Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial live updates: First witness called to testify in the federal sex trafficking case

Yahoo

12-05-2025

The trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs is underway in federal court in Manhattan, where the 55-year-old hip-hop mogul is facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
According to the indictment, Combs 'abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.'
It contains a litany of shocking allegations. Federal prosecutors say that Combs used his business empire for decades to conduct 'freak offs,' drug-fueled sex performances in which women were allegedly coerced to participate.
The indictment also alleges that Combs used guns, kidnapping and arson to control his victims.
He has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, Combs could face life in prison. He is being held without bail in a Brooklyn jail.
A jury of 12 New Yorkers and six alternates will decide his fate. The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks.
Follow the live blog below for the latest updates on the trial, culled from various reporters and news organizations in the courtroom.
Court has resumed after an hourlong lunch break, with the prosecution calling the first witness to testify in the trial: Israel Florez, an officer with the LAPD who formerly worked at the Los Angeles hotel where Combs was seen assaulting Cassie Ventura in a 2016 surveillance video.
Courtroom sketches of Combs's criminal trial are the only images the public will see over the course of the next several weeks because the trial is not allowed to be televised. Below are the first sketches released from Monday morning's proceedings, which include opening statements from the prosecution and the defense and a thumbs-up from Diddy to his family.
The jury was excused for lunch after the prosecution and defense delivered their opening statements.
Court is in recess until 1:15 p.m. ET.
Combs's defense attorney wrapped up her opening statement by telling the jury that the accusers weren't forced into sexual relationships and were willing participants who could have left at any time.
Teny Geragos also suggested to the jury that those who will testify against Combs have a motive. "For many of them the answer is simple — money," she said.
In her opening statement, Geragos informed the jury that Combs and Ventura have not seen each other since the 2018 funeral of Kim Porter, the mother of several of Combs's children.
Ventura is expected to take the stand as a witness for the prosecution this week.
When she does, Geragos said, "We are all going to witness their closure."
Teny Geragos, Combs's defense attorney, talked about the hotel surveillance video from 2016 in which her client appears to violently assault his then girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
"What Combs did to Cassie on this videotape is indefensible. It's horrible. It's dehumanizing. It's violent," Geragos admitted during opening statements.
However, she went on to say that while the video may be evidence of domestic violence, it is not evidence of sex trafficking, which is what Combs is charged with in this case.
Combs's defense attorney addressed the extensive amount of baby oil seized by law enforcement during a search of his home last year.
"You may know of his love for baby oil," Geragos said during her opening statement. "Is that a federal crime? No."
She also told the jury that there might be times when they think Combs is a jerk or is being mean but reminded them that that's not what he's being charged with. "He is charged with running a racketeering enterprise," Geragos said.
Teny Geragos, one of Combs's attorneys, has begun delivering opening statements for the defense. She argues that this case is not a complicated one, but rather is about "voluntary adult choices made by capable adults in consensual relationships." Geragos argues the prosecution is wrongly making this case about sex trafficking.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson is explaining to the jury how Combs allegedly forced Cassie Ventura and another woman, identified by the pseudonym Jane, to take part in 'freak offs,' or drug-fueled sexual performances with male escorts against their will.
According to the indictment, the "freak offs" would sometimes go on for days, with participants typically requiring IV fluids to recover.
Johnson said Jane was beaten brutally by Combs when she confronted him about enduring years of "freak offs."
Combs allegedly choked, kicked and punched Jane, giving her a black eye. He then demanded she cover up the black eye, take ecstasy and perform in another "freak off," Johnson told the jury.
A third woman, Nia, described by Johnson as one of Combs's employees, will testify about how he forced himself on her sexually, and snuck into her bed to penetrate her against her will.
Johnson describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise in her opening statement for the prosecution, alleging that his inner circle helped him commit illegal acts.
"He called himself the king and expected to be treated like one," Johnson said, according to NBC News. 'He expected his inner circle to cater to his every desire, including his sexual desire. And his inner circle made sure he got everything he wanted.'
In her opening statement, prosecutor Emily Johnson is telling the jury that they'll hear about the crimes Combs allegedly committed in detail. But she is focusing on one night in particular, when she said Combs found out that his girlfriend Cassie Ventura was seeing another man — and went on "the hunt" for her.
When Combs found her, Johnson said, he 'did what he had done countless times before. He beat her brutally, kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll.'
The 2016 incident, which was caught on surveillance video in a Los Angeles hotel, is considered a key piece of evidence in the trial.
The jury chosen for Diddy's trial is made up of eight men and four women, as well as six alternates consisting of two women and four men, according to NBC News.
The jurors are residents of Manhattan, the Bronx and Westchester County and range in age from their 30s to 70s. Their occupations include a massage therapist, an investment analyst, a deli clerk, a dietary aide at a nursing home and a retiree who used to work for JPMorgan, the New York Times reported.
The identities of the jurors won't be made public and are only known to the court, prosecution and defense attorneys. This is a common practice for high-profile cases where juror safety can be an issue.
The newly empaneled jury has received its instructions from Judge Arun Subramanian, and opening statements in the federal sex trafficking trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs are now underway.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson is delivering the opening statement for the prosecution.
'This is Sean Combs,' Johnson says, gesturing to Combs at the defense table. 'To the public, he was Puff Daddy or Diddy. A cultural icon. A businessman. Larger than life. But there was another side to him. A side that ran a criminal enterprise.'
Combs's sprawling legal team is led by veteran criminal defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo, who has experience in high-profile cases, having previously represented NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere and 'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli, among others.
Combs's other lawyers include Teny Geragos, Alexandra Shapiro and Brian Steel, who represented rapper Young Thug in a racketeering case in Georgia and was the subject of a recent New Yorker profile.
Also of note: Marc Agnifilo's wife, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, is lead counsel for Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year.
She was spotted in the courtroom Monday to hear opening statements in the Combs case.
A team of eight U.S. attorneys are arguing the case for the government, including Emily Johnson, Madison Smyser, Mary Slavik, Meredith Foster and Mitzi Steiner, who are listed as the lead lawyers on the docket.
The prosecution team also features Maurene Ryan Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. In 2022, she helped secure a conviction against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The judge overseeing the trial is Arun Subramanian, who was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by then-President Joe Biden in 2022 and confirmed by the Senate in 2023.
He is the first judge of South Asian descent to serve on the court's bench.
Subramanian, a Columbia Law School graduate who clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was previously a partner at the Manhattan law firm Susman Godfrey, where he specialized in commercial and bankruptcy law.
The Diddy case is believed to be his highest-profile trial yet.
The jury that will hear Sean "Diddy" Combs's sex trafficking case has been selected.
Lawyers for both sides were allowed to issue peremptory strikes — excluding without any reason or explanation — to a pool of 43 prospective jurors on Monday morning before the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates was finalized.
The jury will be sworn in by Judge Arun Subramanian before opening statements.
The Sean "Diddy" Combs federal sex-trafficking trial will not be televised, because broadcasting of federal court proceedings is generally prohibited under a rule adopted by U.S. judges in the 1940s.
That means that the only images you'll see from inside the courtroom will be from sketch artists (like this one by Jane Rosenberg), and updates will be delivered via reporters in the courtroom.
Relatives of Sean "Diddy" Combs arrived early at federal court in Manhattan Monday. His mother, Janice, and six of his children were among them.
Last week, the prosecution and defense narrowed the pool of potential jurors to 45 and were expected to make their final selections on Friday. But two potential jurors were dismissed at the last minute — one for personal reasons, the other for not disclosing an ongoing lawsuit they were involved in — forcing Judge Arun Subramanian to delay the process of finalizing the jury until Monday.
After jury selection is complete, the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates will be sworn in, followed by opening statements from both sides and testimony from the first witnesses called by the prosecution.