Juda Engelmayer
By Juda Englelmayer
The rapid-fire verdict in the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial — where jurors rejected sweeping sex trafficking charges and convicted only on lesser prostitution-related counts — may signal a broader public shift. It suggests juries are no longer buying into SDNY’s increasingly aggressive tactic of framing salacious, non-criminal conduct as evidence of a “criminal enterprise.”
This development is deeply relevant to the Alexander brothers — Alon, Tal and Oren — real estate entrepreneurs now facing similarly broad federal charges built on recycled civil claims and media-driven narratives. As in the Diddy case, the prosecution leans heavily on the transformation of unvetted civil complaints into sweeping criminal conspiracies. The jury in the Diddy trial needed less than 24 hours to reject that formula. The question now is: will future juries do the same?
Related developments in other high-profile cases suggest a pattern of prosecutorial overreach that is now being met with growing resistance:
Harvey Weinstein (Los Angeles): Italy’s Ministry of Justice has launched an investigation into perjury committed during Weinstein’s L.A. trial, where Pascal Vicedomini may have provided false testimony. Compelling evidence suggests the sole victim behind Weinstein’s conviction was with Vicedomini at the time she claimed to have been assaulted — evidence Judge Lisa Lench barred the jury from seeing. The entire conviction could now be in question.
OneTaste (EDNY): A bail pending sentencing motion has been filed in the Second Circuit for Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz — two women who have been model prisoners and whose case, like Diddy’s, centers on prosecutorial overreach via trafficking statutes applied without true coercion or intent.
Moshe Glick (NJ): The Essex County Grand Jury heard the case on June 25. Glick’s legal team awaits word on whether prosecutors will pursue charges stemming from a politically charged altercation caught on video but widely mischaracterized.
Frank Rose (D.C.): A former senior Biden Administration nuclear official who once helped restore J. Robert Oppenheimer’s legacy, Frank Rose now faces unjust attempts to sideline him over tenuous allegations. He’s open to speaking on his case and on broader nuclear policy issues, including JCPOA and U.S.–Iran strategy.
If you’re following the broader backlash to prosecutorial and judicial overreach in high-profile prosecutions — add these stories to your list. The public deserves a more complete and nuanced picture than the mainstream headlines suggest.
Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
Puff Daddy escaped serious time also maintained deep state political ties—The same elite that now seems eerily silent as woman after woman disappears into a system that failed to protect them.
This verdict doesn’t signal a retreat from prosecutorial excess. It’s a siren to women everywhere who dared speak out: you are still expendable if your abuser is rich enough, famous enough, or politically protected enough. It’s not a story of “too much prosecution.” It’s a story of too many doors closed, too many cases buried, too many names erased.
Let’s be clear: Diddy was railroaded by his peers-he took the fall for ‘The Network’ He got off easy -this is a travesty.
Agreed that prosecutorial overreach must be scrutinized, as,many cases–but lets not use this as a way to skirt around the enormous hot pink elephant in the room–in this verdict…not for prosecutors, but for victims. The mass number of victims. Underaged, helpless victims.
Let’s not pretend Sean “Diddy” Combs walked out of court vindicated. He was convicted. And though the jury rejected the sweeping sex trafficking charges, he was still found guilty of prostitution-related offenses after decades of disturbing allegations from women who risked everything to speak out about what happened to them when they were children. If this was a “win,” it came at the cost of silencing survivors, not exposing the broken legal system.
The r ejection of trafficking charges as a signal that the public no longer buys what he calls “salacious” prosecutions. But many of us see the opposite: a chilling reminder that power, wealth, and connections buy and rewrite history and corrupt outcomes.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/legal/sex%20trafficking
HOW IS DIDDY
N O T
A SEX TRAFFICKER?
Department of Justice (.gov)
Superseding Indictment
https://www.justice.gov › u.s._v._alexander_et_a…
PDF
their sex trafficking scheme: a. The ALEXANDER BROTHERS used their wealth and positions to create and facilitate opportunities to rape and sexually assault …
Golly!
Let us hope this isolated incident does not tarnish the many other positive contributions of the rap community.
Golly!
The reputation of rap music is often associated with the glorification of crime, either in the artist’s actual or perceived involvement in criminal activities. This is all part of image building. The genre has not been harmed by the many murders of rappers. It has survived everything. People will also get over P. Diddy if he goes to prison for a long time. Rap will continue to flourish with new talent. The world will keep turning. That’s the way of the world. If anyone has something else to say about it, please get in touch.
Juda,
I agree with you in part: RICO was never meant to be a legal cudgel against individuals with such a low burden of proof. The P. Diddy case was indeed weak; the prosecution’s RICO case hinged on Cassie Ventura’s testimony, and jurors seemed to lack sympathy for her, questioning “why she stayed so long.”
The parts I jdisagree about Harvey Weinstein and the Alexander Brothers. They are rapists. The Weinstein case involved 80 women, and the Alexander brothers’ case has 60 female victims. Unless you believe all these women are “gold digger sluts,” I believe Weinstein and the brothers are rapists because I believe the principal evidence: witness testimony.
Sometimes all you have is witness testimony.
If women are all gold digger sluts –
why are there not a sea of these cases?
Side Note: The R. Kelly case was a solid RICO
case. Prosecutors had multiple witnesses who were systematically blackmailed and coerced into sexual servitude, and victims were brought across state lines, making it a federal case.
Juda have a great day!
You are my Mench!
Prosecution knew they had a despicable character with Sean Combs / Diddy and decided thy could use the character issue to leverage everything against him. So, conspiracy and racketeering were used to elevate charges to a mega-level where serious infractions become major “mafia level” crimes. Another despicable character, Raniere was overcharged as well. It was ridiculous to charge inter-state commerce violations because someone took a bus from NYC to Albany. And, bring racketeering and conspiracy into it because he lied to a bunch of women and used them sexually and built his company off of them. He’s a cad and a pompous asshole but 15 years would have been more appropriate as a sentence than getting 100+ years for being a jerk-off.
Sturm-
Give credit where credit is due!!!
Kieth is a lot more than a jerk-off. He’s a fucking scum!
1. The child porn on Keith computer him
He had taken pornographic photos of 15 year old girl.
2. The little girl that he raped while he was running the MLM.
My apologies to the editor for swearing, but there’s no other way to get the point across.
I had a 15 year old when I was 19. It didn’t turn out so bad. We got married when she graduated college and after I finished a professional degree. That was 30+ years ago and 2 grown up kids later! So, context is important.
I don’t defend Raniere. He fucked with a lot of people; but I also believe the punishment has fit the crime. The justice system shouldn’t run on vindictiveness. A life in prison because you took some pictures of a naked girl? That’s punishment worse than the Taliban would dish out.
And for you, my friend, maybe you should look at your hostility and rage, and ask yourself if that’s helping you in your life?
I am not the one with a Third Reich name.
Get back to the trailer from which you came.