Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex crimes trial to begin Monday

Jury selection is set to begin Monday in New York in the blockbuster trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who dramatically fell from grace following his incarceration on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

Combs, 55, has been awaiting his day in court since last year on accusations of leading a crime ring that prosecutors say coerced victims into drug-fueled sex parties using threats and violence.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, insisting that any sex acts were consensual. At a recent hearing, his attorney Marc Agnifilo offered a preview of the defense, describing the artist’s free-wheeling “swinger” lifestyle.

The prosecution said in court that it had offered Combs a plea deal—though the specifics were not disclosed—but that he had rejected it.

If convicted, the one-time rap producer and global superstar—widely credited with helping usher hip-hop into the mainstream—could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Over the decades, the artist—who has gone by various stage names including Puff Daddy and P. Diddy—amassed vast wealth through music as well as ventures in the liquor industry.

The trial’s opening coincides with the first Monday in May—typically the date of New York’s Met Gala, the celebrity charity bash where Combs was once a red carpet mainstay. Just two years ago, he posed for the cameras at the event uptown; this year, he’ll be downtown in federal court, as a panel of citizens is selected to determine his fate.

Jury selection is expected to last about a week, with opening statements tentatively scheduled for May 12.

Combs was arrested by federal agents in New York in September 2024 and has been denied bail multiple times. He is being held at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center, a facility long plagued by complaints of vermin, decay, and violence.

High-profile inmates at the MDC have included disgraced R&B star R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and convicted cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried.

During pre-trial hearings, Combs has appeared in court looking noticeably aged, his once jet-black styled coif now overgrown and gray.

Central 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—aired last year—shows Combs physically assaulting Ventura at a hotel. Prosecutors say the incident occurred after one of the “freak-offs” that they claim were a hallmark of his alleged abuse.

These so-called “freak-offs” were coercive, drug-fueled sexual marathons that involved sex workers and were sometimes filmed, according to the indictment.

It remains unclear how much of the CNN video will be shown to jurors—its quality has been a point of contention between the legal teams—but Judge Arun Subramanian has ruled that at least some of the footage will be admissible.

Although Combs has no major convictions, he has long been shadowed by allegations of physical assault dating back to the 1990s.

The floodgates opened after Ventura filed a civil lawsuit in 2023 alleging Combs subjected her to more than a decade of coercion through physical force and drugs, including a rape in 2018.

That suit was swiftly settled out of court, but it was followed by a series of similarly graphic sexual assault claims from both women and men. The federal indictment followed shortly after a raid of Combs’s luxury properties in Miami and Los Angeles.

The charges include racketeering conspiracy under the federal RICO statute—once reserved primarily for organized crime but increasingly used in cases of sexual abuse. It enables prosecutors to present a broader pattern of criminal activity rather than prosecuting isolated acts, requiring the government to prove “predicate acts” within the larger criminal enterprise.

In 2021, RICO charges were successfully used to convict R. Kelly, who received a 30-year sentence for sex crimes including abuse of minors.

Industry watchers say Combs’s trial could mark a watershed moment for the music industry, which—unlike Hollywood—has largely eluded the full force of the #MeToo reckoning.