Sean “Diddy” Combs’ high-profile sex trafficking and RICO trial came to a close on Wednesday, prompting a variety of reactions from other musicians, accusers, supporters and social media critics.
Federal prosecutors accused the music mogul of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution in his criminal trial, which began last month in New York. On Wednesday, jurors found Combs, 55, guilty on two counts of the prostitution-related charge but cleared him of the most serious charges: racketeering and sex trafficking.
The split verdict proved a victory for Combs and his legal team, with defense attorney Marc Agnifilo telling Judge Arun Subramanian, “Mr. Combs has been given his life by this jury.”
Rapper 50 Cent — who has trolled Combs on social media since disturbing allegations against the Bad Boy Records founder first surfaced in late 2023 — offered a less formal take on the verdict. “Diddy beat the Feds that boy a bad man!” the pugnacious “In Da Club” artist said on Instagram, in an early version of his post.
50 Cent reacted to the verdict by posting a seemingly AI-generated selfie. “[Combs] beat the RICO,” he said, likening Combs to organized crime boss John Gotti. For the record, Gotti was convicted in 1992 of murder and racketeering.
On Tuesday, 50 Cent seemingly hinted at Combs’ partial victory with another Instagram post. “Diddy just told me to tell Yall don’t worry about him, he gonna hold it down,” he captioned another AI-generated photo.
Singer Cassie (real name Casandra Ventura) received praise from her legal team after Wednesday’s verdict. The “Me & U” artist dated Combs for about 11 years before their split in 2018. In November 2023 she sued Combs, becoming the first accuser to publicly raise allegations of rape, sexual assault and sex trafficking against Combs. During the weeks-long trial, a pregnant Cassie took the stand to testify about her relationship with Combs and the alleged sexual “freak-off” events he orchestrated.
Attorney Douglas Wigdor said in a statement to The Times on Wednesday that his client “paved the way” for Combs’ conviction. Combs faces up to 10 years in prison for each prostitution-related count. He has been in custody since he was indicted last year.
“By coming forward with her experience, Cassie has left an indelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice. We must repeat — with no reservation — that we believe and support our client who showed exemplary courage throughout this trial,” Wigdor said. “She displayed unquestionable strength and brought attention to the realities of powerful men in our orbit and the misconduct that has persisted for decades without repercussion.”
Combs’ case “proved that change is long overdue,” added Wigdor, who also said his firm remains committed to “fight on behalf of survivors.”
Lisa Bloom, an attorney representing Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard in her sexual assault lawsuit against Combs, said on Instagram that “today’s split verdict is a disappointment” but noted the criminal case is different from the civil battle.
“We will continue to aggressively fight our case until we obtain full and complete justice for Dawn,” said Bloom.
Outside the courthouse, Combs supporters celebrated the Grammy winner’s partial victory by spraying baby oil on each other, according to video shared by NBC News reporter Matt Lavietes. Authorities notably seized narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant at Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles during the raids last year.
Several users on social media also expressed confusion and skepticism at the jury’s decision to acquit Combs on charges of sex trafficking. Citing the prostitution-related charges, one critic alleged in a tweet “that is QUITE LITERALLY SEX TRAFFICKING??? hello??”
“Someone [with] a law degree explain to me how that makes sense,” tweeted a second X user.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani also told The Times in an interview prior to Wednesday’s verdict that “the prosecution’s presentation was underwhelming.” He added that the high-profile case was “the most expensive prostitution trial in American history. What a huge win for the defense and a tremendous loss for the prosecution.”
Subramanian decided in a late afternoon hearing on Wednesday that Combs would remain behind bars until his sentencing, citing past violent incidents that his attorney acknowledged during the trial. The rapper was denied release on a $1 million bond. Subramanian suggested a sentencing hearing for Oct. 3, but Combs’ lawyers are seeking an earlier date.
Times staff writers Richard Winton and August Brown contributed to this report.
Cassie is celebrating a new personal milestone: her baby boy with husband Alex Fine has arrived.
The “Me & U” singer on Tuesday gave birth to her third child in a New York hospital, sources confirmed to TMZ and People. She and “MobLand” actor Fine welcomed their newest family member after the former was rushed to the hospital Tuesday and admitted into the labor and delivery unit, according to TMZ.
A representative for Cassie, 38, did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for confirmation and additional information.
The singer (born Casandra Ventura) married Fine, 32, in October 2019 months after meeting him earlier that year at a gym where he worked as a wellness consultant. They also share daughters Frankie, 5, and Sunny, 3.
Cassie announced her pregnancy in February via Instagram, sharing photos from an intimate family photo shoot. She captioned the post — which prominently featured her baby bump and her loved ones surrounding her — with a few emojis, including a blue heart. Fine, also known for the series “American Primeval” and “1883,” said in his own Instagram post at the time that his growing family was the “best gift I could ask for.”
The “Long Way 2 Go” musician enters her newest chapter of motherhood less than two weeks after she testified against ex-boyfriend and disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs in his federal sex trafficking trial in New York. During her four days of testimony, Cassie shared disturbing allegations about her relationship with the Bad Boy Records boss — including his alleged fits of violence, threats of blackmail and his notorious sexual marathons called “freak-offs.” She sued Combs in the fall of 2023, helping set the stage for additional lawsuits from other accusers, federal raids on Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami and more legal fallout.
“I hope my testimony has given strength and a voice to other survivors and can help others who have suffered to speak up and also heal from abuse and fear,” Cassie said in a statement shared by her attorney Douglas Wigdor. “For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember. And the more I can remember, the more I will never forget.”
Fine, in a statement through Wigdor, also shut down narratives that he saved his wife from Combs. “To say that is an insult to the years of painful work my wife has done to save herself,” he said. “Cassie saved Cassie.”
He added: “She alone broke free from abuse, coercion, violence and threats.”
Fine concluded, noting “this horrific chapter is forever put behind us” and asked for privacy ahead of the arrival of his son with Cassie.
Times staff write Richard Winton and former Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.
NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ one-time personal assistant testified Wednesday 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.
Implied in the job was that “protecting him and protecting his public image were important to him,” George Kaplan told jurors at Combs’ sex trafficking trial in federal court in Manhattan.
“That’s what I was keen on doing,” Kaplan said.
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 also dispatched him to buy drugs, including MDMA, also known as ecstasy.
Kaplan, 34, was granted immunity to testify after initially telling the court that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Prosecutors contend Combs leaned on employees and used his music and fashion empire to facilitate and cover up his behavior, sometimes making threats to keep them in line and his misconduct hush-hush.
Kaplan testified that Combs threatened his job on a monthly basis, once berating him for buying the wrong size bottled water. Combs’ longtime girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, testified that Kaplan quit after seeing Combs beat her.
Kaplan’s testimony resumes Thursday. He’ll be followed by rapper and actor Kid Cudi.
Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, is expected to testify about his brief relationship with Cassie in 2011. Prosecutors say Combs was so upset that he arranged to have Cudi’s convertible firebombed.
Also Wednesday, a federal agent showed jurors two handguns he said were found in a March 2024 raid at Combs’ Miami-area home, along with photos of ammunition and a wooden box marked “Puffy” — one of his nicknames — that the agent said contained psilocybin, MDMA and other drugs.
Investigators also found items prosecutors say were hallmarks of “freak-offs,” including dozens of bottles of baby oil and lubricant, said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Gerard Gannon.
Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos suggested the search — which involved 80 to 90 agents, an armored vehicle smashing the security gate, handcuffed employees and boat patrols — was overkill. Combs’ Los Angeles mansion was also searched.
Gannon confirmed the federal investigation began the day after Cassie filed a lawsuit in November 2023 alleging that Combs abused her for years and involved her in hundreds of “freak-offs” with him and male sex workers. He soon settled for $20 million, she said.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he leveraged his fame and fortune to control Cassie and other people through threats and violence. His lawyers say the evidence reflects domestic violence, not racketeering or sex trafficking.
Jurors also heard from a psychologist who delved into the complexities of abusive relationships. Dawn Hughes explained victims often experience a “low sense of self” and tend to stay with abusers because they yearn for love and compassion they experienced in a relationship’s early “honeymoon phase.”
Hughes also explained how a victim’s memory can sometimes become jumbled — retaining awareness of abuse, but mixing up details. Hughes, who was paid $6,000 by the prosecution to testify, didn’t examine or mention Cassie or Combs, but her testimony paralleled some of what Cassie said she experienced with him.
Cassie testified that she started dating Cudi in late 2011. Although she and Combs broke up, they still engaged in “freak-offs,” she said. It was during such an encounter that Combs looked at her phone and figured out she was seeing Cudi, Cassie said.
Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified Tuesday that Cassie emailed her in December 2011 that Combs was so angry about the relationship that he planned to release explicit videos of her and have someone hurt Cassie and Cudi. Regina Ventura said she Combs also demanded $20,000. Scared for her daughter’s safety, she said she sent Combs the money, only to have it returned by Combs days later.
Cassie testified that she broke up with Cudi before the end of the year.
“It was just too much,” she said. “Too much danger, too much uncertainty of, like, what could happen if we continued to see each other.”
After Cassie reunited with Combs, he told her that Cudi’s car would be blown up and that he wanted Cudi’s friends there to see it, Cassie said.
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. AP reporter Julie Walker contributed to this report.
NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs demanded $20,000 from Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s mother and threatened to release explicit sex tapes of his longtime girlfriend when he became angry that she was dating someone else, the mother testified Tuesday at the hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking trial.
Regina Ventura said she felt “physically sick” when she received an email from Cassie in late 2011 saying Combs was planning to release two explicit videos of her and send someone to hurt her and the man she was seeing, rapper Kid Cudi.
“I did not understand a lot of it. The sex tapes threw me,” Ventura told the Manhattan federal court.
Ventura, of New London, Conn., said she then received a demand from Combs for $20,000 “to recoup money he had spent on her because he was unhappy she was in a relationship with Kid Cudi.”
“He was angry that he had spent money on her and she went with another person,” she said.
Ventura said she used a home equity loan to make the payment because “I was scared for my daughter’s safety.” Days later, she said, the money was returned, and before long, Cassie was dating Combs again.
Ventura testified for less than a half-hour, in part because defense attorney Marc Agnifilo declined to cross-examine her. During her testimony, the jury was shown photographs of bruises on Cassie’s body that Ventura testified were taken when her daughter came home for Christmas in 2011.
Before the jury arrived Tuesday, Agnifilo tried to persuade Judge Arun Subramanian to disallow the testimony, saying it was “purely prejudicial” because it illustrated the wide difference between the financial status of the Ventura family and Combs. The judge allowed it though, saying the threats to release sex tapes and harm Cassie made it an instance of “potential extortion.”
The testimony came during the second week of the trial, which is scheduled to last up to two months. If convicted of the charges he faces, including racketeering, the Bad Boy Records founder could be sentenced to at least 15 years in prison.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he used threats and his powerful position in the hip-hop world to abuse women and others, and force Cassie to take part in drug-fueled sexual performances with other men that she said left her too drained to pursue her singing career.
Earlier Tuesday, David James, Combs’ personal assistant from 2007 to 2009, told the court that the job seemed to come with increasing perils. He said he quit when he realized that his life had been put in danger after he was forced to drive a car in which an angry Combs sat in the back seat with three handguns on his lap.
James said his job sometimes required him to ensure that hotel rooms where Combs stayed under the name “Frank Black” were stocked with the musician’s comforts, including fresh underwear, an iPod, apple sauce, vodka, baby oil, Viagra and condoms.
There were also surprising moments, James said, like one in 2008 when Combs asked him to bring an iPod from his Miami home to a hotel room. Upon entering, James said he saw Cassie on the bed with a white comforter pulled up to her neck and an unfamiliar naked man running from the room.
Another time, he said Combs summoned him to his office to show him video he’d recorded at a party of James dancing wildly and told him: “OK. I’m going to keep this footage in case I ever need it.” James said he took it as a threat to keep him in line.
Cassie testified last week that Combs threatened to release videos of her having sex with male sex workers during so-called freak-offs Combs orchestrated if she didn’t do as he said.
James also described being required to take lie detector tests twice when Combs was trying to find out who stole cash in one instance and a watch in another.
He said Combs was on drugs nearly every day, often taking Percocet by day and ecstasy by night. When he stocked Combs’ hotel rooms, he said, drugs were in a bag dropped off by security, including the pill meant to look like then-President Obama.
The moment when James saw the three guns on Combs’ lap came when he testified that he was involved in Combs’ attempt to confront his music industry rival Suge Knight at a Los Angeles diner in November 2008 — an incident that Cassie also testified about. He said he quit soon afterward.
“I was real shook up by it,” James testified. “This was the first time being Mr. Combs’ assistant that I realized my life was in danger.”
Before Tuesday’s lunch break, Sharay Hayes, an exotic dancer known as “The Punisher,” testified that Combs and Cassie brought him into the freak-offs world. He said a woman — Cassie using a pseudonym — called and told him it was her birthday and that her husband said she should hire a dancer.
Hayes said he arrived at a Manhattan hotel room expecting to perform a striptease for a small group of people but instead found the woman who hired him — whom he later found out was Cassie — alone with an otherwise naked man who hid his face with a burqa-like cloth. That man, he said, turned out to be Combs.
Hayes recalled seeing bottles of baby oil in bowls of water and getting handed a stack of $800 in cash. Later, after Combs watched him have a sexual encounter with Cassie, he said he was handed an additional $1,200. He said he was a fan of Combs but didn’t realize it was him in the room until a subsequent encounter at another hotel where the message on the TV screen said: “Essex House would like to welcome Mr. Sean Combs.”
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press.
She already felt “trapped” in a cycle of physical and sexual abuse by him, she told a New York federal jury this week, outlining 11 years of alleged beatings, sexual blackmail and a rape.
She claimed Combs threatened to leak videos of her sexual encounters with numerous male sex workers while drug-intoxicated and glistening with baby oil as he watched and orchestrated the events, known as freak-offs.
“If I pleased him with a freak-off, then my premiere would run smoothly,” she said, according to reporting from inside the Manhattan courtroom from the Associated Press.
What happened next could end up being the beginning of the end of Combs’ public life.
Video footage from that March 2016 night shows Combs punching and kicking Ventura as she cowers and tries to protect herself in front of an L.A. hotel elevator bank. He then drags her down the hall by her hooded sweatshirt toward their hotel room. A second angle from another camera captures Combs throwing a vase toward her. She suffered bruising to her eye, a fat lip, and a bruise that prosecutors showed was still visible during the movie premiere two days later. She donned sunglasses and heavy makeup on the red carpet.
Ventura’s testimony is at the center of the federal trial accusing Combs of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation for prostitution.
Sweeping allegations
The federal indictment alleges that Combs and his associates lured female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to get women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes while he occasionally watched in gatherings that Combs referred to as “freak-offs.” Combs gave the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to “keep them obedient and compliant” during the performances.
The freak-offs, which prosecutors say sometimes lasted for days, were elaborately produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often recorded, according to the indictment. Prosecutors allege in a detention memo filed in court that the freak-offs occurred regularly from at least 2009 through 2023 and that the hotel rooms where they were staged often sustained significant damage.
Combs’ alleged “criminal enterprise” threatened and abused women and utilized members of his enterprise to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors said. In bringing so-called RICO charges, prosecutors in opening statements said Combs was helped by cadre of company employees, security staff and aides. They allegedly helped organize the crime and “freak-offs” and then covered up the incidents. Thus far, Combs is the only one facing criminal charges related to the investigation.
Combs’ attorney this week said her client was far from perfect but that the charges were overblown.
“Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos told jurors. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”
How Ventura and Combs met
Jurors heard that Ventura was 19 when she met the 37-year-old Combs in 2005, and she signed a 10-year contract with his Bad Boy Records label. About two years later, he had Britney Spears come to her 21st birthday party, where Ventura and Combs kissed and their relationship began, she said. She testified that the freak-offs became a way of life, and she even stepped away from her own birthday party for one.
Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean “Diddy” Combs arrive at the Los Angeles premiere of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story” at the Writers Guild Theater on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills.
(Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP)
Combs, she told jurors, required her to let a male sex worker urinate in her mouth. That man and others were paid thousands of dollars to have sex repeatedly for 36 to 48 hours, she told the jury.
On the stand, Ventura identified 13 male sex workers through photos presented by prosecutors that she said Combs’ had her recruit for the freak-offs. Hers and Combs’ relationship would end on a day in 2018 when she met him for dinner and he raped her on her living room floor, she testified.
Violence
During four days of testimony, Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, described being raped, beaten at least six times, most severely in 2009.
In the 2009 attack, she testified that Combs was “stomping” on her face after he discovered she was dating rapper Kid Cudi. Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, had his car torched a short time afterward. Prosecutors allege in court papers that Combs ordered it.
Legal analysis
Legal experts say the testimony is designed to build the federal case against Combs, even if on the surface it does not appear directly related to the charges he’s facing.
“Why is the government talking about rape and assault when the charges are RICO and sex trafficking?” said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani. Well, he said, “what separates sex trafficking from consensual sex between adults — which the defense is arguing — is force, fraud or coercion.”
“Ventura’s testimony that she was given drugs to the point of throwing up … and forced to have sex when she was menstruating or had a UTI is evidence of coercion,” he said.
Rahmani said that Ventura’s portrayal of Combs as a gun-brandishing mogul who beat her on multiple occasions, tracked her movements and sent a security team to find her is evidence of force.
Then there were the alleged threats. She recounted that during a commercial flight in 2013, Combs pulled out his laptop and began playing a freak-off recording as they sat together. She said Combs told her that he was going to embarrass her and 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,” Ventura said.
Authorities raid Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Los Angeles home as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation
(Eric Thayer / Associated Press)
Rahmani said the racketeering charge against Combs requires prosecutors to prove the existence of a criminal enterprise.
“People typically think of the mob, street gangs, or drug cartels, but any loose association of two or more people is enough like Combs’ entourage,” the former federal prosecutor said. They must show two or more predicate acts over 10 years.
“That is why the evidence of bribery, kidnapping, obstruction, witness tampering and prostitution is important,” he said.
LAPD officer testimony
Israel Florez, a hotel security guard who confronted Combs in 2016, now a Los Angeles Police officer, testified Combs flashed a bundle of cash at him — something he believed was an attempted bribe. He rejected it, he said.
Combs’ defense is seeking to paint Ventura as participating in the behavior, recruiting and paying sex partners, acquiring narcotics and texting to push for freak-offs that were part of a swingers’ lifestyle. She is one of four alleged victims in the case, with jurors expected to hear from at least three of them.
On Thursday, defense attorney Anne Estevao had Ventura read a series of loving texts to Combs and got Ventura to testify she’d watched Combs have sex with another woman on multiple occasions. To support the swingers’ defense, the lawyer produced a 2009 text where the singer declared, “I’m always ready to freak off.”
Ventura sued Combs in the fall of 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse, triggering a cascade of lawsuits and allegations by others who say they’re victims of Combs and eventually, a raid by Homeland Security on his L.A. and Miami homes and his arrest. Ventura acknowledged Wednesday that she got a $20-million settlement within days of filing her lawsuit.
Combs attorney pushes back
During opening statements in a Manhattan federal courtroom, Geragos, one of Combs’ defense attorneys, drew a distinction for jurors between the violence they would hear testimony about and the charges Combs was facing, saying “domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”
She said the video of Ventura’s assault in the hotel was indefensible, but that the singer “made a choice” to stay with Combs for 11 years.
After the attack, a friend called police to Ventura’s home, she testified. But when officers arrived, she did not identify Combs as the culprit.
The prosecutor asked her why she did not talk. “In that moment, I didn’t want to hurt him that way. I wasn’t ready,” she replied.
On Thursday, the defense cross-examining Ventura sought to change the narrative using dozens of text messages between Combs and Ventura. In a July 2013 text message exchange, Comb’s defense lawyer noted that Cassie raised the idea of having a “freak-off,” writing to Combs: “Wish we could’ve FO’d before you left.”
Using the text message exchanges, the defense lawyer highlighted Ventura’s admitted jealousy over the attention he gave other women.
“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.
Estevao tried to recast the hotel incident as the result of the two taking a “bad batch” of the psychedelic stimulant MDMA during a “freak-off” before the hotel beating.
During her testimony this week, Ventura testified that Combs allegedly overdosed on opioids while partying at the Playboy Mansion in 2012. While she wasn’t there, she said, he told her about it.
Ventura’s testimony ended on Friday.
The Associated Press contributed court testimony for this analysis.
NEW YORK — R&B singer Cassie was forced under cross-examination Thursday to read aloud explicit messages with her former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs, some of which expressed enthusiasm for sex with other men at Combs’ behest that she previously testified she “hated doing.”
Lawyers for Combs are seeking to show the jury that Cassie was a willing participant in his sexual lifestyle and say that, while he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise. Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Prosecutors say he exploited his status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women to take part in these drug-fueled encounters with sex workers, called “freak-offs,” which sometimes lasted days. He’s also accused of using his entourage and employees to facilitate illegal activities, including prostitution-related transportation and coercion, which is a key element of the federal charges.
Messages between Combs and Cassie — both romantic and lurid — were the focus of the fourth day of testimony in a Manhattan courtroom. Defense attorney Anna Estevao read what Combs wrote, while Cassie recited her own messages.
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, read messages to Combs containing graphic details about what she wanted to do during the freak-offs. At one point, she asked for a short break from the readings, which Judge Arun Subramanian granted.
In August 2009, Combs asked when she wanted the next encounter to be, and she replied “I’m always ready to freak off.” Two days later, Cassie sent an explicit message and he replied in eager anticipation. She responded: “Me Too, I just want it to be uncontrollable.” Combs’ lawyers have insisted that all the sex at the freak-offs was consensual.
Later that year, however, she also sent Combs messages that she was frustrated with the state of their relationship and needed something more from him than sex.
While reading their more affectionate conversations, Cassie testified that Combs was charismatic, a larger-than-life personality.
“I had fallen in love with him and cared about him very much,” Cassie said. Estevao spoke gently during the cross-examination, which had such a friendly tone at times that the lawyer and witness seemed like two friends chatting.
Cassie, however, did complain once that jurors weren’t hearing the full context of the messages the defense was highlighting, saying, “There’s a lot we skipped over.”
A packed courtroom watches Cassie’s testimony
As the messages were read, Combs appeared relaxed at the defense table, sitting back with his hands folded and his legs crossed. The courtroom was packed with family and friends of Combs, journalists, and a row of spectator seats occupied by Cassie’s supporters including her husband.
The 38-year-old Cassie — who is in the third trimester of pregnancy with her third child — has been composed on the witness stand. She cried several times during the previous two days of questions by the prosecution, but for the most part has remained matter-of-fact as she spoke about the most sensitive subjects.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.
During a break, Combs stood at the defense table, huddling with his lawyers, holding a pack of Post-It notes in one hand and a pen in the other. At one point, he turned to the gallery and acknowledged a few reporters who were studying his demeanor. “How you doing?” he asked.
Combs’ daughters were not in the courtroom Thursday as the explicit messages were read and shown to the jury.
Jurors leaned forward in their seats to follow along as the messages were displayed on monitors in front of them in the jury box. One woman shook her head as a particularly explicit message was shown. A man stared intently at the screen, pressing his thumb to his chin. Other jurors appeared curious and quizzical, some looking at Cassie or jotting notes.
Cassie rejects ‘swingers’ label
Cassie’s testimony on cross-examination was in contrast to Wednesday, when she described the violence and shame that accompanied her “hundreds” of encounters with male sex workers during her relationship with Combs, which lasted from 2007 to 2018.
While prosecutors have focused on Combs’ desire to see Cassie having sex with other men, she testified that she sometimes watched Combs have sex with other women. She said Combs described it as part of a “swingers lifestyle.”
Estevao asked Cassie directly whether she thought freak-offs were related to that lifestyle.
“In a sexual way,” Cassie responded, before adding: “They’re very different.”
Cassie said Tuesday that Combs was obsessed with a form of voyeurism where “he was controlling the whole situation.” The freak-offs took place in private, often in dark hotel rooms, unlike Combs’ very public parties that attracted A-list celebrities.
She testified she sometimes took IV fluids to recover from the encounters, and eventually developed an opioid addiction because it made her “feel numb” afterward.
When questioned by Estevao, Cassie agreed that Combs once communicated to drug dealers in Los Angeles to stop delivering drugs to her, and he suggested she get treatment. Cassie said Combs wanted her to do drugs with him only, not friends.
Cassie’s lawsuit sparked case against Combs
Cassie testified Wednesday that Combs raped her when she broke up with him in 2018, and had locked in a life of abuse by threatening to release videos of her during the freak-offs.
She sued Combs in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. Within hours, the suit was settled for $20 million — a figure Cassie disclosed for the first time Wednesday — but dozens of similar legal claims followed from other women. It also touched off a law enforcement investigation into Combs that has culminated in this trial.
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. The AP’s Julie Walker in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.
Singer says on day three of trial Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs routinely beat her and threatened to ruin her career with videos of sexual encounters.
Casandra Ventura, the singer popularly known as Cassie and former girlfriend of rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, has taken to the witness stand on the third day of his trial to portray a relationship defined by physical abuse and routine humiliation.
Testifying before the court on Wednesday, Ventura said Combs, who faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges, beat her and threatened to release compromising videos that could damage her career.
“He would grab me up, push me down, hit me in the side of the head, kick me,” Ventura, a rhythm and blues singer, told jurors in Manhattan federal court.
“It would just make him more violent, make him stronger, make him want to push me harder,” Ventura said of efforts to resist Combs’s violent behaviour during their decadelong relationship.
Prosecutors have alleged that Combs used his wealth and control of an entertainment empire to manipulate and coerce women, sometimes through physical violence, into participation in drug-fuelled sex parties known as “freak-offs” and then used videos of sexual encounters as blackmail.
“He said that it would ruin everything that I had worked for, that it would make me look like a slut, that I would be shamed,” Ventura said. “Nobody should do that to anyone.”
She stated participation in the “freak-offs” started to feel like “a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again” and she developed an opioid addiction to cope.
On one occasion in 2013, Ventura sent Combs pictures of injuries she sustained when he threw her into a bed frame so he could “remember” what he had done.
“You don’t know when to stop. You pushed it too far and continued to push,” he responded. “Sad.”
Combs’s lawyers have conceded that the rapper has an aggressive temperament and has physically assaulted people but state he has been incorrectly charged with racketeering and sex trafficking and a freewheeling sexual lifestyle is being misconstrued by prosecutors.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to five counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If he is convicted on all charges, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.
