By James Fanelli

When Sean Combs goes on trial for sex-trafficking charges beginning this week, the case could turn on disturbing video footage that the rap impresario's defense team fought to keep out.

The footage shows Combs assaulting and dragging an ex-girlfriend in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Federal prosecutors say it backs up the allegations of the woman and three other alleged victims who are expected to testify that he abused, threatened and coerced them into participating in drug-fueled sex parties. Lawyers for Combs say the video has been distorted and taken out of context, but a judge denied their request to bar it from being shown to a jury.

"I certainly understand why the defense was doing everything it could to exclude it," said Elizabeth Geddes, a former federal prosecutor who was part of the team that won a conviction of R&B singer R. Kelly on racketeering and forced-labor charges in Brooklyn in 2021. "I think it makes anyone who sees that just absolutely horrified."

Geddes said videos can be powerful evidence in sex-trafficking cases, because jurors sometimes find it difficult to believe a defendant could subject a victim to degrading behavior for long periods. "Having a video is really just incredible support for witness testimony," she said.

Opening statements in the Combs trial are scheduled to begin after jury selection is completed Monday morning. The proceedings are expected to last about eight weeks, with both sides coming to the courtroom with unusually large teams. Combs is expected to have eight defense attorneys accompanying him, while six prosecutors will sit at the government's table.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office charged Combs, founder of music label Bad Boy Records and clothing line Sean John, in September with running a decadeslong criminal enterprise that relied on employees, security staff and personal assistants to force women into orchestrated sex acts with him and male escorts.

Alleged victims, often Combs' romantic partners, were plied with drugs at the parties, dubbed "Freak Offs," according to an indictment. They were compelled to participate out of fear that Combs would cut off financial support or derail their careers, prosecutors said.

Combs is also accused of assaulting the alleged victims and brandishing guns if they resisted.

He faces five criminal counts, including a racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted of the charges, he faces up to life in prison.

Combs has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty. He has been detained at a Brooklyn federal jail since his arrest last year. His lawyers said that the sex parties were consensual and that Combs led a swinger lifestyle that, while unusual to some, wasn't illegal.

"Does everybody have experience with being intimate this way? No," Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for Combs, said at a hearing after his arrest. "Is it sex trafficking? No, not if everybody wants to be there."

Combs's lawyers have accused the government of selective prosecutions, saying that he has been targeted for being a successful Black businessman. Prosecutors have denied the allegation.

The 2016 Los Angeles assault, at the Intercontinental Hotel, features prominently in the indictment. Prosecutors say Combs attacked his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura as she attempted to leave a sex party he was hosting there. Combs paid $100,000 to hotel security to keep the video surveillance footage under wraps, prosecutors allege.

Years later, it leaked anyway. Before Combs was charged, CNN obtained the video and aired it, prompting him to issue a public apology. His lawyers have since said there was mutual violence in the couple's relationship and the incident was a domestic dispute related to Ventura's discovery of his infidelity.

A lawyer for Ventura didn't respond to a request for comment. Ventura and Combs reached a settlement in 2023 over a lawsuit she had brought accusing him of physical and mental abuse.

Lawyers for Combs argued the presiding judge should exclude the CNN broadcast footage, as well as separate cellphone recordings of the hotel video, on the grounds that it would unfairly prejudice the jury.

The CNN footage was sped up and the sequence of events was edited to inflame the passions of the news outlet's viewers, Combs's lawyers said. They have also complained that the cellphone videos don't show the whole series of events and distorted Combs's image, making him look stockier and more domineering. Prosecutors have agreed to correct the speed of the CNN video.

A CNN spokesperson previously said the network never altered its video.

The videos won't be easy to explain away. During jury selection, many prospective jurors said they had seen the footage. One recalled the video being "upsetting to watch." Another found it "shocking" and "scary." A third wrote in a jury questionnaire that an image of the footage she had seen was "damning evidence." She was later dismissed from the jury pool.

Write to James Fanelli at james.fanelli@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 11, 2025 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.