NEW YORK— Sean “Diddy” Combs once presided like a prince over his Hamptons White Parties, which drew A-list celebrities, gossip columnists, and photographers. However, in a trial beginning Monday, prosecutors will portray the entertainer as a criminal sexual deviant who used his celebrity to abuse women at gatherings held far from public view.
Prosecutors claim that for more than two decades, the founder of Bad Boy Records used the power and prestige he gained from building a hip-hop empire to destroy young lives.
He faces an indictment that includes details about “Freak Offs,” drugged-up orgies in which women were forced to have sex with male sex workers while Combs filmed them.
Numerous witnesses have come forward to accuse Combs of terrorizing people into silence by choking, hitting, kicking, and dragging them, frequently by their hair, according to prosecutors. The indictment alleges that he once dangled someone from a balcony.
Combs’ lawyers argue that prosecutors are attempting to police consensual sexual activity.
While Combs, 55, has admitted to one incident of violence — the on-camera beating of his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie — his lawyers claim other allegations are false.
Jury selection is set to begin Monday at a federal courthouse in Manhattan. Testimony will most likely begin the following week.
If convicted of all charges, including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transporting people across state lines to engage in prostitution, Combs could face decades in prison.
Investigation followed Cassie lawsuit
Although dozens of men and women have filed lawsuits alleging abuse by Combs, this trial will focus on four women’s claims.
One of them is Cassie, who filed a lawsuit in late 2023 alleging that Combs subjected her to years of abuse, including beatings and rape, after they met in 2005.
The Associated Press typically does not identify people who claim to have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, did.
Her lawsuit, which provided the first public account of the Freak Offs detailed in the indictment, was settled within a day. Four months later, however, federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami, confronting him at a private airport in Florida and seizing 96 electronic devices. They also discovered three AR-15-style rifles with defaced serial numbers.
The three-time Grammy winner was indicted in September. He has since been held in a federal jail in Brooklyn after judges determined that releasing him would pose a threat to witnesses and victims’ safety.
The 17-page indictment accuses Combs of using employees from his various businesses, including record labels, a recording studio, an apparel line, an alcoholic spirits company, a marketing agency, a television network, and a media company, to facilitate his crimes, which included kidnapping, arson, and bribery.
Prosecutors intend to show jurors travel records, text messages, emails, hotel records, and videos to supplement testimony and back up their claims about “Freak Off activity.”
Jurors will also see security camera footage of Combs punching, kicking, and dragging Cassie in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
After the video aired on CNN last year, Combs apologized, saying, “I accept full responsibility for my actions in that video.” I felt disgusted when I did it. “I am disgusted now.”
Defense says Freak Offs were consensual
Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, stated at a bail hearing that Combs wrote Cassie “a very large check” after she filed her lawsuit. The lawyer claimed that the payout encouraged others to file false claims.
Agnifilo stated that Combs was “not a perfect person” with a history of drug use and toxic relationships, but that the rapper was in therapy prior to his arrest.
He stated that Cassie and Combs had a 10-year relationship that was “very loving at times” and that they occasionally chose to include a third person in their intimacy.
“That was their thing,” he explained. “It was a sought-after, special part of their relationship.”
This is not Combs’ first trial. In 2001, he was acquitted of bringing an illegal handgun into a crowded Manhattan dance club where three people were injured by gunfire. Jamal Barrow, a rapper in Combs’ entourage who performed under the name Shyne, was convicted of the shooting and sentenced to nearly nine years in prison.
Combs confirmed to a judge during a pretrial conference on Thursday that he turned down a plea deal that would have resulted in a lesser penalty than what he could face if convicted in his upcoming trial.
He shook his fist in the air as he walked out of the courtroom following the hearing.