Ex-publicist says former music mogul ‘plans his life like a movie’
Is Sean “Diddy” Combs using a Bible as a prop for his sex trafficking trial?
Combs, 55, of Miami, Florida, was reportedly seen in a New York federal courtroom with “a Bible at his table and was reading scriptures before opening statements from the prosecution and his defense team,” according to the tabloid outlet TMZ.
The embattled music mogul, who is on trial for charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, had his family supporting him in the courtroom Monday. If convicted, he could face anywhere from 15 years to life in federal prison.
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While Combs’ religious identity is unknown, Rob Shuter, Combs’ former publicist, said he’s skeptical that Combs — whom he referred to by Combs’ former moniker “Puffy” — has experienced a change of heart since his trial began.
“Once I was with Puffy flying on a private plane and I had all the press there to see his arrival, and Puff was really mad with me because he didn’t want the press filming him arriving in his car,” Shuter said on “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.” “He wanted the airplane behind him, he thought that image would be better.
“The reason I tell you that story is that those are the type of details that really matter to him. So when you see him reading the Bible, when you see him with gray hair, when you see him staring at the jury … none of that is by accident. All of that is planned. Puffy plans his life like a movie and he’s the director and the star.”
Combs has shared publicly that he was raised in a Catholic home, went to Catholic school in Maryland and even served as an altar boy at one point. He told The Telegraph in 2008 that he no longer identifies with any denomination or faith tradition. “I just follow right from wrong, so I could pray in a synagogue or a mosque or a church. I believe that there is only one God,” he said.
In a 2023 interview, before he legally changed his middle name to “Love,” Combs said he believed that God was a woman. “And then, one day God came to me, and God’s a woman. So She was like, ‘It’s time, baby,” said Combs.
Since his arrest in September, Combs has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a facility notorious for violence and poor medical care where other high-profile inmates have been housed in recent years, including R. Kelly, Ghislane Maxwell and Sam Bankman-Fried.
On Monday, Combs pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment, which includes one count of racketeering conspiracy, and two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. Combs is also charged with two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Prosecutors say Combs used “the business empire he controlled to sexually abuse and exploit women, as well as to commit other acts of violence and obstruction of justice,” where he allegedly coerced women into drug-fueled sexual interactions. He also threatened his victims via threats to leak “embarrassing and sensitive recordings” he made of them participating in these interactions, according to prosecutors.
