Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial Begins, Prosecution Says Music Mogul Ran a ‘Criminal Enterprise’

The federal sex trafficking trial of disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs officially began Monday morning in New York with a set jury and opening statements from the prosecution – who describe him as the kingpin of a “criminal enterprise” – and defense, which said the case “is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money.”

Jury selection for the high-profile case commenced early last week and finished Monday with a combined total of 18 jurors and alternates selected between 12 men and six women. Seated in the courtroom, the jurors and their alternates watched as Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson delivered the prosecution’s opening remarks.

“To the public he was Puff Daddy or Diddy. A cultural icon. A businessman,” Johnson told jurors. “But there was another side to him. A side that ran a criminal enterprise,” Johnson said, alleging crimes including kidnapping, arson, sex trafficking, intimidation and bribery.

Combs was also in attendance Monday morning, having spent the months since his September 2024 arrest in a Brooklyn federal detention center. Johnson, who is part of a legal team that includes six other female attorneys, described him as “larger than life.”

“During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes. But he didn’t do it alone,” Johnson explained. “He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up.”

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 prosecution. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

Johnson went on to tell jurors about an alleged night when Combs kidnapped an employee and threatened his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, that he would release tapes of her having sex with male escorts if she ever defied him. These tapes, Johnson said, were “souvenirs of the most humiliating nights of [Cassie’s] life,” but the attorney called Combs’ abuse of Cassie just “the tip of the iceberg.”

Cassie is expected to be one of four accusers who will testify against Combs and will detail instances in which he forced and coerced them into engaging in days-long, drug-fueled sex parties he called “freak offs.” These events are said to have involved Combs compelling women into taking drugs and having sex with male escorts while he watched and recorded.

In 2023, Cassie filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging years of physical abuse, rape and sex trafficking. It was settled within hours of its filing. A video of Combs assaulting Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016 is expected to be shown as part of the prosecution’s case.

Johnson said Combs would beat Cassie if he suspected her of cheating on him, if she left a “freak off” without his permission or even if he thought she was taking too long in the bathroom. In her opening statement, the attorney also described an incident in which he allegedly beat another woman — referred to by the anonymous pseudonym Jane — last year after she confronted him about the years of “freak offs” that he had subjected her to.

In response, Combs is said to have chased the woman around a home, kicked her to the ground, put her in a chokehold, punched her in the face, dragged her by her hair, slapped her and then demanded that she call an escort, cover up her black eye and take ecstasy.

“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 told jurors. The attorney added that they will be shown videos of Cassie and other women pretending to “enjoy themselves during freak offs.”

Following Johnson’s opening statement, Diddy attorney Teny Geragos told jurors, “Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money.” Combs’ legal team has contended all along that the sexual acts the music mogul is on trial for were conducted between consenting adults, and his attorneys stuck to that strategy Monday morning.

“There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year,” Geragos announced. “It is time to cancel that noise.” The attorney went on to note that Combs does have a “bad temper” and that he has gotten angry in the past when he has drank or taken drugs, but argued that “domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”

Noting that Combs has a “bit of a different sex life,” Geragos urged jurors to keep an open mind about the defendant’s kinks, promising, “We’ll fight for his freedom throughout the next eight weeks.” 

The attorney claimed Combs’ past sexual activities were the result of his own swinger lifestyle, not coercion or criminal intimidation. While Geragos acknowledged that the 2016 video of Combs beating Cassie features “horrible, dehumanizing violence,” she added, “It is not evidence of sex trafficking. It is evidence of domestic violence.”

Geragos further refuted the prosecution’s description of Combs’ relationship with the anonymous Jane, telling jurors that the two had a “toxic and dysfunctional relationship” and that the accuser willingly took part in Diddy’s freak offs because she wanted to be with him. Geragos then concluded by implying that Jane, Cassie and Diddy’s other accusers are motivated by money, not telling the truth.

Highlighting the $30 million that Cassie demanded in her 2023 lawsuit and the $22 million that another accuser allegedly demanded in a separate suit, Geragos told jurors, “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?”

Combs’ legal team is led by attorney Marc Agnifilo, who is also defending Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, alongside his wife Karen Friedman Agnifilo. Meanwhile, in addition to Johnson, the team prosecuting Combs also includes Maurene Ryan Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. She was part of the prosecution during the 2021 trial of Jeffrey Epstein collaborator Ghislaine Maxwell. 

Combs’ trial is set to last several weeks. Witnesses expected to testify in court Monday include Cassie and a security guard who worked at the Los Angeles hotel where Combs was captured on video beating Cassie in 2016.

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