The Diddy Trial: How Power, Money, and Misogyny Protected a Predator
CW: This post contains mentions of sexual and gender-based violence.
This week, witnesses began testifying against Sean “Diddy” Combs, who faces charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transporting women across state lines for prostitution.
Testimonies describe harrowing patterns: women being drugged, coerced, and violently abused.
Prosecutors allege Combs ran a network of enablers—including employees, associates,
and security staff—who helped recruit, control,
and silence women. This included arranging
travel, supplying drugs, facilitating sex acts,
and covering up the abuse.
Sources: BBC, CNN
Central to this case is testimony from R&B singer and former partner, Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura
Ventura courageously testified over four days about the decade of violence and exploitation she endured at the hands of Combs, which began when she was just 19 years old and he was 37. She described systematic abuse including emotional abuse, physical abuse and drug-fueled sexual encounters with sex workers.
Sources: USA Today, ABC News
Photo: Reuters, Shutterstock
“He would put his hands on me. He would grab me up, push me down, hit me on the side of the head, kick me.”
Cassie Ventura testified that Sean Combs systematically forced her into "freak offs"—coercive sexual performances where she was made to engage in acts with paid sex workers while he watched and recorded.
These orchestrated ordeals lasted for days and involved drugs.
She testified that this devastated her health, causing chronic infections, gastrointestinal issues, and opioid dependency to "feel numb" from the trauma.
Like many survivors, Cassie tried to refuse these exploitative acts, she feared Combs' violent retaliation and feared escape.
Sources: ABC news, Rolling Stone, Today
Ventura said she was forced to have sex with male sex workers while Combs watched and filmed.
Prosecutors say other women were trafficked for the same purpose, with encounters often involving MDMA and up to 10 bottles of baby oil per night during freak offs that lasted for days.
Sexual violence against sex workers is widespread and often overlooked.
Source: ABC news
Photo: Reuters, Jane Rosenberg
Globally, sex workers face alarming rates of violence.
Sex workers face a 45% to 75% chance of experiencing sexual violence on the job, globally.
Sex workers report violence to police at very low rates, largely due to fear of arrest, deportation, or abuse.
Migrant and LGBTQ+ sex workers are at even higher risk.
Sources: Gender Policy Report UNM, International Union of Sex Workers
Black women's stories of abuse are systematically silenced—a deliberate failure of systems that protect powerful men. Law enforcement and the media routinely fail Black survivors, allowing predators to operate with impunity.
This isn't coincidence—it's systematic abandonment. Black women are killed by men at three times the rate of white women and experience domestic violence at disproportionate rates, yet when they speak out, they face disbelief and institutional indifference rooted in misogyny and anti-Blackness.
The Combs case doesn't just expose one predator—it reveals an entire system that treats Black women as disposable, their pain as unworthy of protection or justice.
Too often, survivors are asked why they stayed, instead of holding abusers accountable.
Survivors don’t owe us neat timelines or flawless stories. They deserve safety, support, and belief.
Domestic & Sexual violence can happen to anyone and is NEVER the victim-survivor’s fault.
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Resources for those
who may need help
@ndvhofficial
@rainn
@childhelp
@nrcdv
@deafhotline
@niwrc
@strongheartsDV
@futureswithoutviolence
@womenforwomen
@respect_uk
@fullstopaustralia
@blackandmissingfdn
U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233
UK National Domestic Abuse Hotline: 0808 2000 247
AUS
Helpline: 1800
RESPECT: 1800 737 732
AUS
Lifeline: 13 11 14
U.S.
National Sexual Assault hotline: 800-656-4673
U.S.
National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 988
