US v. Sean Combs: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial

Posted at 1:43 PM, June 20, 2025
Associated Press Associated Press and Court TV Staff Court TV Staff and Scripps News Scripps News

NEW YORK — Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing at least 15 years in prison if convicted of all charges at his federal sex trafficking trial.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean "Diddy" Combs appear at the premiere

FILE – Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean “Diddy” Combs appear at the premiere of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story” on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

Prosecutors allege Combs used his “power and prestige” as a music star to induce female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “freak offs.” They say he coerced and abused women with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.

MORE | Exhibits from Diddy’s sex trafficking trial

At the center of the prosecution’s case is Combs’ former girlfriend and protege, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, whom prosecutors allege Combs physically and sexually abused for years, using her career and their relationship as tools to coerce her into submission.

Cassie sued Combs in 2023, and the lawsuit was settled within hours, but it touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits making similar claims.

Combs’ lawyer, Teny Geragos, however, told jurors that prosecutors are trying to turn sex between consenting adults into a sex trafficking case. “Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” she said.

Geragos claimed Combs’ accusers were motivated by money. She told jurors that Cassie demanded $30 million when she sued him, and another witness acknowledged demanding $22 million in a breach of contract lawsuit.

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 a jerk.”

DAILY TRIAL UPDATES

JUMP TO DAY 1

DAY 27 – 6/20/25

  • MORE: ‘Freak off’ videos, juror dismissed & vertigo: Week 6 in Diddy’s trial
  • Brendan Paul, a former Syracuse University basketball player who worked as Diddy’s personal assistant, took the stand Friday.
  • Paul, 26, was arrested last year at a Miami airport with cocaine he says belonged to Combs, and he testified with immunity about what it was like working for the hip-hop entrepreneur for a year and a half. Paul was arrested the same day federal agents conducted multiple searches related to the Combs’ investigation.
    • Paul said that prior to his arrest, he had forgotten about the cocaine after collecting it while “sweeping” Combs’ room that morning and had accidentally left it in a bag he carried as he prepared to go on vacation with Combs and other aides. The charges were dismissed after Paul completed a pretrial diversion program.
  • Paul said he bought drugs for Combs between five and 10 times, spending up to $500 for drugs including cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy and marijuana.
  • Paul said he only did drugs with Combs once, when Combs asked him to try “tusi,” also known as pink cocaine, to see if it was good. He said he did so because he “wanted to prove my loyalty” and said he thought it was good.

DAY 26 – 6/18/25

  • Judge Subramanian came on the bench around 8:55 and announced, “We have a sick juror.” He said the juror’s partner contacted the court and said the juror experienced vertigo-like symptoms of dizziness on their way to the courthouse and turned around and went home. “I don’t think we can proceed today,” the judge said.
  • AUSA Maurene Comey agreed with the judge that they could not proceed today, adding that she didn’t see a reason to dismiss the juror.
  • Comey asked the judge if it was a “temporary impairment,” to which the judge said his staff would make calls and find out.
  • Marc Agnifilo requested a sidebar to ask the judge more questions. After the sidebar, the judge said his staff would make “further inquiries into the juror issue,” then asked the parties if there were any other issues to take up.
  • The defense raised an objection to admitting texts between Combs’ security guard D-Roc (Damian Butler) and a contact identified as “One Stop,” who has been identified in testimony several times as a drug dealer Combs and his team used.
    • Jason Driscoll argued there was no supporting/foundational evidence showing the person D-Roc was texting was indeed One Stop, apart from the name under which the contact was saved.
    • AUSA Steiner argued that the texts themselves are clearly about a drug transaction.
    • Steiner said the government did not plan to introduce the text through a witness but offered to introduce another text between Combs himself and One Stop as additional evidence of One Stop’s identity.
  • Additionally, the judge asked the defense if they had a “live” objection to a portion of the jury charge concerning the Rico predicate.

DAY 25 – 6/17/25

  • Special agent DeLeassa Penland returned to the stand.
    • Penland walked the jury through a comprehensive timeline of texts and phone calls associated with the March 2016 beating of Cassie Ventura and the alleged cover-up involving hotel staff. The timeline started on March 4 with Ventura’s outreach to escorts and ended with Comb’ phone call on Easter to Eddy Garcias asking if anyone had reached out to him about Combs’ purchase of the hotel surveillance video.
      • Among the barrage of calls to Ventura after she left the hotel, Combs falsely told her twice that he was going to be arrested and “if you don’t pick up, you’ll never hear my voice again.”
    • The jury heard about three more “meetings” or “freak offs” from 2009-2014 in which flights were purchased to transport escorts from LA to NYC or NYC to LA using an American Express credit card in Combs’ name. The card’s balance was paid with bank accounts associated with Bad Boy Entertainment Worldwide.
      • The same card and bank accounts were used to pay for hotels associated with the trips and additional consts such as car services from the airport, $438 in alcohol and $740 in Diptyque brand candles.
      • The jury heard about damage to rooms paid for with the American Express and bank accounts linked to Combs’ businesses, including $46k in damage to a penthouse as the InterContinental Hotel in Times Square and $950 in “linen damage/deep cleaning” at L’Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills.
    • During cross-examination, the defense had the jury watch more than 10 minutes of various clips of Cassie Ventura’s “freak off” sex tapes. The longest clip was three minutes, 50 seconds. Jurors appeared attentive to the videos. No one averted their eyes, squirmed in their seats or otherwise shied away from the screens.
      • Jurors viewed the videos on screens in front of their seats with headsets for audio. At one point, the gallery could hear unintelligible voices emanating from the headsets into a microphone, but the issue was corrected. A marshal warned a journalist in the back row who was craning her neck to see the jury’s reaction to stay seated.
      • Combs, wearing a headset, occasionally glanced in the jury’s direction.
    • Combs’ attorney, Teny Geragos, drew attention to messages not included in the government’s chart of supporting evidence, specifically sexually explicit and loving texts and emails between Ventura and Combs concerning the encounters featured in the chart.
  • The courtroom was closed to the public at the end of the day for a sealed hearing.
    • It’s unclear whether it concerned an issue raised in the morning by the judge, who mentioned someone from the prosecution or defense teams possibly leaking information to the media from a closed-door hearing on Friday.

DAY 24 – 6/16/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 24 Recap
  • Judge Arun Subramanian dismissed Juror #6 for his “lack of candor” after giving inconsistent statements about where and with whom he lives, over the defense’s objections. The judge said he took the weekend to consider the defense’s arguments opposing the dismissal and their request to question the juror before dismissing him. Judge Subramanian said further questioning would be inappropriate and offer the juror another chance to “shade” his answers to stay on the jury.
  • Judge Subramanian noted another issue related to a different juror that will be taken up in the afternoon.
  • Paralegal specialist Anaya Sankar, with the Southern District of New York, took the stand as a summary witness to talk about texts, audio and video extracted from Kristina Khorram’s phone that prosecutors hope will connect the dots between Combs and his staff — his alleged coconspirators — as far as what they knew about hotel nights and sex trafficking.
    • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Evidence From Sean Comb’s ‘Right Hand Woman’ 
    • Sankar walked through a 33-page spreadsheet of exhibits that included texts between Khorram and other assistants, Combs, Jane, Cassie Ventura concerning topics including:
      • April 2022 group text about procuring/paying for Guido (a drug dealer) for “tree” and “flower” and “misc”
      • $1200 spent on flower, more due to Guido, let me know if this is approved
      • This has been approved by PD
      • Same vendor as above, additional $1800
      • November 2022 group text about drugs:
        • Khorram: Puff, can you text what you need?”
        • SC: Molly 15 pills don’t text, think
      • 2022 text exchange about coordinating travel for hotel nights for Jane and escort Paul
      • Setup of hotel rooms
        • 2016 Khorram text to assistant Dave Shirley: Heads up, he’s probably about to do a wild king night
        • 2016 assistant Dave Shirley text to Khorram: Oh shit need to reup on baby oil…. Forgot to grab cash
      • 2016 text between DS, Khorram and another assistant, Melissa : [Escort] Clayton Howard needs access to the room… add his name to the room…
      • 2016 text from Khorram to Cassie Ventura: Dave is at your room with the green
      • 2021 text between Combs and Khorram: Is the room ready… I’m on my way, I really don’t want them to know it’s me… hotel called, Paul is coming up
      • 2018 text between Cassie and Khorram:
      • 11/2023 texts between Khorram and Jane before Ventura lawsuit:
        • Jane texted Khorram she’s not doing any more hard partying, no more hotel nights.
        • On cross, the jury heard about texts missing from the government’s chart that followed this remark, in which Khorram and Jane discussed arrangements for Jane to visit.
        • Jane asks Khorram to book a private room at a restaurant and suggests a few options.
      • Post Ventura 11/2023 lawsuit:
        • The jury heard audio files (saved on Khorram’s phone) of phone calls between Combs and Jane days after Ventura’s lawsuit went public.
        • Combs apologizes, beseeches Jane to tell him what he needs to make her feel better, says “my love is true” and it was just some “kinky shit that I thought we both enjoyed.”
        • We heard about this phone call before, but I don’t think we heard the actual audio.
        • In arguments over the admissibility of this audio, the government described this phone call as Combs allegedly going into damage control and trying to reshape the narrative of his relationship with Jane.
        • Khorram text to Combs a few days later: You need to be honest with me or we’ll end up in another situation like the one we’re in… We all know what your kryptonite is …
  • The government’s second summary witness, DeLeassa Penland, took the stand.
    • Walked the jury through a chart/spreadsheet that shows date, location and supporting records for different “meetings” – or “freak-offs” — involving Cassie Ventura.
    • The jury saw videos of actual freak-offs for the first time after seeing screenshots during Jane and Ventura’s testimony.
    • A significant portion of the presentation included featured Penland reading aloud texts between Ventura and the escorts coordinating the meetups, many of them last-minute requests in the late night/overnight hours; and to a lesser degree, texts between Combs and Ventura
    • December 2009 meeting at New York’s London Hotel with escort Jules Thedore
      • Combs’ AmEx statement shows flight purchased for Jules for travel from LA to NYC on 12/11/23
      • Combs emailed his personal finance director asking to book travel in Theodore’s name
      • London Hotel statement from 12/11/09-12/1309 for $1,977
      • Paid in cash
        • Combs’ AmEx statement shows flight purchased for Ventura for travel from LA to NYC
        • Combs texted Ventura to ask if her she’s ready. She told him she needs to get something and he responds, “you had all day … it’s always something.”
        • Ventura texted two men about joining them — escort Clayton Howard, aka “Dave,” and Sharay “Punisher” Hayes
        • Hotel statement – in guest name Frank Black — from 10/12/12-/10/14/12 that included a $34.95 charge for porn and another charge for room service
        • Paid in cash
    • October 2012 meeting at Trump International hotel in NYC
      • Combs’ AmEx statement shows flight purchased for Ventura for travel from LA to NYC
      • Combs texted Ventura to ask if her she’s ready. She told him she needs to get something and he responds, “you had all day … it’s always something.”
      • Ventura texted two men about joining them — escort Clayton Howard, aka “Dave,” and Sharay “Punisher” Hayes
      • Hotel statement – in guest name Frank Black — from 10/12/12-/10/14/12 that included a $34.95 charge for porn and another charge for room service
      • Paid in cash
    • October 2013 meeting in NYC
      • Combs’ AmEx statement shows flight purchased for Ventura for travel from LA to NYC on 10/21/13
      • Ventura sent texts to “Dave” on 10/21/13 asking him to come to a hotel room around 1 a.m.
      • Dave texted her “thanks lol” a few hours later at 8 a.m..
      • Shortly before 8 a.m., Ventura texted another man asking him to wait a few more minutes.
      • On 10/21/13, Ventura texted Combs, “You didn’t film anything on your phone, rt?”
      • “No … No way,” Combs responded.
    • January 2013 meeting in LA
      • Ventura texts representative from escort service “Cowboys and Angels” about booking Vin
      • Ventura also texts two other people identified as “Santiago” and “Johnny LA Strip”
      • Santiago responds “I’m so down for it” and tells her he knows the rules, dress casual and bring baby oil. Ventura tells him he doesn’t need to bring baby oil.

DAY 23 – 6/13/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 23 Recap
  • MORE: Rap icons inside, Kanye outside and Chanel: Week 5 in Diddy’s sex trafficking trial
  • Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, arrived at Combs’ trial to support the hip-hop mogul.
    • Inside the courthouse, he was escorted to an elevator bank that goes to the lower floors (not the courtroom) by a handful of men in plainclothes and courthouse marshals.
    • Court TV ran into Ye after he went through security and checked his electronics. On his way to the elevators, when asked if he was at the courthouse to support Mr. Combs, he nodded his head slowly then said “yes.” He remained stone-faced with his lips pursed and did not respond to other questions including “will you testify in Mr. Combs defense?” and “what brings you here today?” He was escorted to an elevator bank that goes to the lower floors – not the courtroom floor — by a handful of men in plainclothes and courthouse marshals. He stayed for about 30 minutes in an empty overflow room before leaving, according to courthouse staff.
  • Jonathan Perez, who worked as an assistant to Combs from December 2021 to September 2024 took the stand.
    • His starting salary was $85,000.
    • Perez said he became aware of the term “King nights” (another word for hotel nights or freak offs) from Kristina Khorum and other staff members.
      • He described an instance when a fellow staffer/videographer found a video of Jane having sex with a man (with Combs in the background) on a staff iPad. He noticed Combs and Khorum because he didn’t think the video belonged there. Perez did not delete the video as his colleague recommended because he didn’t think that was his decision to make.
      • Sometime later, Khorum asked to speak with Perez about the circumstances of him learning and viewing the video. She recorded the conversation on her phone without Perez’s knowledge. The jury heard the recording, on which Kh0rum says that someone from outside the company contacted her about the video and Combs wanted to conduct an investigation.
    • Perez testified to a May 2023 text exchange with Khorum and another staffer about setting up a hotel room for Combs and Jane. Among the messages was a list of what Jane wanted, including: maybe new outfits, shorts for him (size large), fruit, shakes and juices.
    • Perez testified that he bought drugs for Combs as part of his job responsibilities. He corroborated Jane’s testimony that Combs Facetimed him during the couple’s hours-long physical fight in June 2024. On cross, Perez said preparing for “king nights” took up about 1% of his time and he viewed them as “personal-related” activities of Combs, not business. “You did it because you’re a nice person?” Brian Steel asked him. “Yes,” Perez responded, smiling.
      On redirect, Perez testified his title was “personal assistant,” not business assistant, and as part of his job he wrote cards for Combs’ girlfriends and bought them flowers.
  • Judge Subramanian said he intends to dismiss juror 6 after reviewing transcripts of jury selection and conversations this week with the juror and finding inconsistencies about where and with whom he lives. The judge said the changing answers raised concerns about “deception and lying” and suggested an agenda to stay on the jury. Defense lawyer Xaiver Donaldson argued vigorously in favor of questioning the juror before dismissing him, and the judge to say he’ll take the weekend to think about it.
  • HSI Special Agent Andre LaMon showed the jury pictures and physical items of evidence seized from Combs’ LA home in a March 25, 2024:
    • 6 firearms were found in a security room with a firearm, including a long rifle with its serial number scratched off
    • 200 bottles of baby oil
    • 900 bottles of Astroglide
    • Baggie of MDMA found in his bedroom closet
    • 6 small envelopes containing baggies of ketamine were found in his bedside drawer/table
  • On cross, said he did not know if the guns were found in the safe – or if the security room door was locked – or resting on chairs (as photographed) before his team arrived because no one photographed the scene before the SRT team secured the firearms

DAY 22 – 6/12/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 22 Recap
  • The start of testimony was delayed more than an hour by closed-door discussions about whether to identify by name a famous rapper close to Combs who came up in Jane’s testimony. the Judge upheld a ruling — over defense objections — to preserve the anonymity of the rapper and the seven to eight other people in the hotel sex party, saying the events themselves had no direct bearing on the sex trafficking charge.
  • Jane returned to the stand to continue cross-examination.
    • Jane testified to a night at a Las Vegas hotel, where a “rap icon” was present, but the person’s name was not revealed in court. She attended the birthday party of a famous rapper’s girlfriend in Jan. 2023 while on a break from Combs. The festivities included a hotel party where a man (one of Combs’ and her entertainers, Antoine) and a woman had sex while others watched. The rapper asked Jane for recommendations for an escort who was “in the lifestyle.”
    • On redirect, Jane said that she would give back all the money and gifts if it would make it so that she never had sex with all those men. On recross, Teny Geragos fired back with, “You were not willing to give up your house?” referring to the home Combs still pays for. “That’s where me and my child life. That’s a very hard question to answer,” Jane said.
      • Geragos suggested she could afford to pay for her house, pointing out she receives more than $5,000 in child support from her child’s husband (“a very, very wealthy individual at the top of the entertainment industry”) and more than $10,000 a month from her OnlyFans page.
      • When Jane said she was catching up on years of debt, Geragos asked if she got $150,000 in wire transfers from Combs over the years. “Is that all I’m worth in three years?” Jane retorted before confirming the amount.
    • Jane said Combs became more loving and attentive, finally giving her the “princess treatment” she’d always wanted, as she became more direct about not wanting to have sex with other men.
    • On redirect, AUSA Comey showed Jane a text that Combs sent to “entertainer” Paul after Jane said she wasn’t in the mood for a night with another man. “Imma need you to persuade her,” he said. Jane said she had never seen the text before.
    • Jane ended her testimony with a dramatic flourish as she hugged both the prosecutor and defense attorney who questioned her on her way out, appearing to catch them off guard.

DAY 21 – 6/11/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 21 Recap
  • ‘Jane’ returned to the stand to continue cross-examination.
  • The government asked to dismiss juror 6 for unspecified reasons related to “lack of candor.” The defense opposed the dismissal because they don’t want to lose a Black juror. The judge said he will rule after the defense briefs the issue tonight.
  • The defense introduced more of Jane’s texts in an effort to not only portray Jane as a consenting participant in Combs’ “sex performances” of her and other men, but Combs as a loving partner who heeded her concerns about hotel nights, romanced her, and gave her the “quality time” alone with him she craved. Throughout, Jane insisted she was complying with what her “lover” asked of her because she loved him and wanted to please him.
  • The defense drew attention to periods of time the couple spent time together without other men, including a two-month stretch from April and June 2022.
  • Jane cast her gaze on the podium as the defense played a video (that we could hear in the gallery) of Jane laughing as Combs smooched and baby-talked her. “We got in a little funk … we need to pick each other up … I love you,” he’s heard saying. “You did some saving on me and I didn’t know it,” Jane was heard saying.
  • Jane agreed with defense lawyer Teny Geragos that she “agreed” to participate in a “sobriety party” of sex without drugs – what she described as an especially harrowing experience. When Geragos pressed Jane on whether she regretted it, Jane said she “resented” Combs “for all of it.”
  • “I resent him for knowing how much I loved him and how I couldn’t say no to him,” Jane said. “I believe resent and regret lie in the same feelings.”
  • Jane maintained contact entertainers outside of hotel nights, including Kabrale. In February 2022, around the time of Jane’s birthday, she texted Kabrale and teased him about sending her a birthday video. “Hey love… it’s my birthday …. you ain’t showing no love.” Addressing her as “babe,” Kabrale said he has her birthday in his calendar and would follow up.
  • Around the same time – possibly, the same day – she was texting Kabrale, Jane was visiting Combs in New Jersey. He took her out to dinner at Ocean Prime.
  • Jane testified she “pulled the hotel night card” once when she was upset with Combs for taking another woman on a yacht trip. She told him if he didn’t cut his trip short, they would not have a Valentine’s Day “party,” referring to a hotel night.
  • He cut his trip short, and Jane coordinated a Valentine’s Day hotel night with two men, the first time she did so. The jury saw photos of the room staged with red heart balloons, rose petals and candles. Jane previously testified that she did not enjoy this night.
  • Combs bought his other girlfriend, Gina, a “love necklace” with a heart that matched a bracelet Jane had picked out for herself and Combs bought for her.
  • On one occasion, when Combs urged Jane to “plan something,” she pushed back when she suspected she wanted a night with another man, saying she was not in the mood. He said, “all good,” and they ended up doing a “movie night” in which they watched videos of other hotel night sex performances.
  • In July 2022, when Combs suggested calling “the Italian” or Paul, Jane “hearted” the text message saying Paul is free. She then went to a sex store and bought lingerie for herself, matching shorts for Paul and Combs (because she didn’t like their shorts and wanted to be turned on), and male erection pills so she wouldn’t have spend so much time “winding up” Paul.
  • On another occasion, when Combs asked if Jane wanted to “hit the Italian,” she said he “icked” her out and Combs agreed with her “no go… [Paul] is all we need.” So they only invited Paul over.
  • Defense lawyer Teny Geragos asked Jane about a loving text she sent Combs thanking him for a birthday night at Nobu Miami that ended in a hotel night. Jane testified on direct that she didn’t want to have sex with another man but “accepted” it. When Geragos pressed Jane on what she meant by “accepted,” Jane said she relented because she was in the habit of “adapting to my circumstances … under the pressure of my lover.”
  • Jane testified she suggested going to dinner at Carbone or Poppy’s Steakhouse instead of Nobu Miami for her birthday because Nobu Miami was in the same building as their hotel room and she sensed a hotel night was afoot. “I’m asking if he could please romance me outside of a hotel room … I was praying he would read between the lines … a subtle cue to my lover and partner.”
  • When Geragos asked her if she felt she couldn’t say no because he’d break up with her, Jane said that wasn’t it – it was because she’d face “agitation” from Combs or “an option I didn’t want.”
  • Later, when pressed on the possibility that she didn’t want Combs to break up with her, Jane said Combs would break up with her, then blow up her phone or have his associates blow up her phone, and they’d be back together. “He’d be right back in my face … I’d be right back in his love.”

DAY 20 – 6/10/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 20 Recap
  • Before testimony resumed, the judge denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial, saying the defense had not met the four-prong test for proving the government intentionally elicited perjury from accuser Bana Bongolan. The judge suggested a more likely explanation was that the government “screwed up” and Nicole Westmoreland sees the opportunity for a “Perry Mason moment.” The judge also denied the government’s request to recall forensic psychiatrist Dawn Hughes.
  • Jane defended her position that she had sex with other men against her will to satisfy her “partner” Sean Combs’ sexual desires and make him happy. She said she still loves Combs but resents him for drawing her into his lifestyle with “emotional pressure/emotional manipulation.”
  • She agreed that the trust and intimacy of hotel nights brought them closer and made her feel “loved,” but “as time went on, I was conflicted because I was breaking my boundaries to make him feel loved,” she said.

    Sean "Diddy" Combs looks on as accuser "Jane" is questioned

    Sean “Diddy” Combs looks on as accuser “Jane” is questioned during Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan federal court. (Jane Rosenberg)

  • Jane said Combs was upfront about what he called his “polyamorous” lifestyle. She said she researched the fetish and came across the term “cuckold” and “cuck,” which she felt was more appropriate for Combs. Possible motivations included bi-curiosity or arousal from watching someone please your partner, she said.
  • She said she was fine at the relationship’s start with Combs seeing other people, but it became harder as the “imbalance in treatment” emerged and she remained in the shadows while he was publicly open with other relationships.
  • Defense attorney Teny Geragos began her cross-examination of Jane.
    • Geragos began where Comey left off with questions about Combs paying her legal fees. Jane said Combs paying for her lawyer has not prevented her from doing what she wanted to do, including cooperating with the government in 24 meetings, including two focused on preparing her for cross-examination through role-playing. She is testifying under an immunity agreement.
    • Jane said she still loves Combs but resents him for leading her into the lifestyle he did through emotional manipulation.
    • “I was hooked from the beginning without understanding the terms and conditions… Once I did, my emotions were in place… Blurred lines emerged … I wanted to fulfill my duties as a good girlfriend,” Jane testified.
    • Jane said she struggles to understand why she kept going to Combs and engaging in more hotel nights, but it is becoming clearer as she assesses the situation in therapy.
    • The jury heard more audio messages/voice notes that the two exchanged after the March 2023 Turks and Caicos birthday trip that she described as a bait-and-switch for another hotel night. In the recordings, Combs jokes that Jane is a “crack pipe” and that they had great times, encouraging her to rest up. Jane says she had so much fun with him, the trip was incredible, it was a “another level” that brought them closer.
    • Jane testified she suspected Combs had a drug problem from the beginning of their relationship. On their second date — their first trip in February 2021 to Turks and Caicos — she observed his shaky hands, jaundiced eyes and grey gums. She suggested he go into rehab at the time, saying she thought he was just  overdoing it with partying, but now she agrees that he was a “drug addict.”
    • Geragos asked Jane to read numerous sexually explicit texts and voice notes between her and Combs in which Jane expressed enthusiasm for sex with certain “entertainers,” including Paul, Anton and Kabrale.
    • Jane said she and Combs compared their dynamic with Paul to “court stars,” calling themselves the “trifecta” – Jane was Kobe Bryant, Paul was Shaq, and Combs was Michael Jordan.
    • In at least once instance, Jane suggested calling Paul unprompted; other times, she brought him or the others up while sexting role-playing scenarios with Combs. In all cases, she said she did it to please Combs in response to the “undertone” of what he was saying – be it an explicit or implied request for her to “set up” a night with an entertainer or a desire to “fantasy-talk” about one.
    • The overflow room erupted in snickers various times as Geragos had Jane explain the sexual meaning of emojis she frequently used, including symbols for water and tongue and various smileys.
    • Tense/catty exchange between Jane and defense lawyer Teny Geragos over Combs buying another woman a Chanel handbag. “How much does my body cost?” Jane snapped – glaring at Geragos – when Geragos asked her how much a Chanel bag costs.
      • The exchange about while Jane was discussing a text (or voice note, needs confirmation) in which she said she “misdirected” her anger at Combs toward a woman for whom Combs purchased a Chanel handbag.
      • The woman posted a picture of the bag on social. “Homegirl is posting being with you,” Jane said to Combs amid a conversation Combs initiated about her having sex with other men.
      • I’m upset because he’s reaching out me having sex with two other men… then I look online and see him spending quality time with another woman.
      • You didn’t get the Chanel handbag? Geragos asked. No, I only got trauma, Jane retorted.
      • But you got a Bottega bag, Geragos reminded Jane and asked her what a Bottega bag is. “I’m sure you have one,” Jane replied.
      • “How much does a Chanel bag cost?” Geragos asked. “How much does my body cost?” Jane fired back, prompting a quiet admonishment from the judge and a request from Jane for a break.
    • Geragos asked Jane about the material benefits she derived from the relationship, including:
      • The $10K/month Los Angeles home in a gated community Combs still pays for – which required down payments of first and last month’s rent and two months’ rent security deposit, totaling $40K
      • Combs’ $20K investment in a dress business she started
    • WATCH: Diddy’s Ex, Jane, On Chanel Incident: ‘How Much Does My Body Cost?’

DAY 19 – 6/9/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 19 Recap
  • AUSA Maurene Comey concluded her direct examination of Jane with questions about her involvement in the case and her outstanding ties to Combs:
    • Combs hired Jane’s lawyer and is paying her legal fees
    • Combs still pays her rent
    • Jane testified she has no intention of suing Combs
    • The first time she spoke to the government was during grand jury proceedings in November 2024
    • She spoke with Combs’ defense multiple times between Combs’ arrest in September 2024 and the trial
    • The first time she told anyone about Combs’ June 2024 attack was in April 2025. She told the defense first, then prosecutors
    • She stopped speaking with the defense in April after realizing she was cooperating with them out of fear of upsetting Combs; by then, she decided that “they had enough of my story” and she wanted to “honor what I wanted to do and just honor myself.”
    • How does she feel about Combs now? “I just pray for his continued healing and I pray for peace for him.”
  • Otherwise, the jury on Monday heard numerous text conversations between Jane and Combs concerning Jane’s attempts to distance herself from Combs in late 2023 and early 2024 when it became apparent that Combs was not heeding her requests to end “hotel nights” of sex with other men and accord her the love and respect he showed to other girlfriends (relationships that he publicly broadcast on social media and discussed in podcasts).
  • At one point, when talking to Combs about how he kept her “in a box,” Jane complained to Combs she did not have “anything post-worthy from our relationship.”
  • Her efforts were typically short-lived. She described a cycle of voicing her frustrations, Combs responding with a mix of pushback and apologies, then the two of them reuniting for a short period of time alone together that was usually followed by sex with another man.
    • In December 2024, they stopped talking after Combs threatened to release her sex videos to her son’s father. The threat came after Combs demanded Jane tell him how much it would cost her to move on: $100K for each of the three years she “wasted” on him ($300K) and the 15 months left on their two-year agreement of rent; plus $450K “to move on from the resentment of feeling exploited, manipulated, heartbroken, drugged and all the loss of potential income.”
    • After not speaking for a few weeks, Combs contacted Jane — saying he missed her — and she accepted his invitation to spend her birthday in Miami in February 2024. After a romantic evening together, he proposed inviting “Don,” an “entertainer” they’d been with before. She said she acquiesced because she was still high on ecstasy. “I was just so used to this being the outcome, so I accepted.”
    • Jane broke down in tears as she described the events of June 18-19, 2024 – a “terrible day” in which a beating rampage culminated in sex with an escort:
      • Combs visited Jane at “our residence in LA” the night of June 18 to spend time with her. Combs’ assistant, Jonathan, had prepared the home with red lighting, Combs’ preferred lighting, a stocked fridge, and decorated to make the home “cozy.”
      • About 30 minutes in – after she took photos and videos of Sean and champagne glasses and drank some bubbles and tequila – she confronted him about taking another woman on a family trip.
      • She pushed his head into a counter and threw candles at him as he cursed at her and called her crazy.
      • She tried to lock herself in her bedroom, her bathroom and her closet but he kicked in each door.
      • As she tried to flee the house, he kicked her from behind and grabbed her in a chokehold. She broke free and hid out in the neighborhood for two hours before returning home.
      • She tried to lock herself in the guest bedroom, but Combs kicked in the door and chased her to the patio, where she punched him, then he punched her as the fight continued into the backyard.
      • Combs grabbed her by the hair, dragged her back into the house. She grabbed his phone and called the woman she thought Combs brought on the vacation.
      • Combs held her down while the woman yelled insults at her over the phone.
      • Combs Facetimed his assistant Jonathan to find out if he’d seen them fighting the night before. Jonathan said he had not seen anything.
      • When she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw two welts on her forehead and a black eye forming.
      • She took a cold shower to calm down; Combs followed her into the shower and slapped her in the face until she fell to the ground.
      • After she finished showering, she went to the bedroom, and he told her to put on an “outfit” – lingerie and high heels.
      • While cueing up porn on Jane’s phone and texting Anton to come over, Combs saw messages between Jane and Anton about a mutual friend’s birthday party they both attended in January while Jane was not speaking to Combs. Anton happened to be there, partying and having sex with another woman in front of partygoers.
      • Jane told Combs about the party and he became enraged, dragged her into the bathroom and forced her to take ecstasy for Anton’s arrival. We’re not gonna the night like this,” Combs said, presumably referring to the earlier fight.
      • When Jane told him she didn’t want to take drugs or have sex with Combs, he got in her face and said, “is this coercion?”
      • After the encounter, Combs’ assistants delivered between $10K and $12K to Jane’s house.
      • Janet sent $3K in an Uber to Anton’s home and kept the rest – she assumed it was for the broken doors, which she could not replace, so she used it on other expenses.
      • The jury saw/heard about an email she sent to a sales rep about replacing the four broken doors, which included numerous photos of the broken doors.
    • She spoke to Combs a couple of days after the alleged beating because she “missed him so bad.” When they spoke, Combs said he was breaking up with her – and suggested they become friends — because she had “betrayed his trust” by going to the rapper’s party where she saw Anton having sex with another woman. Jane took a giggly selfie with Combs in which she jokingly called him her “bestie.”
    • Jane blocked Combs and his “team” for a couple of weeks in late June/early July 2024 after she learned he was on vacation with another woman. She unblocked him and contacted him when his mother fell ill, and she accepted his invitation to spend time with him in Miami, where a romantic night turned into another sex performance with another man that she proposed when she perceived Combs as “bored.”
    • She was planning to visit him in New York in September 2024 before he was arrested.

DAY 18 – 6/6/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 18 Recap
  • MORE: Abuse, a fed-up judge, and oil damage: Week 4 in Diddy’s sex trafficking trial
  • “Jane” continued her testimony that began Thursday with a lovelorn account of a whirlwind romance with Combs that rapidly descended into a “Pandora’s box” that she said she couldn’t shut off unwanted sex with other men.
  • From May 2021 to October 2023 (their first break-up), he flew her from Los Angeles to Miami, New York and international destinations including Turks and Caicos to engage in drug-fueled sex marathons that Combs called “hotel nights” or “nights of debauchery.”
  • Jane said she told Combs repeatedly that she only wanted to be with him in an “old-fashioned type of relationship” but he brushed aside her grievances and suggested they break up. She continued with them because she wanted to make him happy and didn’t want to lose him or the $10K/month home he paid for.
  • Jane said she met Combs in 2020 and fell “head over heels” in love with him after the first date in January 2021, a five-day romantic beach getaway in Miami.
  • The next month, he brought her on a 15-day birthday trip to Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas with his chief of staff Kristina Khorram, a butler, a chef, a barber and a photographer. On the trip, he gave her ecstasy 10 times. She passed out the first time she took ecstasy and Khorram assisted in reviving her in a shower. After the trip, Jane accepted Combs’ offer of $10K for essentially lost income as a content creator.
  • From February to May 2021, he flew her to Miami every other week for what she described as passionate and affectionate “lovemaking.” They consumed drugs each time to enhance their senses and she learned of Combs’ preferences for provocative lingerie, high-heeled “stripper” shoes” and baby oil.
  • Jane paused for composure and dabbed her eyes with tissues when AUSA Comey asked what happened in May 2021 that changed their relationship. Jane said Combs introduced her to pornography-viewing sessions and “fantasy conversation” in which they’d role play her having sex with other men.
  • One night, he asked if she wanted to turn “fantasy into reality.” She agreed and within hours they were at a hotel room where assistants were hurriedly staging the scene with red lighting, baby oil and beverages. An entertainer she identified as Don — with whom Combs seemed familiar — joined her in having sex as Combs watched and masturbated.
  • She felt “exhilarated” from the thrill of engaging in taboo behavior but wrongly believed it would be the last time. After that night, I opened a Pandora’s box in our relationship that set the tone… a door I was unable to shut for the remainder of our relationship.
  • I kept going on with it because I just really loved him and wanted to make him happy… I feared losing him… I wanted our time to be special…
  • From May 2021 to October 2023 (their first break-up), he flew her from her home in Los Angeles to his home in Miami, New York and international destinations including Turks and Caicos to engage in drug-fueled sex marathons.
  • When they were apart, she devoted time and money each day to keeping herself “ready” for when he called on her, working out, getting her hair, lashes, nails and tan done. I just liked being beautiful for Sean and I knew he liked when I was beautiful.
  • Combs gave her money to make up for lost income — up to $10K in cash or wire transfers for amounts greater than $10K.
  • When they got back together sometime after their breakup (timeline unclear) he offered her an allowance as part of a “love contract.” She asked for $15K/month and they settled on $10K in the form of rent for a new home she moved into.

DAY 17 – 6/5/25

DAY 16 – 6/4/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 16 Recap
  • The jury saw arguably the most comprehensive version of the 2016 hotel incident in the form of a timeline video that pieced together video from three hotel surveillance cameras and two clips from security officer Israel Flores’ iPhone 6 that he recorded from a computer.
  • On cross, the defense drew the jury’s attention to calmer moments in the sequence, including instances of Combs sitting in a chair (in a towel) in the elevator bank, talking to Ventura as she leaned against the wall. Teny Geragos also pointed out instances of Combs walking with a phone in his hand, recalling the defense claim in openings that the fight was over a phone and not a freak-off.
  • Bryana Bongolan struggled for composure as she recalled an instance in which Combs allegedly dangled her over a balcony in September 2016 and threw her into furniture at Ventura’s apartment, causing her neck pain and lingering trauma, including nightmares and paranoia.
  • The jury saw photos of injuries that were allegedly taken within days of the incident. One showed a large, discolored bruise on Bongolan’s leg and another showed her neck in a brace with bandages across her upper back.
  • Bongolan’s account came under harsh scrutiny on cross as attorney Nicole Westmoreland needled her over inconsistences between her account on the stand, her prior statements to the government, and Ventura’s versions of the alleged incident — which Ventura included in her 2023 lawsuit and testified to. Ventura said it happened in a hotel, Bongolan said it happened in Ventura’s home. They also differed at various times on who else was present and whether Ventura witnessed it.
  • Bongolan acknowledged that she Ventura did drugs together regularly – mostly without Combs, though sometimes with him — and they both “had a problem.”
  • The last time she spent time with Combs and Ventura together was January 2, 2018, after a New Year’s Eve ketamine binge. Bongolan tattooed the date on the back of her neck as “a commitment to get sober and not go back.” She said she didn’t get clean immediately, but she’s sober now.
  • On cross, Westmoreland questioned Bongolan at length about her $10 million lawsuit against Combs, which began with a demand letter in January 2024, months after Ventura’s lawsuit. Bongolan admitted that she and Ventura discussed their lawsuits with each other before filing them. Bongolan said the lawyer who sent the initial demand letter exaggerated her injuries and included embellishments that she didn’t authorize. She now has a new lawyer who filed the November 2024 complaint.
  • The lawsuit also came up on direct as AUSA Smyser tried to ask Bongolan about a call she got from a mutual friend of hers and Combs, producer Rob Holliday. Bongolan said Holliday Facetimed her from Combs’ backyard and said he was calling on Combs’ behalf to talk “about settling with me.” Bongolan was precluded from answering any more questions by a sustained defense objection.

DAY 15 – 6/3/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 15 Recap
  • Former InterContinental Hotel security officer Eddy Garcia testified that Combs paid him $100,000 in cash for what Garcia thought was the only copy of the hotel video from the elevator bank showing Combs grabbing Ventura, flinging her to the ground and kicking her.
  • Garcia testified that Combs said the video would “ruin” his career if it got out. Garcia testified Ventura told him (via Facetime on Combs’ phone) that she didn’t want the video to be released, either.
  • Combs asked Garcia to sign a non-disclosure agreement and a declaration stating the video was the only copy and it had not been shared with anyone else. On cross, defense lawyer Brian Steel pointed out exceptions to the NDA for court orders or legal proceedings.
  • Derek Ferguson, chief financial officer of Bad Boy Entertainment from 1998 to 2012, testified that he managed Combs personal and business expenses, and while the two were often mixed, members of his department worked to parse them.
  • Ferguson identified financial transactions between Combs and Ventura’s family related to an alleged $20,000 blackmail demand Combs made after learning Ventura was seeing Kid Cudi.
  • On cross, Ferguson testified that he never saw an employee help Combs commit crimes or acts of violence, nor did he see anyone “enhance” the company’s reputation through acts of prostitution.

DAY 14 – 6/2/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 14 Recap
  • Combs accuser/alleged victim and former employee Mia kept her head bowed as she returned to the witness stand for her third day of testimony and second day of cross.
  • Combs’ lawyer, Brian Steel, pressed Mia on why she kept in touch with Combs for years after she left the company — sending him texts on his birthday and holidays expressing love and admiration and nostalgia for their time together — despite her allegation that he raped and assaulted her while she worked for him.
  • Mia maintained that she kept quiet about the abuse of herself and Ventura while she was employed because she feared Combs and wanted to keep her job.
  • She said stayed in touch with Combs after leaving in 2017 because she was “brainwashed” into thinking that the alleged rape was her fault and she continued to regard him as her friend.
  • She obtained a $400,000 settlement after she left the company in 2017 over the terms of her departure but said she does NOT intend to sue or pursue compensation for the alleged rape or abuse.
  • Beverly Hills Hotel employee Sylvia Oken testified to clean-up charges Combs incurred during his stays, including a $500 charge for “oil damage.”

DAY 13 – 5/30/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 13 Recap
  • MORE: Threats of murder, plot to kill Kid Cudi and violence: Week 3 in Diddy’s sex trafficking trial
  • “Mia,” Combs’ former assistant, who is using a pseudonym in court, returned to the stand to continue her testimony, and said that she threw her phone across the room in terror and ran outside when she saw Combs calling her days after Cassie sued him in 2023.
    • Mia said she was first happy to hear from D-Roc, one of Combs’ former bodyguards, until she realized he was at Combs’ home and trying to reconnect with him. Then, she said she felt “terrified, threatened, scared, nervous” and wanted to “play dumb” because “I didn’t want my life to be in danger.”
  • Mia listed times she had been suspended or punished during her employment with Combs for minor infractions.
  • Under cross-examination, Combs’ attorney focused on posts Mia had made to social media about Combs, Cassie and others. She admitted she referenced her co-workers as “family” and used the word “love” in her correspondence with Combs even after she says he sexually attacked her.
  • Brian Steel grilled Mia on her social media posts suggesting she could not be terrorized by him if she was posting flattering comments about him, calling him a “Legend” and writing “love you” at the end of each post.
  • After much legal wrangling over how jurors would view a scrapbook that Mia compiled of articles featuring Combs for his 45th birthday, it was finally shown to jurors. The defense suggested the gift for Combs was thoughtfully and painstakingly compiled, not a gift one would share with one’s alleged abuser on the anniversary of a sexual assault. Mia testified that it was hard to gift someone as wealthy and famous as Combs, she came up with the scrapbook by reaching out to the company’s archives to get articles and photos scanned. She agreed it took time to compile the scrapbook, but did think of Combs birthday as an anniversary. She said her nature as a people pleaser, peacemaker, rule follower caused her to bury the memories rather than dwell on them.
  • After some convoluted questions that seemed to confuse the witness – Steel finally zeroed in on the point he wanted to make:
    • STEEL: “Isn’t it true the conduct or misconduct of Mr. Combs is a lie?”
    • MIA: “I have not lied, everything I’ve said in this courtroom is the truth.”
    • STEEL: “If you’re being assaulted and your sister (Cassie Ventura) is being brutalized why are you making a scrapbook of Mr. Combs?”
  • Steel displayed a text exchange between Mia and Combs executive assistant KK, on the day that Mia was severed from the company. It said: “I’m going to kill myself. My life is over”
    • Steel suggested if Combs was such a terrible abuser, then being let go from his employment should have been welcome news for her.
    • Mia testified she feels that way now, but at the time, her job meant everything to her, and it was all that she knew. Her family were the people that she worked with and being severed from her world was devastating.

DAY 12 – 5/29/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 12 Recap
  • MORE: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ ex-assistant details sexual assaults, violence
  • Combs’ personal assistant testified Thursday that he sexually assaulted her, threw her into a swimming pool, dumped a bucket of ice on her and slammed a door against her arm during a torturous eight-year tenure.
  • Testifying under the pseudonym “Mia,” she said Combs put his hand up her dress and forcibly kissed her at his 40th birthday party in 2009, forced her to perform oral sex while she helped him pack for a trip and raped her in guest quarters at his Los Angeles home in 2010 after climbing into her bed.
  • “I couldn’t tell him ‘no’ about anything,” Mia said, telling jurors she felt “terrified and confused and ashamed and scared” when Combs raped her. The assaults, she said, were unpredictable: “always random, sporadic, so oddly spaced out where I would think they would never happen again.”
  • Speaking slowly and haltingly, Mia portrayed Combs as a controlling taskmaster who put his desires above the well-being of staff and loved ones. She said Combs berated her for mistakes, even ones other employees made, and piled on so many tasks she didn’t sleep for days.
  • “It was chaotic. It was toxic,” said Mia, who worked for Combs from 2009 to 2017, including a stint as an executive at his film studio. “It could be exciting. The highs were really high and the lows were really low.”
  • Mia said employees were always on edge because Combs’ mood could change “in a split second” causing everything to go from “happy to chaotic.” She said Combs once threw a computer at her when he couldn’t get a Wi-Fi connection.
  • Mia testified that she saw Combs beat Cassie numerous times, detailing a brutal assault at Cassie’s Los Angeles home in 2013 that the singer and her longtime stylist Deonte Nash also recounted in their testimony. Mia said she was terrified Combs was going to kill them all, describing the melee as “a little tornado.”
  • Mia said Combs sometimes had her working for up to five days at a time without rest as he hopped from city to city for club appearances and other engagements, and she started relying on her ADHD medication, the stimulant Adderall, as a sleep substitute.
  • Combs, with residences in Miami, Los Angeles and the New York area, let Mia and other employees stay in his guest houses — but she wasn’t allowed to leave without his permission and couldn’t lock the doors, she testified.
  • “This is my house. No one locks my doors,” Combs said, according to Mia.
  • Mia didn’t appear to make eye contact with Combs, who sat back in his chair and looked forward, sometimes with his hands folded in front him, as she testified. Occasionally, he leaned over to speak with one of his lawyers or donned glasses to read exhibits. Mia kept her head down as she left the courtroom for breaks.
  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: ‘Mia’ Describes Fleeing From Diddy At Prince Party

DAY 11 – 5/28/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 11 Recap
  • LAPD Officer Chris Ignacio, who responded to the alleged break-in at Kid Cudi’s home on Dec. 22, 2011, testified that he saw a black Cadillac Escalade drive away from the front of the home as he approached and passed by about 15 minutes later. After running the plates, Ignacio determined the vehicle was registered to Bad Boy Productions.
  • Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator Lance Jimenez testified that he was dispatched to a report of an auto fire at Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi)’s home on Jan. 9, 2012.
    • Jimenez found a Molotov cocktail made from a 40-ounce bottle of Olde English 800 in the driver’s seat, and fire damage/burn patterns on the driver’s seat, driver’s side door and soot damage to the driver’s side window.
    • A silky cloth from the improvised firebomb was found in the center console.
    • A red lighter was found a few feet from the Porsche.
    • A partial DNA profile consistent with a female contributor was recovered from the OE bottle.
    • Jimenez determined the bomb was placed in the Porsche through a slit cut into the car’s canvas rooftop. The damage was not as extensive as it could have been, because the cloth fell out of the glass bottle and smouldered on the center console. He opined the cloth was a “designer-type” handkerchief based on its “fancy lines” and “silky-type material.”
    • Jimenez said he determined the attack was targeted because of the home’s secluded location and the fact that two other cars behind the Porsche in the driveway were not targeted.
  • The defense moved for a mistrial based on the prosecution’s questions about the destruction of fingerprint cards for fingerprints collected from Mescudi’s car. Combs’ attorney, Alex Shapiro, argued the prosecution planted the inference that Combs could dbuy his way out of anything and could have been responsible for the prints’ destruction creating an “outrageous prejudice.”
  • Celebrity stylist Deonte Nash testified that he worked for Bad Boy and became close friends with Cassie Ventura while working as a stylist for both her and Combs. He testified to instances he saw Combs threaten Cassie and call her names.

DAY 10 – 5/27/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 10 Recap
  • Capricorn Clark, the former global brand director for Bad Boy Entertainment, testified Combs threatened her with death on her first day on the job and later kidnapped her at gunpoint to join him in an effort to kill rapper Kid Cudi.
    • Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner questioned Clark about her off-and-on employment with Combs between 2004 and 2018, beginning with the first day on the job when she said Combs and a security staff member took her to Central Park after 9 p.m. and said he wasn’t aware of her past history working with other rappers.
    • Clark, her voice shaky at times, testified that Combs told her that if her past work for rap rivals became an issue, he’d have to kill her. She said she was only weeks into the job when she was tasked with some diamond jewelry that went missing. As a result, she said, she was taken to a largely empty building in Manhattan where, over a five-day stretch, she was repeatedly given a lie detector test by a man who seemed five times larger than her own size. “He said: ‘If you fail this test they’re going to throw you in the East River,’” she recalled. Clark said they eventually let her return to work.
    • Clark’s testimony came days after Kid Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, testified that Clark called him from a car outside his home in December 2011 and told him that Combs, angered that Cudi was dating the singer Cassie, had kidnapped her and forced her to ride him with him to Cudi’s home.

      capricorn clark leaves federal courthouse

      Capricorn Clark leaves Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Court TV)

    • Clark testified that Combs came to her home that morning with a gun in his hand, demanded that she get dressed and come with him because “we’re going to kill Cudi.”
    • WATCH: Diddy’s Ex-Assistant Says Combs Brought Her to Kill Kid Cudi
    • She said they rode in a black Cadillac to Cudi’s home in Los Angeles, where Combs and a security aide entered the residence while Clark sat in the car and called Cassie on her burner phone and told her that Combs “got me with a gun and brought me to Cudi’s house to kill him.”
    • Clark said she heard Cudi in the background of the call asking, “He’s in my house?” She told Cassie, “Stop him, he’s going to get himself killed.” Cassie told her she couldn’t stop Cudi, she recalled.
    • Combs returned to the vehicle and asked Clark who she was talking to, Clark testified. He grabbed the phone and called Cassie back, she said.
    • They then heard Cudi’s vehicle coming up the road, she said. Combs and his bodyguard got back in the vehicle and chased after Cudi, finally giving up when they passed police cars that were heading for Cudi’s house.
    • After the break-in, Clark said, Combs told the people with him that they had to convince Cudi “it wasn’t me.” “If you don’t convince him of that I’ll kill all you,” he said, punctuating his threat with an expletive, according to Clark.
    • Clark said she and Cassie then went to Cudi’s home, telling jurors: “We needed to talk to him. We needed to make sure he wasn’t going to make a police report about Puff.” After that, she said she watched in shock as Combs viciously assaulted Cassie over her relationship with Cudi.
    • Combs kicked Cassie with “100% full force” to the legs and back as she curled on the ground outside his home in a fetal position and wept silently, Clark said.
    • Clark said her “heart was breaking from seeing her get hit like that” and that neither she nor Combs’ bodyguard intervened. The answer prompted an objection from Combs’ lawyers, and Judge Arun Subramanian told jurors to disregard it.
    • Clark broke down several times during cross-examination and redirect, explaining why she continued to contact Combs after she was fired in 2012 in the wake of the Cassie/Kid Cudi incident. She said, “I wanted to get my life back,” and said she was blacklisted and unable to find a job to provide for her autistic son.
    • WATCH: ‘You Hate It Here?’: Capricorn Clark Quit After Diddy Pushed Her

DAY 9 – 5/22/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 9 Recap
  • MORE: ‘The Punisher,’ high heels and a car bomb: Week 2 of Diddy’s Sex Trafficking Trial
  • Wearing a leather jacket and white T-shirt, rapper Kid Cudi entered the courtroom around 10:45 a.m. Scott Mescudi sat down in the witness stand, stood to be sworn in and then sat down to begin his testimony. He identified himself as an actor and musician and noted he’s known by another name: Kid Cudi.
  • Prosecutor Emily Johnson begins her questioning by showing Kid Cudi a photo of Cassie and asking him if he knows her.
  • Kid Cudi said Combs broke into his Hollywood Hills home in December 2011, after Combs found out that he was dating Cassie. Cudi said he had gone to a West Hollywood hotel with Cassie to get her away from the seething Combs when he got a call from Combs’ assistant, Capricorn Clark.
    • He said she told him “Sean Combs and an affiliate were in my house and she was in a car and she was forced to go with them over there.” So Cudi said he got into Porsche 911 convertible and drove there, calling Combs along the way.
    • Using an expletive, he asked Combs why he was in the house. He said Combs calmly replied, “I want to talk to you.”

      Rapper Kid Cudi, right, arrives at Federal Court for the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs

      Rapper Kid Cudi, right, arrives at Federal Court for the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, in New York, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

    • Cudi said he told Combs he was on his way to the house, to which Combs said: “I’m over here waiting for you.”
    • But, Cudi said, Combs wasn’t there when he arrived. Instead, he said, he found Christmas presents he’d purchased for his family had been opened and his dog was locked up in a bathroom.
    • Cudi said he got back into his car and called Combs again, asking him where he was. He said, “I’m on my way, I’m on my way,” Cudi testified. Cudi said he wasn’t sure what was going on, so he decided to call the police.
    • A few weeks later, Cudi testified, his Porsche 911 convertible was destroyed by fire in the driveway of his Hollywood Hills home.
    • WATCH: Kid Cudi Testifies About Molotov Cocktail And Car Fire
    • Cudi said he was about 45 minutes away at a friend’s house when his dog sitter called and “told me my car was on fire.”
    • Pictures shown to the jury showed a hole cut in the fabric roof and a Molotov cocktail was found in the passenger seat. Cassie testified last week that Combs threatened to blow up Cudi’s car and hurt him after he learned she was dating Cudi. She said Combs told her he’d be out of the country when it happened and it wouldn’t be by his hands.
  • Cudi told jurors that they met to squash their beef the next day at a Los Angeles hotel, in an encounter he had his manager broker with Combs’ bodyguard.
    • “After the fire I said, this is getting out of hand, I need to talk to him,” Cudi explained.
    • Cudi said he didn’t have conflicts at the time with anyone other than Combs.
    • “I knew he had something to do with it,” Cudi said, prompting Combs’ lawyers to object. Jurors were told to disregard the remark.
    • Cudi said when he walked in, Combs was staring out the window standing with hands behind his back “like a Marvel supervillain,” prompting laugher in the courtroom.
    • Despite the action movie posture, Combs remained oddly calm throughout the one-on-one meeting, Cudi said, and even offered him water on a couple of occasions.
    • They eventually stood and shook hands. Then Cudi said he asked Combs: “What are we going to do about my car?”
    • Cudi said Combs gave him a “very cold stare” and responded: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    • Cudi was miffed. He decided to let it go, but recalled Combs noticing his hesitation. “I thought we were cool, is there a problem?” Combs asked.
    • Cudi said he told Combs he would take him at his word, and he eventually made peace with the situation. After that, there were no more break-ins at his house and no more trouble with his car.
    • Combs ended up apologizing a few years later, when they ran into each other again at the SoHo House hotel, Cudi testified.
    • Cudi said Combs, there with his daughter, pulled him aside and said: “Man, I just was to apologize for everything and all that (expletive).” “After the apology, I found peace with it,” Cudi testified.
  • Questioned about the break-in by defense lawyer Brian Steel, Cudi acknowledged that he had left the door to his home unlocked and that there was no damage to the structure.
    • The only signs that something was amiss were Christmas presents that had been unwrapped, Cudi’s dog locked in a bathroom and a security camera that appeared to have been turned aside, the actor and singer testified.
    • Steel suggested that Cassie was living a “double life” while playing both Combs and Kid Cudi in their relationships.
    • Cudi testified that when he started dating Cassie in late 2011, she’d led him to believe that she and Combs were broken up.
    • “She told me they were broken up and I took her word for it,” Cudi said, recalling for jurors what he told Combs when they met to clear the air in January 2012.
    • “Ms. Ventura was living two different lives, is that true?” Steel asked. “Yes,” Cudi replied.
  • The extent of Combs’ involvement in his defense was illustrated at the end of Cudi’s testimony when prosecutor Emily Johnson asked if he believed Combs when he said he didn’t know what he was talking about when he brought up the car fire during a meeting.
    • Cudi said he came away from his meeting with Combs thinking “that he was lying.”
    • At that point, two defense lawyers on either side of Combs consulted whether they should get the last word in and ask any follow-up questions. Combs told them no and shook his head. Both lawyers then shook their heads, too, and the judge was informed that there would be no more questions from the defense.
    • With that, Cudi, who yawned several times as he testified, was permitted to leave. He left the courtroom without looking in the direction of Combs.
  • Kaplan returned to the stand, testifying he witnessed Combs being violent with another girlfriend, Gina, throwing green apples at her when they were together at Combs’ Florida home. Kaplan said he tried to rationalize this behavior — wondering if witnessing such things might just be part of the industry.
    • WATCH: Diddy’s Former Assistant Describes Violent Attack on Private Plane
    • Kaplan told jurors that his tenure with Combs has “proven to be one of the most complicated pieces of my life.”
    • “I’m a young man and this is a God among men talking to me,” said Kaplan. “He not only pushed me to my depth he pushed me to depths I didn’t even know I had,” Kaplan said, explaining he “never worked harder in my life.”
    • Despite leaving the job after seeing Combs abusing Cassie, he said he still thinks fondly of many aspects of their work together and wishes the hip-hop mogul well on his birthday — blurting “Nov. 4,” unprompted.
  • Under cross-examination, Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo suggested his violent tendencies were bad for business — in part because Kaplan, a valuable and trusted employee, was driven to leave after seeing him abuse Cassie:
    • “Mr. Combs’ temper, from what you saw, did not help his business,” Agnifilo prompted him. — “No it did not,” Kaplan replied. — “It hurt his business.” — “Yes it did.” — “Among other things, it prompted a hardworking, dedicated person, meaning yourself, to leave the company.” — “Correct.”
    • Kaplan told jurors that he “desperately did not want to come here today” but that he was forced to testify because federal prosecutors had subpoenaed him.
    • Agnifilo asked if Kaplan was reluctant to take the witness stand “because you have nothing against Sean Combs? “Yes,” Kaplan replied. Asked if he didn’t want to testify, Kaplan said: “A hundred percent.”
  • Makeup artist Mylah Morales testified that she saw injuries on Cassie’s face only once while doing makeup for her between 2007 and 2021.
    • She said it happened in 2010 during Grammys weekend after Combs stormed into Cassie’s bedroom at a hotel and she heard “yelling and screaming.”
    • After an angry Combs left the room, Morales said, she went in and saw Cassie. “She had a swollen eye and a busted lip and knots on her head,” she said. Morales said she immediately packed up her things and got her out of the hotel.
    • Morales said her doctor friend checked Cassie out the next day and recommended she go to the emergency room, but Cassie didn’t go.
    • WATCH: Diddy’s Ex-Makeup Artist: I Treated Cassie’s Busted Eye, Lip, Head Lumps
  • Frédéric Zemmour testified that Combs frequently stayed at the L’Ermitage Beverly Hills using aliases such as Frank White and Frank Black — names Cassie said he used when checking in for “freak-off” sexual encounters.
    • Zemmour said Combs’ guest profile noted that he “ALWAYS spills candle wax on everything and uses excessive amounts of oil.” The profile instructed staff to “place the room out of order upon departure for deep cleaning.”
    • “Please authorize an extra $1000 when guest stays with us to cover any room damages,” Combs’ guest profile said.
    • Prosecutors highlighted several complaints about Combs’ stays in the hotel’s internal files, including one from January 2010 in which the housekeeping staff said it observed “large deposits of candle wax on carpets in living room area, and on the night stands in bedroom area.” Combs was charged $500 for the damage.

DAY 8 – 5/21/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 8 Recap
  • Homeland Security Investigations Agent Gerard Gannon detailed the federal search of Combs’ property on Star Island, Florida.
    • 80-90 agents were sent to the residence near Miami, and used an armored vehicle to crash through the security gate while deploying boats to patrol water nearby.
    • Gannon showed jurors handguns, ammunition, drugs and other items found during the raid, including bottles of baby oil and lubricant.
    • WATCH: Special Agent Shows Jury Red Heels Found At Diddy’s Miami Mansion
  • Forensic psychologist Dawn M. Hughes, Ph.D., testified about sexual abuse, coercive control and intimate partner violence.
    • Hughes explained that victims stay in abusive relationships for a variety of reasons, including fear they won’t be believed, fear of future violence and lack of tangible and financial resources.
    • Hughes testified that it is common for victims of domestic abuse not to disclose the abuse, which she referred to as a “delayed response.”
    • WATCH: Psychologist Dr. Dawn Hughes Talks About Trauma Bond in Diddy Trial
  • George Kaplan, Combs’ one-time personal assistant, testified that he was in charge of cleaning up hotel rooms after the hip-hop mogul’s sex marathons — tossing out empty alcohol bottles, baby oil and drugs, tidying pillows and making it look as if nothing had happened.
    • WATCH: Ex-Diddy Aide Recalls Bizarre, Humiliating Errands, ‘Freak-Off’ Prep
    • Kaplan, who worked for Combs from 2013 to 2015, said the Bad Boy Records founder would sometimes summon him to a hotel room to deliver a “medicine kit,” a bag full of prescription pills and over-the-counter pain medications. He said Combs dispatched him to buy drugs including MDMA, also known as ecstasy.
    • WATCH: Ex-Assistant: I Picked Up Drugs for Diddy, Including MDMA
    • Kaplan, 34, was granted immunity to testify after initially telling the Manhattan court that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
    • Kaplan testified that he witnessed Combs be violent with Cassie only once, on a trip to Las Vegas aboard the rap promoter’s private jet in the second half of 2015 when he heard glass breaking behind him. He was 23 at the time.
      • He said he looked over his shoulder and saw Combs standing with a whiskey glass in his hand.
      • “There was tremendous commotion and a scuffle and then after the glass crashed, Cassie screamed: ’Isn’t anybody seeing this?”
      • Testified that neither he nor any of the security workers or Bad Boy management staff on the plane did anything to respond to Cassie’s call for help.
    • Testified that he decided to quit the job he’d held for about two years after Combs’ attack on Cassie on the private jet in 2015, and that he gave three months notice when he later saw Cassie sitting in a bedroom with a black eye and Combs sent him to pick up anti-inflammatory medicine at a convenience store to treat the injury.

DAY 7 – 5/20/25

DAY 6 – 5/19/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 6 Recap
  • Before testimony resumed Monday, while ruling on the admissibility of various hearsay statements both sides sought to admit, the judge said portions of the proposed testimony struck him as “a case built on gossip” instead of what witnesses actually saw.
  • Prosecutors called a former friend of Cassie Ventura’s, Kerry Morgan, and singer Dawn Richard to corroborate Ventura’s allegations of physical and psychological abuse against Combs and support Ventura’s testimony that Combs controlled her career and livelihood.
  • Combs’ co-counsel Nicole Westmoreland grilled former Bad Boys recording artist Dawn Richard on inconsistent statements she gave over the course of the investigation, including her belated disclosures of Combs’ alleged threat about people “going missing” or that she saw Combs use drugs and carry firearms.
    • Singer Dawn Richard returned to the stand, testifying that Combs threatened to kill her if she told anyone that she saw him beat his longtime girlfriend.
      • Richard said the day after she saw Combs try to hit Cassie with a skillet and beat her, he told her and another woman who saw the attack that “we could go missing” if either revealed what they saw. Richard said she took that to mean that “we could die.”
      • The alleged incident happened just as Richard was beginning to record with Diddy for a musical trio the two had formed with another singer.
      • Richards said she frequently saw Combs punch, choke, drag, and slap Cassie, even kicking and punching her in the stomach. She testified to three specific instances of alleged abuse in 2009 and 2010.
      • Richards said she didn’t intervene or disclose what she saw because she thought that was best for her safety and because she wasn’t ready to leave.
      • On cross-examination, Combs’ attorneys pushed Richard about her civil lawsuit against the music mogul, which is still pending.
      • Combs’ co-counsel Nicole Westmoreland grilled former Bad Boys recording artist Dawn Richard on inconsistent statements she gave over the course of the investigation, including her belated disclosures of Combs’ alleged threat about people “going missing” or that she saw Combs use drugs and carry firearms.
    • Cassie’s former best friend and roommate, Kerry Morgan, testified that Combs left her with a concussion after choking her and slinging a wooden hanger at her in 2018 when he came to Cassie’s Los Angeles home enraged because he thought Cassie was dating someone else.
      • Morgan testified to Combs’ jealous, violent and controlling reputation through several alleged instances in which Morgan said she saw Combs physically attack and belittle Ventura. Morgan said she encouraged Ventura to report the 2016 hotel incident to police and leave, but Ventura feared the potential consequences to her career or loss of cars and apartments of hers that Combs controlled.
      • Morgan accused Combs of strangling and hitting her in the head with a wooden hanger in 2018 during a jealous rage over Ventura. Morgan said the incident led her to end her friendship with Ventura after Ventura sided with Combs, accusing Morgan of “milking it” for a $30,000 payoff from Combs.
      •  Morgan said she was going to sue combs, but Cassie had her sign a non-disclosure agreement in exchange for $30,000 from Combs, while accusing her of ‘milking’ and ‘overexaggerating’ the attack. The episode ended the women’s 17-year friendship, with both women testifying they haven’t spoken since.
      • Morgan said she encouraged Cassie to break up with him, but she said Cassie was reluctant to end the relationship because “he controlled everything. She would’ve lost all of her livelihood.
    •  The prosecution continued efforts to expand the case beyond Ventura’s abuse claims to the alleged criminal enterprise by eliciting testimony from former personal assistant David James about the inner workings of Combs’ empire, including the grueling schedule employees were expected to keep.
      • James testified that the SVP of human resources told him in his interview that “this is Mr. Combs’ kingdom” and “we’re all here to serve him.”

DAY 5 – 5/16/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 5 Recap
  • MORE | Key moments from week 1 in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ sex trafficking trial
  • Prosecutors implored the judge overnight to make the defense wrap up its questioning in time to allow for prosecution follow-ups on Friday, citing concern for Cassie’s “health and safety” and the potential for a mistrial if she goes into labor with her third child.
  • Defense attorney Anna Estevao resumed her cross-examination with questions related to the March 2016 recording of Combs attacking Cassie at the elevator bank of a Los Angeles hotel.
    • Estevao had Cassie read aloud a text message in which she complained that Combs was out of control from drugs and alcohol that day. In the message, Cassie told Combs: “I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child.”
    • Through text messages read aloud to the jury, Estevao then showed that Combs and Cassie were expressing love to one another again just days later as they tried to recover from the hotel attack. Cassie told Combs in one text: “We need a different vibe from Friday.”
    • Cassie said Combs was wary of her dating or giving attention to other men, even during breaks in their decade-long relationship. The hip-hop star took her phone from her on numerous occasions, including when he found out she was dating a football player and when she suspected her of dancing with the singer Chris Brown. Cassie didn’t name the player and denied dancing with Brown.
  • Jurors heard a 2013 recording of a distressed Cassie screaming at a friend who said he had seen a video of her performing sex acts.
    • In the recording, made by Cassie, the man claimed to have the video on his phone. Cassie is heard pleading to see the video and then threatening to kill him if it became public.
    • “I’ve never killed anyone in my life, but I will kill you,” Cassie told the man, punctuating her threats with profanity.
    • Cassie acknowledged in her testimony that Combs subsequently made efforts to keep the video private.
    • WATCH: Cassie Heard On Audio Threatening Man Who Had ‘Freak Off’ Video
  • Cassie is questioned about her treatment in 2023:
    • Estevao noted that the women’s center offered treatment for sex addiction, sexual compulsion and love addiction — and she asked Cassie if she was treated for any of these things during her weeks-long stay.
    • Cassie said she was not, but that she did undergo neurofeedback therapy: “They hook your brain up to a machine and you watch something and it regulates your brain waves.”
    • She said she underwent it five or six times, or about once a week during her stay, and that she believed it was to help her process trauma.
    • Cassie said she also underwent “EMDR” therapy to process trauma, and gave an example of recalling a traumatic moment when you couldn’t escape a room, but through therapy, are able to experience what it’s like to escape the room.
  • Cassie testified that she broke up with Combs for good in August 2018 after she saw a photo of him with another woman he’d been dating for the last few years of their decade-long relationship.
    • “I just don’t trust anymore. That last shot put the nail in the coffin,” Cassie texted Combs, referring to the photo of Combs with a woman identified in court as Gina.
    • “I promised myself I wouldn’t be with you anymore if you did that to me again,” Cassie wrote, telling Combs “you lied to me” and “she never went away.”
    • Soon after, Cassie said, she started dating her now husband, Alex Fine.
  • Estevao asked Cassie if she still had feelings for Combs after he allegedly raped her in August 2018.
    • “You didn’t hate him then. And you don’t still hate him now,” Estevao said.
    • “I don’t hate him,” Cassie responded. “You still have love for him?” Estevao asked. Cassie responded, “I have love for the past, what it was.”
    • WATCH: ‘I Don’t Hate Him’: Cassie Admits Lasting Feelings For Diddy
    • Cassie acknowledged she and Combs had consensual sex as Estevao had her read texts they exchanged in the aftermath of their breakup. Cassie also admitted the texts did not mention the alleged rape.
  • Estevao tried to discredit Cassie’s allegation that Combs raped her.
    • She noted that Cassie’s trial testimony differs in some ways from what she told investigators in 2023. Cassie contends that Combs raped her in her Los Angeles home after they had dinner in Malibu to discuss the end of their relationship in Aug. or Sept. 2018.
    • Cassie and Combs continued exchanging warm messages after their breakup, even after she married her husband, Alex Fine.
  • Cassie denied having financial problems before filing a lawsuit against Combs in 2023 and securing a $20 million settlement.
  • The defense highlighted Cassie’s post on Instagram in May 2024 after CNN broadcast security footage from the Intercontinental Hotel. “Domestic violence is the issue,” Cassie wrote. Estevao was underscoring the defense’s contention that while Combs was abusive, his behavior didn’t warrant sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
  • Estevao ended her cross-examination of Cassie by having her read more text messages in an attempt to portray her as a willing participant in “freak offs.”
    • In her redirect, prosecutor Emily Johnson had Cassie read more of the messages to provide additional context.
  • Cassie sobbed when the prosecutor asked about Combs beating her during the “freak offs.”
    • Cassie said the abuse made her feel “worthless, just like dirt… like I was nothing.”
    • Cassie said she was initially open to the idea of engaging in the drug-fueled sex marathons but grew weary of them as the years went on. “I was worried for my safety. I worried for my career,” she told jurors.
  • Cassie told the jury she expects to receive a $10 million settlement from the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles, where she was assaulted in 2016.
  • Special Agent Yasin Binda of Homeland Security Investigations testified.
    • Binda participated in searches related to the Combs investigation and was involved in coordinating logistics for his arrest last September at a Manhattan hotel.
  • Singer Dawn Richard testified (she was a cast member on Combs’ MTV reality show “Making the Band,” later she was a member of the Combs band Diddy — Dirty Money)
    • Said she witnessed Combs physically attack Cassie multiple times.
    • Said she witnessed one incident in 2009 at Combs’ home when “he came downstairs screaming” and “proceeded to hit her on the head and beat her on the ground in front of us.”
    • Said she was in Combs’ home at the time recording.
    • Sued Combs last year, accusing him of physical abuse, groping, and psychological abuse during the years they worked together.
    • Testified that Combs was angry and tried to hit Cassie in the head with a black skillet in the 2009 encounter at Combs’ home, but Cassie seemed to deflect a direct hit by the skillet and then curled up in the fetal position on the ground. She said Combs then put his arm around her neck and his hand on her head and dragged her up the stairs. She said she didn’t try to intervene and didn’t call the police, in part because “I had never seen anything like that before.”
    • Richard said after witnessing the attack she was “scared what that might mean for myself. He was punching his girlfriend, beating her up.”
    • She said Combs summoned her to his home the next day and gave her flowers.
    • Richard also said Diddy said Cassie “was Ok” and that it was in their best interests not to say anything. She said he used language that she took to mean people “could end up in death.”
      • That led to an objection and a discussion at sidebar that led the judge to send the jury home for the day.

DAY 4 – 5/15/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 4 Recap
  • Judge Arun Subramanian began court by denying a request from Combs’ defense to introduce texts between him and Cassie referencing specific sexual acts.
  • Combs’ defense attorney, Anna Estevao, began her cross-examination of Cassie Ventura gently, with a series of questions about their relationship, emphasizing that the pair had been in love for 11 years.
    • Estevao confronted Cassie with loving emails and texts she exchanged with Combs early in their relationship. In one email, Cassie told Combs she was a lucky woman. “I love you sooo much,” she wrote after Combs thanked her for flying to Atlanta to be with him.
    • In August 2009, a message from Combs said, “I love you sooooo much it makes me cry.” Cassie replied: “U hungry pop pop?” She testified that Pop Pop was a nickname she used for Combs, while he sometimes called her Baby Girl.
    • Prosecutors are objecting frequently and the judge is rejecting many of the objections.
    • WATCH: Cassie Ventura Describes Loving Start To Relationship With Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
  • Warm emails and messages exchanged between the couple is a counterpoint to two days of testimony about forced sex and violence. Cassie acknowledged, “I had fallen in love with him and cared about him very much.”
  • Questioning soon turned to the “freak offs,” with Esevao sharing text messages that showed Cassie’s apparent enthusiasm for them. In August 2009, Combs asked, “When do you want to freak off?” and Cassie replied, “I’m always ready to freak off.”
  • Messages between the couple began to show fractures, with Cassie growing frustrated by the state of their relationship. In a December 2009 email, Cassie told Combs she needed something more from him than just a sexual partnership. “Do you know what I mean?” she said in the message. “In order for me to be more open with the things we do in bed, I need to feel safe, like home, this is my husband, and this is THE ONLY man that will ever have this aggressive/sexual side of me.”
  • Combs’ attorney suggested Cassie ended Diddy’s career, asking if it’s “fair to say” his career was ruined when she sued him in 2023 and made the concept of “freak offs” public. “I could understand that,” Cassie responded.
  • Cassie said early on she would disguise herself with wigs and masquerade masks during “freak offs” because neither she nor Combs wanted to be recognized. “I definitely didn’t want anyone to know,” she said. “The encounter itself was pretty crazy. I really followed his lead on that because I had never done it before.”
  • Cassie was asked directly whether she thinks “freak offs” are related to a swingers lifestyle. “In a sexual way,” Cassie responded, before adding: “They’re very different.”
  • Drugs and addiction came up before the lunch break, with Combs’ attorneys asking Cassie if she thought he was an addict. “I would say he was an addict,” Cassie responded. “What was he addicted to?” Estevao asked. “Success,” Cassie initially said, and then confirmed opiates when prompted by his attorney.
  • Combs’ attorneys said they don’t expect to finish their cross-examination until the end of the day Friday, which would mean Cassie may have to return Monday for re-direct. Combs’ attorney suggested that prosecutors muddled the timing by calling two witnesses before Cassie.
    • Cassie is due to give birth and both sides had previously agreed her testimony would be done by week’s end.
  • Combs, now 55 and with gray hair, has worn glasses as he looks at a computer and documents while conferring with attorneys at his side. During a break, he stood and turned to the gallery and acknowledged a few reporters. “How you doing,” he asked.
  • At points during testimony about the text and email exchanges, jurors leaned forward to follow along as monitors displayed the messages in front of the jury box. One woman shook her head from side-to-side as a particularly explicit message was shown.
  • Though Cassie has been polite through the cross-examination, smiling at Combs’ attorney, she has expressed occasional frustration, asking the attorney to rephrase or repeat questions. At one point, Cassie complained the jurors weren’t hearing the full context of the text messages the defense was highlighting. “This isnt’ about what I feel is relevant right now, right?” Cassie said, looking at the judge. “Because there’s a lot we skipped over.”
  • Cassie admitted feeling “some jealousy” towards Combs’ ex, Kim Porter, who was the mother of his children. On one occasion, she said Combs left a “freak off” to go see Porter at another hotel.
  • Jealousy in the relationship extended both ways. Cassie said that she had a burner phone to communicate with Kid Cudi and that Combs was frequently irate over Cudi because he was big in the industry.
    • WATCH: Cassie: Diddy Was Jealous Of My Relationship With Kid Cudi
    • When Cassie filmed a movie in South Africa, she learned Combs was texting another woman and broke up with him. She blocked his number and began dating Michael B. Jordan.
    • “You’re making me look like a side piece and that is not what I thought I was,” Cassie told Combs in a 2013 text message.
    • Cassie said Combs made clear that he didn’t want her seeing anyone else, but the same rules didn’t apply to him.
  • Responding to questions about drug use, Cassie said that Combs once told drug dealers in Los Angeles to stop delivering drugs to her. She also acknowledged that Combs recommended she get help for her drug issues. Cassie said Combs only wanted her to do drugs with him rather than with friends.
  • Combs’ defense is pointing to instances when Cassie appeared eager to participate in “freak offs.”
    • In a July 2013 text exchange, Combs’ lawyer noted it was Cassie who raised the idea of having one, saying, “Wish we could’ve FO’d before you left.”
    • Cassie has said she felt compelled to participate in such encounters to keep Combs happy.
    • In a 2017 text, Cassie told Combs, “I love our FOs when we both want it.”
    • Combs’ attorney confronted Cassie with dozens of texts she exchanged with Combs before they agreed to engage in a “freak-off” at an LA in March 2016 where Combs was recorded kicking and dragging her by an elevator bank.
      • Defense suggested Combs and Cassie had taken a “bad batch” of MDMA the night he beat her.
    • Cassie complained at one point that jurors weren’t hearing the full context of the messages the defense was highlighting, saying, “There’s a lot we skipped over.”

DAY 3 – 5/14/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 3 Recap
  • Testimony resumed shortly before 10 a.m. on Wednesday, and Cassie answered questions posed by prosecutor Emily Johnson for a second day. Prior to testimony, the judge ruled “freak off” footage would only be shown to the jury.
  • Regarding the 2016 hotel incident, Cassie testified that Combs threw a vase of flowers at her. “I just remember it coming towards me. I remember it hitting a wall,” she said.
    • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Cassie Details Injuries From Hotel Attack
    • Earlier in the trial, a hotel security guard said he saw the damage when he arrived upstairs and told Combs he would have to pay for it. Cassie said she left the hotel in an Uber and went to her apartment, which was nearby.
    • Jurors were shown photos of Cassie’s swollen lip as she testified about the hotel attack. She said she took the selfies on her Uber ride away from the Los Angeles hotel. She said she wore sunglasses because she had a black eye.
    • Once home, she said a friend of hers saw her injuries and was “super upset” because she’d “seen me with black eyes and busted lips before.”
    • Cassie said her friend called police, but she declined to reveal who had injured her once police arrived so they left. “In that moment, I didn’t want to hurt him that way,” she testified. “I wasn’t ready.”
    • After leaving the hotel following the attack, Cassie said Combs claimed the police were about to arrest him. When she refused to accept his calls, Combs told her that if she didn’t pick up, she’d “never hear my voice again,” Cassie said.
    • Jurors were shown photos of Cassie and Combs at a movie premiere shortly after the March 2016 attack. Cassie described bruises on her body and said she wore dark glasses to cover her black eye.
    • WATCH: Cassie Texted Diddy After Hotel Assault: ‘I Have a Black Eye and a Fat Lip’
  • Combs kept texting Cassie after she left the LA hotel following attack, she testified.
    • She said he claimed police were about to arrest him. And when she refused to accept his phone calls, Combs told her that if she didn’t pick up the phone, she’d “never hear my voice again,” Cassie said.
    • Two days after Combs beat and kicked Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel, they were photographed attending the premiere of the film “The Perfect Match.” Cassie said she used makeup to cover her bruises and sneaked into a popcorn closet at the movie theater to switch dresses for an after-party so bruises on her legs wouldn’t be visible.
  • Cassie testified Combs threatened several times to release recordings of ‘freak offs’
    • And she said it could ruin everything she’d worked for and “make me look like a slut.” She said she always worried he’d get mad enough to release them.
    • “I feared for my career. I feared for my family. It’s just embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone,” she said.
  • When asked if she ever tried to fight back when Combs picked a fight with her, she said she did try earlier in their relationship, but she learned “it could escalate the fight more, make it worse for myself.”
  • After looking through a binder of photos provided by prosecutors, Cassie identified 13 male sex workers she said she recruited at Combs’ behest for “freak offs” in Las Vegas, Miami and Los Angeles.
    • She said she had sex with all of them, though she couldn’t remember all of their names. Some she knew only by their first names. Some were flown in for the occasions. On Tuesday, Cassie had identified a half dozen other escorts. One of them, she said, was advertised as “The Punisher.”
  • Cassie said she would try to recover from “freak offs” by taking IV fluids, getting massages and having a chef cook meals.
    • WATCH: Cassie Testifies About Recovering From ‘Freak Offs’ in Diddy’s Trial
    • She said she developed an opioid addiction from using them after “freak offs” as a coping mechanism. “Opioids make me feel numb, which is why I relied on them so heavily.”
    • She said she developed urinary tract infections frequently from the sexual experiences. After “freak offs,” she said, she felt emotionally “just really empty and I felt just gross.”
    • She said she also “felt like I did my job.”
    • At least once, she said, one of the escorts who participated in “freak offs” came along with his girlfriend. She said she had sex with the escort at the sex club.
    • At times, Cassie testified, she told Combs it made her uncomfortable to go to sex clubs. “I’m not into seeing the person you’re in love with with somebody else,” she said. Cassie said he responded by continuing to push for it, saying it would “be a fun thing to do and we wouldn’t go for long.”
  • On one occasion in 2013, while she was packing to go to Drake’s music festival in Canada, Cassie said Combs scuffled with her friends and threw her into a bed frame.
    • She said she suffered a “pretty significant gash” above her left eye. Combs’ security personnel brought her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills to get the wound stitched up.
    • Afterward, she texted Combs a photo of her injured face and wrote: “So you can remember.”
    • Combs replied: “You don’t know when to stop. You pushed it too far. And continued to push. Sad.”
  • Attending the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, Cassie beamed as she posed for photographers. But, after getting into a fight with Combs away from the glitz and glamour, she said she didn’t have a place to stay.
    • Cassie testified Combs accused her of taking drugs from him and kicked her off of the yacht where they were staying. Cassie said she left the boat without shoes. Her passport and other belongings were also left behind, she said.
    • Cassie said she ended up crashing at a hotel where Combs’ employees were staying.
    • After their trip to the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, Combs began playing a recording of a “freak off” on his laptop computer as he and Cassie sat together on a commercial flight to New York.
    • Cassie said Combs told her he was “going to embarrass me and release them.” The prosecutor posing the questions, Emily Johnson, asked if there were “people around you” when Combs was playing the videos on the phone. Cassie said there were.
    • After landing in New York, she testified, they went to dinner and then had another “freak off” right afterward.
    • Cassie once told Combs, “You treat me like Ike,” referencing Ike Turner who was described by singer Tina Turner as an abusive lover.
  • During the Court’s lunch break, attorneys spoke to the judge to ensure they’d be able to continue communicating with their clients during breaks in the trial, in part, to calm their nerves. The judge said they could still talk to their clients but are not allowed to advise them as to what they should or shouldn’t say or otherwise impact their testimony.
  • Prosecutors indicated they would not show videos of Cassie involved in sexual experiences during their direct examination, but it’s unknown whether the defense will show them.
  • The jury was shown still images from sex party videos.
    • One juror’s eyes widened as the first image — of Cassie and a male sex worker she identified as “Jules” — appeared on the screen in front of him. Another juror shook his head from side to side as the image was shown. The images are shown on monitors in the jury box and witness stand. The feed to the public gallery and overflow rooms is off.
    • WATCH: Jurors React To Still Images From Diddy’s ‘Freak Off’ Parties
  • Prosecutors elicited a history of notable events of violence Cassie said she suffered at Combs’ hands.
    • She said the first violence came early in their relationship in 2007. Cassie said she was at dinner with “Sean and friends” when she saw Combs flirting with somebody. She said she shrugged her shoulders when somebody else who saw it looked at her. But then, she said, Combs attacked her in a car after they left the venue. “He knocked me around and was just hitting me,” she said. She said she fell to the floor of the car. “I was shocked.”
    • Cassie testified that when she returned home for Christmas in 2011 with bruises, she lied to her mother and said it was the first time he’d hit her. Jurors saw photos showing a large, dark bruise on Cassie’s lower back and other bruises on her shoulder and thigh she said she sustained in the altercation.
    • Cassie said before the Christmas trip home, Combs lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her in the back when he learned she had started dating rapper Kid Cudi.
    • Cassie said she saw Combs bring one of her friends back over the railing of a balcony at her LA apartment before he “threw her on the patio furniture.” On another occasion, she said she saw him hit a different friend with whom she had been close for 17 years in the head with a hammer. “It just ended our friendship,” Cassie said.
    • Cassie said before ending her relationship with Combs in 2018, she was experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
      • She described blacking out and sleepwalking.
    • Cassie told jurors that Combs forced his way into her Los Angeles apartment and raped her in 2018 after she told him she was ending their relationship.
    • Cassie said she had met Combs in Malibu for dinner in hopes of gaining closure after a decade with him. After dinner, she said, Combs went to her home and ignored her pleas to leave.
  • Cassie said she saw Combs on a subsequent occasion and had a consensual encounter with him, explaining: “We’d been together for over 10 years. You just don’t turn feelings off … like, I didn’t hate him.”
  • When a prosecutor asked Cassie how many “freak-offs” she participated in, she said: “Impossible to know. Hundreds?”
  • Cassie testified that her life reached a climatic moment in early 2023 when she had “horrible flashbacks” as she was shooting a music video.
    • She said she later told her husband at home that “you can do this without me. You don’t need me here anymore.”
    • She said she couldn’t take the pain anymore and “tried to walk out the front door into traffic and my husband would not let me.”
    • Weeks later, she was undergoing rehab and trauma therapy.
  • Cassie filed a lawsuit against Combs in Nov. 2023, alleging years of rape and abuse. The suit was resolved the next day for $20 million.
  • Asked why she was testifying at Combs’ criminal trial, she said: “I can’t carry this anymore. I can’t carry the shame, the guilt.”

DAY 2 – 5/13/25

  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Day 2 Recap
  • Cassie Ventura, noticeably pregnant on the witness stand, was emotional from the start. She took deep breaths and sometimes paused as she spoke.
    • Before Cassie took the stand, the judge ruled her husband, Alex Fine, can be in the courtroom for most — but not all — of her testimony. Acting on a defense request, the judge said Fine must leave the courtroom when questioning turns to Cassie’s allegation that Combs raped her in 2018. That’s because Combs’ lawyers say they may call Fine as a witness later in the trial in an attempt to discredit Cassie’s allegation.

      Cassie Ventura, right, walks out of the courtroom past Sean Diddy Combs

      Cassie Ventura, right, walks out of the courtroom past Sean Diddy Combs after testifying in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

    • Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson started questioning of Cassie by asking her age, which is 38, and her occupation, which she said is “musician, an entertainer.” She said she was in a relationship with Combs for just over 10 years.
    • Cassie testified that her relationship with Combs ran the gamut from good times to arguments and physical altercations.
      • “If they were violent arguments, it would usually result in some sort of physical abuse and dragging, just different things,” Cassie told jurors.
      • She testified that Combs would mash her head, drag her, kick her and stomp her in the head when she was down.
      • Asked how frequently Combs became violent with her, Cassie softly responded: “Too frequently.”
    • When the prosecutor questioned her about “freak offs,” she said she was barely 22 when Combs first asked her to do them. She said she was “confused, nervous, but also loved him very much.”
      • WATCH: Cassie Ventura Details ‘Freak Offs’ in Diddy’s Sex Trafficking Trial
      • “Freak offs” were the highly orchestrated sex parties which she said stemmed from Combs’ interest in voyeurism. They would entail hiring an escort and “setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean,” Cassie said.
      • Asked how she felt when Combs first proposed engaging in a “freak off,” Cassie said: “I just remember my stomach falling to my butt. Just the nervousness and confusion in that moment.”
      • She said she didn’t feel like she could say no to Combs because she “didn’t know what ‘no’ could be, or what ‘no’ could turn into,” which she said she learned could include violence and blackmail threats.
      • “Sean controlled a lot of my life, whether it was career, the way I dressed, everything, everything. I just didn’t have much say in it at the time,” Cassie testified.
      • Shown still images from the now-infamous 2016 security camera footage of Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel, Cassie said prior to the altercation: “We were having an encounter called a ‘Freak Off’ and I was leaving there.”
      • Elaborating on why she felt it was so difficult to refuse Combs’ demands, Cassie reiterated her fears of violence and blackmail videos from “freak offs” being disseminated on the internet.
      • “Sean is a really polarizing person, also really charming,” Cassie said. “It’s hard to really be able to decide in that moment what you need when he’s telling you what he wants. I just didn’t know. I didn’t know what would happen.”
    • Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson returned to eliciting biographical and historical information about Cassie, including when she first signed to Bad Boy Records in early 2006.
      • She said her interactions with Combs, who owned the label, were platonic at first. But then he kissed her during her 21st birthday trip to Las Vegas in the bathroom of his hotel suite. “I was just really confused at the time,” she said. “And young.”
      • After the Las Vegas trip, Cassie said, she was invited by Combs to hotels in New York where they’d talk about music projects and albums.
      • When Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson asked what else happened at hotels, Cassie took a deep breath and said she was introduced to the “idea of oral sex” at the hotels.
      • Cassie also noted that Combs is 17 years older than her and that she was “sexually inexperienced” when they first got together.
      • She said she eventually had sex with Combs on a boat during a trip to Miami. She said she had wine in the afternoon and then Combs introduced her to ecstasy for the first time.
      • After that, she said, she felt closer to the rapper and producer, started spending more time with him, and thought, at the time, that they were in a monogamous relationship.
      • In hindsight, she said, she knows that wasn’t the case. Asked why, she responded: “Sean Combs had many girlfriends.”
    • Over time, Cassie testified, Combs became increasingly controlling and sometimes was violent. “You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she said.
      • Cassie said that if she didn’t respond to his call right away, there would be incessant calls until she did and Combs’ staff, including security workers, would join in the pursuit.
      • Cassie said that as a birthday present, Combs rented her a Manhattan apartment a few blocks from where he lived. Another apartment Combs rented for Cassie in Los Angeles was just a three-minute drive from his home and he’d sometimes drive a golf cart to get from one residence to the other.
      • She noted that the rap star paid her rent at apartments close to his residences in New York and later Los Angeles, had his own sets of keys and made “a lot of unannounced visits.”
      • In the beginning, Cassie said, she was “insanely jealous.” She said that resulted from being “super young.” “I didn’t get that he was him. As he would say, ‘I’m Puff Daddy. Puff Daddy has many rules. Likes the company of women,’” she recalled. She said that as time passed, she came to believe “more often than not” that they were in a monogamous relationship. “He expected that of me so I assumed it was the same.” She said Combs told her: “I’m not dealing with anyone else. It’s just us.”
      • WATCH: Cassie Ventura Says She Was ‘Young’ & ‘Insanely Jealous’ When Dating Diddy
    • Just before the break, Cassie testified the longest ‘freak off’ she was involved in lasted four days.
      • “The freak offs became a job,” she said, noting that other encounters took anywhere from 36 or 48 hours. The marathon sessions frequently required periods of recovery from dehydration, fatigue and drug use, she said.
      • WATCH: Cassie Ventura: I Needed Drugs to Endure Diddy’s Disturbing ‘Freak Offs’ 
      • Johnson pressed Cassie to explain what happened to her music career and the nine albums that were never released. Cassie said she created hundreds of songs, some of which were released on the internet prior to “proper release and some just didn’t see the light of day.” Cassie testified that much of her week went toward the “freak offs.”
    • Cassie recalled an incident in which Combs left her during a “freak off” at his Los Angeles home to confront rival record executive Suge Knight at Mel’s Drive-In, a landmark diner nearby.
      • Combs sprang into action after his bodyguard came in and told him of Knight’s whereabouts, she said. Combs and the bodyguard dressed in black clothes, grabbed guns from a safe and loaded into an SUV, she said.
      • “I was crying. I was screaming, like ‘Please don’t do anything stupid,’” Cassie testified. “I was really nervous for them. I didn’t know what they were going to do.” She said, “It’s like I wasn’t even there.”
      • Cassie said Combs later returned, but she didn’t say if he told her what happened. It’s unclear if he ended up encountering Knight at the diner.
    • Cassie says Combs was “really happy” with her after her first “freak off.”
      • Cassie said the first “freak off” happened when she was 22 and that when it was done she felt dirty and confused, but also relief that Combs was “really happy with me” that “I did something right.”
      • Cassie said she felt obligated to go along with future “freak offs.” “I just didn’t want to make him upset. I just didn’t want to make him angry and regret telling me about this experience that was so personal.”
      • Cassie said she was soon doing “freak offs” weekly, with the final one occurring in 2017 or 2018.
      • Each “freak off” was a “very choreographed experience” that would require about 10 large bottles of Johnson’s brand baby oil. Cassie described one occasion when a blow-up pool of baby oil and lubricants was placed in a hotel room and she was told to get inside in her “outfit” and shoes.
      • WATCH: Cassie Ventura: Diddy Instructed Two People To Urinate On Me At Once
    • Cassie said she used drugs during every “freak off” she participated in.
      • When the prosecutor asked her why, Cassie replied, “For me it was dissociative and numbing. I couldn’t imagine myself doing any of that without having some sort of buffer or way to not feel it for what it really was, which was emotionless sex with a stranger that I didn’t really want to have sex with.”
      • Cassie identified some of the male escorts allegedly hired for “freak offs,” while their photos were displayed on courtroom monitors. Some she knew by name, others only by nicknames, including, “The Punisher.”
    • Cassie says she was “heavily objectified” during the “freak offs.”
      • Cassie testified that she tried to speed up “freak off” sex acts with male sex worker so she could get to the part she liked: alone time with Combs.
      • She said Combs dictated every aspect of the encounters and that he’d get mad if they ended too soon. “It was his fantasy,” she said. “He was controlling the whole situation. He was directing it.”
      • Cassie said sometimes Combs would make her repeat sex acts with the escorts. On other occasions, she said, multiple escorts were involved.
        • “I was an object being heavily objectified by men in that scenario,” she testified.
      • Combs didn’t always stay in the room to watch Cassie have sex with male sex workers, she said. Sometimes, he’d go to another room and watch them via FaceTime, the iPhone video call app, she testified.
    • Cassie says Combs’ staff had access to “freak off” videos.
      • Cassie said she remembers “feeling insane” when Combs told her he wanted to start recording videos of the “freak offs.”
      • “He explained it was for him for after,” Cassie testified. She said they’d sometimes watch the videos while having sex.
      • Cassie said she was apprehensive about being recorded and went on to delete videos that he recorded using her electronic devices. Other videos were on his devices, which could be accessed by his staff, she said.
        • She did not seem emotional as the video was shown, but it came at the end of the day, after lengthy testimony with graphic descriptions of sex acts she says she carried out to please Combs.
        • Combs interacted with lawyers on either side of him during Cassie’s testimony but remained largely stoic.As the video of Cassie being dragged and kicked at an elevator bank in Los Angeles in 2016 was shown in court at the end of the day, several jurors looked up from the video on the monitors in front of them and settled their eyes on Cassie.
  • Former escort Daniel Phillip returned the stand Tuesday.
    • Defense lawyer Xavier Donaldson pointed to Phillip’s past statements to federal prosecutors as he attempted to show inconsistencies in his recollection of events.
    • Donaldson finished his cross-examination after suggesting Phillip had developed a crush on Cassie and wanted to isolate her from Combs so he could be with her romantically. Phillip denied that but admitted, “I was attracted to her. If she ever gave me the chance to date her, I absolutely would have.”
    • Once Donaldson was finished, a prosecutor asked Phillip more questions, underscoring the witness’ earlier testimony that it was Combs who directed his sexual activity with Cassie.
  • Outside of the jury’s presence:
    • The judge said he would allow the defense to introduce a text exchange between Cassie and Combs about an alleged bar fight that Cassie told Combs she had been involved in while she was visiting family in Connecticut. The exhibit was part of a defense motion in limine to essentially show that the couple’s relationship issues existed outside of the “freak-offs,” including Cassie’s alleged substance abuse and propensity for violence.
    • WATCH: Judge To Allow Jury To See Texts Between Cassie And Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
    • A media attorney argued that the press should be allowed to view images and stills from the “freak-offs” and sexual encounters that the government only wants to show to the jury. The judge said he’s inclined to grant the request but is giving parties another day to make submissions on the matter, saying he needs to balance the privacy issues of the witnesses and defendant with the rights of the public to know what’s happening during the trial.

DAY 1 – 5/12/25

  • Defense attorney Teny Geragos told the jury Combs takes “full responsibility” for his bad temper and instances of domestic violence, but argued his misdeeds do not amount to a sex trafficking criminal enterprise.
    Sean Diddy Combs, left, stands as his defense attorney, Teny Geragos, gives her opening statement

    Sean Diddy Combs, left, stands as his defense attorney, Teny Geragos, gives her opening statement to the jury on the first day of trial in Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 12, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

    • Geragos said the evidence would show the women were strong, capable adults who consented to the sex acts because they loved Combs or benefited somehow from the arrangement.
    • Geragos urged the jury to assess the motives and credibility of the witnesses, many of whom have sued Combs for millions of dollars: “How many millions of reasons does this witness, who is swearing to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, have to lie?”
    • Geragos said Combs’ fights with Cassie were motivated by jealousy and drugs, and Cassie broke up with Combs in 2018 after Kim Porter’s funeral when she realized he would never marry her.
    • WATCH: Diddy Stands in Court As Defense Describes Him As ‘Charismatic’
  • WATCH: Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial: Listen To Opening Statements
  • The jury saw clips of the infamous hotel video in the form of security footage and clips of the footage that a hotel security officer recorded on his cell phone involving Combs and Cassie.
  •  Israel Florez, who was working hotel security at the time, testified about responding to a report of a woman in distress and witnessing Combs tell Cassie: “You’re not going to leave.” Florez said he told Combs, “If she wants to leave, she’s going to leave.”
  • Jurors also heard from Daniel Phillip, who said he was a professional stripper who was paid to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and gave instructions.
    • Phillip told jurors that Combs was coy about his identity when they first met in 2012 at a Manhattan hotel. He wore a ball cap, obscuring his face with a bandana and claimed to be in the importing and exporting industry.
    • He testified that he once saw Combs drag her by her hair as she screamed.
    • WATCH: Escort Daniel Phillip Says He Witnessed Diddy Abuse Cassie Ventura
  • MORE: Officer who responded to Diddy and Cassie Ventura’s hotel room testifies

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