Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense team must walk the tightrope at a sex trafficking trial after admitting he committed domestic violence.
Sean “Diddy” Comb Sex Crime Day 1
Prosecutors and defense outlined their arguments, and witnesses rose to the first day of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sexual offence trial.
- Music Mogul’s defense team claims he is sometimes violent, but he did not use violence to force women into commercial sexual activity. Will the discussion work?
- “We’re taking their oaths to test the ju judges and ask them to split their hair in the way the defense asks them to,” former prosecutor Mitchell Epner told USA Today.
NEW YORK – Video evidence shows Sean “Diddy” Combs kicking and dragging his ex-girlfriend in the hotel hallway as she is about to leave. However, some defense attorneys believe there is a way for Combs to win his sex trafficking trial.
“The defense should have overcharged the man. They’re accusing him of sex trafficking when he should have been charged with domestic violence,” lawyer and trial consultant Robert Hirschhorn told USA Today prior to the trial.
Sure enough, Combs’ defense attorney Tenny Jelagos said in her opening statement that her team had no plans to deny Combs’ personal liability for domestic violence, but they had planned to fight trafficking charges vigorously.
“Domestic violence is not sex trafficking,” Geragos said. “I want to say it again: Domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”
Since the start of the trial on May 5th, Combs’ defense teams have sought to establish those who participated in “Freak Offs.” These people were happy to have Combs’ direct, sometimes film sex performances between female and male sex workers.
This included the presentation of text to suggest Casandra “Cassie” Ventura Fine, the comb of his ex-girlfriend attacked in a hotel video, agreeing to “freak-off.”
“I don’t want to be surprised last time. I want to be the first time for the rest of my life,” Ventura texted combs in 2012. According to the message his defense gave to the ju referee. (The prosecutor showed the ju apprentices another part of the same exchange that Ventura subtly texted with the text, “I don’t want to do it last. I don’t want to do it at all.”)
This strategy may be the best way for Combs to deal with video evidence and testimony from many witnesses regarding domestic violence. However, the approach is similar to passing a needle, according to the litigator who indicted a sex trafficking case.
That’s because sex trafficking involves forced someone to participate in commercial sexual activity through force, fraud, or coercion. If Combs admitted to using physical violence in relation to the Ventura fine, some ju umpires could believe he admitted to pushing her into “freak-off.”
“Domestic violence goes to the heart of that question,” says Moira Penza, a litigator who in 2019 Keith Raniere, the leader of the so-called NXIVM “sex cult,” sued for sex trafficking and assault. Combs pleaded not guilty to all federal criminal trial charges.
“If someone is beaten or after a sexual encounter and knows that it is a consistent part of their relationship, it really vanishes the notion of consent and fits this element perfectly.
Combs’ defense team did not respond to requests for comment on whether he believes he is walking the tightrope while denies human trafficking. However, they tried to demonstrate that there was a suspected victim.
“They are giving the ju judges the option under sex trafficking, but they still allow the government to condemn him for his use of force, who knows he has evidence,” Hugh Sandler, a lawyer who litigated human trafficking and assault.
Addressing evidence of abuse against Cathy
The defense team may have never thought Combs had any other options than to admit that he had abused Ventura.
In about a month, the ju umpire has seen countless photos of Ventura Fine’s injuries. She is suffering at Combs’s hands, and many witnesses have testified that they personally witnessed Combs physically attacking her.
For example, former Combs stylist Deonte Nash testified that Combs once threw Ventura Fine’s head into the bed frame, causing gouache over his eyes. Kelly Morgan, former best friend of Ventura Fine, said she saw her scrutiny of the comb drug ventura down the 50-yard corridor before pushing her down.
Daniel Philip, a male stripper who said he was paid for Combs and Ventura’s fine-grained sexual acts, testified that he witnessed him throwing a bottle of liquor in Ventura’s fine direction after asking him to “hold for a second” when he called her, then dragging her into the bedroom with her hair.
Mitchell Epner, a former New Jersey federal prosecutor who was the lead lawyer for sex trafficking and involuntary service cases, could potentially be acquitted or examined on charges of sex trafficking by distinguishing between domestic violence and sex trafficking.
“But it’s really about putting the ju umpire in their test of oaths and asking them to split their hair in the way the defense asks them to,” Epner says.
Didi Defense Team seeking trust with ju umpire
Litigators will tell you that trust with the ju judge can be brought or destroyed.
That desire to gain trust may have driven the defense team’s decision to admit guilt. His lawyers knew that the ju judge would go to trial that he would hear graphic testimony of violence and “freak off” that Ventura Fine said was just for Combs’ pleasure.
On “Freak-Off,” Ventura Fine said that Combs instructed him to urinate to suffocate his guard.
“I thought it was obvious I didn’t want to do that,” she testified.
“The most important thing you have as a trial lawyer is your credibility,” says Penza. “I thought defense had done as strong a job you could have done as much as you could have the fact that they stacked up against them.”
But even if the defence strategy is logical, that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. The prosecutors called on clinical psychologist Dawn Hughes, who is already an expert witness.
“When we get hit, hurt, beaten… we feel scared,” Hughes said.
In eliciting that testimony, the prosecutor may have wanted to link Comb’s violent actions to the ultimate accusation. He used the violence to get Ventura Fine and others to join “Freak Off.”
After acknowledging part of that prosecutor’s story, the defense is now tasked with cutting links to the broader charges.
Can it screw that needle? Epner thinks it is possible, but it’s also a difficult battle.
“There’s too many ju umpires and I might ask you to conclude that Sean Combs is a drug addiction and violent sexual invader, but with the consent here, he didn’t commit this crime,” Epner says.
Aysha Bagchi is targeted at USA Today’s Department of Justice. She is a lawyer, Harvard University graduate, and Rhodes scholar. You can follow her on X and Bluesky at @ayshabagchi.
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, rain We provide support through our national sexual assault hotlines at 800.656.hope (4673) and hotline.rainn.org and enespañolrainn.org/ES.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, call the domestic domestic violence hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text “Start” 88788.
