If you want a seat at the trial of Sean ‘Diddy' Combs, leave yesterday

Boston Globe

26-05-2025

News reporters assigned to cover the trial are joined in equal numbers by vloggers who have made the case their subject of the moment and members of the public who are simply interested in hearing the courtroom testimony.
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During the first two days of the trial, when the crowds were bigger, one YouTuber, Mel Smith, said he would leave his house in Beacon, New York, around 3:30 p.m. to get a seat for the next morning's testimony. When he arrived around 5 p.m., he said, there were already a half-dozen people waiting in front of him.
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'Everybody knows P. Diddy -- he's a household brand -- and everybody's clicking all day to see what's the latest updates,' he said.
Many major trials are now broadcast online, but rules for the federal court on Pearl Street forbid it, making it all the more valuable for content creators to score a seat. Most attendees must also surrender their phones and other electronic devices when they enter the courthouse. This has forced YouTubers and TikTokers -- known for being chronically online -- to rely on paper and pen.
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'Live, from the federal building,' podcaster Sean Gunby said while livestreaming outside the courthouse Thursday after Kid Cudi's testimony had ended. He was holding the green notebook where he had taken notes. 'You understand, everything that you gonna hear me say on this video is what I just heard in court,' he said.
For many, the scarce number of courtroom seats, about three dozen for media and the public, has made the line both a necessity and an ordeal. Some of the other seats are reserved for Combs' family -- who have included his six adult children and his sister -- and others are for associates of the lawyers on both sides.
Some news organizations, including The New York Times, have hired professional line holders to start the wait; reporters relieve them in the early morning.
Court officers typically assume control of the line in the morning when it moves from the sidewalk to the courthouse property, but they are not involved in settling disputes before that. Like at other high-profile cases, there have been some moments of jostling, shoving and yelling.
But the scene is not nearly as chaotic as those that have arisen outside courtrooms when throngs of supporters and detractors show up. Johnny Depp drew a large crowd of fans to his defamation dispute with Amber Heard in Fairfax, Virginia. The criminal case against Karen Read, who is accused of killing her boyfriend, has drawn so many people to a courthouse in Dedham, Massachusetts, that the judge imposed a buffer zone around the building.
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In the case against Combs, there is not a huge presence of fans or protesters. A group of people wearing shirts that said 'Free Puff' appeared briefly one day early in the trial, but they soon disappeared.
Some of the draw to see the Combs case in person is the content, which includes narratives of domestic violence and drug abuse, hotel sex marathons and considerable wealth. And some is the defendant: a man who cultivated a larger-than-life personality, generally avoided major consequences in other brushes with the law and is now staring at the potential of life in prison if convicted on the most serious charges.
'There were so many fantasies that he wove together to help his image,' said Tisa Tells, a popular YouTuber who has followed the case since the beginning and attends the trial daily.
The instigating force for investigators who brought the case against Combs was a 2023 lawsuit by Casandra Ventura, Combs' longtime girlfriend, a singer known as Cassie. She accused him of rampant physical abuse and of coercing her into drug-fueled sexual encounters with male prostitutes known as 'freak-offs.' Combs settled the suit for $20 million, but Ventura's accusations quickly became the roots of a criminal case.
She testified over four days this month, telling the jury that she continued to participate in the freak-offs despite her discomfort because of Combs' pattern of violent outbursts and threats of blackmailing her with sexually explicit footage.
Lawyers for Combs, who is known by the nicknames Diddy and Puff, have denied the existence of any racketeering conspiracy and have asserted that the sexual encounters at the center of the charges were fully consensual. In the case of Ventura, the defense has pointed to messages that they argue show she was a willing participant in freak-offs.
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'If it's a point for Puff,' said Gunby, the podcaster, 'I'mma say it's a point for Puff. If it's a point taken away from Puff, I'mma take a point away.'
Tells, who also livestreams from outside the courthouse, said she had seen a boom in her follower count. She has become a familiar face to many following the case. As Ventura's mother, Regina Ventura, walked out of the courtroom after testifying, she passed Tells in the spectators' gallery and said in a friendly tone, 'I know you.'
Each day as the trial adjourns, the perimeter of the courthouse is dotted with vloggers sharing their takes of the day, recording on phones set up on tripods and television news crews operating under tents.
In Tells' view, interest in the case goes beyond the lurid details of drugs, violence, sex and celebrity. 'I think there is kind of a cultural war,' she said, 'between the old way of thinking between women, bodies and also what is acceptable in a domestic relationship.'
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.