Jury selection begins Monday in New York in the blockbuster federal s*x trafficking trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who stands accused of years of harrowing abuse.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty on all counts, insisting that any sex acts were consensual — but prosecutors say for years he coerced victims into drug-fueled s*x parties using threats and violence.
At a recent hearing, his attorney Marc Agnifilo offered a preview of his team’s defence by describing the artist’s free-wheeling “swinger” lifestyle.
The prosecution said it had offered Combs a plea deal — the specifics were not disclosed — but that he had rejected it.
Combs faces one charge of racketeering conspiracy, the federal statute known by its acronym RICO that was once primarily used to target the mafia but in recent years has been wielded in cases of s*xual abuse, including against the fallen R&B star R. Kelly.
It allows government attorneys to project a long view of criminal activity rather than prosecuting isolated s*x crimes.
If convicted, the one-time rap producer and global superstar, who is often credited for his role in ushering hip-hop into the mainstream, could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Over the decades, Combs — who has gone by various stage names including Puff Daddy and P. Diddy — amassed enormous wealth for his work in music but also his ventures in the liquor industry.
He was arrested by federal agents in New York in September 2024 and denied bail multiple times.
Combs is being held at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Centre, a facility plagued by complaints of vermin and decay as well as violence.
High-profile inmates there included Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur convicted of fraud.
Combs has appeared in pre-trial hearings looking remarkably aged, his once jet-black, styled coif now overgrown and grey.
The jury selection start date is notably the first Monday in May — which annually marks New York’s Met Gala, a glittering celebrity charity bash where Combs was once a red carpet mainstay.
Just two years ago, he posed for the cameras at that event uptown — but on Monday, he will be downtown in federal court, as the panel of citizens tasked with determining his fate face a barrage of questions from lawyers on both sides.
Jury selection is expected to wrap up in about a week, with opening statements tentatively scheduled for May 12.
The proceedings are estimated to last eight to 10 weeks.
Core to the case is Combs’s relationship with his former girlfriend, the singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who is expected to be a key trial witness.
A disturbing surveillance video from 2016, which was aired by CNN last year, shows Combs physically assaulting Ventura at a hotel.
Prosecutors say the encounter occurred following one of the “freak-offs” they argue were a feature of his pattern of abuse.
The so-called “freak-offs” were coercive, drug-fueled sexual marathons including s*x workers that were sometimes filmed, according to the indictment.
It is unclear how much of the CNN video will be shown to jurors as evidence in court — the footage’s quality has been a sticking point between the opposing legal teams — but Judge Arun Subramanian has ruled that at least some of it will be admissible.
The floodgates opened after Ventura filed a civil suit alleging Combs subjected her to more than a decade of coercion by physical force and drugs as well as a 2018 rape.
That 2023 suit was quickly settled out of court, but a string of similarly lurid s*xual assault claims against the Grammy winner from both women and men followed.
