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Sex Trafficking
Sean Diddy Combs, the hip-hop entrepreneur whose wildly successful career has been dotted by allegations of violence, will be brought to a New York courthouse on Monday to be tried on charges that he used the influence and resources of his business empire to sexually abuse women. Jury selection is scheduled to begin in the morning and potentially take several days. Opening statements by the lawyers and the start of testimony is expected next week. The 17-page indictment against Combs reads like a charging document filed against a Mafia leader or the head of a drug gang, accusing him of engaging in sex trafficking and presiding over a racketeering conspiracy. The indictment says that with the help of people in his entourage and employees from his network of businesses, Combs engaged in a two-decade pattern of abusive behavior against women and others. Women were manipulated into participating in drug-fuelled sexual performances with male sex workers that Combs called Freak Offs, ...
A Florida judge released on Monday afternoon the transcripts of a 2006 grand jury investigation that looked into sex trafficking and rape allegations made against the late millionaire and financier Jeffrey Epstein. The judge's release of the approximately 150 pages came as a surprise as he had scheduled a hearing for next week on when and how to release them. Gov. Ron DeSantis had signed a bill in February allowing the release on Monday or any time thereafter that Circuit Judge Luis Delgado ordered. The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people, Delgado wrote in his order. The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal. After the grand jury investigation, Epstein cut a deal with South Florida federal prosecutors in 2008 that allowed him to escape more severe federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of procuring a person under