By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs thought his “fame, wealth and power” put him above the law as he led a criminal enterprise for two decades, using “power, violence and fear” to carry out brutal crimes, a prosecutor told a jury at the music mogul’s sex trafficking trial during closing arguments Thursday.

“Over the last several weeks, you’ve learned a lot about Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik began. “He’s the leader of a criminal enterprise. He doesn’t take no for an answer. And now you know about many crimes he committed with members of his enterprise.”

She said charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy were supported by proof that over two decades, Combs kidnapped one of his employees, committed arson by trying to blow up a car, engaged in forced labor, bribed a security officer and carried out the “brutal crimes at the heart of this case.”

Combs “again and again forced, threatened and manipulated” former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and an ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” into “having sex with escorts for his own entertainment,” Slavik said, speaking from a lectern positioned between jurors and the tables where prosecutors and defense lawyers sat.

“The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,” she said. “He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.”

Slavik said Combs “counted on silence and shame” to enable and prolong his abuse. He used a “small army” of employees — an inner circle that included personal assistants and bodyguards — to harm women and cover it up, she said.

The theory of racketeering law is that “when someone commits crime as part of a group, they’re more powerful and dangerous,” Slavik said. “The defendant was a powerful man, but he became more powerful and dangerous because of his inner circle, his businesses — the enterprise.”

Combs and his inner circle “committed hundreds of racketeering acts,” she said.

As Slavik spoke, jurors saw photos of key figures in Combs’ orbit, as well as excerpts from related testimony in the trial transcript and slides to categorize evidence.

One slide listed crimes prosecutors allege as part of the racketeering conspiracy, including drug distribution, kidnapping, arson and witness tampering. Another slide listed drugs such as cocaine, meth, ketamine, Oxycodone and MDMA, that Combs’ aides said they procured for him, or that federal agents said they found last year in raids of Combs’ homes.

Combs sat with his head down, his chair pushed back a few feet from the defense table, as Slavik spoke. He was wearing a light-colored sweater over a white button-down shirt and khakis.

Since his arrest at a Manhattan hotel last September, prosecutors have said Combs coerced and abused women for years as he used his “power and prestige” as a music star to enlist a network of associates and employees to help him while he silenced victims through blackmail and violence.

They’ve said the Bad Boy Records founder induced female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “Freak-Offs.”

Defense lawyers have argued that Combs was involved in domestic violence but committed no federal crimes.

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They built their case for acquittal through lengthy cross-examinations of most of the government’s 34 witnesses. Some witnesses testified only in response to subpoenas and made it clear to the jury that they didn’t want to be there.

Combs’ lawyers contend there was no racketeering conspiracy because none of his employees agreed to be part of any conspiracy.

But in her closing, Slavik said employees repeatedly agreed to commit crimes for Combs, such as delivering him drugs; accompanying him to kidnap his personal assistant, Capricorn Clark; and locking his girlfriend in a hotel room after he stomped on her face.

Before Slavik began her closing, Judge Arun Subramanian told the jury they would hear a closing argument from a defense lawyer on Friday and a rebuttal by a prosecutor before he instructs them on the law and allows them to begin deliberating as early as late afternoon.

The wife of the man accused in the attacks on Minnesota legislators said Thursday that she and their children “are absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided.”

Vance L. Boelter, 57, is charged in the June 14 shootings that killed Rep. Melissa Hortman and husband, Mark, at their Brooklyn Park home, and that wounded Sen. John Hoffman and wife, Yvette, at their Champlin home.

Boelter’s wife, in her first public statement, expressed her family’s sympathies to the Hortman and Hoffman families.

Vance Luther Boelter (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

“This violence does not at all align with our beliefs as a family,” Jenny Boelter said in the statement. “It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith. We are appalled and horrified by what occurred and our hearts are incredibly heavy for the victims of this unfathomable tragedy.”

Jenny Boelter also said, in the statement issued on her behalf by the Halberg Criminal Defense firm, that she hadn’t been pulled over by law enforcement after the shootings. She said she received a call from law enforcement “and immediately drove to meet agents at a nearby gas station.”

She said they “voluntarily agreed to meet with them, answer their questions, provide all items they requested and cooperate with all searches.”

After a large-scale manhunt, Vance Boelter was arrested on June 15 near his and his wife’s home in rural Sibley County. Jenny Boelter’s statement concluded: “We thank law enforcement for apprehending Vance and protecting others from further harm.”

Boelter is charged with murder in both federal and state court.

The Hortmans will lie in state on Friday in the Minnesota Capitol rotunda in St. Paul, along with their golden retriever, Gilbert. The rotunda will be open from noon to 5 p.m. for the public to pay their respects to the Hortmans. Their dog also was gravely wounded in the shooting and had to be euthanized.

Officer who fired handgun identified

Also on Thursday, authorities identified a Brooklyn Park police officer who fired his handgun when shots were fired at the Hortman home. The charges again Boelter say he was posing as an officer when he went to the homes of Hoffman, Hortman and two other legislators who he did not encounter.

Officers arrived to check on the Hortman home after the shootings at the Hoffman home and encountered a man who officials later identified as Boelter.

“As officers arrived, they encountered a vehicle resembling a squad car with emergency lights flashing in the Hortmans’ driveway and a man, later identified as Vance Boelter, at the front of the home dressed as a police officer,” according to a Thursday statement from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. “Shots were fired and Officer (Zachary) Baumtrog discharged his firearm in response.”

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On the day of the shootings, officials said Boelter had shot at officers. Authorities said June 16 that is being further investigated.

“When Boelter saw the officers get out of the car, he drew his weapon and began firing,” Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson said previously. “He rushed into the house through the front door, firing into it. He repeatedly fired into the house, and when he entered, he murdered Rep. Hortman and her husband Mark.” He fled out the back door.

Baumtrog was wearing a body camera during the incident, which BCA agents are reviewing during their investigation into his use of force.

The officer has nine years of law enforcement experience. Brooklyn Park Police Department placed him on critical incident leave, which is standard.

By HOLLY MEYER and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX

WASHINGTON (AP) — Few U.S. adults support allowing religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools, but a majority favors allowing religious chaplains to provide support services for public school students, a new poll finds.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows the complexity of Americans’ attitudes toward religious expression in schools, which varies depending on the kind of expression and sometimes crosses partisan lines.

The findings also highlight tension points in the country’s long-standing debate over the role of religion in public schools, which continues to drive legislation and legal action. Recent examples include a lawsuit against a new Arkansas measure that requires the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, a push by lawmakers in multiple states to allow religious chaplains to serve in student support roles in public schools, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 4-4 decision that blocked plans for a publicly funded Catholic charter school in Oklahoma.

On some issues like teacher-led prayer, white evangelical Protestants and Black Protestants — who traditionally find themselves on opposite sides of the political aisle — are both largely supportive, dividing them from other religious groups. White evangelical Protestants are more likely than many other religious groups to say religion has “too little” influence on what children are taught in public schools.

Chaplains in schools are popular, but not teacher prayer

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say that religious chaplains should be allowed to provide support services for students in public schools, but most do not think teacher-led prayer or a mandatory period during school hours for private prayer should be allowed in public schools.

Texas became the first state to allow chaplains, in 2023. After that, lawmakers in several states considered similar bills. It’s illustrative of an ongoing conservative push to bring more religion into the classroom, which advocates of church-state separation are countering.

Sally Hacker, 61, a Republican and nondenominational Christian from Michigan, supports having chaplains in schools. They could help students use the Bible as a moral guide, she said.

“If they have problems, these students could go and talk to these preachers and these chaplains, and maybe they could help them figure out a way to get out of those problems,” Hacker said.

School chaplains are only somewhat divisive among religious Americans, although they’re still opposed by a majority of nones, the term for atheists, agnostics and those with no religion in particular. But white evangelical Protestants and Black Protestants stand apart from Catholics, white mainline Protestants and nones in their support for teacher prayer and mandatory prayer periods in public schools.

For public schoolteacher Cameron Thompson, 47, of Ohio, teacher-led prayer is not OK if it’s part of classroom instruction, but he doesn’t see an issue if teachers choose to lead students in prayer as part of an extracurricular activity, like a Fellowship of Christian Athletes event.

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“As an optional activity, I feel like it is something that, yeah, it should be allowed for sure,” said Thompson, a Republican and a Lutheran.

The questions exposed fault lines among partisans on both sides of the political spectrum. Democrats are firmly opposed to teacher-led prayer and mandatory school prayer periods but divided on chaplain support services in public schools, while Republicans are firmly in favor of chaplain support services and teacher-led prayer but divided on a mandatory school prayer period.

Public school psychologist Gary Leu, 64, of Utah, believes adding chaplains is misguided.

Leu, a Democrat, questions the motives behind it, wondering if chaplain programs are more about giving religious watchdogs access to schools or have some other agenda. He also is concerned about what, if any, professional standards and ethics the chaplains would be held to.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish that isn’t already being accomplished,” said Leu, who is not affiliated with a particular religion but has a background in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Opposition to tax-funded religious charter schools, but more openness to vouchers

Americans are more likely to oppose allowing religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools than to favor this. About 4 in 10 are opposed, while roughly one-quarter are in favor and about one-third are neither in favor nor opposed.

In general, U.S. adults are more divided on tax-funded vouchers that help parents pay for tuition for their children to attend private or religious schools of their choice instead of public schools. Similar shares oppose and favor this; about one-quarter are neutral.

In May, the Supreme Court’s tie decision effectively ended what would have been the nation’s first religious charter school, but it left the issue unresolved nationally.

There isn’t majority support for allowing religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools among any of the major religious groups analyzed, although about 4 in 10 white evangelical Protestants are in favor, compared with about 3 in 10 Catholics and Black Protestants and about 2 in 10 white mainline Protestants. Substantial shares of all of these groups neither favor nor oppose this idea. Most nones oppose allowing religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools.

Jess Tichenor, 39, of Oregon, is among the nones who strongly oppose tax-funded religious charter schools as she is wary of favoritism for Christianity.

“In an ideal situation, the publicly funded schools would be a safe place for any religion to be recognized or even practiced,” said Tichenor, who practices Buddhism. She feels similarly about school vouchers.

Against the backdrop of favorable decisions by the conservative-majority Supreme Court, several states have expanded school voucher programs in recent years.

Supporters say these programs help families make the best choice for their children’s education. At the Republican National Convention, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called it the “civil rights issue of our time.” Tennessee expanded its school voucher program in February.

Besides discrimination concerns and church-state issues, opponents worry that school vouchers take money from public schools, which serve most U.S. students, and benefit higher-income families that already use private schools.

“If they’re going to end up sending their kids to a special private school, they need to fund that out of their own pocket,” said Hacker, the nondenominational Christian from Michigan.

Other views on religion and public schools

About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say religion has “too much” influence on what children are taught in public school. About two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants say religion has “too little” influence.
About half of Americans favor requiring public schools to provide parents with lists of books that are available to students, while about one-third neither favor nor oppose this and 14% are opposed.
Nearly half, 45%, of U.S. adults oppose religious exemptions for childhood vaccines that are required for students attending public schools, while roughly one-quarter are in favor and about 3 in 10 are neutral.
Most adults say freedom of religion and church-state separation are “extremely” or “very” important to the United States’ identity as a nation, but 81% say religious freedom is important, compared with 64% who say this about separation of church and state.

Meyer reported from Nashville, Tenn.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,158 adults was conducted June 5-9, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

By MARK SHERMAN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is in the final days of a term that has lately been dominated by the Trump administration’s emergency appeals of lower court orders seeking to slow President Donald Trump’s efforts to remake the federal government.

But the justices also have six cases to resolve that were argued between January and mid-May. One of the argued cases was an emergency appeal, the administration’s bid to be allowed to enforce Trump’s executive order denying birthright citizenship to U.S.-born children of parents who are in the country illegally.

The remaining opinions will be delivered Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts said. On Thursday, a divided court allowed states to cut off Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood amid a wider Republican-backed push to defund the country’s biggest abortion provider.

Here are some of the biggest remaining cases:

Trump’s birthright citizenship order has been blocked by lower courts

The court rarely hears arguments over emergency appeals, but it took up the administration’s plea to narrow orders that have prevented the citizenship changes from taking effect anywhere in the U.S.

The issue before the justices is whether to limit the authority of judges to issue nationwide injunctions, which have plagued both Republican and Democratic administrations in the past 10 years.

These nationwide court orders have emerged as an important check on Trump’s efforts and a source of mounting frustration to the Republican president and his allies.

At arguments last month, the court seemed intent on keeping a block on the citizenship restrictions while still looking for a way to scale back nationwide court orders. It was not clear what such a decision might look like, but a majority of the court expressed concerns about what would happen if the administration were allowed, even temporarily, to deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally.

Democratic-led states, immigrants and rights groups who sued over Trump’s executive order argued that it would upset the settled understanding of birthright citizenship that has existed for more than 125 years.

The court seems likely to side with Maryland parents in a religious rights case over LGBTQ storybooks in public schools

Parents in the Montgomery County school system, in suburban Washington, want to be able to pull their children out of lessons that use the storybooks, which the county added to the curriculum to better reflect the district’s diversity.

The school system at one point allowed parents to remove their children from those lessons, but then reversed course because it found the opt-out policy to be disruptive. Sex education is the only area of instruction with an opt-out provision in the county’s schools.

The school district introduced the storybooks in 2022, with such titles as “Prince and Knight” and “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding.”

The case is one of several religious rights cases at the court this term. The justices have repeatedly endorsed claims of religious discrimination in recent years. The decision also comes amid increases in recent years in books being banned from public school and public libraries.

A three-year battle over congressional districts in Louisiana is making its second trip to the Supreme Court

Lower courts have struck down two Louisiana congressional maps since 2022 and the justices are weighing whether to send state lawmakers back to the map-drawing board for a third time.

The case involves the interplay between race and politics in drawing political boundaries in front of a conservative-led court that has been skeptical of considerations of race in public life.

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At arguments in March, several of the court’s conservative justices suggested they could vote to throw out the map and make it harder, if not impossible, to bring redistricting lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act.

Before the court now is a map that created a second Black majority congressional district among Louisiana’s six seats in the House of Representatives. The district elected a Black Democrat in 2024.

A three-judge court found that the state relied too heavily on race in drawing the district, rejecting Louisiana’s arguments that politics predominated, specifically the preservation of the seats of influential members of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson. The Supreme Court ordered the challenged map to be used last year while the case went on.

Lawmakers only drew that map after civil rights advocates won a court ruling that a map with one Black majority district likely violated the landmark voting rights law.

The justices are weighing a Texas law aimed at blocking kids from seeing online pornography

Texas is among more than a dozen states with age verification laws. The states argue the laws are necessary as smartphones have made access to online porn, including hardcore obscene material, almost instantaneous.

The question for the court is whether the measure infringes on the constitutional rights of adults as well. The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment industry trade group, agrees that children shouldn’t be seeing pornography. But it says the Texas law is written too broadly and wrongly affects adults by requiring them to submit personal identifying information online that is vulnerable to hacking or tracking.

The justices appeared open to upholding the law, though they also could return it to a lower court for additional work. Some justices worried the lower court hadn’t applied a strict enough legal standard in determining whether the Texas law and others like that could run afoul of the First Amendment.