Prosecutors say Diddy used power to abuse women in closing remarks of trial
United States prosecutors argued that Sean 'Diddy' Combs used his wealth and influence to evade accountability for violently abusing women in closing arguments in the entertainment mogul's trial.
Prosecutors told the jury on Thursday that Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, oversaw a vast criminal conspiracy.
'The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,' prosecutor Christy Slavik told jurors in her address. 'He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.'
The trial of the billionaire former rapper, a central figure in the rise of hip-hop in US popular culture, has included harrowing testimony from women who described an atmosphere of cruelty, exploitation, and intimidation.
Over six weeks of testimony, prosecutors also said that Combs pushed people to participate in drug-fuelled sex parties known as 'freak offs', with footage of people engaged in sex acts then used as leverage by Combs.
Slavik said that Combs 'again and again forced, threatened and manipulated' singer and former girlfriend Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura to have sex with escorts for his own entertainment and used a 'small army of employees' from his entertainment empire to cover up abuses and intimidate anyone who tried to push back.
Combs sat with his head down while Slavik made her remarks before the jury, wearing a light-coloured sweater and khaki trousers. His lawyers have argued that while Combs has a violent temperament and has committed violent acts against romantic partners, prosecutors have misrepresented a sexually unorthodox lifestyle as evidence of crimes such as racketeering and trafficking.
Judge Arun Subramanian told the jury that they would hear final statements from the defence on Friday, with the prosecution given a chance to offer a rebuttal before jurors are instructed on their responsibilities and sent to begin deliberation.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Friday or Monday, and Combs faces a minimum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted on all counts.
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Al Jazeera
13 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Prosecutors say Diddy used power to abuse women in closing remarks of trial
United States prosecutors argued that Sean 'Diddy' Combs used his wealth and influence to evade accountability for violently abusing women in closing arguments in the entertainment mogul's trial. Prosecutors told the jury on Thursday that Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, oversaw a vast criminal conspiracy. 'The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,' prosecutor Christy Slavik told jurors in her address. 'He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.' The trial of the billionaire former rapper, a central figure in the rise of hip-hop in US popular culture, has included harrowing testimony from women who described an atmosphere of cruelty, exploitation, and intimidation. Over six weeks of testimony, prosecutors also said that Combs pushed people to participate in drug-fuelled sex parties known as 'freak offs', with footage of people engaged in sex acts then used as leverage by Combs. Slavik said that Combs 'again and again forced, threatened and manipulated' singer and former girlfriend Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura to have sex with escorts for his own entertainment and used a 'small army of employees' from his entertainment empire to cover up abuses and intimidate anyone who tried to push back. Combs sat with his head down while Slavik made her remarks before the jury, wearing a light-coloured sweater and khaki trousers. His lawyers have argued that while Combs has a violent temperament and has committed violent acts against romantic partners, prosecutors have misrepresented a sexually unorthodox lifestyle as evidence of crimes such as racketeering and trafficking. Judge Arun Subramanian told the jury that they would hear final statements from the defence on Friday, with the prosecution given a chance to offer a rebuttal before jurors are instructed on their responsibilities and sent to begin deliberation. The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Friday or Monday, and Combs faces a minimum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted on all counts.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
US sanctions Mexican banks, alleging connections to cartel money laundering
The United States has imposed sanctions on three Mexican banks, alleging they had been used to launder money for drug cartels. On Wednesday, the US Department of the Treasury tied the banks – CIBanco, Intercam Banco and Vector Casa de Bolsa – to the cross-border trafficking of the deadly synthetic drug fentanyl. It accused them of playing 'a longstanding and vital role in laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Mexico-based cartels and facilitating payments for the procurement of precursor chemicals needed to produce fentanyl'. The sanctions are part of a wider pressure campaign by the administration of US President Donald Trump against Latin American gangs, criminal networks and drug traffickers. That campaign has included designating several groups as 'foreign terrorist organisations' and using tariffs to pressure Mexico's government to increase enforcement of irregular traffic across the border. In a statement, the Treasury Department said the banks were the first to be targeted under new pieces of legislation – the Fentanyl Sanctions Act and the FEND Off Fentanyl Act – passed to expand its ability to target money laundering related to opioid trafficking. The sanctions would block transfers between the targeted Mexican banks and US banks, although it was not immediately clear how far-reaching the limits would be. In a statement, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent accused the banks of 'enabling the poisoning of countless Americans by moving money on behalf of cartels, making them vital cogs in the fentanyl supply chain'. But Mexico's Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit responded to the sanctions by saying it had yet to receive conclusive evidence justifying them. 'We want to be clear: If we have conclusive information proving illicit activities by these three financial institutions, we will act to the fullest extent of the law,' the Finance Ministry said. 'However, to date, we have no information in this regard.' CIBanco did not immediately respond to the allegations. The US Treasury Department accused it of being connected to money laundering by the Beltran-Leyva Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Gulf Cartel. Intercam, which is also accused of having connections to the CJNG cartel, also did not respond. Meanwhile, the brokerage firm Vector, which was linked to money laundering by the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel, said the US claims tying its operations to drug traffickers were false. 'Vector categorically rejects any accusation that compromises its institutional integrity,' the company said in a statement, adding that it would cooperate to clarify the situation.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
Mistakenly deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia to remain in jail for now
A Salvadoran national whose mistaken deportation spurred national outcry in the United States will remain in jail for now, as lawyers discuss how to prevent him from being removed from the country a second time. On Wednesday, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was set to be released from pre-trial custody without having to post bail. He is being held in detention in Nashville, Tennessee, on criminal charges of human smuggling. The administration of President Donald Trump had sought to stop his release, deeming him to be a flight risk. But US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw upheld a magistrate judge's earlier decision finding that Abrego Garcia was eligible to walk free. However, in an unexpected twist, lawyers on both sides argued that, if Abrego Garcia were released, he risks being taken into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for a second deportation. That would deprive Abrego Garcia of the chance to defend himself against the charges, which he has denied. And lawyers for the government argued that it would also scuttle their criminal case against him. Judge Crenshaw noted in a written decision that, since it is the government's choice whether or not to deport Abrego Garcia, the situation appeared to be a case of the executive branch doing 'injury on itself'. 'If deported, the Government argues, the Department of Justice will be deprived of the opportunity to pursue its criminal charges against Abrego,' Crenshaw wrote. But, he added, 'it is the Executive Branch's decision that places the Government in this predicament.' Ultimately, it was decided that Abrego Garcia would remain in custody while lawyers sparred over whether they could prevent Abrego Garcia's deportation if he were released to await trial. A high-profile case Abrego Garcia appeared at the Wednesday hearing wearing an orange jail-issued T-shirt and a headset to listen to the proceedings through a Spanish interpreter. It was the latest chapter in an ongoing fight between Abrego Garcia and the Trump administration over whether he would be allowed to stay in the US. According to his lawyers, Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador as a teenager to avoid gang violence, arriving in the US around 2011. He has lived for more than a decade in Maryland, where he and his American wife are raising three children. In 2019, a judge granted him a protection order that barred his removal from the US. But on March 15, Abrego Garcia was swept up in the immigration raids being conducted as part of President Trump's mass deportation campaign. He and more than 200 other Venezuelans and Salvadorans were accused of being gang members, and they were deported to El Salvador. Many of the men were sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a maximum-security prison for those accused of terrorism. But advocates for the deported immigrants have argued that many of their clients had no criminal records and were in the process of seeking legal immigration status in the US. Advocates have also pointed out that ICE has provided scant evidence against some of the deported individuals, in some cases appearing to arrest people based solely on their tattoos. The Trump administration, however, has designated Latin American gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as 'foreign terrorist organisations' and sought to crack down on their presence in the US. A number of legal challenges followed the deportation flights to El Salvador. In Abrego Garcia's case, the government acknowledged that his removal had been the result of an 'administrative error'. But the Trump administration initially insisted he could not be brought back to the US even after the Supreme Court in April ordered the government to 'facilitate' his return. A return to the US That changed on June 7, when Abrego Garcia was returned to the US. The Trump administration justified the return as necessary to confront him with charges of smuggling undocumented migrants inside the US. Those charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee. In a video recording of the stop, one of the police officers observed that Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers and speculated he might be a smuggler. But no criminal charges were brought at the time. In announcing Abrego Garcia's return to the US this month, the Trump administration revealed it had sought a criminal indictment in May of this year. At the recent detention hearings, Homeland Security special agent Peter Joseph testified that he did not begin investigating Abrego Garcia until April. Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges on June 13, and his lawyers have characterised them as an attempt to justify his mistaken deportation. On Sunday, US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled that Abrego Garcia does not have to remain in jail before his criminal trial. But she described that decision as 'little more than an academic exercise', given that it was likely Abrego Garcia would be taken back into custody by ICE if released. How to prevent Abrego Garcia from being deported a second time became the focus of Wednesday's hearing. A lawyer for Abrego Garcia, Sean Hecker, noted that witnesses cooperating with the Trump administration had been protected from possible deportation. 'The government has ensured witness cooperation by ensuring that people will not be deported,' Hecker said. If the government could protect those witnesses from removal, Hecker asked why it could not do the same for Abrego Garcia. Representing the government's case, meanwhile, was acting US Attorney Rob McGuire. He argued that the executive branch of the government was vast, and he had little control over every entity's actions. Still, he added, he would ask the Department of Homeland Security for its cooperation in not deporting Abrego Garcia. 'That's a separate agency with separate leadership and separate directions,' McGuire said. 'I will coordinate, but I can't tell them what to do.' Speaking at a news conference before the court hearing, Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, noted that it had been 106 days since her husband had been 'abducted' by the government. She called for his safe return. 'Kilmar should never have been taken away from us,' she said. 'This fight has been the hardest thing in my life.'
