A prosecutor on Thursday described Sean Combs, the famed music producer and mogul, as the leader of a criminal enterprise who “doesn’t take no for an answer,” as the government’s closing argument began in his sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial. “The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,” the prosecutor, Christy Slavik, told jurors at the start of her summation, which is expected to last four hours.
Over 28 days of testimony, Mr. Combs’s violent temper and his penchant for watching his girlfriends perform sexually with male escorts have been under close scrutiny in a federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Ms. Slavik is now tying together the weeks of evidence and testimony for jurors and seeking to persuade them that Mr. Combs’s behavior was criminal. He has pleaded not guilty.
