Diddy sex trafficking trial begins: Opening statements made, 1st witnesses called
Diddy trial: Prosecution calls first witness
Witness testimony is underway in Sean "Diddy" Combs’ sex trafficking trial in New York. The prosecution called its first witness, former security guard Israel Flores after opening statements concluded.
NEW YORK - Opening statements started Monday in the trial of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Combs was arrested in September 2024 in New York after being indicted by a federal grand jury on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
What is ‘Diddy’ accused of?
The backstory:
His arrest followed a monthslong investigation and after a flurry of women came forward with allegations of sexual and other abuse.
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Combs has been held in a federal jail in Brooklyn while awaiting his trial.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Trial day one sketch by Jane Rosenberg
Combs has acknowledged one episode of violence — the caught-on-camera beating of his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie — his lawyers say other allegations are false.
What prosecutors are saying
What they're saying:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson pointed at Combs as she stood before the jury.
"During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes. But he didn’t do it alone. He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up."
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Those crimes, she said, included: Kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.
Trial day one sketch by Jane Rosenberg
Johnson 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 "beat her brutally, kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll."
Central to Combs’ sexual abuse, prosecutors say, were highly orchestrated, drug-fueled sex parties he called "Freak Offs," "Wild King Nights" or "Hotel Nights."
What the defense is saying
The other side:
"Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money," his attorney, Teny Geragos, began in her opening statement.
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"There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year," Geragos told jurors, noting immense news media coverage and social media chatter. "It is time to cancel that noise."
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Geragos conceded Combs is extremely jealous and "has a bad temper," telling jurors that he sometimes got angry when he drank alcohol or "did the wrong drugs."
But "domestic violence is not sex trafficking," she said, and being mean is not running a racketeering enterprise.
Combs’ sexual habits were part of a swinger lifestyle involving consenting adults, Geragos said.
She acknowledged that some jurors might not condone "his kinky sex and his preferences for sex" but she urged them to judge the case with an open mind.
Those sexual predilections, she said, do not equate to sex trafficking.
First witnesses are called
What they're saying:
Prosecutors were using the trial’s first witness, Israel Florez, a former security officer at a Los Angeles hotel, to introduce recordings of Combs beating his then-girlfriend, the singer Cassie, at the hotel in March 2016.
Florez said that when he responded to a call of woman in distress on the sixth floor of a Los Angeles hotel in March 2016, he came across Combs, wearing only a towel and sitting on a chair "slouched down, like with a blank stare ... like a devilish stare, just looking at me."
After Cassie left, Florez said, he was getting ready to leave their room when Combs called him back. Florez said he was holding a stack of money with a $100 on top, telling him: "Don’t tell nobody."
Surveillance video shoes Diddy assaulting ex-girlfriend Cassie
A 2016 surveillance video obtained by CNN shows Sean "Diddy" Combs violently grab, shove, drag and kick his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura during an altercation in a hotel in California.
RELATED: Cassie breaks silence on Diddy assault video: ‘Open your heart to believing victims the 1st time’
Florez said he considered it a bribe and told him: "I don’t want your money. Just go back into your room."
After Florez got straight to the allegations of violence by Combs, the second prosecution witness, Daniel Phillip, took the trial to the allegations of sex parties.
Phillip said he was a male stripper for women when he was called by Cassie to meet her and Combs at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York in 2012.
Phillip said he was paid a few thousand dollars for the encounter in which Combs was wearing a white robe and watching as Phillip had sex with Cassie.
Cassie is expected to testify again on Tuesday, according to FOX News sources. Court is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. ET.
How long could the trail last?
What's next:
The trial is expected to last two months.
How long could ‘Diddy’ be behind bars if convicted?
Dig deeper:
If convicted on all charges — which also include transporting people across state lines to engage in prostitution — Combs faces a possible sentence of decades in prison.
Combs is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop, but his indictment 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.
Trial day one sketch by Jane Rosenberg
"The chance to just be looked at strictly in musical terms, and that being the defining part of his legacy, is pretty much gone," says Peter A. Berry, a music journalist with work in XXL and Complex.
"You can’t look at Diddy’s music in a vacuum the same way you did before," he says.
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes from opening statements and witness testimony in federal court, including remarks from Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson and defense attorney Teny Geragos, as well as accounts from witnesses like hotel security officer Israel Florez and former stripper Daniel Phillip; it also includes background on the federal investigation, Combs’ indictment and arrest, and commentary from music journalist Peter A. Berry. This story was reported from Los Angeles.