Live updates: Opening statements begin in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s sex trafficking trial

The 55-year-old music mogulâ??s ex girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, is expected to testify.

👉 Click Here to read in detail 👈

Courtroom sketch artist talks to reporters outside courthouse The courtroom sketch artist at the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs speaks to reporters outside the courthouse. (Ariana Baio/The Independent )

Ariana Baio 12 May 2025 18:22

Diddy's defense claims infamous hotel attack video stemmed from 'jealousy'

During opening statements, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense said the hotel surveillance footage obtained by CNN of the rapper beating his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura stemmed from “jealousy” over the contents on her phone.

“Jealousy was on full display,” Geragos said of the footage, noting Diddy is not on trial for domestic violence.

The defense team took accountability for the music mogul’s past with domestic violence and did not condone it, calling his prior relationships with Ventura and another witness, Jane, “toxic.”

Diddy’s defense said the CNN hotel footage stemmed from “jealousy” over the contents of Cassie Ventura’s phone.

Geragos also described the two women as “strong and capable” and pointed out that they were free to make “adult choices.”

Geragos also mentioned that the Freak Off footage was found on Cassie’s phone.

Meanwhile, the prosecution emphasized Diddy’s “power and control” over the women he dated — always more than one at a time.

Diddy sometimes called himself the “king and expected to be treated like one,” the prosecutor said.

He used his companies and reputation to “feed his every desire,” Geragoes added.

Ventura is expected to testify during the trial, potentially on Monday on Tuesday.

Kelly Rissman 12 May 2025 17:46

Court breaks for lunch

After delivering opening statements for about 45 minutes, the defense concluded their remarks.

The court then broke for a half-hour lunch.

Ariana Baio 12 May 2025 17:18

Defense delivers opening statement

Teny Geragoes, a lawyer for Sean “Diddy” Combs began delivering the defense’s opening statement around 11:30 a.m.

“Sean Combs is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case,” Geragoes said. “This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money.”

Geragoes argued that the alleged victims loved Combs, and text messages would reflect that.

The defense admitted that while Combs had a temper and history of violence, that didn’t amount to sex trafficking, transportation for prostitution or racketeering conspiracy.

Diddy and his lawyers, Marc Agnifilo (left) and Teny Geragoes. (REUTERS )

“There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year,” Geragoes said. “it is time to cancel that noise.”

Geragoes then took aim at the prosecution’s “larger-than-life” characterization of Combs, telling jurors: “No one gave him a dime,” according to The New York Times.

She also attempted to humanize the famous rapper, telling jurors that while they may know him as “Puff Daddy,” or “P. Diddy” or “Diddy,” in the court room he will be referred to “by the same name he was born with: Sean Combs.”

Meanwhile, Combs stood with his hands clasped in front of his stomach as Geragoes introduced him to the jury.

With Associated Press contributions.

Isabel Keane, Ariana Baio12 May 2025 16:42

Prosecution introduces witnesses in trial

The prosecution began introducing some of the witnesses in the trial.

Prosecutors introduced Cassie, the musician and Combs’s ex-girlfriend, Jane, a pseudonym for a single mother who began spending time with Combs in 2020, and Mia, another pseudonym for one of Combs’s former employees.

Prosecutors said Mia would eventually testify that Combs “forced himself on her sexually,” including forcing her to perform oral sex and sneaking into her bed to “penetrate her against her will,” according to the New York Times.

Sean 'Diddy' Combs sits before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian as jury selection continued at his sex trafficking trial in New York (REUTERS )

In addition to hearing from victims, prosecutors told jurors they would be hearing from some of Combs’ former staff, including some who received settlements.

Among those are his chef and an employee whom Combs allegedly forced into an SUV at gunpoint.

Jurors may also hear from escorts whom Combs allegedly hired to participate in the freak offs.

Isabel Keane, Ariana Baio 12 May 2025 16:25

Diddy trial draws in onlookers

The trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs has drawn in spectators from far and wide.

One onlooker, a man named Steven visiting from Florida, was drawn to the courthouse Monday morning due to the spectacle of it all.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial was underway Monday in Manhattan. (AFP via Getty Images )

“It’s a pretty just, almost, quintessential case in that somebody in power, using their power for years and years, to cover it up. So it’s a vicious cycle,” he told The Independent outside the courthouse.

National broadcast media outlets also swarmed outside the courthouse.

A lot of individual reporters from different places – Shanghai, Australia, some Eastern European countries – who are reporting on the trial by themselves.

Many of the reporters have iPads set up on tri-pods, and are calling in information remotely.

Ariana Baio 12 May 2025 16:15

Combs remains stoic while prosecutors describe alleged abuse

Combs sat stone-faced with his hands clasped on his lap as prosecutors described the alleged physical abuse and sexual coercion suffered by his longtime ex, Cassie Ventura.

"Time and again, the defendant hit Cassie in the head, threw her to the floor and dragged her by the hair…Stomped repeatedly on her face,” Courthouse News reported.

Prosecutors described the abuse allegedly suffered by Diddy’s longtime ex, Cassie Ventura, during opening statements of his trial on Monday. (AP )

“The defendant’s control, the defendant’s violence, and the defendant’s threats - That is how the defendant ensured Cassie could not say no to him," prosecutors said.

Ventura, who is pregnant, is expected to testify at some point during the trial.

Isabel Keane12 May 2025 16:08

Case is 'not about a celebrity's private sexual preferences'

Emily Johnson, the prosecutor, said the case against Diddy was “not about a celebrity’s sexual preferences.”

Seemingly trying to get ahead of Diddy’s potential defense, Johnson began to detail the “freak offs” at the center of the government’s case.

Johnson said Combs forced women to have sex when they didn’t want to, threatened them, drugged them and used violence to coerce them into sex, according to The New York Times.

Two women, Casandra Ventura and another using the pseudonym “Jane,” were directed on what to wear and drugs to take, as well as “every step of the sexual activity.”

Cassie Ventura, Combs’ ex-longtime-girlfriend, is the star witness in the federal trial.

Johnson then began telling the story of Ventura, Combs’ ex-longtime girlfriend, who is also the star witness in the trial.

Prosecutors said Ventura agreed to participate in a freak off initially because she loved Combs but “knew it was not something she wanted to do,” Johnson said.

Johnson noted that Ventura soon learned “she had no choice but to agree” to the freak-offs, or else things would end in violence, per the Times.

The pair met in 2005 when Ventura signed to Combs’ label. She was 19 and he was 37. They dated on and off for a decade before ending things for good in 2018.

Ventura came forward about her experience of domestic abuse last year.

Surveillance footage from a 2016 incident showed Combs chasing the singer down a hotel hallway before punching and kicking her to the floor.

Isabel Keane12 May 2025 16:03

Opening statements begin in trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs

Opening statements began just before 11 a.m. in the high-profile trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson began by pointing to Combs as she stood before the jury, calling him a “larger than life” public figure who had “another side to him, a side that ran a criminal enterprise.”

Johnson went on to say that Combs “didn’t do it alone.”

Emily Johnson (left) began opening statements, calling attention to Diddy’s “larger than life” persona. (REUTERS )

“He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up.”

Those crimes included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction, Johnson said.

With Associated Press contributions.

Isabel Keane12 May 2025 15:49

Judge rejects claim of discriminatory jury strikes

The judge rejected the defense’s claim that the prosecution’s strikes of potential jurors were discriminatory because seven Black individuals were struck from the jury.

The judge said Comey had given “race neutral reasons” to explain each strike and that the defense had failed to show purposeful discrimination.

The Associated Press 12 May 2025 15:40

👉 Click Here to read in detail 👈

Miatamil

Listed here the latest Trending News