Dateline NBC - Sean Combs: Opening statements and the first witnesses.

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Listen to this bonus episode of Dateline: True Crime Weekly, in which Chloe Melas describes the mood inside and outside the Manhattan courthouse on the first day of testimony. The record producer has denied the allegations against him, and in his defense's opening statement claimed the encounters described in the indictment were consensual. A security guard tells the jury what he saw after Combs was caught on tape beating Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway. Then a man who says he took part in freak offs testifies that he too witnessed alleged violence by Combs toward Cassie. For more NBC coverage of the trial check out our newsletter, “Diddy On Trial”: NBCNews.com/Diddy

Hey everyone, Andrea Canning here with the latest from the Dateline True Crime Weekly team. For the next eight weeks, or however long it takes, we'll be bringing you daily updates from the trial of Sean Diddy Combs. I'll be talking to NBC News correspondent Chloe Maloss every day after court about what she's seeing inside, the witnesses, the evidence, and what it all means. This is On Trial, a special podcast from Dateline True Crime Weekly, bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs trial.

I'm Andrea Canning. Today is May 12th. This morning, media from around the world gathered outside a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan as a jury was seated. The music executive, also known as Puffy, and Diddy, has been famous for decades for his own hit songs and for producing other major stars. Now he's being tried on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. Prosecutors say they can prove that over a span of 20 years, Combs physically,

emotionally, and sexually abused his alleged victims. They say he coerced women into sexual performances, which he recorded, and then threatened to reveal the footage if they left him or went to police. Combs has denied these allegations and pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Today, both the prosecution and defense delivered their opening statements before lunch, and in the afternoon, we got to hear the prosecution's first witnesses, a hotel security guard, and a man who said he was paid to be

in one of those sexual performances combs called freak-offs. In this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details in harrowing subject matter. NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas was inside the courthouse and she joins us now from the sidewalk outside. Chloe, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me. You've been there since bright and early this morning. So early. But I was not the earliest because there actually are a lot of people that have been camping out since yesterday. So tell us everything about how this all started this morning. So they finally settled on 12 jurors, six alternates, and that 12-person jury is made up of eight men and four women. I think that's really interesting to point

out here that it's a male-dominated jury. Even the alternates, there's more men than women. We know some of the professions. There's a physician's assistant, there's someone who works at a deli, a massage therapist, even a scientist. So there's a really wide ranging group of people, and these individuals, they hail from the Southern District of New York. So they come from all of the areas

in and around New York City. The prosecution gave its opening statement, Chloe. It was given by Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson. Did you get a sense for how the U.S. attorney is laying out their case? So much of their case centers around their star witness, which is Combs' former girlfriend Cassie Ventura. They say that he ran this criminal enterprise,

that he used employees to carry out illegal activity. They helped him organize these drug-fueled sex parties, that he forced women in his life, these alleged victims, to partake in these parties, have sex with male escorts, force them to take drugs. So something that came out during these opening statements that's quite disturbing is that the jurors will actually be seeing video of the freak-offs?

Some of them. So it turns out that Combs did film some of these encounters. But what's really interesting is that during the defense openings that were done by Tenny Garagos, she said, you're going to learn that these videos were not found at his home during the raids. These were actually videos provided by Cassie to the prosecutors. That you think he had the power but she actually had the power. So Chloe, describe Combs at the defense table. Is he surrounded by, you know, just

a lot of attorneys in suits? Is he engaged in his defense? What did you see? Well this is not your average trial because he has so many attorneys. I think I counted six or maybe seven at this point. We know that he's recently added Brian Steele. He recently represented young thug in his Rico case. You have Mark Agnifilo that also represents Luigi Mangione. As for combs, he had on what looked like khaki pants, a sweater. He had, again, his gray hair, a gray goatee, but he was smiling. He

blew a kiss to his family behind him. His children were there, his mother. He hugged all of his attorneys. You know, it's funny. I thought you were going to say Sean Combs would be in a suit, or, you know, but then when you say he's in khakis and a sweater, do you think that was intentional to make him look friendly, to make him look accessible, not high-powered and famous? His team recently put in a motion to actually get sweaters, so you're not going to see him in suits. He's going to be in sweaters and khaki pants, shoes without laces, and I was told that this is something that dates as far back as Menendez.

The Menendez brothers, when they wore sweaters, is to make them look more approachable to the jury. Yeah, I think a lot of us remember them wearing sweaters. That's absolutely right. Okay, Chloe, when we come back, we're going to talk about the prosecution's first two witnesses. Chloe, who did the prosecution call as their first witness? So the first person was a security guard.

This was someone that was actually working at the hotel when Cassie was brutally beaten in that hallway in 2016. He testified that on that night, he got a call about a woman in distress on the sixth floor of the hotel. So he went up to go see what was going on. And when he got there, that's when he recognized, oh, this is Sean Diddy Combs. And he was there in a towel and socks. And he actually said that Combs had a, quote, devilish stare. He then said that he asked Combs what was going on. And Combs said, look, we were arguing, we were just having a dispute. But then he testified that

he heard Combs tell Cassie, you are not going to leave. Okay, so how did the defense cross examine the security guard? So Brian Steele handled the cross examination. You have Brian Steele saying what you wrote in your incident report to your employer is not what you're describing to me now on the stand. So he pointed out that in his report, he did not write that Combs told Cassie, you're not leaving.

He never said that Combs had a devilish stare on his face. And he also asked, why did you not call 911? Why did you not get authorities involved? Witness number two was actually someone hired to have sex with Cassie. Is that hired by Sean Combs? So it's very unclear. This individual calls himself a stripper, but prosecutors had called him an escort. He does say that he had been paid by Ventura, actually, to take part in

sex acts where he would have sex with Cassie while Combs watched. And he also testified that on two occasions he actually while Combs watched. And he also testified that on two occasions he actually remembers Combs physically assaulting Cassie. He said in one instance he saw Combs grab Cassie by the hair while she was sitting in front of her computer, pulled her off of a chair and dragged her into the bedroom and that he could hear slapping sounds coming from the other room. And he was asked by prosecutors, why did you not call the police? Why did you not intervene?

And he said more than once that he was scared for his own life. Tomorrow, the star witness, Cassie Ventura herself, is expected to be called to the stand, correct? Yeah, so Cassie is the main witness for the government. She's victim one, she's heavily pregnant, she's in her third trimester, she's pregnant with her third child,

but she's going to take the stand and it's going to take multiple days for her testimony. According to opening statements, this will actually be the first time that Cassie has been in the same room as Combs since they broke up. Chloe, thank you for all of your color and insight into this first day of this big trial.

We look forward to speaking with you on day two. It's going to be a big day. Thanks for listening. For all of our in-depth coverage, follow Dateline True Crime Weekly. We'll have a new episode tomorrow. And if you'd rather read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter, Diddy on Trial. Go to NBCNews.com slash Diddy to find that.

On Trial is produced by Franny Kelly with help from the Dateline True Crime Weekly team. Our senior producer is Liz Brown-Kuriloff. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.