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Jury selection is set to begin on Monday in New York for the highly anticipated federal trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who faces serious charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering.
Combs, 55, is accused of running a criminal enterprise that allegedly coerced victims into drug-fueled sex acts through threats, violence, and manipulation. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, asserting that all sexual encounters were consensual.
In a recent hearing, Combs’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, previewed the defense’s strategy by framing his client’s actions as part of a consensual “swinger” lifestyle.
Prosecutors have revealed that a plea deal was offered to Combs, though the terms remain undisclosed. Combs rejected the offer.
If convicted, the former rap icon and business mogul, who helped propel hip-hop into the cultural mainstream, could face a sentence of life in prison.
Once a fixture on red carpets and at celebrity galas, Combs now awaits trial from behind bars at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre, a facility notorious for overcrowding, vermin, and poor conditions. He has been in custody since his arrest in September 2024 and has been denied bail multiple times.
Jury selection is expected to take about one week, with opening statements scheduled for May 12.
The timing is notable: while the first Monday in May usually sees celebrities attending the Met Gala, Combs will instead face a jury pool downtown in federal court.
The trial heavily involves Combs’s former girlfriend, singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who is expected to testify.
A 2016 surveillance video showing Combs physically assaulting Ventura at a hotel, released by CNN, is set to be shown in part to the jury. Prosecutors argue the incident followed one of several coercive sexual gatherings they refer to as “freak-offs”—drug-fueled sex parties allegedly involving sex workers and sometimes filmed.
Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that portions of the video will be admissible as evidence, despite legal debates over its quality and relevance.
The federal indictment includes a racketeering conspiracy charge under the RICO statute, typically used in organized crime prosecutions. RICO allows prosecutors to link individual crimes as part of a broader criminal enterprise rather than treating them as isolated incidents.
Combs has long denied any criminal behavior, but his career has been clouded by allegations of physical and sexual abuse dating back to the 1990s. The current case gained momentum after Ventura filed a civil lawsuit in 2023 accusing Combs of over a decade of abuse and rape. Although that suit was settled out of court, it prompted additional accusations from other alleged victims, both women and men, and led to federal raids on Combs’s luxury homes in Miami and Los Angeles.
