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The major outlines of the prosecution of the music mogul Sean Combs have taken shape in a Manhattan courtroom. But several issues at the core of the case remain unanswered.
May 23, 2025, 8:00 a.m. ET
After two weeks of testimony in the racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking trial of Sean Combs, the rapper and producer known as Diddy, much of the prosecution’s central narrative is clear. Mr. Combs, they say, used his power and wealth, along with violence and threats of blackmail, to coerce women into complying with his elaborate sexual demands that included commercial sex workers.
Such coercive behavior was enabled, the government argues, by members of his staff, who helped to arrange and stock the marathon sex sessions known as “freak-offs” and to clean up any fallout from Mr. Combs’s entanglements.
The groundwork of the defense’s counternarrative has been laid firmly, as well. Mr. Combs, they have argued, while jealous, aggressive and drug-addicted, had nontraditional but consensual sex with long-term girlfriends. That may have led to damaging, interpersonal chaos but it was not sex trafficking, Mr. Combs’s lawyers have argued.
Even as some of the contours of the case have become more clear through the testimony of Casandra Ventura, Mr. Combs’s former girlfriend, and others, major lingering questions will remain when the trial continues next week. Below are three unresolved issues that could affect how the trial, which is estimated to last about six more weeks, pans out.
What happened to ‘Victim-3’?
Before trial, the government repeatedly referred to a woman it called Victim-3, saying that she was subjected to sexual coercion by Mr. Combs outside of any freak-off activity. She was listed prominently in the indictment as an additional person whose experience would demonstrate that Mr. Combs’s conduct hurt people beyond Ms. Ventura, the singer known as Cassie who is the prosecution’s star witness.
But for reasons that have yet to be explained publicly, Victim-3 is no longer expected to take the stand, according to the lawyers involved. The trouble first surfaced two weeks ago when prosecutors told the court they were having a hard time reaching her lawyer.
