Los Angeles (CNN) — (Unique) A few of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former sexual companions, a enterprise affiliate and a male intercourse employee are among the many witnesses anticipated to testify at his felony trial, a number of sources inform CNN.
No less than 4 witnesses who’re anticipated to testify towards Combs at his federal felony trial beginning subsequent week are accusers who’ve already filed civil fits towards the embattled music mogul.
The witness listing has not been made public, however three people aware of the case spoke to CNN beneath the situation of anonymity.
The central witness within the trial is Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura — the singer and an ex-girlfriend of Combs — who has chosen to testify beneath her actual identify. The choose has allowed the opposite alleged victims, whom CNN has recognized by way of sources, to testify beneath pseudonyms in an effort to guard their identification. (In courtroom papers, the federal government’s key witnesses are known as “Sufferer-2,” “Sufferer-3” and “Sufferer-4.”)
CNN has reached out to a spokesperson on the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York, in addition to Combs’ representatives, for remark.
Combs has pleaded not responsible to prices of racketeering conspiracy, transportation to interact in prostitution and intercourse trafficking. He has denied all civil allegations towards him.
“These aren’t new allegations or new accusers,” Combs’ attorneys instructed CNN final month. “These are the identical people, former long-term girlfriends, who had been concerned in consensual relationships. This was their non-public intercourse life, outlined by consent, not coercion.”
Prosecutors have accused Combs of operating a “felony enterprise” the place he and others coerced ladies into sexual conditions – often called “Freak Offs” – with male prostitutes by which they had been usually drugged and compelled to interact in intercourse acts for days. Authorities allege Combs recorded among the intercourse acts and managed his victims by promising monetary and profession alternatives, in addition to by way of threats of violence and different hurt.
Quite a lot of supporting witnesses will even testify as authorities witnesses to corroborate the accounts of the important thing witnesses or to supply different related data at trial, sources say. Amongst these supporting witnesses anticipated to testify is a male intercourse employee who’s seen in express movies of Combs’ so-called “Freak Offs,” in keeping with one supply, who says further intercourse staff could testify within the trial.
A good friend of Ventura’s will even take the stand, in keeping with one other supply, who says this particular person will corroborate Ventura’s allegations and testify about a few of her personal claims of violence by Combs, referenced within the indictment.
Combs is dealing with over 60 civil lawsuits. The felony case might be restricted
Whereas Combs is dealing with greater than 60 civil lawsuits, his felony trial might be restricted in scope, with the jury instructed to deliberate on solely what’s introduced in courtroom.
At a listening to final month, the choose gave Combs a big authorized victory, ruling that the majority proof about prior sexual assault allegations towards him not included within the indictment wouldn’t be allowed at trial.
Although Combs’ felony trial is separate from the mountain of civil fits he’s dealing with, most of the lawsuits have served as a roadmap of kinds for prosecutors, in keeping with sources aware of the federal investigation that led to Combs being indicted.
CNN beforehand reported that federal investigators had introduced in a number of civil accusers for questioning throughout their huge probe over the previous year-and-a-half, which resulted in federal searches of Combs’ properties in Los Angeles and Miami in March 2024 and Combs’ arrest in Manhattan in September 2024. One supply defined to CNN that some civil accusers who aren’t being known as to testify within the felony trial have been integral to the federal government’s investigation behind the scenes.
Ventura filed her lawsuit towards Combs in November 2023 by which she accused Combs of a decade of repeated bodily and emotional abuse throughout their relationship. She alleged that shortly after she was signed to Combs’ Unhealthy Boy Data label, she was “lured” into an “ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled life-style, and right into a romantic relationship with him” the place Combs was bodily violent, managed all points of her life and compelled her to interact in intercourse acts with different males.
Within the felony indictment towards Combs, the federal government mirrored most of the claims from Ventura’s civil swimsuit, together with an incident the place she claimed Combs bodily assaulted her in 2016 in a Los Angeles lodge. In Could 2024, CNN first broadcast lodge surveillance footage of that incident, which matched Ventura’s civil claims.
Final week, the choose stated he would enable footage of Ventura being overwhelmed by Combs to be included as proof within the trial. Prosecutors have stated {that a} witness who recorded a model of the lodge surveillance video might be known as to testify on the trial.
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