Jurors to hear opening statements in Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking, racketeering case

Hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, whose celebrity-packed "White Parties" were once the most coveted invitation in the Hamptons, ruled over his billion-dollar, multinational business empire using force, coercion and drugs, Manhattan federal prosecutors are expected to argue on Monday during opening arguments of his racketeering and sex trafficking case, forcing girlfriends, employees and sex workers to engage in dayslong sex parties or face violent backlash.

Combs, 55, who has been incarcerated in a Brooklyn federal detention center since his arrest last September, is accused of forcing his victims — three women — to engage in elaborately produced drug-fueled orgies dubbed "Freak Offs" with sex workers that prosecutors say were trafficked from out of state.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The impresario, who is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of sex trafficking by force and one count of transportation for the purposes of prostitution, could face life behind bars if convicted.

Jurors to hear about 'Freak Offs'

These parties, staged in hotel suites around the country and often recorded by Combs, federal prosecutors say, could be so exhausting that participants sometimes required intravenous fluids to sustain themselves.

"Freak-Off activity is the core of this case, and freak offs are inherently dangerous," Manhattan federal prosecutor Emily Johnson said during a hearing last year. "They use force, coercion, and drugs to coerce the victims into doing the freak offs. The defendant controlled aspects of their lives, used significant physical force against them, and all to compel them to engage in these lengthy sex acts."

Combs allegedly put his entire empire to work for decades, using employees to arrange hotel accommodations, set up and stock the rooms and clean up after the parties were over, authorities said. They say he also used his sprawling network to intimidate and control his victims and to keep them silent.

Video evidence

The multifaceted businessman, who spawned a clothing, lifestyle and entertainment conglomerate out of his music promotion business, coerced these women, prosecutors say, by controlling nearly every aspect of their lives, including their careers, their finances and even their housing. If that wasn’t enough, he resorted to violence — kicking, hitting and choking his alleged victims or threatening them at gunpoint, according to the indictment.

Crucial to the U.S. attorney’s case is a video, first broadcast by CNN, of Combs dressed only in a towel, beating and dragging his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, down a California hotel hallway by her hair.

Many of the prospective jurors, who were selected last week, have said that they saw or heard about the video.

Ventura, who sings under the professional name Cassie, met Combs when she was 19 years old and hoping to launch a music career; he was 37. She has spoken out publicly about the alleged abuse.

In a lawsuit filed by Ventura in 2023, which sparked the federal investigation, she said that "all aspects of [her] life were controlled by either Mr. Combs or his management companies," according to the suit, which was settled in a matter of days.

"Mr. Combs has the unfortunate reality that one of the worst things he's ever done was on videotape," defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said at a previous hearing in the case. "It will one day be played at his federal trial, and we'll deal with it when it is."

The lawyer said federal prosecutors are overstepping, reaching into his client’s private life.

He said these relationships were complicated, with both partners willingly participating.

"The sex and the violence were totally separate and motivated by totally different things," Agnifilo said at a hearing last year. "The way that this couple chose to be intimate was ... they would bring a third party into their intimacy. That was their thing. That is how these two adults chose to be intimate."

The lawyer acknowledged that his client has struggled with anger-management issues and drug use.

"Mr. Combs realized he has a problem with drug addiction and he has a problem with anger, and he went into a rehab program for a period of time," Agnifilo said in court. "I don't want to get too much into this, but it's significant. The person — the woman in the video — also went into rehab around the same time."

'A culture of silence'

The team of federal prosecutors, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey, a daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, charge that the violence, kidnapping and arson were used to enforce the culture of silence around Combs' behavior. Authorities said he directed security staff and other employees to carry firearms to further intimidate the women involved. During a raid of his compound in Miami and California, federal agents found three AR-15s loaded with high-caliber ammunition and the serial numbers defaced.

“[Combs'] regular use of violence and threats of violence ... against the victims and others, fostered a culture of fear in which these individuals believed they were unable to reject the defendant’s demands without subjecting themselves to physical violence or abuse," prosecutors said in a court memo.

When he was first arrested, Combs had dark hair, but in the nine months in the Metropolitan Detention Center, his hair has turned gray. He’s been allowed a limited wardrobe to wear in the courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian allowed him to have five button-down shirts, five sweaters, five pairs of socks and two pairs of laceless slip-on shoes.

The case in federal court in Manhattan is expected to last for six to eight weeks.