NEW YORK (AP) — The sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, one of the biggest music moguls and cultural figures of the past four decades, began Monday in New York with jury selection. Twelve jurors, along with six alternates, will be chosen, with opening statements expected to begin May 12. The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks. Here’s a look at some of the details.
The charges against Diddy
Combs is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.
The alleged offenses span from about 2004 until about 2024. Two of the counts were added a month before trial.
The indictment against him says he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Prosecutors allege he used his “power and prestige” as a music star to induce female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “freak offs.”
Prosecutors revealed shortly before trial that Combs rejected a plea agreement that might have meant a lighter sentence than a conviction could. They did not disclose the terms of the proposed deal.
The witnesses and the evidence against Diddy
Without identifying them publicly, prosecutors have said four of Combs’ accusers will testify at the trial.
The prosecution will be allowed to show the jury security video of Combs beating and kicking one of his accusers, the R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
Diddy’s attorneys are expected to argue at trial that the government is demonizing and distorting the sexual activity of consenting adults. They have also argued that two of Combs’ longtime girlfriends willingly brought a male sex worker into their relationship.
Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, was Combs’ on-again-off-again romantic partner for more than a decade. Her 2023 lawsuit against Combs alleging years of abuse, including rape, began the scrutiny that eventually led to his prosecution.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura did.
The trial’s main players
The trial is in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian. He’s a Columbia Law School graduate and former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who was appointed a federal judge by President Joe Biden in 2022.
The prosecution team consists of eight assistant U.S. attorneys, seven of them women. They include Maurene Ryan Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. She was among the prosecutors in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein.
Combs’ team of seven defense attorneys is led by New York lawyer Marc Agnifilo, who along with his wife Karen Friedman Agnifilo, is also defending Luigi Mangione, the man accused of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Also on the defense team is Atlanta attorney Brian Steel, who represented Young Thug in a trial that went on for nearly two years before the rapper pleaded guilty to gang, drug and gun charges.
Diddy’s court appearance
Combs, 55, has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his September arrest. His formerly jet black hair is now almost completely gray because dye isn’t allowed at detention center.
Combs, who had his own fashion line, has worn yellow jail uniforms in pretrial hearings.
But for the trial, the judge said he can have up to five button-down shirts, five pairs of pants, five sweaters, five pairs of socks and two pairs of shoes without laces.
Under federal court rules, no photos or video of the trial will be allowed. Courtroom sketches are permitted.
What we won’t hear at the trial
Since 2023, dozens of woman and men have been filing lawsuits against Combs claiming that he sexually or physically abused them. Many of those people said they were slipped drugs at events hosted by Combs and were abused while they were incapacitated.
Combs has denied all of the allegations through his lawyers.
Some of those lawsuits have claimed that other celebrities were either present for or participated in the abuse.
The great majority of those allegations, however, aren’t part of the criminal case. Prosecutors have chosen to focus on a relatively small number of accusers and allegations where there is physical evidence or corroboration by witnesses.
