Seven months after his high-profile arrest, the trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is ready to get underway on Monday.
A 3-time Grammy winner and probably the most influential hip-hop producers of the previous 30 years – additionally identified variously as Puff Daddy, P Diddy and “Love” within the years since he rose to fame within the Nineties – the rapper and founding father of Dangerous Boy Data is now dealing with critical prison expenses within the US, in addition to a number of civil lawsuits.
He has pleaded not responsible to prison expenses, mentioned his sexual relationships have been consensual, and strenuously denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Combs, 55, was arrested and charged in September 2024, six months after raids by federal brokers on two of his properties in Los Angeles and Miami. He has been held in detention in New York since his arrest, having been refused bail as he awaits trial.
Jury choice is ready to start on Monday morning and can probably take a number of days.
Opening statements by attorneys and the beginning of the testimony are each anticipated to start subsequent week.
Right here is every part that you must know.
What’s Combs on trial for?
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Combs’ first court docket look in September 2024. Court docket sketch: Elizabeth Williams by way of AP
Combs is dealing with 5 felony expenses:
• Racketeering conspiracy• Two counts of intercourse trafficking by drive, fraud or coercion• Two counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution
The rapper was initially charged with three offences – racketeering, intercourse trafficking, and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. Two further counts – one every of intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution – have been added earlier in April.
Combs has pleaded not responsible to all expenses.
Racketeering broadly means participating in an unlawful scheme or enterprise, and the cost falls beneath the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO) within the US.
In response to the US justice division’s definition of RICO statute, it’s also unlawful to “conspire to violate” the legal guidelines.
The indictment towards Combs alleges that between 2008 and 2024, he “led a racketeering conspiracy that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes”, the US lawyer’s workplace for the Southern District of New York mentioned following his arrest in September.
Who’re the accusers?
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Pic: AP Photograph/Suzanne Plunkett 2000
Prosecutors anticipate 4 accusers to testify towards Combs through the prison trial.
Three have requested their identities not be revealed to the press or the general public and that they as a substitute be referred to utilizing solely pseudonyms.
One accuser, who’s known as Sufferer 1 in court docket paperwork, is ready to testify beneath her personal title, prosecutors have mentioned.
When did allegations start?
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Cassie Ventura and Combs, pictured in 2015, reportedly began courting in 2007 and break up in 2018. Pic: Reuters
In November 2023, Combs’ former girlfriend, R’n’B star Cassie – full title Casandra Ventura – filed a civil lawsuit alleging she was trafficked, raped, plied with medication and viciously overwhelmed by the rapper on many events over the course of 10 years.
The lawsuit was settled the next day. Phrases of the settlement weren’t made public however there was no admission of wrongdoing from Combs, and he issued an announcement saying he “vehemently” denied the “offensive and outrageous” allegations.
Six months later, footage recorded at a lodge in Los Angeles in 2016 emerged, allegedly displaying Combs hitting and kicking Cassie in a hallway.
Shortly afterwards, he launched a video apology, saying his behaviour within the video was at a time when he had “hit rock bottom” however nonetheless was “inexcusable” and that he was “disgusted” with himself.
The rapper’s attorneys argue the footage was nothing greater than a “glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship”.
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Combs points apology after assault video emerges
Particulars of ‘freak offs’
The costs embrace particulars of alleged “freak offs” – described as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded”.
He allegedly induced feminine victims and male intercourse employees into drug-fuelled sexual performances, in accordance with the indictment.
Prosecutors allege victims got managed substances through the generally days-long occasions to maintain them “obedient and compliant” and Combs subjected them to “physical, emotional, and verbal abuse” to get them to have interaction.
The indictment additionally alleges Combs “engaged in acts of violence, threats of violence, threats of financial and reputational harm, and verbal abuse” together with kidnapping and arson when witnesses of his alleged abuse threatened his authority or popularity.
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Two of Combs properties have been raided by Homeland safety in March 2024
What occurs first?
The listening to is ready to start on Monday 5 Might on the US District Court docket for the Southern District of New York in Decrease Manhattan.
After the 2 further expenses have been added, Combs’ authorized workforce requested a delay of two months, saying they wanted extra time to arrange his defence. Nevertheless, Decide Arun Subramanian, who will hear the trial, denied the request, saying it had been made too near the beginning date.
So, the trial will go forward as deliberate, beginning with jury choice. That is at present scheduled to take every week, however as a high-profile case, this course of could also be sophisticated and take a while.
If jury choice goes to plan, the opening statements from the prosecution and defence are set to start on Monday 12 Might.
Legal professionals for Combs have requested for potential jurors to be requested about their views relating to intercourse, medication, alcohol, and violence in a questionnaire.
In a letter submitted to the choose, the rapper’s authorized workforce mentioned: “Because this trial involves content that is sensitive and private in nature, many individuals are uncomfortable speaking about these issues in front of others and would be more candid writing about them in a questionnaire.”
Examples of areas “requiring inquiry” are potential connections to “drug or alcohol abuse… domestic violence, their willingness to watch videos with physical assault and videos that are sexually explicit, and their views towards people with multiple sexual partners”, they mentioned.
In addition they need potential jurors to say if they’ve watched documentaries launched about Combs because the expenses have been introduced.
Prosecutors criticised the defence’s proposed questionnaire – with 72 questions – as too lengthy and concerning topics that might be higher requested in individual by the choose, if in any respect.
What has Combs mentioned?
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Pic: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP 2023
The rapper has strongly denied all of the allegations towards him.
“Eventually he’s going to be shown to be innocent,” Mr Agnifilo mentioned.
In a doc submitted in February, Combs’ authorized workforce argued for the transportation cost to be dismissed, saying he had been topic to a “racist” prosecution “for conduct that regularly goes unpunished”, and that he was being “singled out” as “a powerful black man” over using escorts.
They argued that “no white person” had ever “been the target of a remotely similar prosecution” and mentioned that whereas the rapper had “complicated relationships with significant others as well as with alcohol and drugs… that doesn’t make him a racketeer, or a sex trafficker”.
Are the prison expenses separate to the lawsuits?
Sure. Combs has additionally been hit with dozens of civil claims – a number of filed earlier than the prison expenses have been introduced, however the majority afterwards.
These embrace accusations of sexual abuse by women and men, from alleged victims who have been as younger as 10 on the time of the alleged incidents.
Many of those have been filed by Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee, whom Combs’ workforce have accused of searching for publicity.
One significantly high-profile lawsuit, involving rapper Jay-Z in addition to Combs, was voluntarily dropped with prejudice, that means it can’t be introduced once more, by the accuser in February.
One other lawsuit accuses Combs of raping a lady as alleged payback for her saying she believed he was concerned within the homicide of rapper Tupac Shakur. Combs is suing the lawyer concerned on this case for defamation, over different allegations which were made towards him.
What sentence does Combs face?
The US lawyer’s workplace for the Southern District of New York introduced particulars of potential sentences when Combs was charged, however mentioned the choice would in the end be decided by the choose.
Racketeering conspiracy carries a most sentence of life in jail, the lawyer’s workplace mentioned, as does intercourse trafficking by drive, fraud, or coercion – which additionally carries a compulsory minimal sentence of 15 years in jail.
The cost of transportation for functions of prostitution carries a most sentence of 10 years in jail.
