because there are so many different pieces to puzzle into one picture. \u201cNot only is it a long trial, which is hard for juries, but it\u2019s a really sprawling presentation of evidence,\u201d Krissoff notes.<\/p>\n Prosecutors\u2019 closing arguments seem to have succeeded in simplifying the case for jurors, outlining precisely what they need to deliver a guilty verdict on each count and pointing to evidence \u2014 of drug distribution, kidnapping, and bribery, for example \u2014 that would satisfy the guidelines. Yet jurors also need to believe the government\u2019s witnesses, and as Rendelman notes, those witnesses have some credibility issues. \u201cMost of them had a financial stake in it,\u201d she says. \u201cSome of them had immunity from their own prosecutions.\u201d The defense has repeatedly hammered home the idea that Combs is, as the team puts it in its cross-examination of Mia<\/a>, the victim of a \u201cMe Too money grab.\u201d In his closing arguments<\/a>, Agnifilo returned to that idea, describing Ventura as a \u201cwinner\u201d who was \u201csitting somewhere in the world with $30 million\u201d after settling with Combs and the Intercontinental. Jane, he pointed out, was still living \u201cin a house [Combs is] paying for.\u201d<\/p>\n The defense will be hoping for a full acquittal, though based on the transportation-to-engage-in-prostitution count alone, that outcome seems unlikely. Prosecutors presented records of Combs personally haggling over the cost of the male escorts<\/a> he hired and flew over state lines. That charge carries<\/a> a maximum prison sentence of ten years.<\/p>\n When it comes to the bigger allegations in the case, there\u2019s a mountain of evidence jurors must parse. It\u2019s harder to dodge a conviction once the jury develops a negative view of the defendant, as Krissoff observes, and in this case, there\u2019s not much to like. Still, she adds, \u201cthe risk to the government here is that the defense needs only one person to agree with them.\u201d That\u2019s not outside the realm of possibility. Say one of the jurors has been shamed for having a kink, or for their sexuality; they might feel some sympathy for Combs, who was described on the stand as a bicurious cuck<\/a>. His team has painted him as a man who is being persecuted for unconventional sexual preferences, and if it succeeds in \u201cgetting under the skin of just one person,\u201d Krissoff says, that could trigger a hung jury and a mistrial.<\/p>\n On the flip side, the Intercontinental footage \u2014 which prosecutors played for jurors dozens of times throughout the trial \u2014 makes it hard to cast Combs as an empathetic figure. In Rendelman\u2019s opinion, jurors may struggle to separate that video from the other allegations against him.\u201cI think it\u2019s hard for a jury to unring a bell,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhen you see the darkest side of an individual and then you hear multiple individuals discussing that individual in similar terms, it\u2019s going to have a far-reaching impact on each of the charges \u2014 even when it arguably shouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n If prosecutors don\u2019t succeed in getting a conviction on the RICO count, which carries a prison term of 25 years to life, a conviction on even one of the two sex-trafficking counts would be enough to earn Combs at least 15 years in prison. According to Chabrowe, that number may rise if the judge thinks prosecutors came close to proving their RICO argument. \u201cHe could get not guilty on large parts of the case,\u201d Chabrowe says. \u201cBut, basically, as long as he goes down on any of it, he\u2019s getting double digits.\u201d<\/p>\n Stay in touch.<\/p>\n Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n