Jury begins hearing opening statements in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Jury selection resumes in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial in New York.
• Combs faces charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and violence against women.
• Prosecutors allege Combs coerced women into drugged encounters; trial may last eight weeks.

NEW YORK — The public knew Sean "Diddy" Combs as a larger-than-life cultural icon and business mogul, but behind the scenes, he was coercing women into drug-fueled sexual encounters and using violence to keep them in line, a federal prosecutor told a jury Monday during opening statements in Combs' sex trafficking trial.

"This is Sean Combs," federal prosecutor Emily Johnson told the Manhattan jury as she pointed at him. Combs leaned back in his chair as she spoke. "To the public, he was Puff Daddy or Diddy. A cultural icon. A businessman. Larger than life.

"But there was another side to him. A side that ran a criminal enterprise," Johnson said. "During this trial, you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant's crimes. But he didn't do it alone. He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up."

Those crimes, she said, included: Kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.

On the contrary, the trial of Combs is a misguided overreach by prosecutors, who are trying to turn consenting sex between adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case, Combs' lawyer Teny Geragos said during her opening.

"Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money," Geragos told the eight men and four women on the jury. "There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise."

Geragos conceded that Combs' violent outbursts, often fueled by alcohol and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not the sex trafficking and racketeering counts he faces. She also told jurors they might think Combs' is a "jerk" and might not condone his "kinky sex," but "he's not charged with being mean. He's not charged with being a jerk."

Combs, wearing a white sweater, entered the packed courtroom shortly before 9 a.m. ET, hugged his lawyers and gave a thumbs up to supporters seated behind him. Earlier, the line to get into the courthouse stretched down the block. Combs' mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and brought straight into the building.

Monday's proceedings began with prosecutors and the defense rejecting several candidates for the 12-person jury, which also includes six alternates. Testimony will begin after the sides present their opening statements.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could land him in prison for at least 15 years if he is convicted on all charges. He has been imprisoned at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest in September.

Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but was not illegal.

Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters, then kept them in line through violence. He is accused of choking, hitting, kicking and dragging women, often by the hair.

Combs' former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, is expected to be among the trial's early witnesses.

She filed a lawsuit in 2023 saying Combs had subjected her to years of abuse, including beatings and rape. The lawsuit was settled within hours of filing, but it touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits from people making similar claims.

Prosecutors plan to show jurors a video of security footage of Combs beating Cassie in the hallway at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

Jurors may also see recordings of events called "Freak Offs," where prosecutors say women had sex with male sex workers while Combs filmed them. The indictment said the events sometimes lasted days and participants required IV-drips to recover.

Combs' attorney, Marc Agnifilo, has said that the Bad Boy Records founder was "not a perfect person" and was undergoing therapy, including for drug use, before his arrest.

But he and other lawyers for Combs have argued that any group sex was consensual and any violence was an aberration.

After the video of Combs assaulting Cassie in the hotel aired on CNN last year, Combs apologized and said he took "full responsibility" for his actions. "I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now."

The Associated Press doesn't generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has done.

The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks.

Contributing: Dave Collins

Photos

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Related topics

EntertainmentU.S.Police & Courts
Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister