Cassie Ventura and “Jane” are both “capable, strong” women who chose to remain with Sean Combs, the defense insisted during opening statements.

Ventura was “not coerced to engage in this sex life,” and “Jane” was “desperate” to be with Combs, defense attorney Teny Geragos said.

According to Geragos, Ventura attended the funeral of Kim Porter in 2018 when she heard Combs call Porter his soulmate. The defense attorney said it became clear to Cassie then that she was never going to be the love of Combs' life and so she left him with no repercussions.

When Ventura testifies it will be the first time that she and Combs have seen each other since that day in 2018, according to Geragos.

“What he understood was that she was a willing participant in their sex life,” Geragos said, and suggested Ventura is now motivated by money.
Geragos said “Jane” and Combs had a “toxic, dysfunctional” relationship but the defense attorney insisted that she, too, was a willing participant in sexual activity.

“Being a willing participant in your own sex life is not sex trafficking,” Geragos said.

Geragos said jurors may find videos of the sexual activities difficult to watch “because they were never meant to be seen” and are “intimate.”

Federal prosecutors said the videos are evidence of the alleged blackmail that Combs used against women who did not obey him.

In opening statements, Combs' defense attorney, Teny Geragos, said Combs may come across as mean but reminded jurors that he's "not charged with being mean, he’s not charged with being a jerk.”

Geragos insisted that the criminal charges Combs faces relate to his private, personal sex life. “The government has no place here,” she said.

The defense conceded Combs “has a temper” and “got violent” when they say he drank or used drugs but insisted domestic violence was not part of any RICO conspiracy or was meant to coerce women into sexual acts.

The defense said the 2016 hotel security video of Combs and Cassie, in which Combs physically attacks her, shows a fight over a phone. Geragos said what is depicted in the video “is dehumanizing and violent and terrible” but not evidence of sex trafficking.

“It is evidence of domestic violence,” Geragos said.

Geragos said Combs led a “swingers’ lifestyle” and downplayed “freak offs” as consensual threesomes.

“That may not be what you like to do in your bedroom,” Geragos said. “But you are not here to judge him for his sexual preferences.”

Prosecutor Emily Johnson urged the jury not to believe how the defense characterized the evidence, which they said shows, among other things, Combs violently forcing Cassie and 'Jane' to participate in freak-offs under the threat of releasing videos of the event. Prosecutors have previously pointed to the 2016 video of Combs kicking and dragging Cassie as evidence of allegedly sex trafficking his then-girlfriend for a “freak off” in which she was forced to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes.

After the prosecution announced Cassie Ventura, “Jane" and others will testify at trial, defense attorney Teny Geragos, in her opening statement, accused the government of trying to turn relationships and choices involving consenting adults into a racketeering case.

“It will not work,” Geragos said.

“Sean Combs is a complicated man but this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Geragos said.

Sean Combs, the “musician who created an empire,” also ran a criminal enterprise with his “trusted inner circle” that committed “crime after crime” for 20 years, including kidnapping, arson, drug offenses, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction, a federal prosecutor said Monday in opening statements.

The prosecutor also detailed Combs’ alleged dealings with ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and another anonymous victim.

The prosecution described how Combs allegedly “used lies, drugs, threats and violence to threaten and coerce first Cassie and then 'Jane' to have sex with him in front of male escorts.”

Combs had no discernible expression on his face as the prosecutor recounted the acts he allegedly committed. His six children and his mother are seated in the second row listening to all of it.