Diddy's Trial Starts
“This is Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Ann Johnson told a Manhattan jury yesterday in the courtroom on the opening day of Combs’ sex-trafficking trial. Cutting to the chase about the sordid allegations of rape, abuse and assault against the rapper, Johnson in the prosecution’s opening argument listed off “crime after crime” of “kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery” and more that the feds claim Combs committed over the span of two decades. “He called himself the king, and he expected to be treated like one,” she said, referencing Combs’ alleged crimes like beating then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and “flinging her around like a rag doll.” Johnson said the actions were facilitated by his “inner circle and vast resources of his business empire.” In the prosecution’s opening remarks, Johnson returned again and again to Combs’ insistence on sex performances and orchestrated quote “freak-offs” with male prostitutes and women in his life, focusing on Combs’ decades-long relationship with Ventura. Ventura is set to testify in the coming days.










