In September, Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested and indicted on three counts of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution as a result of an investigation by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Since then, the rapper and entrepreneur has been incarcerated at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, and pleaded not guilty to all charges—including another superseding indictment that added one additional count of sex trafficking and one additional count of transportation to engage in prostitution. On Monday, Combs’ trial finally began at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan.
After the jury (eight men, four women and six additional alternates comprised of four men and two women) was finalized, the court heard opening statements from both the prosecution and the defense.
Combs’ attorney, Teny Geragos, claimed that while Combs is a “complicated” man, his case is not. The way she sees it, it’s not even about criminal charges, but instead, “love, jealousy, infidelity and money.” She also said the defense’s evidence “is not evidence of sex trafficking” but “evidence of domestic violence.”
“This case is about voluntary adult choices made by capable adults in consensual relationships,” Geragos claimed. As if Geragos’ opening statement couldn’t get more ridiculous, she also dismissed his alleged use of baby oil outright. Six of Combs’ children and his mother—all of whom have been supportive since his arrest—were in the courthouse on Monday.
Baby oil aside, at the center of the trial are a myriad of disturbing allegations that Combs used his influence and empire to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. If convicted on all counts, Combs could face life in prison.
Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, Combs’ former partner of over a decade, is expected to testify under her own name, though she’s referred to in court documents as Victim #1. In November 2023, Ventura filed a lawsuit against Combs, claiming he raped her in 2018 and physically abused her throughout their relationship. Combs denied Ventura’s allegations, but notably settled out of court just one day after she filed the suit. Then, in May 2024, a gut-wrenching video of Combs brutalizing Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016 was published by CNN. Two days later, Combs posted an apology video on Instagram that has since been deleted.
Apart from Ventura, the court will also hear from at least three other unnamed women (all of whom use pseudonyms) who claim they were coerced to engage in sex acts with Combs and, at times, with male prostitutes, during alleged rapes Combs referred to as “Freak Offs.” Participants were allegedly drugged, forced to engage in sex for days, and recorded for the purpose of blackmail and compliance. Combs’ alleged victims said they were promised financial and career advancement, and threatened with violence and retribution.
In opening statements, the prosecution claimed Combs wielded considerable power over everyone in his life—from Ventura to his employees to his other alleged victims. Ventura and the other victims, the prosecution told the court, “will tell you how the defendant tried to control their lives, from their homes to their careers,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told the court. “How the defendant used his control over them–his lies, his drugs, his threats, and his violence–to threaten and coerce them into have sex with male escorts.”
“During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes, but he didn’t do it alone,” Johnson said. “He had an inner circle of body guards and high ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up.”
“Kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction—these are just some of the crimes that the defendant and his inner circle committed again and again,” she added.
With regard to Ventura, Johnson painted a devastating portrait of their relationship. While she called their dynamic “complicated” and “unfaithful, jealous, and at times angry,” she emphasized that Combs (who was 17 years her senior) took full advantage of their imbalanced power dynamic at every opportunity. He also wielded the threat of ruining her career by filming her with male escorts and forcing her to participate in sex acts—one of which allegedly involved a male escort urinating into her mouth.
“Half of every week Cassie was in a dark hotel room high and awake for days performing sex acts she did not want to do on male escorts,” Johnson said, noting that in one “Freak off,” Ventura “still had an open wound on her face from the defendant’s most recent assault.” She also noted that there is ample evidence of Combs’ criminal activity—from videos of the “Freak offs” themselves to dozens of text messages to bills and damages to hotel rooms.
“Being a willing participant in your own sex life is not sex trafficking,” Geragos claimed.
First to take the stand on Monday was Israel Florez, a Los Angeles police officer and witness to the aftermath of Ventura’s 2016 assault. He described responding to a woman’s distress call only to find Combs with a “devilish stare” and a “scared” Ventura with a “purple eye” and her hoodie pulled over her head in the InterContinental Hotel in LA. When Florez told Ventura she could leave, Combs allegedly looked at Ventura and said: “You’re not going to leave.” Combs, he said, further offered him a “wad of cash,” which he interpreted to be a bribe and declined.
A second witness, Daniel Phillip, also testified. In 2012, Phillip said he was working as a manager of a male review show when he was hired by Ventura and Combs for what he thought was a bachelorette party. However, upon arriving at the hotel, he was met only by Ventura, who was wearing a wig and dark sunglasses. When asked if it was OK if it were just the two of them, Phillip agreed. After entering the hotel room, he saw a man seated in the corner wearing a bandana that covered half of his face. Phillip said he recognized the voice as Combs.
According to his testimony, Ventura said that “her husband wanted to do something special for her,” so she asked him if he felt comfortable giving her a massage with baby oil. Then, the massage escalated to sex while Combs allegedly sat “in the corner masturbating.” Following that night, Phillip was paid to have sex with Ventura on multiple occasions, in which Combs not only watched and masturbated, but recorded them on both a phone and a camcorder. Phillip said Combs also took a photo of his license plate for “insurance purposes.”
The trial is expected to last for at least eight weeks.
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