The high-stakes racketeering and sex-trafficking trial of music mogul Sean Diddy Combs officially opened on Monday, May 12, 2025 with federal prosecutors accusing the hip-hop icon of leading a decades-long criminal enterprise masked by his celebrity and media empire.
During opening statements at the trial, prosecutor Emily A. Johnson told the Manhattan jury that Sean Diddy Combs, 55, used his power and influence to coerce, drug, and violently abuse women, with a network of close associates allegedly helping him cover up the crimes. Johnson revealed that three women, including Combs’s former girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, and two Jane Does, will testify about the abuse and sexual exploitation they endured.
“He sometimes called himself the king and expected to be treated like one,” Johnson said, describing Combs as a figure who committed “crime after crime” over more than 20 years.
At the heart of the case is a 2016 assault in a Los Angeles hotel involving Ventura, captured on security footage that shocked the public when released by CNN last year. Jurors were told they would see parts of that video during the trial, despite Combs’s alleged attempts to suppress its release.
Combs faces five felony charges: one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking, and two counts of transportation for prostitution. His family, including his mother Janice and his children, sat in the courtroom’s front row for the proceedings.
Defending Combs, attorney Teny Geragos dismissed the accusations as an overreach, framing the relationships as consensual and describing the entertainer’s personal life as unconventional but lawful. “This is about Sean Combs’s private, personal sex life, which has nothing to do with his businesses,” Geragos argued.
The prosecution’s first witness, former hotel security guard Israel Florez, testified about responding to the 2016 incident, finding Ventura distressed and Combs with what he called a “devilish stare.” Florez revealed Combs allegedly offered him money to stay quiet and claimed Ventura declined to involve the police.
Testimony from a second witness, Daniel Phillip, a former male revue show manager, described explicit encounters involving himself, Ventura, and Combs, detailing an unsettling pattern of control, violence, and abuse. Phillip claimed he feared for his life if he spoke out.
As testimony grew graphic, Combs’s daughters left the courtroom while his sons remained.
Jury selection earlier in the day saw tensions rise when Combs’s legal team accused prosecutors of racial bias for dismissing Black jurors, a claim the judge rejected, affirming the diversity of the final panel.
Federal authorities allege that Combs operated his business ventures as fronts for criminal activities ranging from sex trafficking and kidnapping to bribery, obstruction of justice, and forced labor. Combs, who has been in custody since his September 2024 arrest, pleaded not guilty to all charges and recently rejected a plea deal.
If convicted, the music mogul faces the possibility of life imprisonment.
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