The Current - Sean (Diddy) Combs on trial

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Sean (Diddy) Combs is facing life in prison over sex trafficking and racketeering charges, related to elaborate sex parties called "freak-offs” that were allegedly laced with violence and abuse. Combs, also known as Puff Daddy, has pleaded not guilty. Reuters journalist Jack Queen takes us inside the New York courtroom, where Combs’ ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, delivered graphic testimony about her relationship with the hip hop mogul.

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Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. It is day four of one of the most high profile trials in the United States. Hip hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. He's known as Puff Daddy, P Diddy. He helped bring hip hop to the mainstream through music and fashion and videos. He has pleaded not guilty to these charges. Jack Queen is a legal correspondent for Reuters who's covering the trial. He's been in the courtroom every day this week. He joins us now from New York City. And a warning, this story deals with details of sexual assault. Jack, good morning. Good morning.

How are you doing? I'm well, thanks. I gave kind of the thumbnail sketch there. For people who don't know, just remind us of who Diddy is and the scale of his influence and celebrity before these charges arrived. Well, it was enormous. I mean, as you mentioned, he was a person who really brought hip hop into the mainstream of US culture and world culture.

He discovered some iconic artists, including the notorious B.I.G., who he signed to his record label, Bad Boy Records. Mary J. Blige was also in there, along with a half dozen other really iconic artists. He was also known as sort of a tastemaker, a fashion and liquor impresario who threw these star-studded parties that were for many years the hottest ticket in town for celebrities and the like, attended by A-listers and all of these things. So it made him a really powerful figure in both the industry and in the culture. And so what exactly is Sean Combs charged with?

So he's charged with racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation for prostitution. That's five counts total, all felonies, all federal crimes. The racketeering charge is basically... that dates to an 80s era US federal law that was aimed at going after the mob, but now it's broadened out to be used in a lot more context. And basically what it means is that someone accused of racketeering Conspired with other people and planned to commit various crimes to gain somehow and prosecutors don't have to prove those specific Underlying crimes, but basically it's a way of saying a large criminal conspiracy at the center of this trial are these accusations

of Sean Combs holding The center of this trial are these accusations of Sean Combs holding these things that came to be known as freak-offs. Can you describe what that means, what these things were? Right. The freak-offs are really central to the whole case. And basically what prosecutors allege is that these were these private sex parties, sex performances that Mr. Combs would orchestrate. They could last anywhere from 24 hours to 36 hours to even four days.

And they were essentially these drug and alcohol fueled romps where Mr. Combs would bring in male escorts to have sex with women, including his girlfriends, while he watched. You have been there at the trial all week. What is the scene in the courtroom but also outside the courthouse? Outside the courthouse, it's a bit of a circus as you might imagine. This is New York City. This is Mr. Combs' hometown. He has a lot of supporters out here and also just a lot of curious onlookers. We have a lot of YouTubers and streamers and influencers around, which is

something I haven't actually seen before in a trial, and all jockeying with these throngs of reporters to get looks at Mr. Combs' family as they come in and out of the courthouse. Mr. Combs has been held in a Brooklyn facility since his arrest last September, so he's brought in through the back, but there are also people, you know, the courtroom gallery is totally packed There's an overflow room kind of a similar crowd in there And yeah, mr. Combs is five of his children have been there pretty much every day along with his mother and Yeah, it's it's an intense scene for sure. What about him? I mean, he's somebody who before these charges arrived, lived in this extraordinary world of luxury.

And now to your point, he's been held in custody since he was arrested. What's going on with him? Yeah, it's striking to see him in person really, and to see how low he's been brought by these charges. He used to have a fashion label called Sean John, and now he's wearing sweaters over white collared shirts and slacks. He's wearing glasses.

His hair has gotten pretty gray. It's almost entirely gray now. But other than that, he looks to be in pretty good shape. At least in the first day of trial, he appeared to be in very good spirits, actually. He seemed to be very glad to have his day in court finally and have the opportunity to get out of his cell. I remember when he was walking into the courtroom for the first time, he saw his children, he was smiling at them, pumping his fist, they were shooting him heart symbols back with

their hands. But his demeanor has changed a little bit as we've gotten into the third day of testimony here because his ex-girlfriend has been on the stand and the testimony has been, frankly, pretty horrifying in terms of her descriptions of these parties and how she said they were so humiliating and so forth. This is Cassie Ventura. She testified this week. And one of the things that is central to this is that the judge allowed leaked surveillance

video to be played showing did he? Physically assaulting Cassie Ventura. What does the video show? Right. Yeah that infamous video it was published last year by CNN and it's pretty disturbing. It shows essentially Cassie is Leaving a hotel room. She's walking down the hallway to get on an elevator while she's waiting for it Mr. Combs is seen running in and he grabs her by the hood of her hoodie Throws her to the ground starts kicking her grabs her things he's wearing just a towel and socks and He grabs her things and he starts to drag her down the hallway

Then leaves her goes away for a little bit. This Vent Ventura gets up, slowly walks over to this hotel phone that's on the wall, calls security. Mr. Combs then comes back. He sits down there having a conversation that we can't hear, there's no audio in the video. And he throws a vase in her direction and it shatters all over the place. And around that time, security shows up.

It's a rather disturbing video and after it was published Mr. Combs did apologize for it publicly. What else has she said about what happened? I mean part of this is around videos apparently that were taken of these so-called freak-offs that that he has used allegedly as As a bargaining chip or at least to threaten her right that he would publish these videos and make and ruin her life Absolutely. Yeah the the threats of blackmail are pretty central to prosecutors case because what they're trying to say essentially is threatened her, right, that he would publish these videos and ruin her life. Absolutely, yeah. The threats of blackmail are pretty central to prosecutors' case because what they're trying to say essentially is that he violently, with violence, threats of violence, and blackmail

coerced these women into participating in these freak-offs even though they really didn't want to. And Ms. Ventura has made that abundantly clear. She says these were horrible, integrating and humiliating experiences, but she felt she had to do them to keep him happy, to avoid beatings, and to avoid him publishing videos of these encounters, which she threatened would ruin her career if they got out. So that's the central part of the case. The jurors have not seen the videos yet. We're not sure when that's going to happen. When it does, since they are extremely sexually explicit,

of course, they're gonna be shown just to the jurors, not the public or the press. Yesterday, jurors did see some still images from those videos, but again, those were only showed to the jury, not the press. All we could see was their reactions to seeing them from their private monitors that they have in the jury box. What is your sense as to what kind of defense

his team is going to mount? So pretty key to their defense is, and this is quite interesting actually, as I mentioned, this is a racketeering and sex trafficking case. It's not a domestic violence case. Domestic violence assault, things like that, are state crimes, and this is in federal court.

And what his lawyers have already said in their opening statements, which is quite remarkable, is that Mr. Combs, their client is guilty of domestic violence, but that this is not a domestic violence case, and therefore he should not be convicted on these charges. And that's a quite remarkable admission to make about your client. And it is interesting because it drives to what prosecutors actually need to prove here. We're already getting all of this cumulative evidence from Ms. Ventura alone, there's going to be other victims who are going to testify, with really quite strong evidence of violence,

you know, pictures of bruises and just testimony about their relationship lasted about 11 years and she said he was routinely beating her and flying off the handle at the slightest things. And, but ultimately, that's not necessarily enough to convict on racketeering or sex trafficking. Because another interesting thing here too, is that while Ms. Ventura said that she was coerced and blackmailed into doing these freak offs, she also did them because she loved Mr. Combs. And it was a horribly manipulative and abusive relationship, but she still loved him. And that complicates things. His team has also indicated that they plan to argue that she was also violent

with Mr. Combs, and that this was a mutual domestic violence situation, and also that Ms. Ventura and the other accusers were out for a payday. Ms. Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Combs with similar allegations back in November 2023. They settled the next day. It wasn't disclosed at the time what the settlement amount was, but Ms. Ventura testified yesterday with similar allegations back in November 2023. They settled the next day. It wasn't disclosed at the time what the settlement amount was, but Ms. Ventura testified yesterday that it was $20 million.

So the defense is going to argue that these allegations were also motivated by money. If Sean Combs is found guilty, I have to let you go, but very briefly, if he's found guilty, what sort of sentence does he face? In short, he could look at life in prison. These are very serious charges. But, you know, 10 years in prison to life in prison or basically anywhere in between. And he's 55 years old, so that could entail spending the rest of his life in prison. Jack Queen, perhaps we will talk again as this trial unfolds. It is getting attention for all

of the obvious reasons, but also just because of celebrity and power and everything else that's going on. Thank you for bringing us up to date and we'll talk again. Anytime. This has been The Current Podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30am at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca slash The Current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening.