Closing arguments expected in Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking case, as prosecutors slim down case, court filing shows

Prosecutors trimmed down on Wednesday some of the crimes that supported their theory for racketeering conspiracy in the federal criminal case against Sean "Diddy" Combs, a letter filed by the U.S. Attorney's office shows.

"The Government has removed instructions from the charge relating to (i) attempted kidnapping under both California and New York law, (ii) attempted arson under California law, and (iii) aiding and abetting sex trafficking," prosecutors wrote in a memo on jury instructions addressed to District Judge Arun Subramanian. "The Government is no longer planning to proceed on these theories of liability so instructions are no longer necessary."

During a hearing over how to explain the charges to the panel on Wednesday, prosecutors also said that they would also no longer tell the jury that obstruction of justice as it relates to a former assistant was part of the conspiracy.

A day after testimony ended in the federal sex trafficking and racketeering case against the Sean Jean fashion brand founder, Manhattan prosecutors have moved away from instructing the jury on several underlying crimes that support a racketeering conspiracy. Closing arguments in the case are expected Thursday.

To secure a conviction of racketeering the case, prosecutors must convince the jury that Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, conspired with his employees — security staff, his chief of staff, and personal assistants — to coerce his girlfriends into having dayslong, drug-fueled sex with male prostitutes.

Witnesses in the case have told of violent beatings, blackmail threats, economic extortion and gunpoint demands by Combs that prosecutors argued supported his sexual lifestyle. Prosecutors say that the Bad Boy Records founder used his vast business empire to finance and provide logistic support for his sex binges.

In the federal indictment, prosecutors have charged that as part of the racketeering Combs and his staff committed arson, obstruction of justice, sex trafficking, drug possession and distribution, forced labor, kidnapping and transporting men for the purpose of prostitution.

To secure a guilty verdict for the single racketeering charge against Combs, the jury must unanimously agree that he is guilty of two offenses.

On Wednesday, prosecutors told the court that attempted kidnapping, obstruction of justice and attempted arson are no longer part of the jury’s consideration.

"They’re streamlining it, ultimately, to strengthen their case," defense attorney Michael Bachner told Newsday.

Bachner, who represented Combs’ bodyguard during a 1999 weapons possession trial against the hip-hop pioneer, said that case theories can evolve as a trial unfolds.

"The government often will throw in the kitchen sink" he said, eliciting testimony regarding crimes that are not mentioned in the jury instruction. "They say ‘This may be weak, we want to take this away from defense summations.’"

During the trial, rapper Kid Cudi, whose given name is Scott Mescudi, testified in the second week of the trial that his Porsche was firebombed in California with a Molotov cocktail in January 2011, after Combs found out that he had been dating his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura, a pop singer who performs under the name Cassie.

The Los Angeles Fire Department investigated the incident, but never charged anyone with a crime.

Combs’ former personal assistant Capricorn Clark told the jury that he arrived at her door with a gun in his hand in December 2010 and demanded that she come with him to mete out revenge on Cudi.

"Get dressed, we’re going to kill [Kid Cudi]," she testified he told her.

She also testified that members of Combs security staff locked her in an office for eight hours a day over five days to give her a polygraph test after jewelry on loan to Combs went missing.

"If you fail this test, they’re going to throw you in the East River," she told the court the man administering the test told her.

Combs offered to pay $100,000 for a security video from the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, according to testimony, that showed him dressed only in a towel kicking and beating his ex-girlfriend Ventura, one of the alleged victims of his sex trafficking. Hotel security staffer Eddy Garcia testified that Combs personally brought him the money in a brown paper bag in exchange for a memory drive with a copy of the video on it.

The jury watched the recording multiple times during the trial as part of the prosecutor’s case.

The payoff could be considered obstruction of justice if there was a criminal investigation into the beating, however the police were never involved in the incident.

Ultimately, Bachner said that prosecutors have many other crimes that support their case in addition to the two counts of sex trafficking and transporting male escorts for the purpose of prostitution.

"To me, it appears that the prosecution has proven the elements of the crime to support racketeering," Bachner said. "But proving the elements does not mean you’ll get a conviction."

He said that jurors can often be more deliberative when it comes to celebrities.

"It is not an easy case for the prosecution," he said. "The elements are there, but whether or not they can get a conviction, remains to be seen."