Opening statements are expected in the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex trafficking trial

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove Monday that Sean “Diddy” Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires for two decades.

Testimony in Combs’ New York trial could begin as soon as the afternoon following a final phase of jury selection in the morning and opening statements from the lawyers.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could land him in prison for at least 15 years if he is convicted on all charges. He has been imprisoned at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest in September.

Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but was not illegal.

Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters, then kept them in line through violence. He is accused of choking, hitting, kicking and dragging women, often by the hair.

Combs’ former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, is expected to be among the trial’s early witnesses.

She filed a lawsuit in 2023 saying Combs had subjected her to years of abuse, including beatings and rape. The lawsuit was settled within hours of its filing, but it touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits from people making similar claims.

Prosecutors plan to show jurors video a security camera video of Combs beating Cassie in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

Jurors may also see recordings of events called “Freak Offs,” where prosecutors say women had sex with male sex workers while Combs filmed them. The indictment said the events sometimes lasted days and participants required IV-drips to recover.

Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, has said that the Bad Boy Records founder was “not a perfect person” and was undergoing therapy, including for drug use, before his arrest.

But he and other lawyers for Combs have argued that any group sex was consensual and any violence was an aberration.

After the video of Combs assaulting Cassie in the hotel aired on CNN last year, Combs apologized and said he took “full responsibility” for his actions. “I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”

The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has done.

The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks.