P. Diddy Case: What You Need to Know About the Rapper's Trial, Which Begins Monday in New York

The 55-year-old artist is accused of sex trafficking, corruption, kidnapping, and intimidation. He faces life imprisonment.

This is an extraordinary trial. Eight months after his arrest , Sean Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, will appear in federal court in Manhattan, New York, starting Monday, May 5. The rapper faces charges including sex trafficking, bribery, kidnapping and intimidation, according to a document shared by NBC News . The trial is expected to last several weeks.

Since November 2023, more than 120 people have filed complaints against the artist . The artist, who was one of the most influential figures in American rap in the 1990s and 2000s, faces life imprisonment. P. Diddy has pleaded not guilty to all charges, insisting that all sexual relations were consensual . Franceinfo returns to this case that is shaking the American music industry .

Arrested on September 16, 2024, in New York, Sean Combs is charged with trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, transportation of persons for the purpose of prostitution, as well as acts of kidnapping, bribery and violence grouped under the charge of "criminal enterprise." A criminal characterization often used against mafia organizations. Federal prosecutors accuse him of having used his music empire to set up a system of sexual exploitation , and this, for more than twenty years, from 2004 to 2024.

These charges follow several searches conducted by the FBI and federal agents at his residences in Los Angeles, California, and Miami, Florida, in March 2024. Weapons and drugs were discovered there. The artist is accused of organizing orgies where women and men were drugged and then forced into filmed sexual acts, sometimes under threat and violence. The Manhattan federal prosecutor's office has cited accomplices without naming them, but Sean Combs will be the only defendant.

Diddy is also accused of intimidating witnesses and attempting to silence his victims, prosecutors revealed in the indictment shared by NBC News. Defense attorneys, led by Marc Agnifilo, intend to portray Combs as a man who led a "swinging lifestyle ," but not as a criminal, according to AFP.

These accusations join a series of civil lawsuits, some dating back to 1990. They were filed by former partners, former collaborators, as well as anonymous individuals, some of whom were minors. These cases will not be heard in the May 5 criminal trial, but will follow separate proceedings.

The trial will begin with jury selection, which is expected to last a week. The witness list has not yet been released, but several media outlets, including CNN, say four of the plaintiffs are expected to testify. Three of them have asked that their identities not be revealed, NBC News reports.

R&B singer Cassie, who was in a relationship with Sean Combs, is one of the most eagerly awaited witnesses. A video released by CNN in May 2024, captured by surveillance cameras, shows the rapper unleashing a violent rampage against her in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

Cassie previously filed a civil lawsuit in 2023, alleging that her former partner subjected her to more than a decade of abuse and a rape in 2018. The case was quickly settled out of court.

Sean Combs faces life imprisonment for the charges of sex trafficking by force or coercion. The minimum sentence for the latter charge is 15 years. Transportation for the purpose of prostitution, on the other hand, can lead to up to 10 years in prison, Sky News explains.

The 55-year-old artist has so far maintained his innocence and denied all accusations. Upon his arrest in September, his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said his client was the subject of "an unfair prosecution" and assured that the rapper would clear his name, NBC News reported. They denounced the accusations. "racist" attacks against a "powerful black man," ABC reported in February.

On April 18, a New York judge rejected a request by the defendant's lawyers to postpone the trial, saying they had not had enough time to prepare their defense after new charges were added in April.