Mitchell Epner on Mitchell Epner on Law

I am quoted in the BBC's live blog on closing arguments in the Sean Combs case: ______ It's been a strong day for prosecutors closing out their case against Sean Combs today, a legal expert tells me. Mitchell Epner, a New York-based lawyer and former prosecutor, says the prosecution has done well to tie particular incidents - including the video of Combs beating up Ventura in a hotel hallway - to the sex trafficking charges. Epner says the jury have been reminded repeatedly that they only need to find Combs sex trafficked on at least one occasion. "The point of closing arguments is to turn it from being theoretical to being concrete," Epner says. "The government is doing a very good job, saying that these particular incidents on these particular days constituted sex trafficking." He says prosecutors have also worked to rebut the defence's main argument - that Combs committed domestic violence, but domestic violence is not sex trafficking. It's an "unpalatable" argument that Combs' lawyers have to make, Epner says. To respond, the government made the argument that Combs was violent "with a purpose, and the purpose was to get [Ventura] to continue to participate in the freak-offs," Epner says. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c5ygxlzng62t?post=asset%3A2f2a855a-d964-426b-bfc3-5dc7234f1ec6#post