Prosecution says Combs used ‘violence, power and fear’ to control victims : NPR

A federal prosecutor delivered the closing arguments of the government’s case against Sean Combs on Thursday (June 26) in a lower Manhattan courtroom, explaining to the jury how testimony and evidence presented over the last month and a half adds up to charges that include sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

For more than four hours, prosecutor Christy Slavik argued that this web of evidence proved that Combs ran a criminal enterprise that facilitated and concealed sex crimes for years. He used “violence, power and fear to get what he wanted,” the prosecutor said.

Combs faces two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation for prostitution and one count of racketeering conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

At the center of the government’s case are two ex-girlfriends of Combs — the singer Cassie Ventura and a woman identified as “Jane” — who testified that the hip-hop mogul pressured them to participate in highly-orchestrated sexual performances with male escorts. These nights, which were referred to as “freak-offs,” “hotel nights” or “wild king nights,” were described as being fueled by heavy drug use and lasting multiple days. Both women said Combs would direct, film and masturbate during these encounters, and that he coerced them to continue participating even after they told him they didn’t want to have sex with other men. This coercion included financial control, violence and threats of blackmail to release the explicit videos.

Slavik emphasized that though their relationships with Combs were years apart, the similarities in these women’s testimonies depict a throughline of troubling and illegal behavior.

“They’re not separate stories,” Slavik told the jury. “They’re chapters of the same book.”

Ventura and Jane spent a combined 10 days on the witness stand — jurors heard them detail many of these encounters, which they said happened too many times to count over the course of the several years they dated Combs. But Slavik clarified to the jury that they don’t need to believe that all of these nights were nonconsensual to find Combs guilty.

In order to convict Combs of sex trafficking, Slavik explained, jurors need to believe that each victim was pressured into participating in just one of these encounters as a result of “force, threats of force, fraud or coercion.”

“It’s time to hold him accountable,” Slavik told the court. “It’s time for justice. It’s time to find the defendant guilty.”

Cassie Ventura

Cassie Ventura began dating Combs in 2007, shortly after signing to his record label. In her testimony during the trial’s opening week, Ventura, who is 17 years younger than Combs, said that within the first year of their relationship, Combs started controlling virtually every aspect of her life. He also became physically abusive, often leaving her with visible injuries that were shown to jurors via a number of photographs.

Ventura testified that when Combs first introduced the idea of “freak-offs,” she agreed to try out his fantasy because she wanted to make him happy. But she said over the next decade they were together, she told Combs multiple times that she did not want to have sex with other men — and that he pressured her to do it anyway, “hundreds of times.”

During closing arguments, Slavik focused on three specific instances that the prosecution describes as trafficking. One of those took place at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in 2016. Ventura testified she was in the middle of a “freak-off” when Combs became violent and hit her, leading her to flee the hotel room. Hotel security cameras captured Combs running up behind Ventura near the elevators, hitting, kicking and dragging her back in the direction of the room, where she said a male sex worker was waiting.

Jurors have seen this hotel security footage, which CNN obtained and broadcast last year, repeatedly throughout the trial. But during closing arguments, Slavik narrated as a compilation from different angles showed the events unfold chronologically. While Combs’ defense has argued that he was on drugs and acting irrationally on this particular day, Slavik pointed out his composed demeanor once a hotel security guard arrived.

“At every step, he was in complete control of himself,” Slavik said. “Angry, but in control.”

Combs’ defense has admitted the hotel video is damning evidence of domestic violence, but they say it’s not proof of sex trafficking. As she walked jurors through what Ventura had described as Combs’ decade-long pattern of abuse, Slavik argued that the two cannot be separated. The motive behind the violence, she argued — both in the hotel incident and many other attacks she reminded jurors of — was to make Ventura compliant with Combs’ sexual demands.

She also displayed text messages and testimony of Ventura letting Combs know she did not want to participate in these nights. According to Slavik, that’s why Combs repeatedly used explicit videos of Ventura as collateral, threatening to release them if she didn’t do what he asked.

“All of this was designed to do one thing — to make Cassie afraid to say no to him,” Slavik said.

“Jane”

The second alleged victim of trafficking testified using the pseudonym “Jane” to protect her identity. Jane dated Combs from 2021 until his arrest and indictment in 2024.

Slavik described Combs as taking a “carrots and sticks” approach in his relationship with Jane. She said Combs “love-bombed” Jane early on, showering her with gifts, romantic trips and date nights.

Slavik said this was a way to “groom” Jane into participating in Combs’ sexual fantasies. Like Ventura, Jane testified she went along with the encounters at first to please the man she loved. But she said as time went on, she felt she had “opened Pandora’s box.” According to Jane, Combs repeatedly promised her quality time and emotional intimacy, but instead he surprised her with “hotel nights” that eventually took up most of their time together. These encounters, Jane said, dominated her life — so much so that Combs began paying her rent as she struggled to maintain her income.

During closing arguments, Slavik focused on three specific incidents, each of which she said constituted a separate instance of sex trafficking. One of these included a “sobriety party” in which Jane attempted to get through the night without taking any drugs. After having sex with two men, she threw up in the bathroom — after which Combs allegedly told her she should feel better, and that he expected her to keep going with a third sex worker.

Throughout Jane’s testimony and during closing arguments, the prosecution pulled up many text messages, notes entries and even phone calls recorded without Jane’s knowledge in which she said she felt used and could not keep having sex with strangers. Slavik argued that this was Combs using coercive threats: He held Jane’s rent payments over her head — telling her in one voice memo to “get on [her] job” because he was doing his — and pressured her to continue participating even when he knew she didn’t want to.

Combs’ “criminal enterprise”

Slavik argued that although Combs may have been one of three people in the hotel rooms — along with a girlfriend and an escort — his crimes were dependent on a close inner circle doing his bidding. This is where the criminal enterprise and racketeering charges come in. According to prosecutors, this group consisted of Combs’ chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, and several of his security guards, including a man referred to as D-Roc. They also relied on younger assistants to do things like buy drugs, set up hotel rooms and book travel for Ventura, Jane and several escorts.

Through text messages and phone records, Slavik attempted to demonstrate that Khorram, D-Roc and other employees were well aware of Combs’ abusive behavior and alleged sex trafficking — and that they took every measure they could to cover his tracks, monitor the victims and continue facilitating Combs’ fantasies.

Slavik explained that in order to convict Combs of racketeering conspiracy, jurors have to believe he and his employees agreed to commit two or more criminal acts. These could be two instances of the same crime, or two separate crimes altogether.

Slavik then said Combs and his enterprise engaged in at least eight types of criminal acts over two decades: distribution of drugs, kidnapping, arson, bribery, forced labor, witness tampering or obstruction, sex trafficking and transportation for prostitution. (The latter two are also standalone charges — if the jury convicts Combs of trafficking his ex-girlfriends or transporting sex workers across state lines, those convictions could count towards racketeering.)

Citing witness testimony, bank statements, phone records and other evidence, Slavik gave multiple examples for each act she accused Combs and his staff of committing. This included kidnapping an assistant, setting the rapper Scott Mescudi’s car on fire after he began dating Ventura and paying a hotel security employee $100,000 to hand over the security footage of Combs beating Ventura in 2016.

Slavik reminded jurors that Combs often did not commit these crimes himself — but she presented evidence suggesting he repeatedly directed his employees to break the law in order to satisfy his desires, silence the people he victimized and protect “his kingdom.”

“Everyone was there to serve him,” she told the jury. “He doesn’t take no for an answer.”

As she finished delivering closing arguments, Slavik thanked the jury for listening to testimony and evidence she said could be difficult to sit through. She said Combs spent two decades using his power, fame and influence to evade any accountability for his actions.

“That stops now,” she said.