Diddy‘s marathon sex trafficking trial will include graphic videos of ‘freak off’ orgies, the rapper brutally beating Cassie Ventura, and dozens of witness accounts.
Prosecutors lined up a dazzling array of evidence against the disgraced entertainer as they seek to put him behind bars for life.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is charged with racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transporting individuals for prostitution.
Sixteen jurors – twelve primary and six alternates – will review mountains of evidence over eight to ten weeks in the Southern District of New York Federal Court.
One of the first items will be an infamous security camera video of Diddy beating his then-girlfriend Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Ventura herself will testify as early as Monday afternoon after lawyers on both sides complete their opening statements.
The couple had a turbulent relationship and she is expected to tell the jury how Diddy forced her to participate in the ‘freak offs’ and then blackmailed her with videos.
Ventura is a key prosecution witness, both for her knowledge of his notorious sex afterparties and the alleged sexual abuse at them, and his treatment of her.
Cassie and Diddy first met in 2005, when she was 19 and he was a 39-year-old superstar. Her allegations of abuse against the rapper are at the center of his sex trafficking trial. They are pictured in New York in 2006
Prosecutors are also expected to rely heavily on videos of the ‘freak offs’ they collected from Diddy’s devices and those of other attendees.
The late-night events allegedly included women forced to have sex with male prostitutes and be degraded in front of a crowd, while Diddy masturbated and filmed the sick spectacle.
The indictment alleged the events sometimes lasted days and participants required IV drips to recover.
Some of the videos were filmed by Ventura, which the defense tried to turn back on her by claiming she had the power in that situation, not Diddy.
The FBI seized 96 electronic devices when it raided Diddy’s mansion in March last year, eight of them containing an ‘extraordinary’ 90TB of data, prosecutors said.
Many of the civil lawsuits against Diddy claim he filmed sexual assaults perpetrated against victims, many of them drugged.
Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson wrapped up her opening argument by warning jurors they would see violence for themselves.
She said they would see videos of Cassie and a Jane Doe as they ‘pretend they enjoy themselves during freak offs and will see Combs ‘brutally beating Cassie during a freak off at an LA hotel’.
Diddy’s annual Labor Day ‘White Party’ was known for being crazy and often getting out of control. Prosecutors allege his White Parties were often followed by ‘freak off’ orgies
Diddy is pictured at his 1998 white party in the Hamptons
The videos of Ventura in particular were ‘souvenirs of the most humiliating nights of her life’.
The prosecutor alleged the ‘freak offs’ were so depraved that those participating were plied with drugs to ‘stay awake and perform for him for hours and days on end’.
Diddy allegedly also had huge stores of baby oil and other lubricants, and had assistants bringing them in along with other items needed for the parties.
‘He called them freak-offs, wild king nights, or hotel nights. His staff organized flights, cars and hotels,’ Johnson said.
‘At his direction, his staff set up the room with lubricant and lighting. Staff came in with cash to pay the escorts, and drugs.’
Johnson alleged Diddy ‘viciously attacked’ women when they resisted taking part in the parties, or otherwise upset him.
Video evidence is considered to be especially powerful in the case, as it is incontrovertible unlike witness testimony, which can be embellished.
Diddy only admitted to beating Ventura after the video was broadcast last year.
‘I take full responsibility for my actions in that video,’ he in May 2024, calling what he did ‘inexcusable’.
‘I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.’
This is the only abuse Diddy has ever admitted to.
Ventura, who is expecting her third child with husband Alex Fine, was spotted in New York this week as she awaits to testify against Diddy
Defense lawyers unsuccessfully tried before trial to get the video banned from the trial on the grounds that a recording that aired on CNN last year was unfair because it was edited and incomplete.
The prosecution told jurors they will hear the lengths that Combs’ inner circle went to as they helped him hide the attack and get what they thought was the only video recording.
Johnson said a security guard was given a brown paper bag full of $100,000 in cash while Combs’ bodyguard and chief of staff stood by.
‘This is far from the only time that the defendant’s inner circle tried to close ranks and do damage control,’ she said.
Witness testimony from alleged victims, employees, and dozens of others will also form part of the case, though it is not clear exactly who will be called.
Johnson told jurors they would hear testimony from victims who said Combs, 55, routinely beat them and exploded with rage at the smallest slights.
‘They will tell you about some of the most painful experiences of their lives. The days they spent in hotel rooms, high on drugs, dressed in costumes to perform the defendant’s sexual fantasies,’ Johnson said.
Diddy is charged with racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transporting individuals for prostitution
Diddy pours champagne over two near-naked women at his Labor Day party in 1998
Witnesses could include some of the men and women who sued Diddy in civil court for alleged sexual abuse and rape, along with orgy guests.
But the great majority of those allegations aren’t part of the criminal case as prosecutors chose to focus on a relatively small number of accusers and allegations where there is physical evidence or corroboration by witnesses.
Prosecutors shared a horrific claim of Ventura ‘feeling like she was choking when Diddy made an escort urinate in her mouth’ during a ‘freak off’.
Johnson also said she overdosed at a ‘freak off’ when she had an open wound on her face from the most recent assault by the rapper.
People who watched as the women were allegedly degraded and forced into sex could be named during the trial, including celebrities.
The first witness called was Israel Florez, now a Los Angeles Police Department officer.
In March 2016, he was working at a Los Angeles hotel as assistant director of security when he got a call that a woman was in distress on the sixth floor and encountered Combs.
Johnson previewed other claims including how Diddy had his bodyguards kidnap an employee, set fire to someone’s car, and dangled a person off a balcony.
‘Champagne from heaven’ served to guests by models dressed as angels at Diddy’s Labor Day party in 1999
A model dances at The Real White Party at Diddy’s East Hampton estate on September 2, 2007
About 150 potential jurors were vetted before the final 18 were selected. Each was handed a binder containing dozens of names and places that may come up during the music mogul’s trial.
The list of at least 190 individuals includes comedian Mike Myers, actor Michael B. Jordan, rappers Kanye West and Kid Cudi and Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams.
It was not made clear what role any of them would play in the trial or whether they would be called to testify, or just mentioned in passing.
Myers was likely dragged into the case over a scene in Austin Powers: Goldmember, where the character Dr Evil had an ‘E. Diddy’ tattoo on his buttocks after spending time in prison.
The scene in the 2002 comedy also featured Beyoncé.
Diddy’s lawyers argued prosecutors, were trying to turn sexual relations between consenting adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case.
‘Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,’ Diddy’s attorney Teny Geragos began in her opening statement.
‘There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year,’ Geragos told jurors, noting immense news media coverage and social media chatter.
‘It is time to cancel that noise.’
The rapper’s sexual habits were part of a swinger lifestyle involving consenting adults, Geragos said.
Diddy’s mother Janice Combs (right) walking into the courthouse alongside fellow supporters for her son’s first day on trial
All of Diddy’s kids, including his adopted son Quincy Brown (right) – the biological son of the rapper’s late ex-girlfriend Kim Porter – showed up to support their father
Diddy reacts to his family members seated in the audience at his sex trafficking trial
She acknowledged that some jurors might not condone ‘his kinky sex and his preferences for sex’ but she urged them to judge the case with an open mind.
Those sexual predilections, she said, do not equate to sex trafficking.
You will hear about swinger parties…they will testify about things that should never be heard in a Federal courtroom, that he liked to watch,’ she said.
‘You may not like that, but you are not here to judge him for his sexual preferences.’
Geragos claimed the case was a ‘money grab’, particularly for Ventura.
This criminal case started because [Cassie] filed a public lawsuit against C [Diddy] in 2023, when she was having financial trouble and living in her parents’ modest home in Connecticut,’ she claimed.
‘They will claim they were so afraid they couldn’t go to the police but they were not so afraid to go to civil lawyers… for unbelievable amounts of money.’
