NEW YORK >> The public knew Sean “Diddy” Combs as a larger-than-life cultural icon and business mogul, but in private he used violence and threats to coerce women into drug-fueled sexual encounters that he recorded, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at Combs’ sex trafficking trial.

“This is Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told the Manhattan jury as she pointed at Combs, who leaned back in his chair. “During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes.”

Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.

On the contrary, the trial is a misguided overreach by prosecutors trying to turn consenting sex between adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case, Combs’ lawyer Teny 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 told the jury of eight men and four women. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”

Geragos conceded that Combs’ violent outbursts, often fueled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not sex trafficking and racketeering counts. She told jurors they might think Combs’ is a “jerk” and might not condone his “kinky sex,” but “he’s not charged with being mean. He’s not charged with being a jerk.”

Combs, in a white sweater, entered the packed courtroom shortly before 9 a.m., hugged his lawyers and gave a thumbs-up to family and friends.

The case has drawn intense public interest, and the line to get into the courthouse stretched down the block. Combs’ mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and into the building.

Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could land him in prison for at least 15 years if he is convicted on all charges. He has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest in September.

Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but not illegal.