Sean Combs' Trial: He 'Ran a Criminal Enterprise'

The jury is seated, and now the actual trial is underway for Sean "Diddy" Combs. The 55-year-old music mogul may spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted in his sex-trafficking and racketeering trial. The big question for the jury is whether Combs ran what amounted to a criminal operation, one that federal prosecutors allege resulted in multiple abused women. The trial is expected to last eight weeks. Highlights from opening statements:

• "To the public he was Puff Daddy or Diddy, a cultural icon, a businessman, larger than life," said prosecutor Emily Johnson, reports CBS News. "But there was another side to him—a side that ran a criminal enterprise." She told the jury they would hear about Combs' crimes, "but he didn't do it alone. He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and helped him cover them up."

• And perhaps trying to undercut a likely defense, Johnson emphasized to jurors that "this case is not about a celebrity's private sexual preferences," reports the New York Times. She said Combs coerced women into sex through violence and threats, and drugged them as well—all with the help of his entourage.
• The defense is expected to argue that all the sex was consensual and accuse the government of prosecutorial overreach into Combs' "swinger" lifestyle, per USA Today.

(More Sean Combs stories.)