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Sean Combs acted as the all-powerful kingpin atop a racketeering conspiracy that used violence, silence, and “shame” to trap two women in episodes of sex trafficking where they had no choice but to perform drug-fueled sex acts with male escorts for his voyeuristic fantasies, a federal prosecutor told jurors Thursday.
During closing arguments at Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik walked jurors through the government’s charges against the music mogul that have been the subject of his closely watched, seven-week trial in lower Manhattan. Slavik called Combs the “leader of a criminal enterprise” who refused to “take no for an answer” and always got what he wanted.
“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. She told jurors Combs made it clear to his alleged victims that he commanded an “armed and ready” security staff willing to “protect” him against any perceived threats.
“It’s his kingdom,” she said of Combs. “Everyone was there to serve him.”
Tying together the government’s case after weeks of sometimes disjointed testimony, Slavik told jurors they could find Combs guilty of racketeering conspiracy if they determine he and just one other alleged co-conpirator agreed to just two of the so-called “predicate” acts listed in his indictment. She said the acts could be two separate instances of the same crime, such as drug distribution, or other options including bribery, arson, kidnapping, witness tampering, and sex trafficking. Slavik carefully laid out testimony related to each option, including the time Combs allegedly handed a hotel security guard a $100,000 cash “bribe” for what he believed was the only copy of surveillance video showing Combs beating Ventura at Los Angeles’ InterContinental Hotel.
Slavik also clarified that Combs could be found guilty of sex trafficking his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura or a more recent ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” if jurors decide he coerced the women into just one unwanted sex act with a paid male escort. If there was just “one instance” where Ventura or Jane felt coerced into a freak-off through “force, threats of force, fraud or coercion,” that’s enough, she said, “Mr. Combs should be found guilty of sex trafficking.”
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Slavik pointed to Ventura’s graphic testimony claiming Combs repeatedly beat her and threatened to release explicit videos during their decade-long relationship. She said for Ventura, the idea she would pay a price for any defiance became her “new normal.”
“It became her job,” Slavik said, referring to Combs’ demands Ventura dress up in sky-high platform heels, slather herself in baby oil and do anything he commanded. “It became her shame.”
The prosecutor said Combs expected “total compliance,” and if he didn’t get it, he would lash out with violence. “She’s knew when he was happy, she was safe,” Slavik said. “If the defendant wanted a freak off, it was going to happen.”
When it came to Jane, Slavik said one key incident was when the model and influencer traveled to New York to be with Combs in September 2023. Combs initially told Jane the trip would be for romantic one-on-one time involving dinner and shopping, but once Jane was in the air, Combs let her know she was expected to perform a freak-off. Slavik said Combs “tricked” Jane into making the trip, and “before the plane even landed, that was sex trafficking.”
Slavik also zeroed in on the night in June 2024 when Combs allegedly choked, kicked, and punched Jane in a blowout fight at Jane’s house and then forced her into a subsequent freak-off. Referencing Jane’s testimony, Slavik said Combs even leaned in and whispered, “Is this coercion?” – an alleged nod to his awareness he already was under investigation for the alleged sex trafficking of Ventura. Slavik said in that moment, Combs was “taunting Jane brazenly” and “breaking the law.”
In yet another point of clarification, Slavik told jurors that Combs’ alleged criminal enterprise was separate from his highly public, billion-dollar business empire. She said the enterprise operated in the shadows, only known to a trusted group of handsomely paid co-conspirators. One chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, was paid $600,000 per year, Slavik said.
The prosecutor said the evidence provided by the government’s 34 witnesses proved beyond a reasonable doubt that whenever Combs’ relationships with Ventura or Jane needed attention or were on the brink of collapse – or worse yet, dreaded public exposure – the mogul and his minions jumped into action, doing whatever was necessary to fulfill his desires and ward off bad publicity. She said while the defense claims Combs purchased the hotel video solely to safeguard Combs’ reputation, that was an obvious goal that wasn’t mutually exclusive from keeping his enterprise afloat.
The 55-year-old Bad Boy Records founder, who faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged, has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. In separate turns on the witness stand, Ventura and Jane told jurors they felt “obligated” to participate in, and sometimes facilitate, the sexual encounters with male escorts to keep Combs happy. 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 by a variety of names. For Ventura, they were freak-offs, but for Jane, they were known as “hotel nights” and “debauchery.”
For their part, Combs’ lawyers have 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 the high-powered defense lawyers declined to call any witnesses of their own, they focused their cross-examinations on undermining the credibility of key government witnesses and amplifying every detail they could find allegedly showing Combs kept the personal details of his sex life separate from his employees.
In her arguments Thursday, Slavik said Combs coerced Ventura and Jane through more than threats and violence. She said he also made them turn down work so they became dependent on his financial support and that he plied them with drugs that made them helpless to resist. She said with Ventura, Combs took a “moldable” 19-year-old aspiring singer and took advantage of her naiveté, grooming her for freak-offs amid a relationship with a clearly skewed power dynamic.
“You’ve heard it many times now – the defendant wouldn’t take no for an answer. And with Cassie, the defendant thought he found someone who wouldn’t even try,” Slavik said.
She said Ventura also was made well-aware that Combs was a danger others around her. She said Ventura watched as Combs allegedly assaulted her friend Deonte Nash when he once stepped in to protect her. She said Ventura was present in her apartment the day Combs allegedly dangled designer Bryana Bongolan off a 17th-story balcony. And Ventura knew that Combs paid her friend Kerry Morgan after allegedly choking and chucking a wooden hanger at Morgan’s head, Slavik said. (The three friends all corroborated the incidents in live testimony about the alleged attacks.)
And importantly, Ventura knew that Combs broke into Kid Cudi’s house with a gun and explicitly threatened the rapper’s life, Slavik said. Combs also allegedly told Ventura he planned to blow up Mescudi’s car. Days later, Kid Cudi’s Porsche exploded in his driveway in broad daylight, she said. “Of course the defendant was behind this,” Slavik said.
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. They also brought in a forensic psychologist who explained that many victims have trouble leaving their abusers because of “trauma bond.” Slavik brought that concept again in her argument.
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 previously told 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 mother, his three sons and his three eldest daughters on Thursday. In the final days of the trial, Combs appeared 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.
Prosecutors say Combs instilled fear in both of his girlfriends. Ventura said the first episode of physical violence happened within the first year of their decade-long relationship. She said a subsequent incident in January 2009 involved a 39-year-old Combs allegedly stomping on her face so severely in the back of an Escalade, she was forced to hide out at a hotel for a week until her injuries healed.
Some staffers testified they were aware of Combs’ capacity for violence. One former assistant said witnessing a dispute between Combs and a girlfriend identified as Gina was the last straw that led him to quit But they said working for the mogul was an all-consuming proposition, and they soon became so isolated and desensitized, they became convinced that walking away from the tight-knit Bad Boy family and what many considered a dream job would be a grave mistake.
Prosecutors allege that security guards and even Khorram sent confusing signals, making them think they had allies and that things would improve. But Slavik said Thursday that Khorram’s loyalty was with Combs, reminding jurors that Khorram allegedly kept close tabs on Ventura for her boss and purportedly helped broker the purchase of the hotel video.
Though Combs’ defense lawyers have claimed he took pains to keep Khorram in the dark about his freak-offs with male escorts, Slavik said Thursday that Khorram clearly knew what was going on. She pointed to the time an assistant named Jonathan Perez allegedly went to Khorram to report that another staffer found a video on one of Combs’ iPads showing Jane involved in a sex act with a male escort while Combs was visible in the background. And she showed jurors a text Khorram sent to Combs when he asked her to help arrange a hotel night in Las Vegas in 2022.
“Is Paul coming too?” Khorram allegedly asked, referring to one of the escorts on Combs’ alleged roster.
From Rolling Stone US
