Sean “Diddy” Combs trial on sex trafficking and other charges has been set for May 5, 2025, Judge Arun Subramanian determined at a pretrial hearing on Thursday, according to multiple news reports. The date is in line with requests from Combs’ team for an April or May trial.
Combs has been in jail since Sept. 16, when he was arrested in New York on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has has pleaded not guilty.
Thursday was Combs’ first court appearance since his arrest. According to reports, his mother Janice Combs was seen at the courthouse with Combs’ children.
In an apparent pre-emptive move, Combs’ legal team filed a motion Wednesday for an evidentiary hearing that accuses the government of orchestrating a smear campaign by colluding with the media to undermine a fair trial.
According to the memorandum, reviewed by Variety, counsel for Combs claims that there have been numerous attempts in the “government’s scheme” to undermine his right to a fair trial. In the detailed document, they ask that appropriate remedies — including the potential disqualification of witnesses or dismissal of all charges in his indictment — be considered.
In the memorandum, they point to four different tactics of government misconduct, with the most egregious being the CNN leak of Combs allegedly assaulting his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2016. His lawyers state that neither Ventura or a third party were likely sources of the leak, as Ventura would have described it more in detail in her sexual assault lawsuit and a third party would have tried to sell it. Thus, they point to the government as the most viable culprit given the timing of the tape’s release.
According to the indictment, Combs has engaged in violent, abusive and coercive conduct toward women for many years. He is accused of orchestrating multi-day orgies, known as “freak-offs,” in which women would be coerced into having sex with male sex workers, sometimes on camera. The women would also be given ketamine and other drugs, and would require IV fluids afterward to recover, according to the documents.
Combs is also accused of hitting, kicking and dragging women by the hair, along with other violent acts. The documents claim that in 2011, he and an associate kidnapped someone at gunpoint and set fire to another person’s car with a Molotov cocktail.