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      The Question for the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Jurors: What Qualifies as Coercion?

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      When the jurors deliberate Sean Combs’s fate in the coming weeks, they will confront a vast trove of evidence from two women who say his treatment of them for years swung between tender affection and sexual subjugation.At the core of the panel’s review will be the question of whether the women — both put forward by prosecutors as sex-trafficking victims — were willing participants in sex marathons with male escorts that lie at the center of the federal case against Mr. Combs.The women have testified for days that while they were in romantic relationships with Mr. Combs, they complied with his requests for voyeuristic, drug-fueled sex nights because they feared the retaliation of a man who wielded immense power over them.Casandra Ventura said she was repeatedly beaten and feared he would make sex tapes of her public as he had threatened. “Jane,” who testified under a pseudonym, said she was repeatedly pressured to have sex with hired men — once after vomiting, another time on her birthday. She said she worried that, given his pattern of behavior, she would seriously displease him if she stopped, leading him to stop paying the $10,000-a-month rent on the home where she lives with her child.“It was many, many blurred lines of love and affection mixed with emotional pressure to perform these things that my lover really desired,” Jane said of her relationship on the stand last week, “and so I wanted to fulfill my duties as a good girlfriend.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Latest in the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial: Timeline and Testimony

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      The music mogul has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. Here’s what has happened in court.Sean Combs, one of America’s most influential music moguls, is standing trial on federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. Prosecutors accuse him of leading a criminal enterprise that committed a series of crimes including kidnapping, arson and obstruction of justice. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have said all the sex at issue in the case was consensual. Read the indictment here.The Latest:The Jury Sees ‘Freak-Off’ Videos and a Juror Is DismissedAs the trial enters its sixth week, the prosecution has highlighted key pieces of evidence to summarize its case. Among them were a trove of text messages from Kristina Khorram, Mr. Combs’s former chief of staff, which prosecutors said showed that Ms. Khorram was closely involved in planning the intensive sex marathons that Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified as “Jane” said they endured. Over the course of the trial, those events have been called “freak-offs,” “hotel nights” and “wild king nights.”Prosecutors also showed jurors brief excerpts from videos of those events, which were taken from devices that Ms. Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, provided to the government. That evidence is sealed, and was not visible to the public or the news media. Jurors watched the videos on screens, and listened on headphones; one juror, frowning, snatched the headphones off after the first clip was played. During cross-examination, the defense chose segments of the same videos that lasted up to five minutes.The defense has called the footage “powerful evidence that the sexual conduct in this case was consensual and not based on coercion.”On Monday, the judge dismissed a juror who gave inconsistent information about where he lives, raising concerns that he had been seeking a spot on the jury of the high-profile case. On Tuesday, the jury saw charts that detailed phone records and text messages related to Mr. Combs’s assault on Ms. Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, and illustrated how some of the expenses related to freak-offs were paid through Mr. Combs’s companies.Prosecutors are expected to rest this week, and the defense will then call its own witnesses, who are expected to include a former human resources manager for Mr. Combs’s company and a forensic psychiatrist.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial, a Detailed Timeline of the Hotel Assault on Cassie

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      Jurors were also shown how expenses related to the sexual encounters were paid for by the mogul’s companies, as well as text and phone records surrounding a 2016 assault.Just after noon on Tuesday, the courtroom where Sean Combs is standing trial went silent.For a second time in Mr. Combs’s federal trial for sex trafficking and racketeering, jurors were shown explicit videos of “freak-offs,” the extended sexual encounters that are central to the case — this time, in excerpts chosen by the defense.On Monday, during questioning of a federal agent by prosecutors, jurors had viewed a series of short clips from the videos, each about 30 seconds in length. On Tuesday, during cross-examination, the defense chose segments that lasted up to five minutes.Jurors, wearing headphones, kept their eyes trained on screens in front of them. But, following an order from the judge supervising the case, Arun Subramanian, the videos were not displayed to reporters and members of the public in the gallery. The footage was taken from devices that Casandra Ventura, Mr. Combs’s on-and-off girlfriend for about 11 years, turned over to the government during its investigation.For about 20 minutes, as the videos were played, the courtroom was largely hushed while jurors watched. Mr. Combs, sitting in his chair, leaned back and tapped his fingers rhythmically against his right thigh. His lawyers eyed the jurors closely.On Monday, some jurors had seemed visibly uncomfortable when viewing the clips. But on Tuesday, they showed little reaction. When the videos ended, one juror rubbed his face and eyes.Teny Geragos, the defense lawyer cross-examining the agent, DeLeassa Penland of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, said nothing about the videos, only giving the time codes for when the segments would stop and start; in some cases, she indicated that they were resuming where Monday’s clips had ended.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jurors at Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial See Video of ‘Freak-Off’ Sexual Encounters

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      Earlier on Monday, the judge dismissed a juror over a “lack of candor” and prosecutors strove to show that the mogul’s “right hand” aide helped organize sex nights.After weeks of graphic testimony that detailed drug-fueled sex marathons, jurors weighing the fate of Sean Combs saw for the first time videos taken of the sex sessions at the heart of the case.The footage, from 2012 and 2014, involved Casandra Ventura, Mr. Combs’s on-and-off girlfriend of 11 years, who testified that she participated in the encounters — known as “freak-offs” — out of fear of retribution from Mr. Combs, who repeatedly beat her during their relationship.The sensitive footage was not shown to the full courtroom, after the judge in the case sealed it from reporters and members of the public who attend the trial. Jurors watched the videos while wearing headphones and looking at screens that had been outfitted with privacy guards. Several jurors winced. One, frowning, snatched the headphones off after the first clip was played.The videos were shown in several brief clips, about 30 seconds each. Some footage was from an October 2012 stay at the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan, where two male escorts were invited to meet Ms. Ventura and Mr. Combs.Mr. Combs is facing charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, which revolve around his relationships with Ms. Ventura and another former girlfriend, known in court under the pseudonym Jane. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have asserted that the two women repeatedly consented to the nights of sex.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Question for the Sean Combs Jurors: What Qualifies as Coercion?

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      When the jurors deliberate Sean Combs’s fate in the coming weeks, they will confront a vast trove of evidence from two women who say his treatment of them for years swung between tender affection and sexual subjugation.At the core of the panel’s review will be the question of whether the women — both put forward by prosecutors as sex-trafficking victims — were willing participants in sex marathons with male escorts that lie at the center of the federal case against Mr. Combs.The women have testified for days that while they were in romantic relationships with Mr. Combs, they complied with his requests for voyeuristic, drug-fueled sex nights because they feared the retaliation of a man who wielded immense power over them.Casandra Ventura said she was repeatedly beaten and feared he would make sex tapes of her public as he had threatened. “Jane,” who testified under a pseudonym, said she was repeatedly pressured to have sex with hired men — once after vomiting, another time on her birthday. She said she worried that, given his pattern of behavior, she would seriously displease him if she stopped, leading him to stop paying the $10,000-a-month rent on the home where she lives with her child.“It was many, many blurred lines of love and affection mixed with emotional pressure to perform these things that my lover really desired,” Jane said of her relationship on the stand last week, “and so I wanted to fulfill my duties as a good girlfriend.”Mr. Combs has vehemently denied the sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges against him. The heart of his defense is consent. His lawyers spent hours asking the women to review messages in which they expressed love for Mr. Combs and, at times, interest in the sex sessions.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Trial, Talk of Baby Oil, Guns and a Guest: Kanye West

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      The rapper formerly known as Kanye West, one of the few celebrities to publicly defend Mr. Combs, was denied access to the courtroom and briefly watched on closed-circuit video.At about 11:20 a.m. on Friday, there was a commotion at the entrance to the Federal District courthouse in Lower Manhattan when Ye, the rapper and provocateur formerly known as Kanye West, entered the building where Sean Combs is standing trial.Ye, wearing sunglasses and a white denim jacket and pants, was accompanied by Mr. Combs’s son Christian. When he was asked by a reporter if he was there to support Mr. Combs, Ye said yes — though he stayed in the courthouse for only about 30 minutes, and was never seated in the courtroom.For months, Ye has been one of the only major celebrities to offer public support for Mr. Combs, who is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors have said that employees of Mr. Combs, including security staff, worked on his behalf as part of a “criminal enterprise” to commit a variety of crimes, including kidnapping, arson and obstruction of justice. Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty.The presence of Ye — who has become a pariah in the music industry in recent years for issuing brazen antisemitic comments — was brief, but it electrified the building.When he tried to enter the 26th-floor courtroom where Mr. Combs’s trial was underway, Ye was told that he was not on the approved list for the day, which is held by court officers and includes reporters and members of the public who arrive early.So Ye was directed to a mostly empty overflow room three floors down. There, with Christian Combs and Charlucci Finney, a friend of Mr. Combs, Ye watched a closed-circuit video feed as the proceedings were set to resume after a break.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Inside the Jury Room at the Weinstein Trial, Rancor and Recrimination

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      As the panelists deliberated over whether the former Hollywood mogul should be convicted of sex crimes for a second time in Manhattan, accusations began to fly.Inside the jury room at the second New York sex crime trial of Harvey Weinstein, things were getting tense.The 12 jurors had already acquitted the former Hollywood mogul on one felony sex crime charge, and they had begun to deliberate on a second when the discussions suddenly turned pointed, and personal.One juror, who had been calm and had even prayed with the others, abruptly began accusing another of having been “bought out” by Mr. Weinstein or his lawyers.The moment, which occurred on the second day of deliberations in a case that was brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office after its earlier sex crime conviction against Mr. Weinstein was overturned, foreshadowed the rancor and dysfunction that would ultimately consume the panel.Although it ultimately voted to convict him of the second felony sex crime, it reached no decision on the third charge in the case, deadlocking on Thursday over whether Mr. Weinstein raped an aspiring actress in a hotel room in 2013.This account of what occurred in the jury room is based on interviews with several jurors, particularly one panelist who came forward twice to voice concerns to the judge about the behavior of his fellow jurors.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Ex-Girlfriend Will Return for 22nd Hour of Testimony

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      “Jane,” taking the stand under a pseudonym, is expected to face her final questions from the mogul’s lawyers on Thursday.On the 22nd day of Sean Combs’s federal trial, the defense is scheduled to complete its cross-examination of “Jane,” an ex-girlfriend who has testified about the affection and passion she once shared with the famed music producer — as well the degrading sex marathons with hired men that she says she endured to please Mr. Combs and retain financial support from him.Mr. Combs is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy; prosecutors have said that he directed bodyguards and executives at his company to enable and cover up his crimes — including coercing women into sex — as part of a “criminal enterprise.” Jane, who is appearing under a pseudonym, is the second woman the government has put forth as a victim of sex trafficking, after Casandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, who testified for four days last month.Mr. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and has strongly denied that any of his sexual activities were nonconsensual.On Thursday, Jane, who was in a relationship with Mr. Combs from 2021 until his arrest in 2024, will get on the stand for a sixth day; since she first began testifying a week ago she has been questioned for about 21 hours. Even with the torrent of details she has provided, Jane’s testimony has centered on one of the key aspects of the case: whether she was coerced into sex, or acted as a willing participant.During her time on the stand, Jane has recounting grueling experiences about what she and Mr. Combs called their “hotel nights,” in which she had sex with male escorts while Mr. Combs watched. She said she once vomited after having sex with two of them, and then was encouraged by Mr. Combs to have sex with a third. She said she developed urinary tract infections as a result of the frequent encounters. And after a violent brawl with Mr. Combs that started with an argument over another woman he was dating, Jane testified, she took part in yet another sexual encounter with an escort, wearing makeup to cover up her black eye and welts.In cross-examination, Teny Geragos, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, focused on dozens of text exchanges between Jane, Mr. Combs and others in which Jane appeared to express excitement about hotel nights and took an active role in planning them. In an exchange from 2021, a pornographic actor who took part in many of these encounters wrote about the “roughest sex we ever had.” Jane called it “def one for the books” and added a “mind-blown” emoji.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More