NOTE: The following article contains disturbing details and video footage. Please read at your own discretion.
The trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs began on May 12 in Federal District Court in Manhattan as lawyers delivered their opening statements after the jury was finally set.
Prosecutors allege that Diddy, 55, used his fame and power at the top of the hip-hop world to sexually abuse women from 2004 to 2024. He pleaded not guilty after his September arrest and has remained held without bail at a federal lockup in Brooklyn.
The final stage of jury selection for the sex-trafficking trial was delayed on May 9 over concerns that some jurors might get “cold feet” before the high-profile case began. By Monday, the jury and alternates — 12 men and six women — were selected and seated in the courtroom.
The jury is essentially anonymous, meaning their identities are known to the court and the prosecution and defence, but won’t be made public. Judge Arun Subramanian told the jurors that the court “will keep your names and identities in confidence.”
Subramanian reminded the jurors to judge the case only based on the evidence presented in court.
“Anything you’ve seen or heard outside the courtroom is not evidence,” the judge added. “It must be disregarded.”
Opening statement — Prosecution
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson pointed at Diddy as she said he was “larger than life” to the public, but there was “another side” to the rapper that wasn’t widely shared with the world.
“To the public he was Puff Daddy or Diddy. A cultural icon. A businessman. Larger than life,” Johnson said. “But there was another side to him. A side that ran a criminal enterprise.”
“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,” Johnson added.
She said those crimes included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction. Diddy appeared to lean back in his chair as she spoke to the court.
Johnson told jurors about a night in particular where Diddy allegedly kidnapped an employee and threatened his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, a key witness in the trial.
Diddy allegedly told Ventura that if she defied him again he would release tapes of her having sex with a male escort. Johnson referred the the tapes as “souvenirs of the most humiliating nights of her life.”
That was “just the tip of the iceberg,” Johnson said, telling jurors that Ventura was far from the only woman Diddy allegedly beat and sexually exploited.
Johnson said that Diddy used violence to keep people in line and to not go against him.
She described a moment when he suspected that Ventura was cheating on him. She said that he kidnapped one of his employees to help find Ventura and when they found her, she said, he “beat her brutally, kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll.”
“For 20 years, the defendant, with the help of his trusted inner circle, committed crime after crime. That’s why we are here today. That’s what this case is about,” Johnson said.
Prosecutors also discussed Diddy’s drug-fuelled sex parties he called “Freak Offs,” “Wild King Nights” or “Hotel Nights.”
Diddy’s company paid for the parties that were allegedly held in hotel rooms across the U.S. and overseas. His employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, according to Johnson.
Johnson also noted that “this case is not about a celebrity’s private sexual preferences.”
Diddy compelled women, including Ventura, to take drugs and engage in sexual activity with male escorts while he gratified himself and sometimes recorded them, Johnson alleged.
Johnson went on to describe Diddy’s behaviour as a pattern of violence, sexual abuse and blackmail. “He sometimes called himself ‘the king,’ and he expected to be treated like one,” she said.
She said that Diddy would beat Ventura over the smallest slights, such as leaving a “Freak Off” without his permission or taking too long in the bathroom.
The prosecution said that although Ventura agreed to participate in a “Freak Off” initially because she loved Diddy, “she knew it was not something she wanted to do.”
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Johnson also described one “Freak Off” in which Ventura “felt like she was choking” when Diddy “made an escort urinate into her mouth.”
Diddy allegedly threatened to ruin Ventura’s singing career by releasing to the public videos of her engaging in sex with male escorts, the prosecutor said.
“Her livelihood depended on keeping him happy,” Johnson said.
Johnson also said that Diddy brutally beat Jane — a pseudonym — when she confronted him last year about enduring years of “Freak Offs” in dark hotel rooms while he took other paramours on date nights and trips around the globe.
They described Jane as a single mother who started spending time with Diddy in 2020. She said that Jane wanted Diddy to wear condoms, but many times he refused.
She said that Diddy chased the woman around a home, kicking in locked doors as she tried to hide from him. Johnson said Diddy eventually put Jane in a chokehold and kicked her to the ground.
Eager to get to another “Freak Off,” Diddy yelled at the woman and told her she wasn’t going to ruin his night, Johnson said.
She said Diddy then punched her in the face, kicked her while she was curled up on the ground, dragged her by her hair and slapped her so hard she fell over. Then he demanded that she call an escort, cover up her black eye and ingest ecstasy, the prosecutor told jurors.
“Like with Cassie, the defendant’s violence had gotten him what he wanted,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that Diddy controlled Jane financially and discouraged her from working because he “wanted her to be available at a moment’s notice” and began paying her rent.
As the prosecution finished its opening statement, Johnson warned jurors that they will see the violence the women endured for themselves.
She said they will watch videos of Ventura and Jane as they “pretend they enjoy themselves during Freak Offs,” and they will see Diddy “brutally beating Cassie during a Freak Off at an L.A. hotel.”
Opening statement — Defence
Teny Geragos, one of Diddy’s lawyers, delivered the defence’s opening statements, saying, “Sean Combs is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case.”
She accused the government of trying to turn consensual sexual relationships into sex trafficking, adding “it will not work.”
“This case is about Sean Combs’ private, personal sex life,” Geragos said, “which has nothing to do with his lawful businesses.”
The defence admitted that Diddy is violent, “has a bad temper” and that he takes drugs. But they say he is not guilty of what he has been accused of.
“There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year,” Geragos told jurors, adding, “It is time to cancel that noise.”
Geragos told the jury that there may be multiple points during the trial “where you think he is a jerk, he is mean. But he is not charged with being mean. He is not charged with being a jerk. He is charged with running a racketeering enterprise.”
She said that “domestic violence is a very serious matter” and “a bad, illegal problem and is something the law addresses.”
“We take full responsibility that there was domestic violence in this case,” Geragos added.
She said that Diddy has “a bit of a different sex life” but his legal team will “fight for his freedom throughout the next eight weeks.”
His defence team said that many of his romantic relationships lasted for years. “These women were strong, capable, and they were were in love with him,” Geragos said.
“The evidence is going to show you a very flawed individual, but it will not show you a racketeer, a sex trafficker or somebody transporting for prostitution,” she added.
Geragos said that Diddy’s violent outbursts might have warranted domestic violence charges. She condemned his actions in the now-infamous security camera recording of him beating then-girlfriend Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Geragos called the beating “horrible, dehumanizing violence,” but argued to jurors that “it is not evidence of sex trafficking. It is evidence of domestic violence.”
She also told jurors that they’ll witness the “closure” between Ventura and Diddy when they see each other for the first time in six years when she takes the witness stand.
The defence also argued that Diddy and the woman identified as Jane had a “toxic and dysfunctional relationship.”
She said that Jane willingly engaged in “Freak Offs” because she wanted to spend time with Diddy. After hearing the evidence, Geragos said, “You might think, ‘Wow, he’s a really bad boyfriend.’ But the evidence will show you a capable, strong woman, willingly engaged in their relationship.”
Gergaos said that the fight between Jane and Diddy described by the prosecution, started after Jane allegedly slammed Diddy’s head down in a jealous rage.
Geragos said that she did not want to justify Diddy’s violence, but argued that the fight isn’t evidence of sex trafficking.
While wrapping up her opening statement, Geragos said that the accusers were motivated by money and noted their civil lawsuits against the hip-hop mogul.
She told the jurors that Ventura demanded $30 million when she sued him and another witness will acknowledge demanding $22 million in a breach of contract lawsuit.
“I want you to ask yourself, how many millions of reasons does this witness, swearing to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, have to lie?” she said, adding, “For many of them. The answer is money.”
Who was in attendance
Diddy’s mother Janice and some of his children, including King Combs, Justin Combs, Chance Combs, Jessie Combs, D’Lila Combs and his stepson Quincy Brown, were in attendance for opening statements on May 12. They were escorted past a crowd of media and would-be trial watchers and brought straight into the building.
The courtroom only seats about 100 people, and journalists will likely get two to three dozen of those seats while hundreds of other people line up for a chance to watch the sex trafficking trial unfold.
On May 12, the line to get into the federal courthouse stretched all the way down the block.
What he’s on trial for
U.S. prosecutors allege that for 20 years, behind the scenes, Diddy was coercing and abusing women with help from a network of associates who helped silence victims through blackmail and violence.
Diddy faces an indictment that includes descriptions of “Freak Offs,” which are defined in the court doc as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Numerous witnesses have come forward to accuse Diddy of terrorizing people into silence by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, according to prosecutors. One indictment alleges that Diddy dangled someone from a balcony.
Although dozens of men and women have alleged in lawsuits that Diddy abused them, this trial will highlight the claims of four women.
Combs is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has denied all the charges against him and has rejected a plea deal, choosing to go to trial instead.
If found guilty in the New York court, he could face life in prison.
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Global News will be covering the Diddy trial in its entirety. Please check back for updates.
— With files from The Associated Press
