Federal prosecutors are beginning trying to prove that Sean “Diddy” Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires for two decades.
Jury selection concluded on Monday morning (late Monday night AEST), with lawyers’ opening statements following. Testimony could begin as soon as Monday afternoon (Tuesday morning AEST).
Combs, wearing a white sweater, entered the courtroom shortly before 9am, hugged his lawyers and gave a thumbs up to supporters seated behind him. Earlier, the line to get into the courthouse stretched down the block. Combs’ mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and brought straight into the building.
The final stage of jury selection began with lawyers from both sides rejecting several candidates to get to a panel of 12. Each side eliminated the maximum number of people they were allowed, with the defense dismissing 10 and prosecutors striking six. They didn’t have to explain their reasons unless the opposing side claimed they were striking jurors for inappropriate reasons such as race.
A defence lawyer did just that, claiming that prosecutors struck seven Black people from the jury, which he said amounted to a pattern. But the judge rejected the discrimination claim, saying Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey had given “race-neutral reasons” to explain each strike and that the defence had failed to show purposeful discrimination.
Comey also revealed that at least one text message to be unveiled during the trial will describe Combs’ behaviour as “bipolar or manic”.
Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could land him in prison for at least 15 years if he is convicted on all charges. He has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest in September.
The courtroom was packed with Combs’ family, journalists and other people interested in the trial.
Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but was not illegal.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters, then kept them in line through violence. He is accused of choking, hitting, kicking and dragging women, often by the hair.
Combs’ former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, is expected to be among the trial’s early witnesses.
She filed a lawsuit in 2023 saying Combs had subjected her to years of abuse, including beatings and rape. The lawsuit was settled within hours of its filing, but it touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits from people making similar claims.
Prosecutors plan to show jurors video a security camera video of Combs beating Cassie in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Jurors may also see recordings of events called “Freak Offs”, where prosecutors say women had sex with male sex workers while Combs filmed them. The indictment said the events sometimes lasted days and participants required IV-drips to recover.
Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, has said that the Bad Boy Records founder was “not a perfect person” and was undergoing therapy, including for drug use, before his arrest.
But he and other lawyers for Combs have argued that any group sex was consensual and any violence was an aberration.
After the video of Combs assaulting Cassie in the hotel aired on CNN last year, Combs apologised and said he took “full responsibility” for his actions.
“I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,” he said.
The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has done.
The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks.
