Federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove Monday that Sean “Diddy” Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires for two decades. Testimony in Combs’ New York trial could begin as soon as the afternoon, after a final phase of jury selection and opening statements from the lawyers.
Combs, wearing a white sweater and with his formerly jet-black hair now almost completely gray, entered the courtroom shortly before 9 a.m., hugging lawyers and giving a thumbs up to supporters seated in wooden court benches behind him. Earlier in the morning, a line to get into the courthouse stretched all the way down the block. Combs’ mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and brought straight into the building.
