So here we are, day one of the federal racketeering, sex trafficking, and prostitution trial against rap mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs. This is Laura Coates, CNN Anchor and Chief Legal Analyst and former federal prosecutor. I focused on sex crimes and violent activity. And today, I watched it all come together in a lower Manhattan courtroom where Sean 'Diddy' Combs is sitting trial for five felony charges. I would have bring you inside the courtroom. And show you exactly what I saw, and help you understand what we will see next. From CNN, I'm Laura Coates, and this is Trial by Jury.

Sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping. Bribery and the obstruction of justice.

What prosecutors have done here is allege that Sean Combs was at the head of a criminal enterprise that committed multiple crimes that were connected to one another.

If convicted, Sean Combs could spend the rest of his life in prison.

'I was sitting in that courtroom watching everything unfold, watching when 'Diddy' walked in gray-haired to match the gray wardrobe that he had on. 14 members of his family inside of that room, including his children, his mother sitting, and at one point moving her seat to sit directly behind her son in the event that he would turn around to look at her. And he did, at times mouthing, I love you. Blowing a kiss to his children, and at one point, mouthing, I'm sorry, to his mother. Finally, we know what the prosecution will argue and the defense. The prosecution is saying, look, Diddy thought he was the king. He had vast resources, power, control, and he used his inner circle to exploit women and victims. How? He forced them through drug use and coercion and threats of releasing films of them participating in so-called "freak-offs," days-long drug-fueled, non-consensual sexual acts for money. Well, when he would threaten to release the videos, he expected the victims to conform, and prosecution says they did. Now, the defense, interestingly enough, they took a different route. They said, you know what, he is a domestic abuser. He is a drug user. He does have a bad temper, and he loots control because of his jealousy. But none of that is charged, and is not a racketeer or a sex trafficker. Instead, they say, just as he owns his personal accountability and responsibility for the things that he has willingly done, they expect the same of the victims, who they characterize as jealous women who simply wanted to secure his affection and be first in his life. They claim that the victims are, in fact, just trying to get a money grab and a payday, and they want the jurors to question the timing of why now and why they stayed. They claim everyone was getting something they wanted from Diddy, and they were no different. We knew that the video obtained by CNN of an alleged beating of Cassie Ventura inside of an LA hotel, it was going to come up during this trial. When and how, no one knew. But right out of the gate, it was addressed by both the defense and the prosecution, and it was shown to the jurors who watched intently in full. Well, in that video, you saw Cassie Ventura in the elevator bank outside of the hotel room that she shared with 'Diddy' Combs. You see from behind her be snatched by her hoodie and thrown to the ground by what appears to be an enraged Diddy, wearing only a towel and colorful socks. She is kicked on the ground. She is dragged by her hoodie, and it looks to be her hair throughout the hallway. I had been wondering all along, much like all of you, ever since I saw that hotel footage, of the alleged beating of Cassie Ventura, well, how is the defense going to deal with it? How are they going to address the now elephant in the room? You know who I wanna hear from next? Elizabeth Wagmeister, our CNN entertainment correspondent who has been breaking news in this case for months. Here's what she saw today that she thinks the jurors are going to pay attention to.

So Laura, I want to give my biggest takeaway, which I think you and me share because we were trading notes in court, but I was really struck by the defense opening statement. I knew from my latest reporting, which we put out this morning even before court started, I knew that the defense's overarching theme of the strategy was going to be that these are consensual relationships, but what we didn't know is how out front, they would be by essentially saying, this is a bad guy. They said he is a domestic abuser. He has had major substance abuse problems. He has a bad temper. He can be out of control. That is the exact words that his own attorney used. But they said, we're gonna be out front about that. And the reason why is because that is not what he is charged with. He is not charged with domestic violence. He is charged with racketeering conspiracy. Sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. So I think that could prove to be a very effective argument that, hey, all these things that you may think about him are true. But guess what? That's not what you're deliberating on. So I can't wait to see what happens. And I know the two of us will be following this very, very closely.

We're gonna hear from somebody now who's been watching this case closely and frankly, the career of Sean 'Diddy' Combs for decades even closer. A music journalist, a critic, and pop culture correspondent, I'm talking about Touré. And he's here tonight to really get into all of the details of this case. You know, Touré, it's hard to overstate the significance of this trial. This is such a big deal. And that's saying something because, you know, it's been years we're talking about the Me Too movement, Harvey Weinstein, R. Kelly. What makes this Diddy trial so different?

You know, I mean, I think the nature of the celebrity, the wild nature of some of the allegations, the idea that I think this is somebody who has meant so much to the culture for so long, like we hadn't quite seen like the way that powerful gatekeepers control access and demand people do things for them. And, you know, that's, that the core of this with Cassie. Cassie was a major artist at Bad Boy in the period we're talking about. She was working on an album for 10 years. So she's thinking, you know, part of me having a career and this is the prime of my life. Part of me having a career is going along with what he wants me to do. And I kind of like got to put up with it to get to what I really want, which is to make my album and put it out and have people understand what a great artist I am. And, you know, he wasn't really doing that. The point of all of it was for her to be part of the freak offs. That's why she was there in his mind. But he had her almost like a trapped bird because her livelihood is wrapped up in her relationship with this person. So people could say, well, why didn't she just leave? But that would mean leaving behind all the work she had done for years, ruining her chance to be a recording artist. She would have to be leaving herself entirely and she wasn't able to do that until it became clear to her that she had to.

You know, Touré, you make a great point about what the defense wants people to believe and the prosecution wants people understand. And it goes to the question of why not leave? That's a question on a lot of jurors and the court of public opinion and the courtroom's mind. But tie this back to me about how one's livelihood could be at stake. As the allegations suggest, she didn't feel free to go.

Dating your boss. It becomes difficult to have autonomy when you're dating your boss. So then your entire work life and your romantic life are all tied together. And he wasn't really intending to have this album come out. The album project was meant to make her think that she was working on an album so that she would be ready when he wanted to do. The other thing, which actually, I think we have learned that that their name for it was "Wild King nights," right? Not "freak off." "Freak off" is like what we at media started calling when we got deeper into it. I mean, some of the, Laura, some of the things that they specifically said happened in these "Wild King nights" were very, I mean I wonder if you would even be comfortable just repeating the things you heard that were said in open court. That are repeated, that are just basic facts of what happened.

An interesting part of that was that the person who claims that they paid him to perform and have sex says, I never once thought of myself as a prostitute. I was so enamored with being included in this way of life and being around people with this notoriety and being in this circle that I was just happy to be there. Now, you can imagine what impact that might have on a jury who is sitting across who they know is a worldwide celebrity. But I tell you, what was really shocking, and I think this is why everyone is looking at this in particular, is that this is a trial that the entire industry is watching, right? It's not just about 'Diddy.' The players that are involved, that are known, include people like Cassie. The jury themselves, Touré, had to answer a list of questions about all the different people and celebrity names they may have known. Tell me why the industry is watching this so closely.

I mean, I think the industry is watching this because we have known 'Puff' for 30 years and you, you can mark people dating themselves, the older folks who've known him for a long time, we call him 'Puff,' 'Puffy,' 'Puff Daddy,' you know, millennials are like, no, it's 'Diddy.' So being like, you, we've seen this like long development and this, this downfall moment has been happening for several years now. It's surprising to me that they allowed jurors who said they had seen the Cassie beating video because I don't know why the defense would be okay with that. But then of course the first thing the prosecution did was play the tape. Basically the first in their case, which I mean if you haven't seen it and as a way of setting the table for who this person is nothing could be more devastating than starting with that

They played that video probably eight or nine times, slowing it down in terms of breaking it up in different pockets of time as well, little snippets. But you know what they did? The defense, and it might surprise you, Touré, the defense called the action indefensible. Said we own domestic violence. They went as far as to suggest, look, 'Diddy' may be a domestic abuser, a drug user, but he's not a racketeer, they said, not a sexual trafficker, and domestic violence is not sexual trafficking. In many ways, they are banking on people saying, look, I don't like him, he's a bad person, a bad temper, but did the prosecution charge the right type of crime where I can convict? That's what they're trying to figure out. And you know...

Yeah, they're going for racketeering, which is much higher than an individual crime against an individual person. Now, all they need to do, I mean, I'm not a lawyer, but all they need do is prove that he had a criminal enterprise and we see he's committing crimes. Cassie is saying he's committed crimes on my body. And there are other people he's professionally engaged with who are helping him. Did he book the hotel? No, did he clean up the, you know, the blood or whatever after? No. So they are facilitating that and they're on his payroll. That's racketeering. I'm not sure how his attorney gets out of that and they haven't explained, unless they're trying, they're gonna say that Cassie was in this, but that wanted to do this and was a willing participant, but when she gets on the stand and cries. And then they try to cross examine her and say, why didn't you leave? And she cries, how do you get past that?

We'll be right back.

'You know, this is going to be the challenge for both sides. On the one hand, racketeering, they are trying to suggest that the inside circle, or the inner circle, and his high-level employees, chiefs of staff, and bodyguards, the prosecution was very clear today, Touré, that these are the people that are part of the enterprise. And they would do anything the so-called king wanted, including providing additional linens and astroglide and drugs and IVs, that they were the ones to facilitate this, and they even went further, they claim, to engage in kidnapping and threats and everything in between. And so you're going to have this really important moment where the jury has it in their brain now. These things happen. Now they've got to back it up, not just opening statements, but during the actual course of the trial. And you know, one thing that the prosecution and defense seem to agree on today, Touré, I want you to comment on this. They both seem to refer to 'Diddy' as one of the most iconic figures in the music industry. No one shied away from this man being so well known.

I don't know, Laura. I don t know that this has, I don't look at this as being about the music industry. This sort of casting couch manipulation, gatekeeper abuse happens throughout entertainment. We already have Harvey Weinstein in prison. We already other people in the music business who've been run out of the music business for treating people horrifically. We're not saying that this is okay obviously this is horrific but this is endemic to entertainment broadly so i don't think this makes a statement about like oh the music industry is challenged the music industry is going to have to change you know it's if this this is a problem throughout entertainment. You know, any, when you have younger people who are dying for a certain kind of success, fame. And there's a small number of gatekeepers who can present whether or not they can get there, get to that level of fame, the potential for corruption that we're sort of talking about is rampant.

A really important point that the, interestingly enough, that the defense wanted on full display. They kept saying, this is somebody whose ingenuity made him magnetic, Touré. And people wanted to be in his orbit. And they seemed to suggest that not only did the victims in this case get caught in that orbit, but that they were willing, ready, and able, because they wanted to stay in that orbit. And the jury will have to evaluate that.

He wasn't just, he's so charismatic and nice, everyone wants to be around him.

That's the prosecution's case, right? He was violent.

He had opportunities that he's doling out to people. Yeah, Cassie, Lil Rod, you know, Freddy P, whoever. You want to be a singer? You want be a producer? You want want to in the industry? Like come hang out with me and I can get you there. But now if you want to get there, you got to do what I want to do. And I say, take a drink. I say let me touch you on the butt. I say you know I want you to do this with me overnight. And like, either you do it or you leave the industry. And those are tough choices for a lot of people.

Touré, good to have you on my friend, I called him during the dinner hour. Good to have this moment with you.

Thanks, Laura. I'll see you later.

Thanks, Touré. Tomorrow, the trial continues in New York. We'll be back later this week and all the updates you need to hear. Make sure to follow Trial by Jury from CNN wherever you get your podcasts. This show is produced by Graelyn Brashear, Paola Ortiz, Dan Bloom, Alexandra Saddler, and Rachid Haoues. Our technical director is Dan Dzula, and executive producer of CNN Audio is Steve Lickteig with support from Emily Williams, Kyra Dahring, Robert Mathers, Alex Manasseri, Lisa Namerow, and Jamus Andrest. I'm Laura Coates, and I'm here for it.