On the first day of Diddy’s trial, jurors have watched a video showing him assaulting his former long-time partner, the singer Cassie. The prosecution’s first witness, a former hotel security guard, says he was called on the night the CCTV video was filmed to help a "woman in distress", where he found Cassie sitting in the corner covering her face.Both the prosecution and defence gave their opening statements. The prosecution say Combs' behaviour was "coercive and criminal" and that he "had the power to ruin" his alleged victims’ lives. The defence argues that while Diddy might have engaged in domestic violence, he is innocent of the sex trafficking and prostitution charges at the heart of this case.Warning: This episode contains descriptions of violence, sexual violence and graphic descriptions of sex.Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is accused of sex trafficking, racketeering with conspiracy and transportation for prostitution. He denies the charges. Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty speaks to the BBC’s New York correspondent Nada Tawfik about the day in court.The Diddy on Trial podcast is here to investigate the rumours, confront the theories, and give you the answers that you need. We also want YOU to be part of the conversation. Have you any burning questions about the cases or the upcoming trial? Heard a theory that doesn’t sit right with you? Get in touch now via WhatsApp: 0330 123 555 1.Presenter: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Series Producer: Laura Jones Executive Producer: Neal Razzell Sound Design: Mark Burrows Senior Digital Producer: Matthew Pintus Video Producer: Daniel Raza Production Coordinator: Hattie Valentine Editor: Clare Fordham Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts Assistant Commissioner: Will Drysdale Commissioning Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Assistant Producer: Rechmial Miller
Chapter 1: Who are the main figures involved in the Diddy trial?
Sean Diddy Combs is accused of sex trafficking, transportation for prostitution, and racketeering with conspiracy. He denies all the charges and says he's never sexually assaulted anyone, man or woman, adult or minor. If found guilty, he could end up spending the rest of his life behind bars. I've been catching up with the BBC's New York correspondent, Neda Tawfiq, throughout the day.
We've had jury selection finalised and that group of 12 people have already heard from two witnesses, one security guard and one male sex worker. We also got opening statements from both sides. I caught up with Neda straight after those first arguments.
Chapter 2: What evidence was shown to the jury on the first day?
Yeah, it was interesting because they started off with this dramatic flare pointing right to Sean Diddy Combs and painting him really as, you know, this larger than life icon. But saying that behind that there was another side to him, one where he used his celebrity, his power, really his entire business to force victims into unconsensual sex.
Chapter 3: What details did the prosecution present about the alleged assaults?
And they started off by painting the picture of one night where they said he was essentially in a rage. He was on the hunt for his girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie. And they say he kind of got wind that she was going to be with another man. And he went to one of his employees, grabbed them out of bed, forced them to go with a security guard in their SUV to the man's home.
broke in, and when they found they weren't there, went off again to look for Cassie. And they depict how when he finally found Cassie, that he brutally beat her, flung her around like a rag doll.
And they used that one night to paint the picture of what they say happened over 20 years, not just to Cassie, but to another woman named Jane, who they say the jury will hear from, and also an employee named Mia that they say the jury will hear from. And they say he was somebody who referred to himself as a king and expected to be treated like one, had impossible demands.
So really setting the tone of the kind of character they want them to see. really graphic testimony just about how this was not a case about celebrity sexual preferences, that this was about coercion and control. They say that Cassie, that only one person had power in that relationship, and it was Diddy, not her.
that he forced her into these freak-offs that she didn't enjoy at all, but she felt she had no choice. That in one instance, she almost felt like she was choking because he had a male prostitute urinate in her mouth. I mean, just to give you a sense of some of the graphic detail that we're going to be hearing over these next few weeks.
And essentially, they say that this went on for years and years because he had financial control of her life, that she felt she couldn't escape, again, that she was physically abused throughout this relationship. So much really hinges on Cassie and the testimony and, of course, that video, that CCTV footage from that L.A. hotel in 2016.
We're going to be hearing from the prosecution they introduced that.
As part of this, they talk about the freak-offs, and we've heard about the freak-offs a lot all over social media. And they define them as these drug-fueled, days-long orgies with commercial male sex workers. Now, with Cassie, they say that she took drugs and at one point she overdosed, but they also talk about Jane, who was a sick mum, in a relationship with him.
What did they have to say about her at the freak-offs at the drug-taking?
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of the 2016 CCTV footage in the trial?
And also with Jane, they try to, again, depict that there was a pattern here, that he also was physically abusive with her, saying at one point during an altercation between the two that they both got upset that he grabbed her by her throat and picked her up in a choke fold and then threw her to the ground.
So another case where they're trying to depict how, again, this was something that he did not just with Cassie, but with other women.
Something else that perhaps we haven't seen as much about in relation to the free cops is that these alleged victims, the prosecution say, were responsible for organizing them. What do they have to say about that?
Chapter 5: What are the allegations surrounding the 'freak-offs' and drug use?
Yeah, I mean, that's a real interesting piece of this, right? Because they say that these women felt like if they didn't do exactly what he said, that there would be consequences. And so... He allegedly forced them to source the male escorts to plan out certain details. They say there was a very kind of strict way he liked things. He wanted dark hotel rooms. He wanted the women in lingerie.
He wanted them in high heels. They talked about the baby oil, the drugs, and how this would go on for days and they would have to recover with IVs to rehydrate. But again, this element of the women being forced to orchestrate this all to kind of do what he said to please him.
And they talk about in relation to the force element of the charge, so forced fraud or coercion, the threats of violence and violence. At some points, Cassie in particular had suffered assaults and suffered bruising and then being kept in hotel rooms. What else do they have to say about that?
Yeah, in 2009 there was an incident they also described in their opening statements where Diddy allegedly threw Cassie in a vehicle and stomped on her face repeatedly. So they described how brutal this was for Cassie and how it left a big bruise on her face.
what did he do they say he was so concerned about maintaining his reputation he was seen in public really as this charismatic lovable figure right very at odds with the character they were depicting these opening statements and they say that what he did at that point was force her into a hotel room
And he had a staff member stand guard outside for days until her bruise got better so she wouldn't be seen in public at that time with that bruise when people knew they were together in a long relationship.
And that's the overarching message that the prosecution were introducing as well. He could not do this alone. There was an inner circle of people who were supporting him and helping him cover this up. What did they have to say about that?
i think mostly everyone who's aware of this case if not everyone has seen again the hotel cctv footage in 2016 of diddy beating cassie now they say take that instance diddy got his chief of staff got his bodyguard showed up at the hotel tried to get one security guard with a wad of cash to try to buy the video from him then went to a different security guard and they said showed up with a brown bag filled with a hundred thousand dollars
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Chapter 6: How does the prosecution describe the power dynamics in Diddy's relationships?
and successfully bought that footage. So just showing, again, how there were people around him that would do whatever he asked, that he had the wealth and power to protect himself. And when you think about that power dynamic, again, going back to this idea that Cassie didn't have the power in the relationship. He was the one who had it. But it is a...
completely different story that we got from the defense and it starts in quite a unique way. How did they choose to begin?
Yeah, I'm not sure I've ever seen a case actually where in the opening the defense asks the defendant to stand up and look at the jury. And so you had Sean Combs in a gray sweater with a white top under it, his hair, you know, visibly grayer than we remember him in his, you know, bad boy days, stands up and looks to the jury and
Essentially, what the defense is trying to say is we're not going to shy away from anything that he has done. They admit to domestic violence. They admit to the fact that he was a jealous boyfriend, that he was with many women at once, that he committed infidelity. But what they say, essentially, is that none of that is sex trafficking.
So there were terms and phrases they used often, painting the alleged victims as strong, capable women that had a choice, that this was the choice they made to stay with him. And then when they decided to leave him, that was their choice as well, saying that they're not going to shy away from the fact that there was jealousy in the relationships.
But they say there was no coercion, that it was all consensual. So, again, trying to basically say to the jury he's a flawed man, and that's not a crime. If domestic abuse was what was charged here, that would be one thing. But what he's being charged with is sex trafficking and RICO charges, and they say the evidence just will not prove that.
And they went a long way in saying he's going to own these mistakes that he's made. He's going to own this domestic violence, own these incidences of aggression. They also went away in owning some of the stuff that we've heard. The baby oil, the high heels, the free cops. What did they have to say about that?
Yeah, they said, look, we know he's a fan of baby oil, even in a flippant way. And the reason they brought that up is because they said the press has painted this in a completely different light than the reality. So they wanted to kind of in a way, almost make light of what the jurors have heard in the press before.
So, you know, they say, look, it's important to remember that, yeah, he's a fan of baby oil. There's no crime there. Yeah, the way he likes to have these sexual encounters might not be to your taste. It might even make you uncomfortable. But look, there's nothing illegal about that. And yes, these were toxic relationships.
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Chapter 7: What was the defense's response to the charges against Diddy?
and that Cassie had stolen his phone from him, and that once he got it, he kind of sat down and put his head in his hands and kind of realized what he had done. And they're saying that, to them, is evidence that this isn't about sex trafficking, that he didn't grab her and try to bring her back to the hotel room because of sex trafficking, that it was about him wanting his phone.
So, again, painting this as a domestic violence incident and saying that all of it was because of the jealousy in the relationships, saying, that him and Cassie that day had a fight about kind of seeing, you know, stuff in the press she didn't like, and it was all about jealousy. And again, that this was a situation where it was a personal dispute between two people.
Chapter 8: How does the defense explain the allegations of domestic violence and infidelity?
So we're not sure what's going to happen for the rest of the day. They've hinted that victim one might appear. We know a male escort's going to give some testimony. I know you've got to go back inside. We will catch up with you later. So we knew we were going to get opening statements today from the prosecution and the defense, but I didn't expect there to be quite so many captivating witnesses.
And there really were. It was quite an intense witness testimony that we had. I've got Neda Tawfiq with me, the New York correspondent, who's going to go through what we heard from a male escort.
Prosecutors aren't wasting any time getting to some really impactful witnesses. And this was Daniel Phillip. He worked in the adult industry and said he met Cassie in 2012 when his boss told him that he got a request to have somebody go dance at a bachelorette party. And he couldn't find anybody else, so Daniel agreed.
What Daniel didn't expect when he arrived was that the job would be quite different. He didn't realize he was meeting Cassie at the time. She answered the door at the Gramercy Hotel, where he was instructed to go, in red lingerie, a red wig, big glasses and heels. And she asked him if he would be up for having a little fun with someone she described as her husband.
She said that he wanted to do something special for her, that he wanted to have Daniel rub his wife in baby oil and just see where the night went. He says when he went into the room, he saw the husband. Again, he didn't know at the time it was Sean Combs in a corner with a baseball cap and a bandana kind of covering the lower half of his face.
And he said that within minutes of kind of rubbing baby oil on Cassie, they had sex. And he said that in the corner was this man ejaculating while watching them have sex. He said he left quickly after that. But then he said Cassie got in touch with him, asked him for certain explicit photos, and asked if he would be open to doing it again after handing him a lot of money.
Now, he said after that, he went back. And this happened a few times over the course of several years. He said this went on until about late 2013, early 2014. I should just first note that he's asked when was the first time he knew it was Diddy. And he said, actually, the first time he opened his mouth. He says he was very aware of Diddy from all of his music, all of his kind of press interviews.
And so he was aware. But the time where he could really for sure say it was Diddy was when Cassie told him that actually we're switching locations. Come meet us at this different hotel in half an hour. He says when he arrived, Diddy actually answered the door fully clothed in a suit and a peacoat, no mask. And so that's when he knew it was Diddy.
And he said from that point on, Diddy didn't wear the bandana or try to hide his identity after that.
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