The federal trial against Sean “Diddy” Combs has started.
Here’s some background:
Combs is currently facing five federal charges, two of which are from the beginning of April, 2025. The original three charges that led to his September 2024 arrest include one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of sex trafficking, fraud or coercion and one count of transportation to engage in prostitution. The additional counts piggyback off the original sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution charges, which expanded the timeline in which Combs committed the alleged crimes to span 2021 and 2024.
He faces the possibility of life in prison.
Day 4 of the trial is being conducted behind closed doors, as has every day before it due to the federal nature of the charges.
Here’s everything we learned from the first 3 days:
Day 1: Monday, May 12, 2025
Before opening statements, jury selection concluded Monday morning as part of a move by Judge Arun Subramanian to keep members from backing out if chosen before the weekend leading up to the trial. The jury’s panel “consists of eight men and four women,” CNN reported.
In opening statements from the prosecution, Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson noted, “During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes but he didn’t do it alone. He had an inner circle of body guards and high ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up,” before going into detail about the night that Combs allegedly “was on the hunt” for his now-former girlfriend and star witness to the case, Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura. Johnson told the jury that “When [Combs] found Cassie he beat her, ‘brutally kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll.’”
The prosecution also stated that, along with their case focusing on the ‘freak offs’ that exploited Ventura and one other victim (“Jane”), “resources from [Combs’] businesses were used to sexually exploit multiple women, including by forcing them to have sex with male escorts while he watched,” according to CNN.
The jury also heard for the first time in detail about what would go on at the ‘freak offs,’ as well as what would happen to Ventura if she didn’t behave how he wanted: “He beat her when she didn’t answer the phone when he called. He beat her when she left a Freak Off without [his] permission. He beat her when he thought she took too long in the bathroom.” The recordings of the ‘freak offs’ are said to have been used as blackmail against Ventura.
Combs’ defense attorney Teny Geragos then began their opening statements, to which they made the argument that this trial will inevitably focus more on the domestic violence Combs has committed, which he is not on trial for, rather than the actual criminal charges against him.
The defense also made the argument that Ventura had always been a “willing participant in their sex life,” as well as “Jane.”
Two witnesses took the stand for the prosecution following opening statements: Los Angeles Police Officer Israel Florez, who worked at the InterContinental Hotel at the time when the infamous ‘hotel video’ was caught on security cameras, and Daniel Phillip, who was managing a male revue show 一 sort of like Chippendales 一 around the time that he was brought to a hotel and paid “to have sex with [Ventura].”
Florez had been called to the sixth floor where the altercation had occurred. He told the jury that Combs then proceeded to attempt to bribe him with a stack of cash and was told to not say anything, to which Florez refused. The security cam video of the altercation between Combs and Ventura was then played in court, as well as additional hallway footage.
Phillip detailed the encounters between him, Ventura and Combs, to which he testified that once or twice Combs had recorded them and that Combs photographed his license for insurance purposes. He then testified that on one occasion, he saw Combs drag Ventura by her hair in her home.
Both witnesses were cross-examined by the defense before adjourning for the day.
Day 2: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Daniel Phillip returned to the stand to be cross-examined again once day two began, where he failed to recall saying in a previous investigation that Combs had told him to leave before the assault he says he witnessed in his testimony from day one.
He then left the stand before the court took a break. The defense moved to make an application to bar Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, from the courtroom during her testimony, which began that day. The judge ruled that he can be there until Ventura brings up the allegations that Combs raped her in 2018, as he may need to be called upon to testify about it.
Ventura then took the stand and detailed her relationship with Combs and the abuses against her: “He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down… too frequently.”
She then went on to describe the ‘freak-offs’ and how over the course of her and Combs’ relationship they became almost like a job for her and that she felt there was little room for her to refuse doing them as she felt Combs controlled much of her life, like how she dressed and the trajectory of her music career.
Ventura testified that, “Control was everything from the way that I looked to what I was working on that day, who I was speaking to. Control was kind of an all-around thing to a certain point.” His staff at Bad Boy Records were increasingly involved in her life, from taking her possessions if Combs disapproved, to helping her with her finances.
Throughout her testimony, she described Combs and his moods to be quite volatile, as even the most trivial facial expression could set him off to hit her, even if how he was feeling had nothing to do with her.
After returning from lunch, Ventura continued her testimony, stating that ‘freak offs’ could last upwards of 72 hours and that almost all of her time was taken up with either doing the ‘freak offs’ or recovering from them, leaving no time for her to have anything else.
She recounted seeing hand guns among stashed cash, jewelry and the occasional tape in his numerous residences, as well as being awaken against her will for countless days during ‘freak offs.’ Ventura then began crying when recounting how the ‘freak offs’ made her feel: “I felt disgusting. I was humiliated. I didn’t have the words to put together at the time how horrible I really felt, and I couldn’t talk to anybody about it.”
During her testimony, she described how Combs would either order an escort to urinate on her or he would do it himself. She also told the jury that the escorts would sometimes participate in multiple ‘freak offs’ in multiple states, which could be used against Combs as evidence that he facilitated the transportation to participate in prostitution. Combs also recorded the encounters without consent.
Day 3: Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Cassie Ventura continued her testimony after the prosecution and defense argued about the time in which the defense would submit their cross examination exhibits that they would be questioning her with.
The court is shown the hotel video once more, this time with the prosecution talking through the video with Ventura as she detailed the experience. The court also saw selfies that Ventura took of herself following the altercation, according to the BBC, in addition to text messages between the two after she had left the hotel. In those messages Combs begged her to call him back and said he was being arrested, which Officer Florez said did not happen in his testimony on day one.
Only when she got back to her apartment did she find out a friend of hers had called the police 一 Ventura did not tell the police his name when they came to her apartment. The court was then showed messages between Combs and her, where she wrote “You are sick for thinking it’s okay to do what you’ve done please stay far away from me.”
Ventura then went into more detail about the ‘freak offs,’ where she told prosecutors that Combs “would fly in escorts from New York to LA or Miami,” according to the BBC. Combs would also threaten to release the recordings of the sex parties if he was angry, and had threatened to do so while on a plane ride back from the Cannes Film Festival one year. According to CNN, she told the jury that “I feared for my career, I feared for my family. It’s horrible, it’s disgusting; no one should do that to anyone.” In one message between them from 2017, Ventura told Combs that he treats her like he’s Ike Turner, Tina Turner’s abusive husband.
The jurors were then shown images from the ‘freak offs’ 一 the media organizations present were not allowed to have access to this evidence.
Through the rest of her testimony, Ventura continued to detail countless instances of physical abuse she suffered at the hands of Combs when she felt she did not have the means to leave him. She also testified that Combs had someone blow up the car of rapper Kid Cudi when he found out that Ventura and him were seeing each other.
Finally, Ventura testified about how Combs raped her in her living room in August, 2018, according to CNN, and continued to threaten her after the relationship between the two ended. The lawsuit she brought against Combs in 2023 is confirmed to have been settled for $20 million.
Her testimony concluded and brought day three to a close.
Day 4: Thursday, May 15, 2025
Cassie Ventura took the stand again as the defense’s cross-examination began.
The defense showed the jury emails and text messages between Ventura and Combs from early in their relationship, when messages between the two were still loving in nature. The defense then painted her participation in the sex parties as her just wanting to make him happy, to which Ventura stated that “There’s a lot more to that.”
CNN also reported that “Defense attorney Anna Estevao asked if Ventura preferred to have ‘Freak Off’ videos recorded on her devices. Ventura said, ‘I didn’t want them to be recorded at all.’”
The defense tried to get Ventura to claim that the ‘freak offs’ and the sexual practice of swinging were very similar, to which she mostly refuted, saying they may only be sexually related, but very different in practice.
As the defense continued their cross-examination, Ventura felt that they were skipping over quite a lot of messages and other instances, to which the questioning defense attorney did not acknowledge.
The defense briefly brought up that Combs had been suspicious at one point that Ventura had begun seeing actor Michael B. Jordan, but quickly moved on from that line of questioning.
During her cross-examination, Ventura confirmed that Combs had overdosed on painkillers in February, 2012, after they had a ‘freak off’ and he went to a party at the Playboy Mansion.
When questioned about the 2016 hotel incident, the defense appeared to paint Combs’ actions as results of withdrawal, to which Ventura testified that she has no recollection of him going through withdrawal at the time, according to CNN.
The court then adjourned for the day.
Ventura is on the stand again today to finish up cross-examination. Today is expected to be her last day on the stand so that she can focus on giving birth to her and Alex Fine’s third child next month.