New York prosecutors aiming to take down Diddy are using a similar playbook to one used to imprison other high-profile sex abusers including R. Kelly and Keith Raniere.
The disgraced rap mogul was indicted Tuesday on a slew of crimes including sex trafficking and racketeering, the same charges that put R. Kelly and Raniere – the leader of the NXIVM cult – behind bars.
In particular, racketeering charges are noted by the New York Times as useful against powerful defendants, as they allow prosecutors to build a case around an ‘enterprise’ of accomplices dating back many years.
The federal charges can allow prosecutors to go after crimes dating beyond the state’s statute of limitations, with Diddy facing alleged crimes going back as far as 2008 including kidnapping, arson, bribery and narcotics distribution.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, seen in a court sketch on Tuesday, is facing a slew of charges including sex trafficking and racketeering
The charges against Diddy follow a similar playbook to one used by prosecutors to secure the convictions of powerful sex abusers Keith Raniere (left) and R. Kelly (right)
In the indictment against Diddy that was unsealed this week, it was claimed that federal raids on his Miami and Los Angeles mansions led to the discovery of over 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant.
It is alleged that the rapper would coerce and manipulate victims into taking part in days-long sexual performances, which he dubbed ‘freak offs.’
Diddy’s associates would allegedly ply victims with drugs to keep them compliant and would make threats against anyone refusing to engage, in claims similar to those made in a civil lawsuit brought by Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Cassie last year.
These allegations were central to prosecutors bringing sex trafficking charges against the producer, with observers noting that authorities are increasingly expanding the law to suit their cases against powerful defendants.
A step up in federal sex trafficking charges was passed by Congress in 2000 as an intentional step to take down prostitution rings and pimps, but the evolving nature of the charge has seen it more recently used to snare individuals like Raniere.
Diddy has hired the same attorney, Marc Agnifilo (pictured) that Raniere used in his 2019 trial, who has previously challenged the government’s expanding use of federal sex trafficking charges to go after powerful defendants
Notably, Diddy has hired the same attorney, Marc Agnifilo, who has previously challenged the government’s expanding use of federal sex trafficking charges in Raniere’s 2019 trial that led to a 120-year sentence.
Raniere was the leader of the NXIVM cult, a self-help pyramid scheme that acted as a front for his various crimes, including sexual assault, sex trafficking, child pornography and forced labor.
At his trial, the cult leader’s legal team attempted to argue that federal sex trafficking charges were overstretched to fit his case – the same argument Mr. Agifilo made at Diddy’s bail hearing this week.
He claimed that the alleged ‘freak offs’ were merely the way Diddy was ‘intimate’ with people, and accused prosecutors of overstepping and ‘coming into this man’s bedroom.’
‘Is it sex trafficking? No, not if everybody wants to be there,’ Agnifilo said at the hearing.
Raniere’s case was seen as a watershed moment in the expansion of the charges prosecutors could bring, as it was argued that Raniere’s accomplices profited through a rise in their cult status by coercing forced labor from his ‘slaves.’
Raniere was the leader of the NXIVM cult, a self-help pyramid scheme that acted as a front for his various crimes, including sexual assault, sex trafficking, child pornography and forced labor
The cult leader was sentenced to 120 years in prison, in a watershed trial that showed the expansion of the federal sex trafficking charges prosecutors could bring
Another of the cult leader’s attorneys, Arthur Aidala, recalled it was ‘somewhat bastardized to fit the needs of prosecutors to incarcerate people they believe need to be incarcerated.’
‘Even if they weren’t violating the spirit of the law when it was enacted,’ he told the New York Times.
Moira Penza, a prosecutor on the Raniere case, admitted that his trial was a successful test case to show authorities how they could take down a powerful defendant whose crimes took place behind closed doors with close confidants.
‘These crimes so often went unprosecuted because prosecutors were concerned about putting on ‘he said, she said’ cases, especially against powerful individuals,” she said.
‘It was one of those first trials following the #MeToo movement that showed it really could be done.’
R. Kelly was sentenced for historic crimes against underage girls through a legal sleight of hand that allowed prosecutors to bring charges that had gone beyond the statute of limitations, a similar tactic to that used to charge Diddy this week
The same could be said for the racketeering charges brought against Diddy, which mirror much of the case brought against another disgraced hip hop icon, R. Kelly.
Kelly had faced years of allegations surrounding the abuse of underage girls, but it took the expansion of RICO charges to allow prosecutors to finally bring a case against him.
Just as some of Diddy’s alleged crimes took place before the statute of limitations, prosecutors were able to bring charges against R. Kelly because his attacks on underage girls were ‘predicate acts’ that were part of his ‘criminal enterprise’, which fit the federal charges.
R. Kelly’s ‘enterprise’ was alleged to have included managers, drivers, bodyguards and personal assistants who helped him get away with his crimes against young girls for decades.
Elizabeth Geddes, a former prosecutor who was involved in the case against R. Kelly, told the New York Times that convincing a jury that the powerful defendant used an ‘enterprise’ to protect them for years is the key to winning such cases.
Oftentimes the reason why they’ve been able to evade justice is because they had this group looking out for them,’ she said. ‘The law recognizes that individuals become more powerful when they’re backed by a group.
‘The racketeering statute exists to give broad prosecutorial powers to bring those people to justice.’