Sean Diddy Combs listens during opening statements on the first day of trial in Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 12, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — The R&B singer Cassie could testify as soon as Tuesday in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial, as the Bad Boy Records founder faces charges that he orchestrated a deviant empire of exploitation that forced women into drugged-up sex parties called “freak-offs.”

Testimony in the trial began Monday. Prosecutors told jurors that, for years, Combs used his status as a powerful executive to coerce women into abusive sexual encounters and became violent if they refused.

Here’s the latest:

Prior to the start of the trial, numerous submissions by attorneys and prosecutors were sealed

Judge Arun Subramanian acknowledged that in his opening remarks about whether sexually explicit videos and images expected to be shown to the jury during testimony by R&B singer Cassie should be viewed by members of the media.

He said that while a lot had been handled under seal before the trial, “we are now in trial and there is a heightened First Amendment concern.”

More on arguments over whether the media should be able to view explicit material

During the discussion about whether sexually explicit videos should be available for viewing by members of the media, attorney Robert Balin told the judge on behalf of media outlets that news organizations weren’t interested in reporting “something salacious” and were not seeking copies of the exhibits.

He also suggested as an alternative that a group of pool reporters could be allowed to view the exhibits.

The arguments on if the media should be able to see sexually explicit material

Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson argued against letting media outlets see sexually explicit videos, saying there was good legal precedent to keep such materials out of the public record.

Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said there was no aspect of the videos that was not “in the nature of adult pornography.” He said they all contained images of people who are nude having sex or about to have sex.

On behalf of news outlets, attorney Robert Balin told the judge the First Amendment is “at a zenith” in this type of case and that it was important that the “people, though the press, be able to see justice is being done.” He said the best evidence of whether sexual acts that were recorded were coerced — as prosecutors allege — was the videos themselves.

Who is Cassie?

Cassie, a key prosecution witness expected to testify Tuesday, met Combs in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37. He signed her to his Bad Boy Records label and, within a few years, they started dating.

In her 2023 lawsuit, Cassie alleges Combs trapped her in a “cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking” for more than a decade, including raping her and forcing her to engage in sex acts with male sex workers. Combs settled the lawsuit the next day.

Among other things, Cassie alleges Combs raped her when she tried to leave him and often punched, kicked and beat her, causing injuries including bruises, burst lips, black eyes and bleeding. She also alleges that Combs was involved in blowing up rival rapper Kid Cudi’s car when he learned Cudi was romantically interested in her, and she alleges that Combs ran out of his home with guns when he learned Suge Knight, a rival producer, was eating at a nearby diner.

On the media’s request to view sexually explicit material in the trial

Judge Arun Subramanian says he’s inclined to grant a request by media organizations to view what a defense lawyer described as pornographic videos that will be shown to the jury as evidence in the case.

But he’s giving the parties another day to make submissions on the matter. The judge says he needs to balance privacy issues of the witnesses and defendant with the rights of the public to know what’s happening during the trial.

Combs’ appearance in court

Since his September arrest, Combs has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn.

Judge Arun Subramanian has granted Combs permission to wear regular clothes in court, instead of jail garb.

He is allowed up to five button-down shirts, five pairs of pants, five sweaters, five pairs of socks and two pairs of shoes without laces.

On Monday, he sported a gray sweater and a white button-down shirt. Because hair dye isn’t allowed in jail, his normally jet black mane is now mostly gray.

Under federal court rules, no photos or video of the trial will be allowed. Courtroom sketches are permitted.

Testimony on Tuesday morning

Testimony will continue with the cross examination of a male stripper who says he was hired by Combs and his girlfriend — R&B singer Cassie — to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and sometimes directed what should happen.

A defense lawyer said he expects to question the witness, Daniel Phillip, for about an hour.

Phillip set to retake the stand Tuesday

Daniel Phillip is set to retake the stand when court reconvenes on Tuesday.

Phillip told jurors that Combs was coy about his identity when they first met in 2012 at a Manhattan hotel.

The rap star wore a ball cap, obscured his face with a bandana and claimed to be in the importing and exporting industry, Phillip said.

The witness testified that it wasn’t until a subsequent encounter at a different hotel when Combs revealed who he was, answering the door in a suit and peacoat.

Judge rejects claim that Combs was treated differently because of his race

The judge presiding over the racketeering and sex trafficking trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs said last week there was no evidence to back up his lawyers’ claim he was treated differently because of his race.

Judge Arun Subramanian said Combs had shown no evidence of discriminatory effect or intent based on his race, when his lawyers made their arguments in Manhattan federal court in February. In a separate written opinion, the judge also refused to suppress evidence in the case.

The lawyers had written that the prosecution was unprecedented because, “most disturbingly, no white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution.”

The judge agreed with arguments by prosecutors that the extent of criminal conduct by Combs from 2004 to 2024 — when he was alleged to have overseen a racketeering enterprise that enabled him to sexually abuse women — was enough to separate the case against him from other prosecutions.

“It’s the severity of what Combs allegedly did — not his race — that mattered,” the judge wrote.