NEW YORK (AP) â Federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove Monday that turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires for two decades. Testimony in Combsâ New York trial was expected to begin following a lunch break. A final phase of jury selection and opening statements from the lawyers wrapped up earlier in the day.
Combs, wearing a white sweater and with his formerly jet-black hair now almost completely gray, entered the courtroom shortly before 9 a.m., hugging lawyers and giving a thumbs up to supporters seated in wooden court benches behind him. Earlier in the morning, a line to get into the courthouse stretched all the way down the block. Combsâ mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and brought straight into the building.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. U.S. District is presiding. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey is the lead prosecutor, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson delivering the opening statement. New York lawyer Marc Agnifilo is leading the defense, with attorney Teny Geragos delivering the opening.
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Combsâ ex-girlfriend is among the witnesses set to testify
The first witnesses at Sean âDiddyâ Combsâ sex trafficking trial are set to testify after a hour-long lunch break.
The case kicked off Monday with opening statements from a prosecutor and a defense lawyer.
Among the witnesses expected to testify Monday: Combsâ ex-girlfriend Cassie and a security guard at the Los Angeles hotel where Combs was captured on security video violently assaulting Cassie in a hallway in 2016.
Combsâ lawyer: Heâs charged with the wrong crimes
Combsâ defense is taking a novel approach, arguing that the prosecutionâs evidence might show other crimes he committed â but theyâre not proof of the sex trafficking and racketeering crimes heâs charged with.
Geragos conceded that Combsâ violent outbursts might have warranted domestic violence charges. She condemned Combsâ actions in the now-infamous security camera recording of him beating then-girlfriend Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Geragos called the beating âhorrible, dehumanizing violence,â but argued to jurors that âit is not evidence of sex trafficking. It is evidence of domestic violence.â
Geragos: Combs was a swinger, not a trafficker
Combsâ sexual habits were part of a swinger lifestyle involving consenting adults, Geragos said.
She acknowledged that some jurors might not condone âhis kinky sex and his preferences for sexâ but she urged them to judge the case with an open mind.
Those sexual predilections, she said, do not equate to sex trafficking.
Combsâ lawyer tells jurors they may think âheâs a jerkâ
Geragos conceded Combs is extremely jealous and âhas a bad temper,â telling jurors that he sometimes got angry when he drank alcohol or âdid the wrong drugs.â
But âdomestic violence is not sex trafficking,â she said, and being mean is not running a racketeering enterprise.
Geragos took a relaxed tone, telling jurors they may end up thinking: âI think heâs a jerk and I think heâs kind of mean.â But she said heâs not charged âwith being mean or a jerk.â
She said he is physical and a drug user and has âa bit of a different sex life.â She added: âWeâll fight for his freedom throughout the next eight weeks.â
Defense opens: âTime to cancel that noiseâ
âSean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,â his attorney began in her opening statement.
Prosecutors, she said, are trying to turn sexual relations between consenting adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case.
âThere has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year,â Geragos told jurors, noting immense news media coverage and social media chatter. âIt is time to cancel that noise.â
Combs stood solemnly at the defense table, his hands clasped in front of his stomach, as Geragos introduced him to the jury.
During the prosecutionâs opening, Combs was repeatedly described as âthe defendant." Geragos told jurors that they may know him as âPuff Daddy,â or âP. Diddy or âDiddy,â but in the courtroom âheâs going by the same name he was born with: Sean Combs.â
Another woman, another attack
Johnson wrapped up her opening statement by warning jurors theyâll see violence for themselves. She said theyâll see videos of Cassie and Jane â identified by a pseudonym â as they âpretend they enjoy themselves during Freak Offs and will see Combs âbrutally beating Cassie during a Freak Off at an L.A. hotel.â
Johnson said Combs also brutally beat Jane when she confronted him last year about enduring years of âFreak Offsâ in dark hotel rooms while he took other paramours on date nights and trips around the globe.
Combs chased the woman around a home, kicking in locked doors as she tried to hide from him in bedrooms and a bathroom, and then put her in a chokehold and kicked her to the ground, Johnson said.
Eager to get to another âFreak Off,â Combs cursed at the woman and told her she wasnât going to ruin his night, Johnson said.
She said Combs 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.
âLike with Cassie, the defendantâs violence had gotten him what he wanted,â Johnson said.
Prosecutor describes a $100,000 payoff to cover up a beating
Johnson told jurors they will hear the lengths that Combsâ inner circle went to as they helped him hide the attack on Cassie and get what they thought was the only video recording.
She said a security guard was given a brown paper bag full of $100,000 in cash while Combsâ bodyguard and chief of staff stood by.
âThis is far from the only time that the defendantâs inner circle tried to close ranks and do damage control,â Johnson said.
Combs apologized for the hotel assault
Prosecutors plan to show jurors a security camera video of Combs beating Cassie in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
After the video of Combs assaulting Cassie in the hotel aired on CNN last year, and said he took âfull responsibilityâ for his actions. âI was disgusted then when I did it. Iâm disgusted now.â
Prosecutors wonât be showing the CNN video â theyâve edited their own clips and there is also a recording made by a hotel security employee.
They also may see recordings of events called âFreak Offs,â 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.
The R&B singer Cassie is expected to be an early witness
Combsâ former girlfriend accusing him of subjecting her to years of abuse, including beatings and rape. The lawsuit was settled within hours, but touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits from people making similar claims.
Combs sat stone-faced, looking toward Johnson and the jury as the prosecutor described what she said was a pattern of violence, sexual abuse and blackmail.
Combs would beat Cassie over the smallest slights, such as leaving a âFreak Offâ without his permission or taking too long in the bathroom, Johnson said. And he threatened to ruin Cassieâs singing career by releasing to the public videos of her engaging in sex with male escorts, the prosecutor said.
âHer livelihood depended on keeping him happy,â Johnson said.
Jurors are told to expect details of âFreak Offsâ
Central to Combsâ sexual abuse, prosecutors say, were highly orchestrated, drug-fueled sex parties he called âFreak Offs,â âWild King Nightsâ or âHotel Nights.â
Combsâ company paid for the parties, held in hotel rooms across the U.S. and overseas, and his employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, Johnson said.
Combs compelled women, including Cassie, to take drugs and engage in sexual activity with male escorts while he gratified himself and sometimes recorded them, Johnson said.
âCrime after crimeâ
Johnson is going directly to the prosecutionâs claim that violence was a critical tool for how Combs kept people in line.
She described a moment when he suspected that his longtime girlfriend Cassie, a key witness in the trial, was cheating on him. He said he kidnapped one of his employees to help him find her. And when he found her, she said, he âbeat her brutally, kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll.â
Johnson said Combs threatened Cassie that if she defied him again he would release tapes of her having sex with a male escort â âsouvenirs of the most humiliating nights of her life.â
That was âjust the tip of the iceberg,â Johnson said, telling jurors that Cassie was far from the only woman Combs beat and sexually exploited.
âFor 20 years, the defendant, with the help of his trusted inner circle, committed crime after crime. Thatâs why we are here today. Thatâs what this case is about,â Johnson said.
Combs is a cultural icon â and a criminal, prosecutor says
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson pointed at Combs as she stood before the jury.
âTo the public he was Puff Daddy or Diddy. A cultural icon. A businessman. Larger than life,â Johnson said. âBut there was another side to him. A side that ran a criminal enterprise.â
âDuring this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendantâs crimes. But he didnât do it alone. He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up.â
Those crimes, she said, included: Kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.
The hip-hop icon leaned back in his chair as she spoke.
Standard instructions take added weight in this celebrity trial
The jury and alternates â 12 men and 6 women â are now seated in the courtroom. Openings will start after the judge finishes explaining the law as it relates to this trial, along with incidentals such as that a light breakfast will be provided to them in addition to lunch.
The jury is essentially anonymous, meaning their identities are known to the court and the prosecution and defense, but wonât be made public.
âWe will keep your names and identities in confidence,â Subramanian told jurors.
Itâs a common practice in federal cases to keep juries anonymous, particularly in sensitive, high-profile matters where juror safety can be a concern. Juror names also were kept from the public in Donald Trumpâs criminal trial last year in state court in New York.
Subramanian tells jurors to judge the case only based on the evidence presented in court. Itâs a standard instruction, but carries added significance in this high-profile case, which has been the subject of intense media coverage.
âAnything youâve seen or heard outside the courtroom is not evidence,â the judge said. âIt must be disregarded.â
Judge rejects claim of discriminatory jury strikes
The judge rejected the defenseâs claim that the prosecutionâs strikes of potential jurors were discriminatory because seven Black individuals were struck from the jury.
The judge said Comey had given ârace neutral reasonsâ to explain each strike and that the defense had failed to show purposeful discrimination.
Some of the reasons why prosecutors said they excluded some potential jurors
Comey said one juror seemed favorably inclined toward 17 people she learned about by watching Combsâ TV show âMaking the Band,â which Comey said will come up during the trial.
She said another claimed he would lose 30 percent of his income by sitting on the jury, but didnât seem bothered, which âmade us worried that he had an agenda and was trying to get on the jury.â
Another potential juror, she said, had difficulty speaking English, expressed doubts he could be fair and had a nephew whoâd been jailed for shooting at a police officer.
Supreme Court ruled against excluding jurors solely because of their race
In the 1986 Batson v. Kentucky ruling, a Black man was convicted of robbery by an all-white jury after the prosecutor used what are known as peremptory challenges to strike all four prospective Black jurors.
During jury selection, each side is given a limited number of peremptory challenges that allows them to eliminate people from the jury pool without stating a reason.
Since the decision and subsequent rulings that have expanded its scope, the term âBatson challengeâ has taken hold to describe an objection raised by one side when it appears the other could be excluding potential jurors based on demographic characteristics, such as race, gender, national origin, religion or sexual orientation.
A jury has been selected in Sean âDiddyâ Combsâ sex trafficking trial
The defense announced its 10 strikes and prosecutors announced their six strikes for the creation of the main panel. Then, they struck jurors from the pool of alternates.
A defense lawyer claimed that prosecutors struck seven Black people from the jury, which he said amounts to a pattern. As a result, Comey gave reasons to explain why prosecutors struck each of the prospective jurors from the jury. She noted that at least one text message to be unveiled during the trial will describe Combsâ behavior as âbi-polar or manic.â
The witnesses and the evidence:
Without identifying them publicly, prosecutors have said four of Combsâ accusers will testify at the trial. The prosecution will be allowed to show the jury security video of one of his accusers, the R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016. Diddyâs attorneys are expected to argue at trial that the government is demonizing and distorting the sexual activity of consenting adults.
About the defense
Combsâ team of seven defense attorneys is sitting in two rows, with others behind them. They're led by New York lawyer Marc Agnifilo, who along with his wife Karen Friedman Agnifilo is also defending , the man accused of the murder of .
About the prosecution
The team has consisted of eight assistant U.S. attorneys, seven of them women.
The prosecutor who will deliver an opening statement is Emily Johnson. Leading the team is Maurene Ryan Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. She was among the prosecutors in the trial of , who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by .
The judge warned a Mark Geragos, a lawyer for the music mogul, to tame his public comments last week, saying it was âoutrageousâ that he referred to prosecutors during a podcast as a âsix-pack of white women.â
About the judge
Subramanian is a Columbia Law School graduate and former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and was appointed a federal judge by President Joe Biden in 2022.
Proceedings beginning with final stage of jury selection
This is when lawyers on both sides can strike several jurors from the panel.
For this trial, defense lawyers are allowed to eliminate 10 individuals and prosecutors can dismiss six to create a panel of 12 jurors. Each side is allowed to eliminate another three jurors from the group of six alternates. They donât have to explain their reasons unless the opposing lawyers claim they were striking jurors from the panel for inappropriate reasons, such as race.
This phase of jury selection usually takes less than an hour. One of Combsâ lawyers claimed on Friday that it could be finished in 10 to 15 minutes. The lawyers are working from a panel of about 45 prospective jurors.
Combs gives a thumbs up
Sean âDiddyâ Combs entered the courtroom shortly before 9 a.m., hugging his lawyers and giving a thumbs up to spectators who will sit on benches behind the well of the courtroom. The audience includes his mother and at least four of his children.
About the courthouse
Subramanian is presiding over the trial at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in lower Manhattan, blocks from City Hall and overlooking the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge.
The courthouse, opened in the mid-1990s, is next to the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, which was built in the 1930s.
Most of the federal judges work out of the newer courthouse. The older one, which was refurbished in the early 2000s, houses the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and several district court judges have their chambers and courtrooms there as well.
The courtroom only seats about 100 people
And journalists probably get two to three dozen. So most of the people in line will end up in overflow rooms.
This courtroom is one of the larger venues in the courthouse that are used for the biggest trials, including when Donald Trump came early last year for E. Jean Carroll defamation trial. The line to get in stretched all the way down the block. One line-sitter was trying to sell his spot for $300 after holding his place overnight.
After a final phase of jury selection in the morning, federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove that Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires. Combs has pleaded not guilty.
Inside the Brooklyn federal jail where Sean âDiddyâ Combs is locked up: Violence, squalor and death
As they unsuccessfully fought to keep Combs after his , the music mogulâs lawyers highlighted a litany of horrors at the Brooklyn federal lockup where he was headed: horrific conditions, rampant violence and multiple deaths.
Combs was sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn â a place thatâs been described as âhell on earthâ and an âongoing tragedy.â
The facility, the only federal jail in New York City, has been plagued by problems since it opened in the 1990s. In recent years, its conditions have been so stark that some judges have refused to send people there. It has also been home to a number of high-profile inmates, including , and cryptocurrency fraudster .
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Diddy tried to obstruct justice from jail, prosecutors argued
In November, that Combs had tried to reach out to prospective witnesses and influence public opinion from jail in a bid to affect potential jurors ahead of the trial.
Sean âDiddyâ Combs, far left, looks on from the defense table with his attorneys, as a prospective juror, far right, answers questions posed by Judge Arun Subramanian, center, at Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 5, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
The accusations were made as the government opposed a bail proposal for the music mogul.
Prosecutors wrote that a review of recorded jail calls made by Combs showed he asked family members to reach out to potential victims and witnesses and urged them to create ânarrativesâ to influence the jury pool. They said he also encouraged marketing strategies to sway public opinion.
An attorney for Combs, Anthony Ricco, that the prosecutionâs portrayal of Combs as âa lawless person who doesnât follow instructionsâ or âan out-of-control individual who has to be detainedâ was inaccurate.
Subramanian denied the bail application, saying evidence showed Combs to be a âserious risk of witness tampering,â
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The stories behind all of Sean âDiddyâ Combsâ name changes
In the for the sex trafficking trial of , the document lists many of the hip-hop mogulâs aliases.
Most people, especially music fans, probably already know them.
From âPuff Daddyâ to âP. Diddyâ and even the obscure âBrother Love,â Combs has had many self-appointed names .
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What will become of Sean âDiddyâ Combsâ musical legacy?
Combs is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop, but his further clouds his legacy. For some, it may change their relationship to his music.
Some experts believe the severity of the alleged crimes may tarnish his career moving forward.
âThe chance to just be looked at strictly in musical terms, and that being the defining part of his legacy, is pretty much gone,â says Peter A. Berry, a music journalist with work in XXL and Complex.
âYou canât look at Diddyâs music in a vacuum the same way you did before,â he says.
Berry views Combsâ indictment as âa continuation of a reckoning for the rap world,â which includes leveled at Russell Simmons by multiple women, as well as R&B-singer R Kelly, who is for using his fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were just children, in a systematic scheme that went on for decades.
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Key things to know about this trial
was arrested in September 2024 in New York after being indicted by a federal grand jury on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
The arrest followed a months-long investigation and after a flurry of women came forward with allegations of sexual and other abuse.
Combs has been held in while awaiting his trial.
If convicted on all charges â which also include transporting people across state lines to engage in prostitution â Combs faces a possible sentence of decades in prison.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Combs â the caught-on-camera beating of his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie â his lawyers say other allegations are false.
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The Associated Press
