Diddy trial: 5 things to know
A federal indictment unsealed in September 2024 depicted Combs as the head of an expansive criminal enterprise reliant on employees as well as the influence of Combs's business empire to try and 'engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.'
Combs pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges in the wake of the indictment's unsealing.
Here's what you need to know about Combs's trial so far:
The federal indictment unsealed earlier this year alleged Combs 'abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct,' per allegations going back to 2008.
Combs's alleged criminal enterprise was used to protect and promote his reputation, supplement his enterprise's power, lock down individuals' loyalty and reward it and safeguard Combs from being prosecuted or found out for his alleged crimes via acts of intimidation, manipulation, bribery or threats, according to the indictment.
A statement from a lawyer for Combs in September said that the rapper was 'disappointed' due to his 'unjust prosecution.'
'He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,' Marc Agnifilo said in the previous statement. 'To his credit, Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation, and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts.'
Combs's trial kicked off earlier this month via jury selection, according to The Associated Press, about eight months after the indictment was unsealed. The AP reported that Judge Arun Subramanian interviewed potential jurors using a questionnaire to assess their fairness and impartiality during a trial involving graphic video.
Possible jurors were provided with a brief description of the charges Combs faced via Subramanian, with the judge also stating that the rapper was presumed innocent and had pleaded not guilty, according to the AP.
In 2011, according to Tuesday testimony from ex-Combs employee Capricorn Clark, Combs showed up at her apartment and said, 'We're going to go kill' fellow hip-hop figure Scott Mescudi, who also goes by 'Kid Cudi,' in the wake of learning of his former romantic partner Cassandra Ventura and Mescudi's dating, The New York Times reported.
Ventura filed a lawsuit in November 2023 alleging that Combs had spent years beating and raping her, with the lawsuit being settled quickly after it was filed.
Mescudi also testified during the trial last week, describing multiple incidents in which Combs was a part of, according to the AP. According to the outlet, prosecutors have alleged that Combs's fury towards Mescudi drove him to set up the firebombing of Mescudi's Porsche 911.
The AP reported that Combs may be looking at prison time stretching from 15 years to the rest of his life in the case he is convicted. Beyond possible long-term incarceration, Combs has also faced public backlash in the wake of abuse allegations against him coming into the national spotlight.
Former CEO of Death Row Records Suge Knight suggested earlier this month that President Trump could pardon Combs in the case he is convicted.
'I still feel that Puffy's gonna be all right and have a fair shot at it, because Puffy didn't — he's not a dummy,' Knight said previously, talking to NewsNation's Chris Cuomo.
'I'm quite sure somebody's going to talk to those jurors and convince one or two of them — that's all you need, is one,' he added.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said in an episode of the Cafe podcast 'The Counsel' from earlier this month that Combs's trial 'is overwhelmingly likely to end with the fallen hip-hop mogul's conviction.'
The Hill has reached out to a law firm with a lawyer representing Combs for comment.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Lions hooker Dan Sheehan suspended for four matches after reckless ruck clearout
SYDNEY (AP) — British and Irish Lions hooker Dan Sheehan was suspended for four matches on Monday for his illegal ruck clearout of Australia's Tom Lynagh at the weekend. Sheehan was cited for charging into a ruck and hitting Lynagh's head on Saturday in the third test won by the Wallabies 22-12 in Sydney. At his disciplinary hearing, Sheehan disagreed that foul play occurred. But the panel found it was reckless with a high degree of danger. The panel suspended him from four Leinster club matches in September and October, but allowed him to be available for the fourth match if he completed World Rugby's tackle school. ___
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘Highest 2 Lowest' Trailer: Spike Lee's Latest Joint Is an Entertaining Homage to Akira Kurosawa
One of the best-reviewed films out of Cannes is ready for its August debut. From writer/director Spike Lee, 'Highest 2 Lowest' has released its official theatrical trailer. The movie is the fifth collaboration between Lee and Oscar-winning star Denzel Washington. It is, as IndieWire's own David Ehrlich described it, a 'jarringly upbeat' and 'deliriously entertaining' homage to Akira Kurosawa's bleak 1963 classic 'High and Low.' More from IndieWire Amazon CEO 'Cannot Wait' to Start Denis Villeneuve's James Bond Movie It's Time for Millennials to Make Lindsay Lohan a Movie Star Again A$AP Rocky — whose real name is Rakim Mayers — co-stars, thanks largely to Lee scrolling, as we all do, on Instagram. 'What's funny is that I was looking at Instagram four or five years ago and people were saying that A$AP looked like he's Denzel's son,' Lee told Carmelo Anthony in April. 'I seen those memes and then in the film we used that.' Lee went on to praise Rocky — who also laid down a track teased in the trailer for the film — saying 'A$AP, man, he fire… I mean, there's some scenes where him and D head to head – he ain't backing up. Like, 'I'm here too.' So very, very happy with the way the film turned out and looking forward to sharing it with the world.' Ehrlich agreed in his review, writing that Rocky was 'just as good here as he is in recent Sundance highlight 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.'' Ehrlich also detailed the plot, writing that the 'protagonist is forced into a compromising position on the eve of a critical business deal when a downtrodden kidnapper mistakes his driver's son for his own kid, Trey (Aubrey Joseph). And once again [as in 'High and Low'], all the money in the world can't save him from paying a price for his greed.' 'Highest 2 Lowest' already has big name fans, too, including director Martin Scorsese, who Lee related through an Instagram post heaped high praise on the film. Actually, he wrote that Scorsese 'gushed' about virtually every aspect of the movie, including Washington's performance, the editing, cinematography, and, of course, Lee's direction. 'Marty Was So Happy For Me,' Lee said. 'Highest 2 Lowest' is the first Lee joint since 2020's 'Da 5 Bloods,' which was distributed by Netflix during the pandemic. His previous film, 'BlackKkKlansman,' brought Lee a long-awaited Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. 'Highest 2 Lowest' hits theaters everywhere on August 22 before streaming on Apple TV+ September 5. Watch the trailer below. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
How the ‘social justice' movement distorted what Kyle Rittenhouse really did
Five summers ago, with no end to the coronavirus pandemic in sight and a pent-up desire to rebel against the spectacle of police violence in the wake of George Floyd's videotaped death, cities across the country exploded in rioting and arson. With the confluence of the threat of COVID-19, the ongoing racial reckoning, and the specter of President Trump's re-election campaign rendering even the smallest considerations and disagreements hyper-partisan, the nation's media, political and cultural institutions grew single-mindedly focused on an overly simplistic story of 'social justice' and 'antiracism.' In 'Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse,' (Knopf, out August 5) Thomas Chatterton Williams, a staff writer at The Atlantic, paints a clear and detailed picture of the pivotal ideas and events that paved the way for the dramatic paradigm shift that changed the country in the summer of 2020 and helped make possible the astonishing backlash still unfolding today. Here, an excerpt. When a doughy 17-year-old named Kyle Rittenhouse, too young to purchase the AR-15 he'd strapped across himself, ventured from his home in Antioch, Ill., into the burning streets of Kenosha, Wis., he was doing many things simultaneously. He was placing himself in a deranged situation that shouldn't have unfolded to begin with. And, in doing so, his very armed presence became a further provocation, heightening the danger for himself and everyone around him. But he was also attempting, however misguidedly, to make his community safer. 7 In the summer of 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, strapped on an AR-15 in an misguided attempt to keep Wisconsin streets safe. AP Advertisement On the morning of Aug. 25, 2020, two drastically divergent white lives inched inexorably closer to conflict. As Rittenhouse took up with a makeshift cleanup crew, Joseph Rosenbaum was discharged from the Aurora psychiatric hospital, outside Milwaukee. A deeply troubled 36-year-old with an extensive criminal record — including recent domestic violence against his fiancée and prior sexual assault of minors — whom the hospital had deposited in the middle of Kenosha's pandemonium, Rosenbaum attempted to retrieve his belongings from the police station, only to find it shuttered because of the ongoing melee. He continued on to Walgreens to procure his medication, but the store had also been closed due to the protests. Meanwhile, Rittenhouse prepared to join another crew that evening at the Car Source auto lot, which had been set ablaze the previous evening. As night descended, Rosenbaum left the motel where his fiancée was living and Rittenhouse was filmed standing guard outside the dealership with a gathering group of armed men, people he describes as complete strangers who had also come to protect local businesses. Advertisement 7 Kenosha, Wisconsin, erupted in protests and flames after the shooting of James Blake. AFP via Getty Images Rittenhouse speaks affably with citizen journalists live streaming the protests on social media. 'People are getting injured, and our job is to protect this business, and part of my job is also to help people,' he says unaffectedly. 'If there's somebody hurt, I'm running into harm's way. That's why I have my rifle, because I need to protect myself obviously. But I also have my med kit.' Mid-conversation, he looks up and shouts, 'Medical, EMS right here, do you need assistance? I am an EMT,' and rushes out of frame. An hour before midnight, in the claustrophobic lot of the Ultimate Convenience Center, Rosenbaum emerges for the first time on video. Head shaved to a polish, fluorescent stud jutting from his earlobe, and a look of fury tinged on his troubled countenance, his compact figure berates and even butts into much larger men with long guns. Rosenbaum looks and sounds not fearless but reckless. 'Don't point no motherf–king gun at me, homey!' he screams one moment before quickly changing tacks: 'Shoot me, n—a! Shoot me, n—a! Bust on me, n—a! For real!' he taunts the militia members without getting a rise, in the process embodying some of the strangest, most thoroughly American racial alchemy that is as familiar to me as it would be inscrutable to someone foreign born. Advertisement 7 The Kenosha protests were part of what Thomas Chatterton Williams dubs the 'Summer of Our Discontent,' which is the title of his new book. Thomas Brunot It is the kind of subtlety the blunt mainstream narrative around blackness, whiteness and antiracism is so ill-equipped to convey accurately, or even to recognize in the first place, and so it is ignored. I have seen no evidence in the hours of footage from that night to indicate the militiamen themselves had treated the protesters they encountered with racial prejudice. It is Rosenbaum alone who has deployed the n-word. But he does not do so pejoratively, at least not regarding black people. Many of the black men standing nearby register the epithet yet take no exception to it, even as they protectively move to restrain him — a white man who is out of control and in conflict solely with other white men. Soon Rosenbaum is shoving a flaming dumpster toward the idle gas pumps, as scores of bystanders do nothing, filming this act of patent lunacy from a distance. One young man has the sense to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher. Advertisement 7 Rittenhouse shot and killed two men. Joseph Rosenbaum (above), a deeply troubled 36-year-old with an extensive criminal record, was one of them. The professional police forces appear sporadically in armored vehicles and weakly address the combustible crowd through loudspeakers. Whereas Rittenhouse and the other armed civilians are physically present in the streets, inserting their bodies into the commotion, law enforcement officers are just as good as absent. Both Rittenhouse and Rosenbaum, who has now removed his shirt and wrapped it around his head like a desert nomad, are among the hundreds of men and women told to disperse on Sheridan Road, the main artery. 'Back away from the business, back away from the business,' an officer commands from the safety of his tank's interior. Rosenbaum is seen among the crowd, swinging a metal chain. Officers slow to a crawl and toss Rittenhouse and his colleagues bottled water through the roof hatch of an armored truck. 'We appreciate you guys, we really do,' the disembodied voice from the loudspeaker intones. 7 Rittenhouse also fatally shot 26-year-old Anthony Huber (above). There is something shameful, darkly comical and infuriating about this exchange. Law enforcement has outsourced the task of keeping fuel pumps from exploding to improvising adolescents. These police are spectators, watching a 17-year-old attempt to save them. Fifteen minutes later, the streets still buzz, protesters linger, restlessly scrolling their phones. Rittenhouse walks among this multiracial assembly and asks, 'Medical, does anybody need medical?' He is rebuffed by a couple of men in masks and continues onward to an intersection. Officers, who have used their vehicles to corral the mob southward, prevent him from resuming his post in front of Car Source. At 11:44, reports that rioters are trying to set on fire yet more cars at another lot come across the scanners. 'We've seen at least four people with handguns running around here,' a dispatcher warns. Two minutes after that, Rittenhouse is filmed holding a fire extinguisher, running from the gas station before slowing to a walk. Rosenbaum follows, picking up his pace, closing the distance between them. He throws his bag of belongings at him. Then the night cracks with a nearby gunshot. Four more shots in quick succession scatter the crowd into a frenzy. The camera shakes. Rittenhouse, who's been separated from his colleagues, runs in circles around a parked car. Another three-round burst, and as the focus resumes, he remains standing and Rosenbaum has fallen. 7 Rittenhouse turned himself in, telling officers that he had 'shot two white kids.' AP Advertisement The latter's limp body is hoisted into an SUV. Rittenhouse makes a phone call, then begins to flee. The crowd has grown attuned to him in unison, with tragically imperfect information, reacting to the presence of what seems to be an active shooter, as rumor pulses through it. 'What did he do?' one man shouts, chasing after Rittenhouse, who stumbles onto his back in the middle of the thoroughfare. Four masked white men are upon him, one drop-kicking him in the chest before another smacks his head with a skateboard. Rittenhouse receives the blows and shoots the skater in the process, killing him. A third approaches, raising a handgun, and Rittenhouse fires another round, blowing apart his forearm. He stands. The remaining bystanders give a wide berth now, and he shuffles down the street back to the gas station, where a cluster of police vehicles, lights flashing, slowly approach — far too late to be of use to anyone. Hands raised, he attempts to turn himself in, but the armored vehicles drive right past him. Even though the shooter and each of his three targets, as well as the instigating crowd around them, are white, dispatchers relay a description of the gunman as 'black.' Rittenhouse leaves the scene, returning home to his mother. She drives him to the police department in Antioch at 1:20 a.m., where he attempts to turn himself in a second time, vomiting in the precinct lobby and telling officers that he had 'shot two white kids.' 7 The tidy narrative branded Rittenhouse a 'racist killer.' Thomas Chatterton Williams writes, 'In the context of the summer of 2020, what had happened among four white men could never be understood as unfortunate or tragic or even simply illegal; it was racist.' AP Advertisement 'Kenosha: Teen Charged with Murder After Two Black Lives Matter Protesters Killed,' read one headline in The Guardian. In the context of the summer of 2020, what had happened among four white men could never be understood as unfortunate or tragic or even simply illegal; it was racist. Rosenbaum had been elevated posthumously to the status of 'a Black Lives Matter activist.' The specific and complicated causes and effects that produced the awful violence of August 25 — all of which contradict the notion that these were primarily peaceful demonstrations — much like the particularities of the police shooting of Jacob Blake that had preceded it, had been reconfigured into a tidier narrative. Excerpted from 'Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse' (Knopf, August 5, 2025). Copyright © 2025 by Thomas Chatterton Williams
