Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Sex Trafficking and RICO Trial Began With Sex Worker, Hotel Security Testimony

Day one of the second week of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan saw a flurry of activity, as the jury was finalized after an accusation of racial bias from the defense team. On Monday, the trial began in earnest with opening statements followed by testimony from two witnesses. 

Combs — the 55-year-old rapper, producer and fashion mogul whose rags-to-riches-to-near-billionaire status New York fairytale came to an abrupt end last year with his arrest and a five-count indictment — stood up in the court on Monday morning when lead attorney Teny Geragos described him in her opening statements. The second lead defense attorney told the jury that Combs, accused by federal prosecutors of two decades of abuse of women, trafficking of sex workers, and turning his music and fashion empire into a criminal enterprise, is no saint and that he’s by all accounts guilty of domestic abuse; but that’s not what he’s charged with and why he should be found innocent. 

On Monday, the day after Mother’s Day, Combs’ mother found her seat in the federal courtroom on the 24th floor in lower Manhattan. As she sat, her now-grey-haired-and-bearded son blew her a kiss. “Hi, mom, I love you,” he mouthed to her. 

Before the jury was finalized, the defense lobbed a “Batson challenge” at the prosecution, essentially stating that the striking of eight Black potential jurors indicated the feds were excluding potential jurors based on demographic characteristics, such as race, gender, national origin, religion or sexual orientation. But the government was quick to shut this down, reading off the valid reasons the jurors in question were struck: one seemed favorably inclined toward 17 names she recognized might come up at the trial; another said he would miss out on 30 percent of his income by spending eight weeks on the jury, but didn’t seem bothered, which suggested to the feds he may have an agenda. Judge Arun Subramanian overruled the Batson challenge and the jury was finalized.

“Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Geragos told the court, referring to what the defense says was the motivation of the women and alleged victims set to testify. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year… It is time to cancel that noise.”

Combs has pleaded not guilty to all five counts in the indictment and says he has not committed any of the crimes of which he has been accused.

Prosecutor Emily Johnson spent significantly less time — about half an hour to Geragos’ hour — laying out the feds’ case against the fallen superstar to the jury: Over two decades, Combs conspired to use his business and loyal staff to stalk, harass and abuse via forced sex and drug use with male prostitutes, two women in his life — ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and a women he met in 2020 who is being referred to as Jane. 

Johnson opened the case against Combs by telling what the feds say is a tale of one single night in the defendant’s life: learning that Ventura was out with another man, he and a bodyguard went out to find them. In the process, the government says he woke and kidnapped one of his staffers and stalked his on-and-off girlfriend and when she was found, Combs “beat her brutally, kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll.” Other descriptions of his alleged abuse in court on Monday included an account of Combs tossing Ventura to the floor of a vehicle and stomping on her face, then directing a cover-up handled by his staff to ensure she stayed at home for a week while healing.  

Ventura was allegedly forced, by Combs, into participating in “freak-offs,” mostly in hotel rooms where she was force fed drugs, primarily Ecstasy or MDMA, and engaged in sex with “dozens upon dozens” of male escorts over the years as Combs would masturbate as he looked on. Johnson said some “freak-offs” lasted days and participants required IV-drips to recover, Johnson told the jury. In a bid for coercive control over his girlfriend, Combs, who had signed Sunderland to his Bad Boy Records label for a 10-album deal (of which only one saw the light of day), threatened to ruin her music career by releasing videos of her engaging in sex with male escorts, the feds claim.

The second alleged victim, Jane, is a single mother whom Combs met in 2020 and dated among other romantic interests at the time. She is set to testify that she was also coerced into participating in “freak-offs” at the rap mogul’s behest. When she discovered his other love interests were taken on trips and out for meals, Jane confronted him. Prosecutors say Combs beat her mercilessly in this moment, kicked down several doors as she ran and hid from him, then put her in a chokehold and kicked her to the ground before dashing off, late for a previously scheduled “freak-off.”

The defense told the jury that this is merely the story of a wealthy Black man with eccentric sexual proclivities and jealous women in his orbit who have become greedy for a piece of his fortune. Geragos, who repeated the defense’s talking points several times over her hour-plus statement, put a fine point on the fact that Ventura did not file a police report but did file two multi-million dollar lawsuits against Combs. It was the next-day settlement of her suit by Combs that opened the floodgates for the river of civil lawsuits Combs now faces. 

“I want you to ask yourself, how many millions of reasons does this witness, swearing to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, have to lie?” she asked the jury.

At a point, Geragos boldly let the jury know that they’ll witness the “closure” between Cassie and Combs when they see each other for the first time in six years.

Following opening statements, two men took the stand on Monday afternoon: Israel Florez, a former security officer at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles who witnessed and filmed footage of the rap mogul’s infamous 2016 assault on Ventura and Daniel Phillip, a male escort hired for a so-called “freak off.” 

Jury members also saw the contentious footage brought by prosecutors of the hotel attack, in which Combs beats and kicks Ventura, then throws a hotel vase at her. Shown in court were two cellphone videos and three hotel surveillance videos related to the attack. Florez told the court that he recorded the hotel’s video of the attack on his cellphone because he wanted to describe what he saw to his wife.

Florez also described the fear he felt Ventura was experiencing after the attack and that he believes he was offered a bribe from Combs when the mogul handed him a stack with a $100 bill on top. “Don’t tell nobody,” Florez testified Combs told him. Florez recalled telling Combs, “I don’t want your money. Just go back into your room.”

Phillips’ testimony centered on the “freak-offs” he participated in with the couple; notably, the sexual marathons were mostly referred to as “hotel nights” by the defense. In 2012, the male stripper was invited by Ventura to meet the couple at the Gramercy Hotel in Manhattan, he explained. Wearing red lace lingerie when he arrived, Ventura first told him that she wanted to do something special for Combs. The night started with a baby oil massage, he told the court.

The night, which led to him having sex with Ventura as Combs watched in a white robe, netted him a few thousand dollars and he was hired repeatedly to recreate the encounter, he said. At one point, he testified, Combs demanded that a photograph be taken of Phillip’s driver’s license; the sex worker testified that he saw this as an intimidation tactic. Another night, he says he witnessed Combs become violent with Sunderland, dragging her by the hair and slapping her in another room after she told him to “hold on a second.” 

Following several objections during his questioning by the prosecution, defense attorney Xavier Donaldson went on the attack in cross-examining Phillip. Here it was revealed that he didn’t even want money during his encounters with the couple, telling the court, ““In my head, I was just excited I was in this world and happy to be involved with people of such notoriety.”

Ventura was expected to testify on Monday, but the two men’s testimony carried the court to the end of the day. The trial was to resume at 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.