Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives for the 2018 Met Gala on Could 7, 2018, on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York. As soon as hip-hop’s flashy impresario credited with commercializing the style, Combs has seen his star plunge as federal authorities raided his houses amid intercourse trafficking accusations and assault lawsuits. ANGELA WEISS / AFP
The high-profile trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs is approaching its remaining stretch, with each groups poised to relaxation their instances as quickly as Tuesday.
Closing arguments are tentatively anticipated to start on Thursday, after which jurors shall be tasked with deciding the destiny of the music mogul who faces life in jail if convicted.
The prosecution’s thirty fourth and final witness is presently on the stand, and protection attorneys indicated Monday they don’t plan on calling their very own witnesses to testify in Manhattan federal court docket.
It’s not irregular for protection groups to choose to not current a case; the duty to show guilt lies on prosecutors, and until jurors resolve they’ve, the defendant is presumed harmless.
Over seven weeks of testimony prosecutors drew connections throughout an online of witnesses, cellphone information and journey bookings, a bid to point out that Combs was the kingpin of an enterprise comprised of high-ranking workers that carried out crimes together with bribery, arson and kidnapping to implement his energy and fulfill his each want.
The prosecution stated the artist and entrepreneur trafficked ladies and men for drug-fueled sexual marathons, generally days-long encounters dubbed “freak-offs” or “lodge nights.”
Among the occasions had been filmed, and jurors have watched numerous sexually specific clips.
Authorities attorneys are closing their questioning by providing reams of textual content messages and different information for jurors to evaluation, documentation of dozens of freak-offs that they are saying additionally reveals preparations for prostitution and trafficking.
The 55-year-old denies the fees.
No protection witnesses?
The protection’s choice to not name witnesses may point out they consider their questioning of presidency witnesses may have solid sufficient doubt on the case in opposition to Combs.
It may additionally imply they haven’t recognized any witnesses who may assist them.
They did point out they plan to submit some displays into proof earlier than resting.
Legal professionals for Combs have insisted that what prosecutors have known as intercourse trafficking was consensual.
Three girls have testified in graphic element of harrowing abuse that ranged sexual, bodily and emotional.
The singer Casandra VenturaCombs’s girlfriend for greater than a decade, filed go well with in opposition to Combs in 2023, a civil case that was settled out of court docket in lower than 24 hours — however which opened the floodgates for a deluge of accusations in opposition to the one-time music business powerhouse.
She was among the many key witnesses to testify on the trial, and jurors had been repeatedly proven now-infamous surveillance footage of Combs violently kicking and dragging Ventura in a lodge.
A lodge safety guard testified that he obtained $100,000 in a brown paper bag from Combs in change for the disturbing tape, which CNN revealed final yr.
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Jurors will not be sequestered however are instructed day by day to not eat any media in regards to the case — a mighty process, as information of the trial has permeated each conventional and social media.
