By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sean “Diddy” Combs will argue at his sex trafficking trial beginning next week that women who took part in his elaborate sex parties did so willingly, but his lawyers will face an uphill battle trying to undermine the credibility of accusers who say the hip-hop mogul forced them to participate.
Combs, a onetime billionaire known for elevating hip-hop in American culture in the 1990s and early 2000s, has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts including racketeering and sex trafficking.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office say that for two decades, he used his business empire to lure women into his orbit with promises of romantic relationships or financial support, and then used violence and threats to obligate them to take part in days-long, drug-fueled sexual performances known as “Freak Offs” with male sex workers.
“The defense has quite the uphill battle ahead,” said Heather Cucolo, a New York Law School professor. “There was a clear power dynamic, and that power dynamic is going to be a main focus and a main issue here.”
Lawyers for Combs, 55, have said prosecutors are improperly trying to criminalize a consensual “swingers” lifestyle in which he and his longtime girlfriends sometimes brought a third person into their relationships.
Jury selection for his trial got under way on Monday, with opening statements scheduled for May 12.
To persuade the jury, his lawyers will have to undermine the accounts of at least four women expected to testify that he coerced them into taking part in unwanted sex acts. Combs’ lawyers have signaled they intend to argue the women had financial incentives to falsely accuse Combs of abuse.
Other high-profile criminal defendants in sex abuse trials have deployed similar strategies in a #MeToo era that has encouraged victims to come forward. Many of these defendants, such as R&B singer R. Kelly and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, have been convicted anyway.
Combs’ defense says it has evidence the accusers are not being candid. Defense lawyer Teny Geragos said at an April 14 court hearing that one accuser, referred to in court papers as Victim-4, had “cherry-picked” material she chose to hand over to prosecutors, leaving out important context.
At a November 22, 2024, court hearing, defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo said another woman, referred to in the indictment as Victim-1, had her lawyer ask another one of Combs’ lawyers for $30 million in exchange for not publishing a memoir. When the money did not materialize, she sued Combs in November 2023 and settled the case for an undisclosed amount, Agnifilo said, without naming the accuser.
R&B vocalist Casandra Ventura, Combs’ longtime former girlfriend who performs under the stage name Cassie, accused Combs of sex trafficking in a November 16, 2023, lawsuit. The case swiftly settled and terms were not disclosed. Combs denied the allegations.
“It’s our defense to these charges that this was a toxic, loving, 11-year relationship,” Agnifilo said at the hearing last November.
SURVEILLANCE VIDEO
Combs faces a major obstacle: a hotel surveillance video prosecutors want to show the jury depicting Combs kicking and dragging a woman in a hallway. Prosecutors say the woman had been trying to leave a “Freak Off” at a Los Angeles hotel in March 2016.
Combs’ defense could argue that the video depicted a domestic dispute unrelated to any racketeering conspiracy. Agnifilo has said the woman in the video had taken Combs’ belongings and left the hotel room after discovering he had another girlfriend.
“To the extent that the government says that this is somehow evidence of sex trafficking, it’s evidence of Mr. Combs having more than one girlfriend and getting caught,” Agnifilo said at a September 30, 2024, court hearing.
Neither prosecutors nor the defense have named the woman in the surveillance video. CNN last year broadcast a video that appeared to show him attacking Cassie in 2016. Combs posted an apology on social media days later.
Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, a New York defense attorney who has tried sex crimes cases, said the indictment lacked details about other specific actions Combs had taken to compel women to take part in the “Freak Offs.”
“The fact that he had a fight with his girlfriend seems like a thin reed to charge RICO,” Margulis-Ohnuma said, referring to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Prosecutors back up the RICO charge by alleging that employees of Combs’ businesses helped him transport women to the “Freak Offs,” pay the sex workers and cover up the activity.
Combs’ defense has asked U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian to let them call a forensic video expert as a witness to testify that one version of the hotel surveillance video was distorted to make Combs appear more domineering than he was.
But Combs’ assertion that the woman in the video was stealing his property is a “thin line of defense,” said Mark Zauderer, a partner at New York law firm Dorf Nelson & Zauderer.
“Even if the alleged victim had done something wrong, it would be, in my opinion, very unlikely that a jury would find excusable the kind of violence that is shown in that video,” Zauderer said.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Howard Goller)
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