NCS
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Sean “Diddy” Combs may have the assist of his household as opening statements in his sex-trafficking trial are set to start Monday in downtown Manhattan.
“He is holding faith and ready to finally be able to have his side of the story presented in court,” a supply near the Combs household advised NCS. “This is a long time waiting.”
At least six of his seven kids can be at courtroom when testimony of their father’s high-stakes trial will get underway.
Combs’ youngest little one, Love, is simply two years previous, so it’s unclear if she can be at the courthouse, the supply mentioned, however his grownup kids – sons Quincy, Justin and Christian; daughters Chance and twins Jessie and D’Lila – together with Combs’ mom, Janice, and a few of the moms of his kids, plan to be current to assist him on Monday.
Combs may have at the least some members of the family in courtroom every day of trial, which anticipated to final roughly eight weeks, in response to the supply.
“The family is united,” they added. “Everyone is upbeat. Everyone is holding faith.”
The particular person acknowledged that the previous eight months, with Combs held in detention forward of trial, have been “difficult.”
“It’s been extremely humbling and a reality check” for the embattled music mogul, the supply mentioned of Combs’ time in jail, noting he has lived a lifetime of luxurious and freedom to name the pictures for greater than three a long time – a stark distinction to being confined to a jail cell as Inmate 37452-054.
Combs has spent a lot of his time in jail making ready for his trial, talking together with his protection staff and his household, in response to the supply.
If convicted, Combs might be sentenced to life in jail. He has pleaded not responsible to prices that embrace racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution.
Attorneys for Combs and his spokesperson declined to touch upon this story.
Combs was arrested in September 2024 and has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn ever since.
He was denied bail thrice, regardless of efforts from his attorneys to have him saved in dwelling detention as his trial loomed. Prosecutors prevailed of their arguments that Combs offered a “danger to the community,” alleging in courtroom paperwork that he paid other inmates to make use of their cellphone accounts in jail to evade monitoring and tried to tamper with witnesses from behind bars.
The authorities is anticipated to current as much as 4 key witnesses who will testify in opposition to Combs, together with his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, who can be amongst the first witnesses known as as quickly as Monday, prosecutors revealed last week.
If his legal staff’s previous arguments are any indication, an overarching theme of Combs’ protection strategy can be that each one sexual relationships associated to the prices had been consensual – so due to this fact, even when these relationships had been at occasions poisonous, Combs’ protection would argue that he can’t be held criminally liable.
Several of the key witnesses have been characterised by the protection as “former long-term girlfriends.” When the authorities indicted Combs on new prices last month, his attorneys advised NCS, “This was their private sex life, defined by consent, not coercion.”
Prosecutors alleged of their indictment that Combs ran a felony enterprise, utilizing his place of energy to pressure victims to have interaction in intercourse acts in opposition to their will, typically “under the pretense of a romantic relationship.” Prosecutors have mentioned that in these encounters, often called “Freak Offs,” girls had been drugged and compelled to have intercourse with male prostitutes. Some of the encounters had been video recorded and happened over days, in response to prosecutors.
In an October 2024 bail submitting – which was in the end denied by the choose – Combs’ attorneys wrote, “Mr. Combs believes the evidence will show that to the extent such activities occurred, all individuals who participated were adults voluntarily engaged in consensual sex.” In that submitting, Combs’ attorneys described his relationship with Ventura as “often mutually toxic.”
In a civil lawsuit that was settled inside a day of its submitting in November 2023, Ventura alleged Combs raped her in 2018 and subjected her to years of repeated bodily and different abuses over the course of their relationship.
Among the subjects more likely to be raised in Ventura’s testimony in the felony trial is lodge surveillance footage from 2016 – first revealed by NCS – that exhibits Combs grabbing, kicking and dragging Ventura.
Despite quite a few makes an attempt by Combs’ attorneys to exclude the footage, Judge Arun Subramanian issued a ruling final month that it might be proven to the jury at trial.
In the October 2024 courtroom submitting, Combs’ attorneys mentioned that the violence depicted in the surveillance video stemmed from “jealousy and infidelity.”
Combs himself already admitted to the violent habits in the footage.
“My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video,” Combs said in a recorded statement shared on Instagram in May 2024, days after NCS aired footage of the incident.
Several potential jurors who stay in the jury pool – set to be finalized and seated Monday morning earlier than opening statements – mentioned throughout jury choice that they had seen the surveillance video.
In a highly-publicized case with a celeb defendant, Combs’ legal staff might face a troublesome courtroom battle, in response to Elie Honig, NCS senior legal analyst and former state and federal prosecutor.
“I would say that the press coverage of Combs has been overwhelmingly negative, and I think that’s a concern for the defense,” Honig mentioned. “You read in the indictment about these wild sex parties, the thousand bottles of baby oil, the so-called ‘Freak Offs.’ But the key question is whether Combs’s overarching conduct — whatever one may think of it — meets the specific federal crimes that have been charged here.”
The protection additionally claimed, in that very same October 2024 submitting, that they’ve “countless written communications” that “tend to negate any lack of consent and any coercion” concerning sexual exercise between Ventura and Combs, citing proof displaying “a long-term loving relationship that became strained by mutual infidelity and jealousy.” Combs’ attorneys mentioned the “overwhelming” written communications between Combs and Ventura describe that their “consensual sexual relationship included communications concerning their mutual decision to ‘bring a third party into their intimacy.’”
Combs’ protection cited interviews with a “half a dozen” male escorts who participated in the “Freak Offs” and allegedly mentioned they had been “never witnesses to anything remotely nonconsensual,” in response to the submitting.
NCS reported earlier this month that at the least one male intercourse employee will take the stand as a prosecution witness to testify in opposition to Combs.
In courtroom final week, Combs’ attorneys mentioned they plan to argue that Ventura was violent towards Combs throughout their relationship, which lasted roughly 11 years, from 2007 to 2018.
“We are going to take the position that there was mutual violence in their relationship,” protection legal professional Marc Agnifilo said in court.
“That there was hitting on both sides,” Agnifilo added. “We’re probably going to refer to it as domestic violence.”
The protection attorneys described Ventura, who’s pregnant along with her third little one and due subsequent month, as a “strong” particular person with “a nature of violence,” which they allege will discredit the declare Combs “coerced” her into sexual exercise.
Judge Subramanian questioned that protection strategy in courtroom final Friday.
“Strong people can be coerced just like weak people,” the choose mentioned, including he would rule on the subject Monday.
Ventura’s legal professional, Douglas Wigdor, declined to remark when reached by NCS.
Combs nodded when his lawyer, Alexandra Shapiro, mentioned, “The dynamic between these two individuals is at the very heart of this case.”