Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Cassie Ventura breaks down as testimony concludes

The hip-hop mogul is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

ByAaron Katersky and Mason Leib
Last Updated: May 19, 2025, 9:00 AM EDT

This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.

Friday is day five in the trial of Sean Combs after the jury was seated.

Key Headlines

Here's how the news is developing.
May 13, 2025, 10:11 am

Sean Combs trial underway

The highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is underway. Combs has been accused of sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy as part of a blockbuster federal indictment originally filed in September 2024. He later faced two additional superseding indictments. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Combs is accused of being the ringleader of an alleged enterprise that "abused, threatened and coerced women" into prolonged, drug-fueled sexual orgies with male prostitutes, which he called "freak offs," and then threatened them into silence. Combs has said that all of the sex was consensual and that while his relationships sometimes involved domestic violence, he wasn't engaged in trafficking.

Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Combs was simply part of the swinger lifestyle and that he "vehemently denies the accusations made by the SDNY" and "looks forward to his day in court."

May 12, 2025, 6:11 AM EDT

Jury selection to finish Monday

While opening arguments are still scheduled to begin Monday, Judge Arun Subramanian decided not to seat the final jury on Friday as originally planned.

Instead, worried about more juror candidates dropping out -- as two did overnight Friday -- the judge decided to seat the jury on Monday morning.

"We can get the jurors, all 43 in, at 8:30," Subramanian said in court Friday. The lawyers will do their strikes at 9 a.m. "so we can roll right into initial instructions, the swearing in of the jury and opening statements."

U.S. Marshals sit behind Sean "Diddy" Combs as he sits at the defense table alongside lawyers Marc Agnifilo and Brian Steel in the courtroom during his sex trafficking trial in New York City, May 9, 2025.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

May 12, 2025, 6:08 AM EDT

Who is representing Sean Combs in court?

Facing the potential of life in prison on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, Sean Combs hired a high-profile team of defense lawyers for his criminal trial in New York.

With a combined 150 years of legal experience, Combs' legal team has defended everyone from alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione to disgraced financier Martin Shkreli and rapper Young Thug.

Attorney Marc Agnifilo arrives to the United States Court in Manhattan on the day of a bail hearing after music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs was charged, and arrested by federal agents in New York City, Sept. 18, 2024.
Mike Segar/Reuters, FILE

"In looking at the team ... it seems like they've got people who are experts in their own kind of general areas," said ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire. "I think the team that Diddy has put together are some heavy hitters in their own rights, and they're working together as such."

Read about the team of lawyers defending Diddy.

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