Opening statements begin in Sean (Diddy) Combs sex trafficking trial

A U.S. federal prosecutor began summarizing the state's case Monday in the Sean (Diddy) Combs sex trafficking trial, telling jurors that the hip-hop and business icon coerced women into drug-fuelled sexual encounters and kept them in line through violence.

"This is Sean Combs," federal prosecutor Emily Johnson told the Manhattan jury as she pointed at him. Combs leaned back in his chair as she spoke. "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," Johnson said. "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 bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up."

Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.   

The defence's opening statement was to follow.

Combs, wearing a white sweater, entered the courtroom shortly before 9 a.m. ET, hugged lawyers and gave a thumbs up to supporters seated in the benches behind him. Earlier, the line to get into the courthouse stretched down the block. Combs's mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and brought straight into the building.

Monday's proceedings began with prosecutors and the defence rejecting several candidates for the 12-person jury, which also includes six alternates. Testimony will begin after the sides present their opening statements.

Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could land him in prison for at least 15 years if he is convicted on all charges. He has been imprisoned at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest in September.   

Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but was not illegal.

Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters, then kept them in line through violence. He is accused of choking, hitting, kicking and dragging women, often by the hair.

Before jury selection was completed, both sides struck the maximum number of potential choices they were allowed, with the defence dismissing 10 and prosecutors eliminating six. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian rejected defence lawyers' claims that the prosecution was being discriminatory by striking seven Black people from the jury, saying assistant U.S. attorney Maurene Comey had given "race-neutral reasons."

Subramanian told jurors that the court would shield their identities from public view, a common practice in federal cases to keep juries anonymous, particularly in sensitive, high-profile matters where juror safety is a concern.

Subramanian also told jurors to judge the case only based on the evidence presented in court — a standard instruction but one that carried added significance in this high-profile case, which has been the subject of intense media coverage. "Anything you've seen or heard outside the courtroom is not evidence," the judge said. "It must be disregarded."

Combs's former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, is expected to be among the trial's early witnesses.