Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ sex-trafficking trial begins with opening statements
Defence concedes US rap mogul had violent outbursts, but say no federal crimes occurred
The public knew Sean “Diddy” Combs as a larger-than-life music and business mogul, but in private he used violence and threats to coerce women into drug-fuelled sexual encounters that he recorded, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at Combs’ sex-trafficking trial.
“This is Sean Combs,” Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson told the jury, pointing at Combs, who leaned back in his chair in a Manhattan courtroom. “During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes.”
Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.
Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos, though, described the closely watched trial as a misguided overreach by prosecutors, saying that although her client could be violent, the government was trying to turn sex between consenting adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case. The judge said he expects the trial to take eight weeks.
“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 jury of eight men and four women. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”