The sex-trafficking and racketeering trial for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has officially started in Manhattan federal court after a jury was finally selected.
The disgraced music mogul’s former girlfriend Cassie, real name Cassandra Ventura, is expected to be among the trial’s early witnesses and could testify as early as Monday.
During opening statements, prosecutors outlined horrific claims against Diddy, saying he once forced a male escort to urinate in Cassie’s mouth.
Meanwhile the defense argued that the rapper is guilty of other crimes, including domestic violence, but not sex trafficking or racketeering.
Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but was not illegal.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters, then kept them in line through violence.