Entertainment
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sex Crimes Trial To Begin Monday
Jury selection is set to begin Monday in New York in the blockbuster trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who dramatically fell from grace following his incarceration on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Combs, 55, has been awaiting his day in court since last year on accusations of leading a crime ring that prosecutors say coerced victims into drug-fueled sex parties using threats and violence.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges, insisting that any sex acts were consensual. At a recent hearing, his attorney Marc Agnifilo offered a preview of his team’s defense by describing the artist’s free-wheeling “swinger” lifestyle.
The prosecution said in court it had offered Combs a plea deal — the specifics were not disclosed — but that he had rejected it.
If convicted, the one-time rap producer and global superstar, who is often credited for his role in ushering hip-hop into the mainstream, could spend the rest of his life in prison.
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Over the decades, the artist — who has gone by various stage names including Puff Daddy and P Diddy — amassed vast wealth for his work in music but also his ventures in the liquor industry.
The jury selection start date is notably the first Monday in May — which annually marks New York’s Met Gala, a glittering celebrity charity bash where Combs was once a red carpet mainstay.
Just two years ago, he posed for the cameras at that event uptown — but on Monday, he will be in downtown in federal court, as the panel of citizens tasked with determining his fate face a barrage of questions from lawyers on both sides.
Jury selection is expected to wrap up in about a week, with opening statements tentatively scheduled for May 12.Combs was arrested by federal agents in New York in September 2024 and denied bail multiple times.
He is being held at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center, a facility plagued by complaints of vermin and decay as well as violence.
High-profile inmates there have included disgraced R&B star R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur convicted of fraud.
During pre-trial hearings, Combs has appeared in court looking remarkably aged, his once jet-black, styled coif now overgrown and gray.
‘Freak-offs’
Central to the case is Combs’s relationship with his former girlfriend, the singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who is expected to be a key trial witness.
A disturbing surveillance video from 2016, which was aired by CNN last year, shows Combs physically assaulting Ventura at a hotel.
Prosecutors say the encounter occurred following one of the “freak-offs” they argue were a feature of his pattern of abuse.
The so-called “freak-offs” were coercive, drug-fueled sexual marathons including sex workers that were sometimes filmed, according to the indictment.
It’s unclear how much of the CNN video will be shown to jurors as evidence in court — the footage’s quality has been a sticking point between the opposing legal teams — but Judge Arun Subramanian has ruled that at least some of it will be admissible.
Combs has no major convictions but has long been trailed by allegations of physical assault, dating back well into the 1990s.
The floodgates against the Grammy winner opened after Ventura filed a civil suit alleging Combs subjected her to more than a decade of coercion by physical force and drugs as well as a 2018 rape.
That 2023 suit was quickly settled out of court, but a string of similarly lurid sexual assault claims from both women and men followed — and the federal criminal indictment dropped after a raid of his luxury properties in Miami and Los Angeles.
The indictment includes a charge of racketeering conspiracy, the federal statute known by its acronym RICO that was once seen as primarily targeting the mafia but in recent years has also been wielded frequently in cases of sexual abuse.
It allows government attorneys to project a long view of criminal activity rather than prosecuting isolated sex crimes, and requires proving “predicate acts” — the crimes elemental to the wider pattern of illegal wrongdoing.
In 2021, it was successfully used to convict R. Kelly, the fallen R&B hitmaker who was sentenced to more than 30 years of prison including for child sex crimes.
Industry watchers are also monitoring Combs’s case as a potential inflection point in the music world which, beyond the case of Kelly, has largely evaded the #MeToo reckoning that has rocked Hollywood.
AFP
Grammy-winning Nigerian singer Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems, has sparked controversy after declaring herself “a Jesus baby.”
The Crazy Tings crooner made the declaration while responding to a question about her zodiac sign in an interview with The People Gallery at the 2025 Fashion Awards.
“Oh, I’m a Jesus baby. My sign is love, peace and joy,” she said.
This earned Tems backlash after a clip of the interview went viral on social media, with critics chastising her for associating herself with Jesus despite being a secular artist.
Read some of the reactions on X below: xm_muva wrote: “She [Tems] makes worldly music and shakes her fine ass on stage to the entire world. Christians are hypocrites lol. Y’all think your religion is a buffet, bro. Be free, ah?”
Phena95 opined: “Jesus or Christianity is not an aesthetic; it’s not just about love, joy and peace. Repentance as well.”
Chocodilish wrote: “Add some personality to your music, this Jesus baby bllsht is killing your brand abeg.”
max_sticks said: “It’s funny when I see believers attacking her [Tems] for doing too much. Your identity is Christ and not one useless zodiac sign, please.”
Gigialwashere added: “I agree with her [Tems]. Grown past being a Gemini, now I identify as a Jesus baby.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Friday told a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja that it has no evidence to support the allegation that Jude and Paul Okoye of P-Square fraudulently withdrew $800,000, contrary to claims made by their brother, Peter Okoye.
Peter had in 2024 petitioned the EFCC accusing Jude of diverting the P-Square group funds, operating 47 undeclared bank accounts and manipulating the share structure of Northside Entertainment Ltd, a company jointly owned by them
The EFCC subsequently filed charges against Jude over alleged financial misconduct in the management of the P-Square brand.
During resumed cross-examination, EFCC counsel, M.K. Bashir, told Justice Rahman Oshodi that the commission could not present evidence for the alleged withdrawal.
When asked by the judge to substantiate Peter’s claim, Bashir said: “We do not have it. It is his evidence. Let him prove it. I can’t give what I don’t have.”
Peter had testified on May 23, 2025, that he obtained new evidence showing how Jude and Paul allegedly withdrew and shared more than $800,000 between March 2023 and October 2024.
But when defence counsel, Clement Onwuenwunor, SAN, confronted him with inconsistencies, he shifted his position, stating that the alleged withdrawal actually occurred between 2013 and 2014.
The defence further challenged Peter’s assertion that Jude operated 47 bank accounts.
Peter insisted the EFCC held the evidence, but Bashir denied the claim, saying: “I do not have 47 bank accounts. It is one of the witness’s claims, but I do not have such a copy.”
Onwuenwunor asked the court to order Peter and the EFCC to produce the alleged 47 accounts.
Justice Oshodi however rejected the request and ruled that the defence must apply formally since the documents were neither before the court nor part of the admitted evidence.
The defence also confronted Peter over his claim that Jude owned 80 per cent of Northside Entertainment.
Although Peter maintained he had proof, the defence tendered CAC records contradicting his assertion.
Peter was further questioned on his claim that he was unaware of the existence of Northside Music and that Jude signed artist Cynthia Morgan without his knowledge.
He said he only discovered the company in 2024 when Cynthia Morgan sent him her contract on Northside Entertainment letterhead, adding that while the contract was signed with Northside Music, her albums were credited to Northside Inc.
Justice Oshodi adjourned the matter to December 12, 2025, for continuation of trial.
Late American singer, Michael Jackson, has been crowned the highest-paid deceased celebrity of 2025.
The ‘King of pop’ topped the list of the highest-paid deceased celebrities of 2025 recently released by Forbes.
According to the magazine, Jackson earned $105 million over the past year, more than any other late icon by a wide margin.
The majority of Jackson’s recent earnings came from the 2024 sale of a 50% stake in his master recordings and publishing catalog to Sony Music for $600 million.
Other musicians on Forbes’ annual list of top-earning deceased celebrities cover ten of the top thirteen spots including Prince, John Lennon, and Bob Marley. Collectively, the group earned $541 million in the past year.
Since Jackson’s death in 2009, his estate has generated a staggering $3.5 billion, making him the most posthumously successful celebrity of all time
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