Diddy sex trafficking trial: Everything you need to know as jury selection begins today
Federal prosecutors say the hip-hop mogul coerced women to participate in drug-fueled sex performances called “freak offs,” and used his business empire to conceal his crimes.
Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, the 55-year-old hip-hop mogul who has spent the last seven months in a Brooklyn jail after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
He has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, Combs could face life in prison.
At a hearing Thursday, Combs told the court that he rejected a plea deal that had been offered by prosecutors. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
What has Diddy been accused of?
According to the indictment, Combs — also known as “Puff Daddy,” “P. Diddy,” and “Diddy” — “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
It contains a litany of shocking allegations, claiming that for decades, Combs used his business empire to conduct “freak offs,” drug-fueled sex performances in which women were allegedly coerced to participate.
The Bad Boy Records founder is accused of arranging, directing and masturbating during these “freak offs,” which he would often record, sometimes unbeknownst to the victims. The “freak offs” would last for days with multiple sex workers involved.
Combs allegedly distributed drugs — including ketamine, ecstasy, GHB, psilocybin and methamphetamine — to the victims to keep them “obedient and compliant.” After the days-long sex sessions, Combs and the victims “typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion,” the indictment states.
Combs’s employees allegedly arranged for the sex workers to cross state lines. They’d also allegedly book hotels, stock rooms with “freak off supplies,” including “more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant” and arrange for travel for victims. The recordings Combs made of the “freak offs” were used as collateral to ensure the “silence of the victims,” according to the indictment.
The indictment also alleges that Combs used guns, kidnapping and arson to control his victims.
Who were his alleged victims?
No victims were identified by name in the indictment, but allegations involving “Victim-1” appear to align with a March 2016 incident in which Combs was recorded on surveillance video hitting, kicking and throwing a vase at then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel.
In a separate incident outlined in the indictment, Combs allegedly “dangled a victim over an apartment balcony.”
Who are Combs’s lawyers?
Combs’s legal team is led by veteran criminal defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo, who has experience in high-profile cases, having previously represented NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere and “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, among others.
Combs’s other lawyers include Teny Geragos, Alexandra Shapiro and Brian Steel, who represented rapper Young Thug in a racketeering case in Georgia and was the subject of a recentNew Yorker profile.
What will they argue?
At a pre-trial hearing last month, Agnifilo offered a preview of his defense, arguing Combs was engaged in a “swinger” lifestyle, and that the sexual behavior was consensual, even “common.”
“There’s a lifestyle, call it swingers or whatever you will, that he thought was appropriate because it was common,” Agnifilo said in court. “Many people think it’s appropriate because it’s common.”
Agnifilo had previously called the prosecution of Combs “unjust.”