As Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs awaits trial in Brooklyn’s notoriously dangerous and unhygienic Metropolitan Detention Centre, the start of his trial probably feels like a long way off. For those seeking answers about his alleged crimes, however, the 5 May cannot come soon enough.

In October, the music mogul was indicted on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution and he has repeatedly been denied bail. His trial is set to be one of the most high-profile sex trafficking trials of the 21st century. If found guilty, Combs faces life imprisonment, but he has so far denied all allegations against him and plans to plead not guilty in court.

Up until December, his case was being overseen by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams. However, following Donald Trump’s election victory, Williams made the decision to resign from his post.

An accomplished legal mind, Williams was involved in the prosecution of several high-profile individuals, including Ghislaine Maxwell, Sam Bankman-Fried – who Combs is currently sharing a cell with in the MDC –NYC Mayor Eric Adams and US Senator Bob Menendez. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison last March and both Adams and Menendez, whose cases are ongoing, deny all allegations made against them.

‘Today is a bittersweet day for me, as I announce my resignation as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,” Williams said in a statement last November. ‘It is bitter in the sense that I am leaving my dream job, leading an institution I love that is filled with the finest public servants in the world.  It is sweet in that I am confident I am leaving at a time when the Office is functioning at an incredibly high level – upholding and exceeding its already high standard of excellence, integrity, and independence.’

His deputy, Ed Kim, took up his post in the interim period before Trump’s return to the White House. However, now that Trump has been sworn back into office for a second term, he has already announced his plans to nominate former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, for the coveted position. As Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, it is one of the most high-profile roles in the country.

Clayton has certainly curried favour with Trump over the years, having been nominated
to be SEC chairman in January 2017 when Trump first became president. He oversaw several high-profile prosecutions during his tenure and increased the number of insider trading cases in his first two years. 

When Clayton resigned in 2020, Trump nominated him to become the US attorney for the Southern District of New York for the first time. However, he was not selected. The lawyer said he originally wanted to take up the post because he had a ‘strong desire to continue in public service’ and move his family back to New York.

Now, of course, he is expected to take up the post and, as one of Trump’s ‘more pliant’ appointments, Clayton is likely to bring a different approach the role than Williams. As for what that means for Combs’ upcoming trial, and whether Clayton will be more sympathetic than his predecessor, it is too soon to tell.

However, Trump’s previous ties with Combs have not gone unnoticed. The president might not have commented on Combs’ active legal issues, but he has sung his praises in the past. In a clip from The Celebrity Apprentice in 2012, the contestant Aubrey O’Day briefly mentioned her experience with Combs while she was in the girl group Danity Kane, and Trump jumped to his defence. He called Combs a ‘good guy’ and a ‘good friend’ and said, ‘I love Diddy’.

Following Combs’ sex trafficking charges, O’Day has come forward with allegations that the rapper ‘groomed’ her while she was on the show Making The Band in 2005. It is one of a litany of allegations the rapper faces, several of which are set to be explored in the Max docueries, The Fall Of Diddy, which airs on 27 January. The series spans Combs’ decades-long career and include first-hand accounts and archival footage ‘offering personal insights into harrowing allegations of violent behaviour and illegal activity that have shadowed the music mogul’.

Meanwhile, the Texas-based lawyer, Tony Buzbee, says he is representing 120 different accusers who allege misconduct against Combs over the course of two decades, ranging in age from nine to 38. Combs has denied all allegations.

If Trump or any of his senior officials were to offer Combs their public support, it would certainly prove controversial. However, it would not be the first time Trump has had a close relationship with someone awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The president is also said to have had ties to the American financier and child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide while awaiting trial in 2019. Last year, the US journalist Michael Wolff claimed to have some ‘100 hours of Epstein talking about the inner workings of the Trump White House and about his longstanding, deep relationship with Donald Trump’.

This is something Trump seemingly played down once Epstein was arrested in 2019. ‘I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you,’ he said. Wolff’s assessment, however, is that the pair were closer than either of them let on. ‘Here are these two guys both driven by a need to do anything they wanted with women: dominance and submission and entertainment,’ the journalist says on his Fire and Fury podcast. ‘And one of them ends up in the darkest prison in the country and the other in the White House.’

In response to the podcast last November, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, said, ‘Wolff is a disgraced writer who routinely fabricates lies in order to sell fiction books because he clearly has no morals or ethics’. She accused the author of making ‘outlandish false smears’ and engaging in ‘blatant election interference on behalf of Kamala Harris’.

Two days into his presidency and Trump has already made a sweep of executive orders, including plans to walk back on action against climate change and a promise to restore ‘free speech’ in the US. His power is certainly something to behold. As for whether that power will have any bearing on Comb’s upcoming trial, the extent of their ‘friendship’ is set to be put to the test.