The federal trial against Sean Combs that begins Monday in the Southern District of New York follows an indictment that accuses the entertainment mogul of human trafficking and drug trafficking, and of using his considerable wealth and power and brute force to keep his alleged victims silent. Combs has denied all the charges the government has brought against him and rejected a plea deal. The founder of Bad Boy Records is no stranger to the courts or to having trouble swirling around him. But this is the first time he stands accused by the U.S. Department of Justice; he’s never faced charges as serious as those he faces now.
The founder of Bad Boy Records is no stranger to the courts or to having trouble swirling around him.
In November 2023, R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura and who had an on-again, off-again relationship with Combs, filed a lawsuit accusing Combs of beating, kicking, stomping and raping her and forcing her into sex with male prostitutes. Combs, who denied the claims the artist made against him, settled with her the next day. A statement from Combs’ attorney Ben Brafman said, “Mr. Combs’ decision to settle the lawsuit does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims.”
Then, in May 2024, CNN released a 2016 security video from a hotel hallway showing Combs physically assaulting Cassie, including kicking and dragging her. Combs responded in an Instagram post that what he did happened during a dark time in his life. “I was f—-d up. I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”
Combs was arrested in September and accused of hosting what he reportedly called “freak offs,” which the government describes as coerced sexual acts that Combs organized and recorded.
Since November 2023, according to The Washington Post, there have been well over 70 lawsuits accusing Combs of sexual assault. He has denied all such allegations. And those cases against him haven’t been proved. But it’s hard not to put him in the same category as celebrities such as R. Kelly and Harvey Weinstein, powerful men accused of sexual abuse going back decades. We should ask ourselves why our society seems so willing to ignore the whispers and rumors and bits of evidence that link powerful men to violence against women.
The violence Combs inflicts on Ventura in that unearthed hotel surveillance video is so awful it’s nearly unwatchable. It’s bad news for Combs, then, that U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian has ruled that it’s admissible evidence the jury will get to see. Prosecutors say the hotel surveillance video shows Combs, wearing only a white towel around his waist, trying to drag Ventura back to a room where a “freak off” was happening.
Since November 2023, according to The Washington Post, there have been well over 70 lawsuits accusing Combs of sexual assault.
To be sure, that video does not automatically make Combs guilty of the charges the federal government has brought against him. But it’s clear why his team fought so hard to keep it out of evidence.
Combs’ team has argued that CNN sped up the hotel surveillance video and ran it out of sequence. CNN has said it did not alter the video its source presented to the network.
Combs has spent a career being a “shiny suit man” who nonetheless has been accused of disturbing flashes of violence. He was found guilty of criminal mischief in 1996 for threatening a New York Post photographer with a gun, and he paid a $1,000 fine. In April 1999, he was booked and charged with two felonies against rival record executive Steve Stoute, who says Combs and his bodyguards beat him with their fists and with a Champagne bottle and a chair. Combs publicly apologized and Stoute asked for a dismissal of the charges. Combs, whose childhood nickname “Puffy” was a description of the way he’d huff and puff when he lost his temper, pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to a day of anger management classes.
Combs was acquitted, though, after being criminally charged after a December 1999 shootout in a club in New York that left three people injured. A jury decided that the state didn’t prove Combs to be in possession of a gun or that he’d bribed witnesses in that case, but jurors convicted Bad Boy artist Shyne (real name Moses Barrow) and he was sent to prison.
Combs’ history of brushes with the law may have added to his allure. But the fact that he’d never been convicted of a felony seemed to make him edgy and cool enough for Hollywood A-listers and the country’s movers and shakers to keep him as an associate. At the height of his popularity, there didn’t appear to be any celebrity who was too big (or considered him too toxic) to appear at a Combs party. There didn’t appear to be any celebrity who was too big (or considered him too toxic) to appear at a Combs party. Too many people reflexively assume that when word gets out that a celebrity is abusive to women that it’s nothing but a smear campaign meant to tarnish that person’s legacy. The race factor also has a peculiar impact. Some people might not always love the person who’s being accused but don’t trust that they’re being treated fairly. And the accused should be treated fairly. No matter how awful the charges against Combs, he has the right to a fair trial. That said, many might still be denying that Combs has been violent and characterizing him as some kind of victim, but for the hotel surveillance video that captures him attacking Ventura in the exact manner she had described in her November 2023 lawsuit. Ventura is likely to be a prominent witness as the Department of Justice attempts to prove to jurors that Combs has a penchant for abusive behavior and violent tactics. One of the messages of the #MeToo movement was that for too long, we, the public, have helped enable men, especially powerful men, to routinely hurt women. And as Combs goes on trial, we should be asking ourselves how much has changed since the start of #MeToo. In trying to keep the hotel surveillance footage out of the trial, Combs’ lawyers said the video “immediately and dramatically turned the tide of public opinion” against their client. They’re right. No matter what happens at the trial, for what he did to Cassie, the bad boy can expect to be a permanent pariah — as he should be.
Charles F. Coleman Jr.
Charles F. Coleman Jr. is a civil rights attorney and a former Brooklyn, New York, prosecutor. He is an MSNBC legal analyst. Follow him on Twitter @CFColemanJr. 
