Diddy’s legal professionals request acquittal on all counts after prosecution rests case – Nationwide
The prosecution rested Tuesday at Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ intercourse trafficking trial, capping a greater than six-week-long presentation of proof in opposition to the hip-hop maven that confronted him with former workers and two former girlfriends who expressed remorse at his therapy of them over the previous twenty years.
After the prosecution rested, Combs’ legal professionals requested U.S. District Choose Arun Subramanian to halt the trial instantly and throw out the fees, arguing the fees weren’t confirmed.
The federal government rested after defence lawyer Teny Geragos completed questioning the prosecution’s last witness: Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Safety Investigations agent.
Prosecutors have cited the “freakoffs” as proof of the intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy prices that resulted in Combs’ arrest final September.
Defence legal professionals, although, say they had been consensual sexual encounters in keeping with the swingers life-style.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible and has remained incarcerated with out bail in a federal lockup in Brooklyn after a number of judges concluded final fall that he was a hazard to the group.
The federal government’s case consisted of 34 witnesses, together with former workers of Combs’ Unhealthy Boy Leisure firms, however the bulk of its proof has come from the testimony of two former girlfriends: Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a mannequin and web character identified to jurors solely by the pseudonym “Jane.”
Ventura, 38, testified for 4 days in the course of the trial’s first week, saying she felt pressured to have interaction in a whole bunch of “freak offs” as a result of the encounters would allow her to be intimate with Combs after performing sexually with male intercourse staff whereas he watched them slather each other with child oil and typically filmed the encounters.
Jane testified for six days concerning the sexual performances she labeled “resort nights,” saying that she was placing them into perspective after starting remedy three months in the past. She mentioned she felt coerced into partaking in them as just lately as final August, however did so as a result of she cherished and nonetheless loves Combs.
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Ventura was in a relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018, whereas Jane was often with him from 2021 till his arrest, which cancelled her plan to satisfy him on the New York resort the place he was taken into custody.
The Related Press doesn’t typically determine individuals who say they’re victims of sexual abuse except they arrive ahead publicly, as Ventura has performed.
After prosecutors rested Tuesday, the jury was despatched to lunch. Once they return, a defence presentation was anticipated to be accomplished by the tip of the day with none witnesses.
All through the trial, defence legal professionals have made their case for exoneration via their questioning of witnesses, together with a number of who testified reluctantly or solely after they had been granted immunity from any crimes they could have dedicated.
Combs has been energetic in his defence, writing notes to his legal professionals and typically serving to them determine when to cease questioning a witness.
He was admonished as soon as by the decide for nodding enthusiastically towards jurors throughout a profitable stretch of cross-examination by considered one of his legal professionals. Prosecutors complained that his gestures had been a type of testifying with out being topic to cross-examination. The decide warned that he might be excluded from his trial if it occurred once more.
Up to now week, prosecutors and defence legal professionals have proven jurors over 40 minutes of recordings Combs product of the “freak offs” or “resort nights.”
A number of jurors often appeared squeamish as they seen and listened to audio of the encounters, however most didn’t appear to react.
In her opening assertion, Geragos had known as the movies “highly effective proof that the sexual conduct on this case was consensual and never based mostly on coercion.”
Closing arguments had been tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
