On the verge of resting their intercourse trafficking case in opposition to Sean “Diddy” Combs, federal prosecutors on Monday (Jun 23) confirmed jurors extra movies of the drug-fuelled intercourse marathons on the centre of allegations that might put the hip-hop mogul behind bars for all times.
The clips, totalling about 20 minutes of footage of so-called “freak-offs” or “resort nights”, bookended a prosecution case that started seven weeks in the past with jurors seeing safety digicam footage of Combs brutally beating his former longtime girlfriend Cassie at a Los Angeles resort in 2016.
Prosecutors are set to relaxation their case on Tuesday as soon as Combs’ attorneys end cross-examining the ultimate authorities witness – Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Safety Investigations agent whose testimony included spending hours studying aloud textual content message exchanges, a few of which concerned Combs or different folks in his orbit.
As they questioned Cerciello, Combs’ attorneys performed excerpts from the movies, which had been proven solely to the jury and the events – not reporters or public observers of the trial – due to their graphic nature.
Assistant US Lawyer Maurene Comey generally referred to the principally one- or two-minute clips filmed by Combs as “express” movies, a sign for jurors to placed on headsets that enabled them to listen to and consider the recordings with out them being seen or heard by spectators within the Manhattan courtroom.
Prosecutors have cited the drug-fuelled multiday occasions as proof of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, saying Combs relied on staff, associates and his enterprise accounts to fly male intercourse employees to Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, the place his employees arrange resort rooms for the encounters and cleaned up afterward.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible. He’s been lively in his defence, writing notes to his attorneys and generally influencing once they cease questioning witnesses.
Final week, prosecutors confirmed jurors about two minutes of footage from 2012 and 2014 involving Cassie, a male intercourse employee and Combs. Cassie, an R&B singer whose actual identify is Casandra Ventura, earlier testified that she participated in a whole lot of the “freak-off” occasions. She and Combs had been in a relationship from 2007 till 2018.
Cassie sued Combs in 2023, alleging years of abuse. He settled inside hours, and dozens of comparable lawsuits adopted.
The Related Press doesn’t usually determine individuals who say they’re victims of sexual abuse except they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has carried out.
Defence attorneys final week confirmed the jury about 18 minutes of video clips from the intercourse performances involving Cassie after a lawyer mentioned in opening statements that the movies show sexual exercise was consensual and never proof of a criminal offense.
On Monday, prosecutors aired practically 20 minutes of recordings from 2021 and 2022 of a single mom who was recognized solely by the pseudonym “Jane,” male intercourse employees and Combs. Jane testified earlier within the trial for six days that she was romantically concerned with Combs from 2021 till his September arrest at a New York resort.
Cerciello, the federal agent, testified that dozens of the recordings from late 2021 till final August lasted many hours. Comey completed questioning Cerciello within the early afternoon on Monday. After a cross-examination by the defence, the prosecution was anticipated to relaxation.
Closing arguments had been tentatively scheduled for Thursday after what was anticipated to be a quick defence presentation.
