A guide to the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex-trafficking trial

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — The federal criminal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs will begin next week.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, transportation to engage in prostitution and sex trafficking. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to life in prison.

The embattled music mogul has been in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn since his September 2024 arrest.

Here’s how to follow the trial:

Start date

Jury selection for the trial will begin on May 5, with opening statements anticipated to begin May 12. The trial is expected to take several weeks.

The charges

Combs is facing five counts total relating to the charges.

In September 2024, Combs was arrested in New York City after he was indicted on one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of sex trafficking and one count of transportation to engage in prostitution.

He pleaded not guilty to those charges. In April, prosecutors filed another superseding indictment that added one additional count of sex trafficking and one additional count of transportation to engage in prostitution.

He once again pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors claim Combs coerced at least three women to engage in sex acts with him and, at times, with male prostitutes, during occasions known as “Freak Offs” where the women were allegedly drugged and forced to engage in sex for days.

Authorities also allege Combs recorded some of the sex acts and controlled his victims by promising financial and career opportunities, as well as through threats of violence and other harm.

In addition to his criminal case, Combs is the subject of dozens of civil lawsuits from alleged victims, including those who were minors at the time of their allegations, who claim they were drugged and sexually assaulted by the embattled music mogul. The civil suits are not part of Combs’ federal criminal trial and will not be considered during it.

The judge in Combs’ federal criminal trial ruled during a hearing in April that most evidence about prior sexual assault allegations against Combs that are not included in the indictment would not be allowed at trial.

No cameras in court

Combs’ trial will not be televised, per the rules of Federal court. Any visuals from inside the courtroom will likely come from a sketch artist.

CNN will have reporting from journalists inside and outside the court, across linear and digital platforms, as the trial unfolds.

The judge

Judge Arun Subramanian will be presiding over Combs’ trial.

Subramanian took the bench in 2023 after being nominated by President Joe Biden in 2022. He has spent most of his career at the law firm Susman Godfrey as a civil litigator after working as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky was the first judge Combs stood before following his arrest. Combs’ case was then then randomly assigned to District Judge Andrew Carter, who later recused himself before the case was transferred to Subramanian.

Carter and Tarnofsky previously denied Combs’ lawyers requests for him to be released on bail following his arrest. He was denied for the third time in November, with Subramanian ruling that there were no conditions that alleviated concerns that Combs could engage in witness tampering.

The lawyers

Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos are the two lead attorneys representing Combs. Brian Steel, who represented rapper Young Thug in his recent racketeering trial in Georgia, was added to Combs’ legal team in April.

Agnifilo has also previously represented “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, Nxivm founder Keith Raniere and former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng. He worked for the law firm Brafman & Associates from 2006 until 2024, when he split off to co-found the firm Agnifilo Intrater.

Geragos is a founding partner at Agnifilo Intrater and the daughter of Marc Geragos, a powerful criminal defense attorney whose clients have included the Menendez brothers and Michael Jackson.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted Combs in 2024, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Meredith Foster, Emily A. Johnson, Christy Slavik, Madison Reddick Smyser and Mitzi Steiner handling the case for the government, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office.

Witness testimony

The government has identified four victims in court filings who are expected to testify at trial.

During an April 18 pre-trial hearing, Judge Subramanian ruled that three of the four alleged victims mentioned in the indictment can testify under pseudonyms. The person referred to as “Victim 1” in the indictment, Combs’ former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, has chosen to testify under her own name. “Victim 3” has also chosen to testify using her own name, according to a court filing.

Ventura filed a lawsuit against Combs in 2023 where she alleged he raped her in 2018 and subjected her to years of repeated physical and other abuses over the course of their relationship. Combs denied Ventura’s allegations at the time and they settled Ventura’s lawsuit the day after it was filed.

In May 2024, Combs was seen striking and dragging Ventura in a 2016 surveillance video first published by CNN. Two days after the video was published, Combs apologized for physically assaulting Ventura.

“My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video,” he said in a video statement posted on Instagram.

During a pre-trial hearing in April, Subramanian ruled that the footage will be shown to the jury at trial after Combs’ lawyers’ numerous attempts to exclude it.

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CNN’s Kara Scannell, Elizabeth Wagmeister, Sandra Gonzalez, Nicki Brown, Eric Levenson and Lauren del Valle contributed to this report.