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
Full Episode
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 Malas 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 Cannon. 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 and 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?
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