The high-profile federal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs began this week in New York, where the 55-year-old music mogul faces charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs, who was arrested in September 2024, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
The trial, which opened Monday in Lower Manhattan, has drawn enormous media attention, with TV vans crowding the block, and hundreds of spectators each day lining up outside the courthouse – all hoping to witness the non-televised proceedings first-hand.
Access to the main courtroom, where Combs is present, is extremely limited. Only 21 members of the press and about 14 members of the public are allowed in daily on a first-come, first-served basis.
Many outlets (including the Guardian) and eager spectators have hired professional line-sitters who camp overnight to secure spots at the front of the line.
The daily crowd has included journalists, fans of Combs, content creators, livestreamers, true crime podcasters, a TikTok body-language analyst, a ventriloquist and some curious New York locals who said they were using some of their vacation days from work just to witness some of the proceedings.
To accommodate demand, the court has opened three overflow rooms featuring live feeds from the courtroom. These rooms have become their own scene, with journalists scrawling notes by hand (as electronics are banned in federal court) and spectators often reacting audibly to dramatic or emotional testimony.
Opening statements began on Monday morning, after a jury of 12 – eight men and four women – was seated.
Prosecutors accused Combs of operating a criminal enterprise that facilitated his drug-fueled sex sessions, referred to as “freak-offs”, involving paid sex workers. They allege that Combs used threats, violence and drugs to coerce women into participating in the freak offs, including his former girlfriend, the singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
Combs’s legal team pushed back, arguing that the encounters were consensual and part of a “swingers lifestyle”. In opening statements, his lawyers acknowledged Combs’s history of domestic violence and drug use, but said that this does not mean he is guilty of sex trafficking or racketeering, and denied any criminal enterprise.
Janice Combs, Combs’s mother, and his children have been present in court, with Combs occasionally turning to them, forming a heart with his hands. Several of his friends have also been in attendance.
Most of the focus this week has been on the testimony from Ventura, the prosecution’s star witness, who dated Combs from around 2007 to 2018.
Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, was on the stand for four days this week, detailing alleged physical and emotional abuse during their relationship. She also alleged that he raped her in 2018 after their breakup.
Ventura testified that she was coerced into participating in the drug-fueled sex sessions she said were orchestrated and directed by Combs, known as freak-offs. She said she would participate in sex acts with male escorts in front of Combs, which could sometimes last for days, take place in various states, and were often filmed by Combs.
It would often take her days to recover from the events, she said, and she felt “trapped” as Combs would sometimes threaten to release the videos he took and use them as blackmail.
“Whatever was going to not make him angry or threaten me I was going to do,” she told the court, adding that during every freak-off she would use drugs, provided by Combs, to help “dissociate” and numb herself.
Prosecutors painted Combs as controlling and abusive, and as someone who exerted power over nearly every aspect of Ventura’s life – including her appearance, career, where she lived, and which escorts would participate in the freak-offs, as well as what occurred during the freak-offs themselves.
Ventura repeatedly said she felt a “responsibility” to make Combs happy, even though the freak-offs left her feeling “horrible”, “humiliated” and “worthless”. She said she feared refusing would “make him upset” and lead to violence.
“Make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I would get hit in the face,” she said.
The jury were shown the infamous security footage from 2016 in which Combs is seen assaulting Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway.
She added that Combs’s staff would sometimes take her belongings when he was angry at her. During some of these encounters, Combs or an escort would urinate on her at his request.
Throughout her testimony, Ventura periodically teared up and dabbed her eyes with a tissue. She also often placed her hand on her pregnant midriff, sometimes rubbing it gently.
She broke down in tears while talking about going to rehab and trauma therapy several years after their relationship ended. She also revealed she had thoughts of suicide.
On Thursday cross-examination on Ventura began, during which defense attorneys for Combs tried to undermine her credibility and depict her as a willing – and at times enthusiastic – participant in the freak-offs that she said Combs coerced her into.
The defense presented dozens of texts and emails between the couple during their relationship, some of them explicit.
In one, Ventura was seen telling Combs “I’m always ready to freak off” and in another, “I love our [freak-offs] when we both want it.”
Ventura told the court they were “just words at that point”.
The defense also discussed their drug use. Ventura said that they both had struggled with opiate addiction at various points and frequently used drugs such as ecstasy and ketamine.
Combs often stared at Ventura as she testified, whispering to his lawyers and passing them notes. Ventura didn’t look at him.
At one point during cross-examination, defense lawyers seemed to be trying to establish that about the time of the 2016 video of Combs attacking Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway, Combs had been experiencing withdrawals from opiates.
Ventura returned to the witness stand on Friday morning for another day of cross-examination, and defense lawyers continued to try to portray Ventura as a loving partner and willing participant in the freak-offs rather than someone who was coerced.
After her testimony concluded late on Friday afternoon, her lawyer Douglas Wigdor issued a statement on behalf of Ventura noting how the week had been “extremely challenging, but also remarkably empowering and healing for me. …
“I hope that my testimony has given strength and a voice to other survivors, and can help others who have suffered to speak up and also heal from abuse and fear. For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember. And the more I can remember, the more I will never forget,” Wigdor said on behalf of Ventura.
Earlier in the week, two other witnesses testified. One was Israel Florez, a Los Angeles police officer and former security guard at the InterContinental hotel in LA, who testified about the 2016 assault, which occurred when Florez was working.
He said that Combs tried to silence him by offering him cash and that Ventura had a “purple eye” and repeatedly asked to leave. Combs’s lawyers challenged his account, noting those details were not in his original incident report.
The other witness was Daniel Phillip, who said he was paid thousands of dollars multiple times between 2012 and 2014 to participate in the so-called freak-offs, testified that Combs would direct the encounters, and that he witnessed Combs assaulting Ventura on two occasions, including once dragging her by the hair into a room, where Phillip heard screams, her saying sorry, and what sounded like slapping.
The trial is expected to last around seven more weeks.
Prosecutors said that among the next witnesses they are planning to call are singer Dawn Richard. Another accuser, known as “Jane” is also set to testify, as well as a former employee of Combs, known as “Mia”.
