Federal prosecutors will start making an attempt to show Monday that Sean “Diddy” Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate right into a racketeering enterprise that compelled girls to fulfill his sexual needs for 20 years.
Testimony in Combs’ New York trial may start as quickly because the afternoon following a remaining part of jury choice within the morning and opening statements from the legal professionals.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible to a five-count indictment that would land him in jail for a minimum of 15 years if he’s convicted on all costs. He has been imprisoned at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest in September.
Attorneys for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly making an attempt to make a criminal offense out of a party-loving way of life which will have been indulgent, however was not unlawful.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced girls into drugged-up group sexual encounters, then saved them in line by way of violence. He’s accused of choking, hitting, kicking and dragging girls, typically by the hair.
Combs’ former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, is anticipated to be among the many trial’s early witnesses.
She filed a lawsuit in 2023 saying Combs had subjected her to years of abuse, together with beatings and rape. The lawsuit was settled inside hours of its submitting, but it surely touched off a regulation enforcement investigation and was adopted by dozens of lawsuits from folks making comparable claims.
Prosecutors plan to point out jurors video a safety digital camera video of Combs beating Cassie within the hallway of a Los Angeles lodge in 2016.
Jurors may additionally see recordings of occasions referred to as “Freak Offs,” the place prosecutors say girls had intercourse with male intercourse employees whereas Combs filmed them. The indictment stated the occasions typically lasted days and members required IV-drips to recuperate.
Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, has stated that the Dangerous Boy Data founder was “not a perfect person” and was present process remedy, together with for drug use, earlier than his arrest.
However he and different legal professionals for Combs have argued that any group intercourse was consensual and any violence was an aberration.
After the video of Combs assaulting Cassie within the lodge aired on CNN final 12 months, Combs apologized and stated he took “full responsibility” for his actions. “I used to be disgusted then once I did it. I’m disgusted now.”
The trial is anticipated to final a minimum of eight weeks.
The choose within the intercourse trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs introduced that the events agreed on a remaining pool of New Yorkers that might be used to seek out 12 jurors and 6 alternates. Combs has pleaded not responsible to all of the allegations within the case. NBC New York’s Erica Byfield stories.
