Diddy Trial in Week Eight: Jury Reaches Verdict

Sean "Diddy" Combs has used many monikers throughout his career — Puff, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and the creepiest one, Love — but he seems to be faithful to at least a few things: Astroglide lubricant, Johnson's baby oil, applesauce on cheeseburgers and abhorrent sexual violence.

That's what has come to light since the disgraced hip-hop mogul's trial began in early May, with the government charging Combs, 55, with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. Since his arrest by the FBI on September 16, 2024, Combs has been behind bars in New York.

After eight weeks of trial, on July 2, Combs was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking, and was found guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution.

See our entire coverage of the trial below.

Witnesses included assistants, male escorts, the rapper Kid Cudi and the star witness, Cassie Ventura, the R&B singer known mononymously as Cassie, who was in a relationship with Combs for more than ten years after signing with his label, Bad Boy, at age nineteen in 2006. Combs was about 37 at the time.

The defense said that these testimonies only showcase that Combs was a troubled man susceptible to violent mood swings driven by jealousy — not that he is a sex trafficker helming a false enterprise. To convict Combs of sex trafficking Ventura, the government must prove that he forced or coerced her into his now-infamous freak-offs, which involved sometimes days of sex and drugs and many bottles of baby oil. 

While it is unknown how long federal agents have been eyeing Combs, the producer came under fire in November 2023, when Ventura sued him, accusing him of rape, sex trafficking and domestic violence. She also alleged that he set Kid Cudi's car on fire after discovering they were dating while Combs and Ventura were on a break. A video affirming her account of Combs beating her at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles was also leaked, making international headlines. The suit was settled the next day, for $20 million, but since then, more than 100 civil suits have been filed by  alleged victims, ranging from children to teens to adults. By February, one of Combs's six lawyers, Anthony Ricco, withdrew from the defense team: "Under no circumstances can I continue to effectively serve as counsel for Sean Combs," he said. (For context, Ricco represented Osama bin Laden back in 1998, as well as other terrorists.)

Keep reading to see what has happened at the trial; each week is listed, as well as the closing arguments. This post cites quotes and reporting from CNN, the New York Times and the New York Post. Westword decided to compile it all in one place, because this is a historic trial that showcases a myriad of issues, both in the music industry and in society at large, as well as the forms that abuse can take in relationships both romantic and professional.

Diddy Trial Week One: Cassie Ventura Testimony

"Y'all need to rub more baby oil on each other. You don't have enough on." That's what escort Daniel Philip testified Combs told Ventura at the Gramercy Park Hotel in NYC in 2012, according to the New York Post. On the first day of the trial on May 12, Philip said that for several years, he was paid up to $6,000 to partake in freak-offs. The first time he met with the couple, Combs tried to disguise himself, wearing a bandanna over the lower half of his face and a baseball cap, but Philip said he recognized the hip-hop producer's voice immediately. He testified that the sessions could last as long as ten hours or more, and during at least two freak-offs, Combs beat Ventura.

Philip, who was the first witness called to the stand, said that he believed Ventura was in "real danger," but never went to the police because Diddy had taken a photo of his driver's license, which he perceived as a threat.

The first day of testimony also included Israel Florez, a security guard for the Intercontinental Hotel, where footage showed Diddy beating Ventura in an elevator bay, as well as throwing a glass vase at her. Florez testified that Diddy gave him a wad of cash after the incident, and said he believed it was "100 percent" a bribe to keep the now-viral footage under wraps. That footage was a major focus during the first week of the trial, as it shows Ventura trying to quietly escape the hotel, even waiting to put on her shoes until she got to the elevator, and the hip-hop mogul using abuse as a means to coerce Ventura to stay in the hotel, grabbing her bags and returning them to the room after dragging her by her hoodie and repeatedly kicking her.

At more than eight months pregnant, Ventura took the stand on May 13; her testimony lasted until the end of the week, with the judge placing a time limit on the defense after the prosecution noted that if she went into labor and didn't finish the testimony, a mistrial could be declared. Her pregnancy was again referenced by the judge when it was decided that for the rest of her testimony, she would be seated before the jury came to court, because the visibility of her pregnancy could cause prejudice.

The singer's testimony underscored the psychological turmoil that abuse victims suffer, a cycle that ultimately causes them to return to their abuser, similar to Stockholm Syndrome. With strength and poise, Ventura detailed the numerous, uncountable instances of horror she suffered during her decade-plus relationship with Combs. She testified that there were "too many to count" in regard to assaults from her then-partner.

The R&B singer said that she signed a ten-album contract with Combs, but only released one record, Cassie, that same year. Despite the album's successful hit single "Me & U," Ventura said that her life was under Combs's control when they started a relationship when she was 21. ”Control was everything from the way that I looked to what I was working on that day, who I was speaking to," she said. "Control was kind of an all-around thing to a certain point.” He even asked her what nickname she gave her grandfather — "Pop Pop" — and asked Ventura to call him that. Pop Pop is how he is seen in her phone and in text messages.

She said that when she wanted to release music, Combs would give her "busy work" to delay dropping anything new. “I think busy work, just the way I interpreted it, was just control — control over what I was doing over every minute of the day,” she said.

The R&B singer said her relationship with Combs evolved from being "loving" to akin to sex work, with Combs demanding she partake in freak-offs. “Within the first year of our relationship, he proposed this idea, this sexual encounter that he called voyeurism, where he would watch me be in intercourse with a third party, specifically with another man,” she told the jury, noting that freak-offs involved her “hiring an escort and setting up this experience, so that I could perform for Sean.”

“Eventually it became a job for me, pretty much," she said, "so I knew if it was something he wanted me to do, I had the contacts to set it up and get a hotel room and all of that, but in the beginning, Sean set it up. He was in charge."

When the prosecution asked, "Throughout eleven years in your relationship with Sean, who did you want to have sex with?", Ventura replied, "Just him." Ventura expressed that she believed the relationship was monogamous at the time, as that is what Combs demanded of her, although she discovered that wasn't true for him.

She said his mood swings — Combs has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder — "affected my whole life, my career, how I felt about myself, my self-worth."

"If he was in the mood to have a freak-off, my work would take the back seat," she said.

The freak-offs were planned, and Ventura said she and assistants were tasked with supplying the hotel room with baby oil, lubricant and drugs. He once had her fill a blow-up pool with baby oil, which had to be heated and consistently reapplied, she testified. She called the freak-offs "his fantasy." When prosecution asked Ventura when the escorts were allowed to ejaculate, she replied, “Usually when it was okay for them, per Sean. But...usually they did it on me. And then Sean and I would go in the next room and he would want me to put the semen on his body.”

Combs had Ventura find male escorts on classified ads, she testified, adding that he specified that he preferred "a Black male with a large penis." Combs would have to approve the selection, which she said included escorts with such names as "the Punisher," and he would refer to the escorts as new staff members when booking through their travel agent. When it came to the freak-offs themselves, there was often a pattern Ventura and the escort had to follow, with Ventura testifying she would ask Combs if they could move on to the next "act" in order to quicken the process. “He was controlling the whole situation, he was directing it,” she said.

Aside from voyeurism and violence, Ventura also revealed that Combs had the kink of urinating on her while watching the escort do the same. During one encounter, she said she was choking on the stream and put her hands up to stop, but her boyfriend ordered the escort to continue. "It was disgusting. It was too much," she said of the freak-offs. "It was overwhelming."

Ventura said the freak-offs would take place in New York, Miami, L.A., Atlanta, Vegas and abroad, and could sometimes last for days on end. Drugs were a major component of the abusive marathons, including MDMA, shrooms, cocaine and ketamine, which she said she preferred because it allowed her to dissociate. “For me, it was dissociative and numbing. I couldn’t imagine myself doing any of that without having some sort of buffer or just way to not feel it for what it really was,” Ventura said.

She said she was high for every freak-off, and that most of the drugs — particularly MDMA — made her sick "almost every time." But Combs "would encourage me to get up and continue on with it," she told the jury. "Continue on with the intercourse even if I felt like I was vomiting, or if I was." At this point, Ventura asked for a break in the testimony, and the judge obliged.

She testified that she became addicted to opiates, using them as a way to dissociate from the experiences and to come down from the other drugs used during the freak-offs. Recovery could take days, she said, before having to return to the same experience again. Combs was also addicted to opiates, she said, and had once experienced an overdose. To book rooms, Combs would use aliases such as Frank Black. (His old client Biggie Smalls used to refer to himself as the Black Frank White, the name of a character played by Christopher Walken in the 1990 film King of New York.) The name will come up later in the trial.

Ventura noted that the freak-offs weren't just emotionally painful, but physically. Outside of the attacks from Combs she would suffer during the forced escapades, she had frequent UTIs and sores on her tongue from the encounters. Despite the pain it caused, Combs had her continue participating and simply told her to see a doctor.

When the defense began its cross-examination, Combs's lawyers brought up text messages that showed Ventura saying she was excited for freak-offs. But the singer insisted that she was only trying to make her partner happy, noting that what she wrote were "just words at that point."

"It just felt like it was all I was good for to him," she said of partaking in freak-offs, in which she would "perform" for him. Ventura said she felt a "responsibility" to be part of the orgies, noting, “It got to a point where I just didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, didn’t really know what ‘no’ could be or what ‘no’ could turn into."

The elevator footage from the Intercontinental shows what it could turn into. Ventura was fleeing a freak-off in March 2016 after Combs went to take a shower, she said, because the situation "got violent and I chose to leave."

“I’m not sure what happened, but I got hit by Sean and I had a black eye, and at that point all I could think about was getting out of there safely,” she said. “I had my premiere, I didn’t want to mess it up, so I left.”

“Sean followed me into the hallway by the elevators," she testified. "He grabbed me up, threw me on the ground, kicked me, tried to drag me back to the room, took my stuff.”

Ventura had a movie premiere days later, and had to wear large sunglasses and body makeup to disguise her injuries. The jury was also shown text messages of Ventura discussing the hotel assault with Combs; in the aftermath, he texted her saying he was "horny."

The freak-offs were documented, at first starting on Ventura's devices, but she would immediately delete them, calling them "humiliating" and "disgusting." She said, “I never wanted anyone to ever see me like that.”

But Combs would record the freak-offs and lie to Ventura about deleting them, she said. This footage would come up in arguments, and Combs would use it as a means of control, threatening to release it and humiliate her. However, the defense later pointed to a 2014 exchange of texts as "proof" that Combs didn't really want the videos released: In Atlantic City, a man had told Ventura he had seen pornographic footage of her, and she began screaming at him. A recording of the confrontation was played for the jury, who heard Ventura yelling, "I will kill you if you don't show me right now. I will cut you up and put you in the fucking dirt right now."

The jury also saw texts between Combs and Ventura about this incident, with Combs writing, "You gotta tell him this is your life — this is serious." However, Combs made his own threats: Ventura testified that he would use the footage as bribery, noting, "That was a big part of our relationship." He often would make the threats "when he was angry about something or just really wanted me to fear,” she said, telling the jury, “I feared for my career, I feared for my family. It’s horrible, it’s disgusting. No one should do that to anyone.”

She detailed numerous accounts of physical abuse outside and inside the freak-offs. “He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down,” Ventura said, adding that she sustained several injuries, from busted lips to bruises, knots on her forehead and more.

At one point in 2013, Ventura woke up to Combs causing a "commotion" in her apartment, she said, and as he was yelling about her sleeping and not packing for a trip, he was about to attack her when two of her friends jumped on his back to stop him. He threw them off and continued beating her.

“Eventually we ended up from the living room into the master bedroom," she said, "and they were still jumping on his back, and when he threw me down, I hurt my eyebrow on the corner of my bed.” Ventura noted she received “pretty significant gash on the side of my eyebrow," and that day, Combs's security took her to a plastic surgeon to fix the wound, but more than a decade later, it is still visible. Other text messages showed Ventura comparing Combs to Ike Turner, who notably beat his wife, Tina Turner.
Even after such fights, Ventura would be coerced into freak-offs. “Whatever was going to make him not be angry at me and threatening me, I was willing to do," she said, recounting her thoughts after a fight at the Cannes Film Festival that ended with a freak-off when they landed in New York. "I just didn’t want to feel scared anymore. And it was the one thing he made me feel like I was good at.”

She said that she learned not to fight back when Combs beat her. At one point, after partying at an L.A. club, she said she was drunk and punched him for calling her names. Combs proceeded to beat her in his car until she fell to the ground, and stomped on her face. She later looked at herself in a mirror at his home, and said she couldn't recognize herself: “Just knots and bleeding, swollen everything. I looked horrible.” Combs then sent her to a hotel to recover, where she wouldn't be seen, and Ventura testified that she was afraid of leaving him. “I didn’t have the resources I needed to get out and move, to get out and not have anybody stop me,” she said. “I understood Sean’s capabilities, his access to guns, and the threats that he made prior to that.”

Although her mother had read an account of the incident online that did not include Ventura's name, she called her daughter to ask if it was her. Ventura said it wasn't, explaining to the jury, “I didn’t tell my mom the truth because I was ashamed, but I also felt like at that point I didn’t know what was going to happen. I didn’t want to put my mother in danger of knowing anything of that magnitude.”

But Ventura did end up emailing her mother when Combs again threatened to release freak-off tapes, this time after he caught wind of her romance with Kid Cudi, born Scott Mescudi. She told her mom about the threats, in which Combs said he would "hurt" her and Cudi, and that it would happen while he was outside the country. Combs had learned about her relationship with Cudi during a freak-off — which she continued because "it had become a job" and because she was scared — and attacked her with a wine opener between his fingers. Ventura managed to escape, and called Cudi on a burner phone — which she used to communicate with him — to come pick her up.

Not long after Combs told Ventura he would blow Cudi's car up, he did so. She testified she joined a meeting between Combs and Cudi afterward, in which Cudi asked about his car. "What car?" Combs asked. It was the end of the conversation, and the last time she would see Cudi.

Other violent instances described by Ventura included a time Combs assaulted her in a Las Vegas hotel room while he was having a party, and that Combs's security team had to come in to end it. She said there were "golf-ball-sized" knots on her head and bruises, and one of the guards began crying when he saw her. Combs had her stay at his Los Angeles home to recover, and when he saw her injuries over FaceTime, he ordered her to put on more makeup so that his son, who was home, wouldn't see.

She also recounted times he would beat other people, including an assistant and expected witness, "Mia," whom he dragged after she hesitated to give him her phone. Another time, Ventura awoke to Combs dangling her over a balcony. “I saw him bring her back over the railing of the balcony and then throw her onto the patio furniture,” she said. Her relationship with her longtime best friend, Kerry Morgan, who later testified, also ended after Combs beat her with a wooden clothes hanger.

Ventura described a near-confrontation between Combs and his longtime industry rival, Suge Knight, who is currently in prison. During a break in a freak-off, Combs's longtime associate Damion "D-Roc" Butler came in to inform his boss that Knight was at Mel's Drive-in Diner, a nearby iconic establishment. Ventura said Combs "quickly packed up and drove down there."

“I was crying," she recalled to the jury. "I was screaming, ‘Please don’t do anything stupid.' I was just really nervous for them, what it meant, what they were going to do.” Later in the trial, another key witness to that event gave more information.

The relationship ended in 2018, after a period in which Combs would unexpectedly show up at Ventura's house; one friend later recounted a time when he was pounding the door with a hammer. The jury was shown a disturbing photo of the lengths Ventura's fear for her life went: A large kitchen knife wedged in the door. Ventura said its purpose was to "kill two birds with one stone — lock it and have a weapon." When Ventura and Combs met for a closure discussion in August, he raped her afterwards in her living room. “I just remember crying and saying ‘no,’" Ventura told the jury, "but it was very fast.”

But even after the relationship ended, Combs continued threatening Ventura. She had moved on with her trainer and now-husband, Alex Fine, and Combs believed that because he paid for the trainer, she owed him money. He said she had "too many iPads full of skeletons."

A key point the defense tried to make was that Ventura was a consenting adult, albeit in a toxic situation. However, every time she was asked whether she wanted to partake in freak-offs by the prosecution, she said no. “If that’s something Sean wanted to happen, that’s what was going to happen. There wasn’t another way around it,” she told the jury.

Ventura began to cry, according to CNN, when she recounted going to rehab and trauma therapy in 2023, after suffering flashbacks and suicidal ideation. “I didn’t want to be alive anymore at that point,” she said. “I couldn’t take the pain that I was in anymore, and so I just tried to walk out the front door into traffic and my husband would not let me.”

Ventura released the following statement after her powerful, nearly week-long testimony: "This week has been extremely challenging, but also remarkably empowering and healing for me. I hope that 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 the abuse and fear.

"For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember. And the more I can remember, the more I will never forget. I want to thank my family and my advocates for their unwavering support, and I'm grateful for all the kindness and encouragement that I have received. I'm glad to put this chapter of my life to rest. As I turn to focus on the conclusion of my pregnancy, I ask for privacy for me and for my growing family."

Ventura gave birth to her third child with Fine on May 28.

If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic violence, resources include the Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233.

Diddy Trial Week Two: More Revelations, and Kid Cudi Enters the Chat

After Ventura's testimony, at the end of the first week and beginning of the second week of trial, Special Agent Yasin Binda told the jury what agents found in Combs's room at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan after he was arrested on September 16. Feds uncovered bags of Astroglide and baby oil, a bottle of Klonopin written for Frank Black, the new pink-colored drug tusi (a concoction of ketamine, MDMA and whatever else the dealer decides to put in), ketamine, MDMA and $9,000 in cash.

Dawn Richard, who sang in the group Danity Kane, which Combs created, also took the stand. She had filed a suit against him last September, stating he groped her in a dressing room. On the stand, she recounted how she witnessed Combs viciously beat Ventura "often."

At one point, he was "screaming, belligerent, asking where his food was and proceeded to hit her over the head and beat her on the ground in front of us," she said. He attempted to hit Ventura in the head with a skillet, but Richards said Ventura immediately went into a fetal position on the floor. Combs then began to punch and kick her before grabbing her by the hair and dragging her away. The following day, Combs took Richard and another person into his home recording studio and locked them in, with Richard testifying, "He said what we saw was passion and what lovers in passionate relationships do. He said she was okay and it would be in our best interests if they didn't say anything." She added that Combs told her that, "where he was from, people go missing if they talk." He then gave them flowers, she said.

Richard said she told Ventura that she "should leave" Combs, and so did the next witness, Kerry Morgan. A model, Morgan was best friends with Ventura for seventeen years until Combs assaulted both of them. She recalled several abusive events, including a time in Jamaica when Morgan heard Ventura's "guttural, terrifying" screams. Morgan said she saw Combs drag Ventura by her hair down a hallway before pushing her onto brick pavement, and Ventura didn't move for almost thirty seconds. "I thought she was knocked out," Morgan testified. She and Ventura had to hide from Combs in the bushes. While Morgan suggested her friend leave Combs, the witness said that Ventura always said she couldn't, as the mogul "controlled everything."

Morgan was with Ventura after the infamous Intercontinental Hotel assault. She had been staying at Ventura's apartment when the singer arrived with a black eye; shortly after, Combs began banging on the door with a hammer while Ventura sat on her couch, "numb," Morgan said. "She was just sitting on the couch. She wasn't doing anything. I was freaking out and she was just like, she didn't care if he came in and killed her," she told the jury.

Police showed up hours later, Morgan testified, but Ventura would not cooperate with the authorities. Their friendship ended in 2018, when she said Combs assaulted her at Ventura's apartment. Combs let himself into the apartment with a key Ventura wasn't aware he had, and she locked herself in the bathroom. Combs then began to choke Morgan, and then "boomeranged a wooden hanger" at her head, she said, leaving her with a concussion. Morgan said she hired a lawyer to sue Combs, but a month later, she met with Ventura, who offered her $30,000 to sign an NDA. Morgan accepted the money, and the friends never spoke again.

Regina Ventura, Cassie's mother, also testified that Combs extorted $20,000 from her. As Cassie stated the week before, in 2011, Combs was threatening to release freak-off footage of the singer after learning she was dating Kid Cudi. Regina told the court that her family had to take a home equity loan to pay for the footage to prevent it from being released. "I was physically sick," she said. "I did not understand it. The sex tape threw me. He was trying to hurt my daughter."

Other witnesses from the week included Combs's ex-assistant George Kaplan, who recounted several bizarre requests from his boss: stocking up on American ketchup for trips to England (he didn't like that country's version of the condiment) and applesauce, which Combs particularly enjoyed on cheeseburgers. (One jury member made a gagging motion, according to the New York Post.) Kaplan, who received immunity to testify, said he would set up rooms for freak-offs, picking up supplies including drugs. 

Another former assistant, David James, testified that Combs would ask his security for footage from his parties to review and implied his intention was to use it for blackmail. "We’d have a videographer who basically recorded everything for his parties, and Mr. Combs was reviewing the footage to see what people were doing at the party, things like that," James said. When Combs saw footage that showed James dancing at a party, he asked if the assistant was on ecstasy, which he confirmed. "And he kind of nodded his head and he said, 'Okay, I want to keep this footage in case I ever need it,'" James said.

James was also the driver when Combs went to confront Suge Knight at a diner, he testified. He said that incident caused him to eventually quit the job. "I was really struck by it. I realized for the first time being Mr. Combs's assistant that my life was in danger," he said.

James also spoke to witnessing Combs's control over Ventura and his abuse of the singer. At one point, he said he had asked Ventura why she wouldn't leave, to which she replied, “He controls my career, pays my allowance and pays my rent.” He also told the jury he overheard a conversation in which Combs said Ventura was his "queen" and "very moldable."

Sharay Hayes, the escort Ventura referred to as "the Punisher," was called to the stand as well, and testified that he had been part of between eight to twelve freak-offs, and said that while Ventura would "flinch" at some of her partner's requests, she appeared to be comfortable. Hayes later gave a public apology to Ventura after his testimony.

Other witnesses included a makeup artist, Mylah Morales, who heard Combs beating Ventura in a nearby room in 2010, and said that Ventura was covered in bruises with knots on her head. Morales said Ventura stayed with her to heal for a few days, but did not want to go to the ER. Gerald Gannon, a special agent from the Department of Homeland Security, provided an account of the raid on Combs's Star Island home in Miami, where there were loaded guns, AR-15s, drugs, thousands of bottles of baby oil and lubricant. Joshua Croft, another special agent, described the examination process for seized laptops, one of which included an account for Frank Black, Combs's alias. Psychologist Dawn Hughes also testified to the cycle of abuse and why victims stay attached to their tormentors.

The most recognizable name to testify was Kid Cudi, who was subpoenaed to give his account of the car bombing. The rapper confirmed Ventura's account of when Combs found out about their relationship and that she had Cudi come pick her up. Not long after, Cudi said he spoke with Combs's assistant, Capricorn Clark, who had called Ventura and said Combs was on his way to Cudi's house. Cudi said he called Combs, and asked, "Motherfucker, you in my house?" He recalled that Combs was calm, and said, "What's up? I just want to talk to you." Cudi went to his home, but Combs wasn't there; his dog, however, was locked in a bathroom, his security cameras had been moved and several items he had bought had been rifled through.

In December 2011, Cudi received a call from his dogsitter that his Porsche was on fire. “The top of my Porsche was cut open and that’s where they inserted the Molotov cocktail,” he told the jury, who were shown images of the vehicle's cut roof and melted seats. Cudi called the police.

A few days later, “I reached out to Sean Combs after my car caught fire and told him we needed to finally meet up and talk,” Cudi said. “He’d been wanting to talk to me. After the fire, I thought, 'This is getting out of hand and I need to talk to him.'”

The rapper met with Combs at SoHo House in Los Angeles, where he said the mogul was looking out the window with his hands behind his back, "like Marvel supervillain." Cudi said Combs's "whole point was, 'We were homies...that was my girl.'" He said, "I let him know she told me they were broken up and I took her word for it."

Ventura also came to the meeting, and Cudi admitted he was "upset" to see that she had gone back to Combs, whom he described as very calm. "It was weird he was so calm," he noted. At the end of the meeting, as he and Combs shook hands, Cudi asked Combs, "What are we going to do about my car?"

“He looked back at me with a cold stare and said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’" Cudi said. "He said, ‘Wait, I thought we were cool, is there a problem?'”

Cudi didn't see Combs again until a few years later at SoHo House, where he said Combs apologized for "everything, all that bullshit."

The testimony wasn't enough to prove that Combs was responsible for the arson...until an ex-assistant took the stand the next week.

Diddy Trial Takeaways Week Three: Capricorn Clark Confirms Arson, "Mia" Testifies

Bombshell testimony was dropped on May 27 by Capricorn Clark, who worked for Combs from 2004 to 2012 and said she was kidnapped by her boss during that time. Clark also confirmed that Combs was indeed responsible for blowing up Kid Cudi's car, and even went further, saying he wanted to kill the rapper.

Clark said she was making $65K a year as an assistant, but was working from 9 a.m. to 4 a.m. and was not allowed breaks. When the head of HR told Combs he owed Clark $80K in overtime, "he ripped up the paper" that detailed the necessity, and Clark never received her overtime. However, she added that she learned a lot, calling her work "another form of business school."

She said that Combs also threatened her when he discovered she used to work for Suge Knight's Death Row Records. “He told me that he didn’t know that I had anything to do with Suge Knight and that if anything happened, he would have to kill me,” she told the jury.

Clark testified to several harrowing events, including when Combs's bodyguard Paul "Uncle Paulie" Offar removed her from her home and took her to an abandoned New York City skyscraper to undergo lie-detector tests about whether she stole a diamond necklace, bracelet and watch from Combs. She said a man, chain-smoking cigarettes, greeted her and said, "If you fail this test, they're going to throw you in the East River."

When Clark told a chef at Combs's Miami home that she "hates it here," the chef repeated her words to the mogul, who proceeded to charge at Clark, she testified. Combs shoved her 25 to thirty yards, according to the Post, and Clark quit her job after the incident.

But Clark's real revelations came in her testimony that a "livid" Combs came to her apartment holding a gun and told her, "Get dressed, we're going to kill this n—-a," referring to Kid Cudi, whom Combs had discovered was dating Ventura. "I had never seen anything like this before," Clark said. "He had never come to my house the entire time I'd known him. I had never seen him with a weapon.” The prosecution is referring to this instance as a kidnapping.

Clark rode with Combs in a black Escalade, sitting on his lap, to Cudi's house. Clark stayed in the car after they arrived, and called Ventura. "Puff came and got me with a gun and took me to Cudi's house to kill him," Clark said she told the R&B singer.

Clark also testified that while she didn't think Ventura had the talent for the stage, calling her more of a studio artist, her "heart was breaking seeing her get beat like that" by Combs, who assaulted the singer later the same day he took Clark to Cudi's house. Combs had directed Clark to pick up Ventura and bring her to his L.A. home, where he began to kick Ventura in the leg with "100 percent full force," Clark testified. "She didn't do anything. She was just crying silently."

The former assistant recalled a time Combs was complaining about his feud with 50 Cent, who has notably beefed with the producer through the years. "I don't like all the back and forth...I like guns," Clark remembered him telling his manager, Chris Lighty.

Clark did admit that in April 2024, she attempted to work for Combs Enterprises again as a chief of staff, telling his lawyers that "Combs wouldn't be in this mess if he had kept me around."

On May 28, Officer Christopher Ignacio of the Los Angeles Police Department told the jury what he saw when he arrived at Kid Cudi's house after the car bombing. He said he received the call at 8:20 a.m. and when he approached the scene, he noticed a black Escalade parked outside the home; the vehicle took off as the police car pulled up. He said the Escalade returned about fifteen to twenty minutes later and that he ran the plates; the vehicle's registration was tied to Bad Boy Productions Inc.

Arson investigator Lance Jimenez also responded to the car-bombing incident and testified after Ignacio. He said the damage likely would have been worse if the handkerchief placed in the Old English bottle hadn't been silk, which caused it to slip. Female DNA was also found on the bottle, he said. He unsuccessfully attempted to reach both Ventura and Clark after the incident, and said that at one point, Clark's brother answered the call. “She wanted nothing to do with me, nothing to do with the investigation,” Jimenez recalled being told.

Jimenez testified that it was clearly a targeted attack, and that the area was swept for fingerprints. Two fingerprints were collected from a glass door, he said, and were placed in evidence. He alleged that this evidence was destroyed by an LAPD officer in 2012, but the judge instructed the jury to disregard that particular testimony after objection from the defense.

The defense made a motion for a mistrial on May 29, saying that there was prosecutorial misconduct in the jury selection. The judge denied the motion.

Ventura's friend Deonte Nash was also called to the stand, testifying May 28 and 29. Nash worked in fashion at Bad Boy Entertainment from 2008 to 2018 and is a celebrity stylist. Nash testified to how he would hear Combs telling Ventura that he would "beat her ass,"  would threaten to not release her music and that he would get her parents fired from their jobs. He said that any outfit he picked for Ventura had to be approved by Combs.

Nash also confirmed Ventura's account of Combs assaulting her when her friends jumped on his back to stop him; Nash was one of those friends, along with an assistant whom the trial is identifying as "Mia." Nash said Combs threw them off his back and continued to attack Ventura, only stopping once he noticed blood and "panicked." He said Combs told Nash and Mia, "Look what y'all made me do." Nash noted he tried to call 911, but someone told him to hang up before the call went through.

Nash left the apartment with Ventura, but a few minutes into the drive, he said, Combs called him and told them to pull over. Combs came to the car and told Ventura he would start releasing the freak-off videos "on schedule" and send them to her parents' employers. Combs also told Ventura he was the "only one that protected her," Nash said.

He then received a call from his boss, Derek Roche, who told Nash that he had given Combs his address and that the producer was on his way there. Nash dropped Ventura off on Sunset Boulevard so she could get a taxi, while he returned to his home, where he saw Roche, Combs and Combs's security guard, Teri Fletcher. They searched the house for Ventura, and Combs even looked in the oven, Nash said.

He told the jury that Combs took his phone and saw that Ventura had called him from a hotel. Combs directed Nash to drive to the hotel while Combs followed. When Nash and Fletcher got to Ventura's room, Nash said she appeared terrified, and said she would "go over the balcony" when they said Combs was waiting outside for her.

Nash said he spent that night at a hotel, as he didn't feel it was safe to return to his home. When he did return to his house, he saw that a backpack holding his ID, $1K in cash and his iPad had been stolen.

Nash testified to seeing bruises on Ventura "quite often," and that Combs had even gotten violent with him, throwing him against a parked car. He said he never reported the violence out of fear of retaliation.

He was familiar with the freak-offs, noting that Ventura and Combs would go to a hotel on a weekly basis, with Ventura packing a bag of sex toys for the occasions. He echoed Ventura's account of her 29th birthday party, when Combs forced her to leave the bash to have a freak-off. Nash recalled that Ventura told him that she didn't want to go, but she felt she didn't have a choice. During times when the couple broke up, Nash would try to help Ventura move on, he said, and linked her with Michael B. Jordan, whom she dated for a spell.

Nash and Ventura have remained friends. He helped her pick out her wedding dress and recent court outfits, and congratulated her on the birth of her third child.

The anonymous witness Mia, who worked for Combs from 2009 to 2017, began her testimony on May 29. "The highs were really high and the lows were really really low" when it came to working with Combs, she said. When she first went to meet him for an interview, he was wearing just his underwear and was on the phone, although he eventually put on his clothes.

The live-in assistant job involved long hours, and Mia testified she once went five days without sleep, which she managed by taking her extra-strength ADHD medication. Combs only let her sleep after she had a meltdown, she said: “I had a physical breakdown. I remember my hearing went, I felt like I was underwater. My equilibrium was off."

Although she was a live-in assistant, Mia wasn't allowed a lock on her bedroom door; she said that Combs told her, "This is my house. No one locks their doors." His four live-in security guards had locks for their rooms, however. "One had a dead bolt and another had a keypad where the cameras were," she said.

Working for Combs was volatile, and she often witnessed abuse against Ventura, with whom Mia was close. “He’s thrown things at me, he’s thrown me against the wall, he’s thrown me into a pool, he’s thrown an ice bucket on my head. He has slammed my arm into a door and he’s also...sexually assaulted me,” she told the jury.

Mia confirmed Nash and Ventura's account of the assault in which she and Nash jumped on Combs's back and Ventura was "gushing blood."  She said, "He threw me against he wall so quick and so easily and I realized we were in real danger." Combs instructed Mia to call a doctor and tell them that "Cass was drunk and hit her head."

Mia also said that Combs once attacked Ventura at one of Prince's parties, and that Prince's security had to step in. Ventura and Mia had gone to the party without Combs, but Combs "caught up to her and had her on the ground," Mia said, referring to Ventura. "It's like he started to attack her but Prince's security swiftly intervened." Afterwards, Mia was suspended without pay for being "insubordinate." She would be suspended without pay another time for wanting to get a tampon while she was in his home, where she lived; Combs threw a bowl of spaghetti at her and chased her during that incident, she said.

Ventura and Mia had to hide from Combs together during a 2012 trip in Turks and Caicos. Mia said she woke up to Ventura "running and screaming," and saying, "He's going to kill me." They locked themselves in a room and piled furniture against the door as Combs banged against it, and then they ran to the beach. They had to hide again on the trip, lying flat on paddleboards in the ocean while Combs ran on the beach screaming. But they had to return to him when the weather began to turn, with Mia telling the jury, "I was trying to weigh whether it was scarier to face Mother Nature or go back to Puff."

She testified to Combs's frequent drug use, which included forcing her to snort unidentified powders as part of a "guessing game" at Burning Man. He would be high for board meetings, appearances and other professional events, she said.

Mia said she was first assaulted by Combs just months after beginning to work for him. During his fortieth birthday party at the Plaza Hotel, he called Mia into the kitchen and cleared out the staff before pouring them shots. Mia said the shots had a big impact on her, and all of a sudden Combs was kissing and groping her. All she remembers next is waking up in a chair in the middle of the room in the penthouse.

“He was my boss. He was a very powerful person. ... I looked at him like an older adult. He was the boss or the king, a very powerful person," she said.

Another time, she woke up in her bedroom at Combs's home to the mogul "on top of" her. She said he then quickly raped her. Then, when she was helping him pack for a trip, he forced her to perform oral sex on him. Mia said that although she didn't outright tell Combs she did not want to have sex with him, she was afraid of his power and temper.

“I knew his power and I knew his control over me," she said. "I didn’t want to lose everything that I worked so hard for in this world that was the only thing I had anymore."

Mia took the stand again on May 30, and testified that after she quit in 2017, she received a settlement of $400K (half went to her lawyers). She also detailed more instances of abuse, testifying that Combs threatened to kill her if she didn't answer his calls while she was on a trip with Ventura in 2015, after Ventura discovered Combs had cheated on her with Gina Huynh, a woman who was expected to testify but has evaded the prosecution's requests.

She also said that a little over a month after Ventura sued Combs in 2023, Combs's associate D-Roc texted her, saying that Combs wanted to speak with her. She said Combs then called her a couple of hours later, but "I threw my phone as far as it can go, and I ran outside."

During cross-examination, the defense referenced positive social media posts she made about Combs. Mia responded: "Instagram was a place to show how great your life was, even if it was not." Combs's lawyer also repeatedly asked questions implying she was lying about Combs raping her.

"What I said in this courtroom is the truth," Mia said. "I have not lied to anyone at all."

Diddy Trial Week Four: Mia Continues Cross-Examination, Security Guard Admits to Accepting Bribe

Combs's lawyers continued to press Mia on whether her allegations of sexual assault were true, asking why she did not report the instances to HR. Mia is integral to the government's case of racketeering; prosecution says that Combs forced labor on Mia, as well as sexual activity, through violence.

Mia said she did not disclose that she had been raped by Combs, aside from talking to a therapist, until June 2024, when she began to meet with prosecutors. “I was still deeply ashamed and wanted to die with this," Mia told the jury. She said she did not report to HR because she believed the department would be more retaliatory than helpful.

When the defense exposed text messages between Mia and Combs, including one from 2020 in which she said she loved him and always stand by him, Mia explained she was "brainwashed" by the executive. “The version of Puff that did treat me like the best friend, I did love that dude,” Mia said, using a nickname for Mr. Combs. “He protected me from the other versions of himself. And I didn’t understand what happened to me until recently as he was still being praised by everybody in the world. So how would I have known?”

The defense asked her why she was looking down while testifying to the assaults, according to the New York Times. “Because it’s the worst thing I’ve ever had to talk about in my life,” Mia answered.

Mia testified that Combs had put a tracking device on Ventura's car, and noted, "He's stolen my phone many times, he's stolen Cassie's phone many times. He's put tracking devices on her car. I'm not sure what he's capable of. I was terrified."

She said that after working for Combs, she worked for Madonna for eight months, although she had previously testified Combs had "blacklisted her," which the defense hung onto. Mia answered that Madonna "didn't care about that," and that Combs had gone back on promises that included crediting her on a documentary and TV show.

Next, Sylvia Oken, who works for the Beverly Hills Hotel, began testimony, which lasted about fifteen minutes. She noted that Combs was charged for "oil damage" for a room he booked at the swanky Los Angeles hotel. Trial concluded for the day as a protester was escorted from the court.

Trial resumed on June 3 with testimony from Eddy Garcia, a security guard at the Intercontinental Hotel, where the elevator bay beating took place. He is testifying under immunity, as he admits to accepting a bribe.

Garcia said he received a call about a domestic-violence dispute, and that afterwards, Combs and his chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, began calling him to make the video evidence "go away." On the phone, Combs "sounded very nervous," Garcia said. "He was talking fast. He said he had a little too much to drink, said one thing led to another."

Another time, Combs "said something like this could ruin him," Garcia said. "He was concerned that this video could get out and that it could ruin his career. He said he would take care of me."

Garcia testified that he and his boss, Bill Medrano, agreed to take the bribe. Medrano gave Garcia a USB drive with the footage and sent him to a meeting with Combs and Khorram. "Eddy, my angel," an excited Combs greeted Garcia, the security guard recalled to the jury.

Combs then put Garcia on the phone with Ventura, saying the R&B singer also wanted the video to go away. "She said hi, she said that she had a movie coming out and that it wasn’t a good time for this to be coming out, and she wanted it to go away," Garcia said. He signed an NDA and received $100K in cash in a brown paper bag. Medrano took $50K, Garcia said, and "the additional money was for me and what [Combs] thought was for Mr. Flores," the other security guard who had testified in the trial and refused to take the bribe. He said $20K went to another guard, Henry Lias, and he kept the rest to buy a car.

Combs then called Garcia on Easter. "He said, 'Happy Easter. You are my angel. God is good. God put you in my life for a reason.' And he asked if anyone had inquired about the video," Garcia said, noting that no one had inquired about the video.

Garcia admitted he lied to federal investigators when they initially asked him whether he had taken a bribe from Combs. "I didn't want to be a part of this," he said. At the next meeting with investigators, he told the truth.

Next, Derek Ferguson, who worked for Bad Boy Records from 1998 to 2017, including as chief financial officer, took the stand. He confirmed that Combs's assistants and security were paid for by the company, and said that taxes were always filed correctly. He testified he never witnessed crimes or acts of violence during his tenure. “He just worked constantly,” he said. ”His passion for what he did was really high so his work ethic and the number of hours that he put in was something that really pushed the entire team.”

On June 4, the jury was shown text messages between Combs and D-Roc from 2015, in which Combs asked the security guard to "stay on top of" Ventura as well as a "shorty" he referred to as "G." The jury then viewed the footage from the Intercontinental Hotel for the eighth time since the trial began, with testimony from Frank Piazza, a forensic audio and video editor, who reviewed hotel surveillance footage, cell phone videos and more the case. He confirmed that the videos were not tampered with, although he enhanced audio on ten sex tapes from a laptop Ventura turned over to the government. The videos were taken from a user profile labeled Frank Black.

Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Ventura's, took the stand next and had the biggest testimony of the day. She said Combs dangled her over Ventura's seventeenth-story balcony in September 2016 before throwing her onto balcony furniture. Combs had been banging on the door before he came into the apartment, and Bongolan hid her then-girlfriend in a guest bathroom (Ventura was in her own bedroom). She then went onto the balcony and was about to light a blunt before Combs "basically came up behind me," she told the jury. "He lifted me up and then had me on top of the rail." She said Combs held her by her armpits over the railing, which her feet were dangling over. "Do you know what the fuck you did?" Combs yelled at her repeatedly, she said. Bongolan said he held her over the railing for about fifteen seconds before throwing her back onto the furniture.

She recalled Ventura then came out and asked Combs, "Did you just hang her over the balcony?" Ventura and Combs then began to talk, and the hip-hop mogul left shortly after.

She told the jury she has "night terrors and paranoia and scream in my sleep at times" because of the incident. She said  Combs Facetimed her a few days later, and recalled telling him, "I don't want any problems with you."

Bongolan met Ventura when they worked together for Diamond Supply Co. in 2014 and 2015, but she didn't meet Combs until a year into their friendship. During a 2016 shopping trip with Ventura, Bongolan said Combs sent Ventura a list of every place they stopped that day, even though neither had told him. This wasn't the only disturbing thing Bongolan witnessed; she said she had seen Ventura's bruises and black eyes, and that when she would stay at Ventura's apartment, Combs would often stop by in the middle of the night and bang on the door until Ventura answered. One time, she said Combs threw a knife at her as he entered the apartment; Ventura threw it back and Combs left.

Combs also threatened Bongolan. She said that at a 2016 photoshoot with Ventura on a beach, Combs "came up really close to my face and said something around the lines of, 'I'm the devil and I could kill you.'"

Bongolan testified the last time she hung out with the couple together was for New Year's Eve in Miami in 2018. She said they did ketamine for eight hours, which prompted her sobriety journey. She admitted she and Ventura "had a problem" when it came to drug use.

In January 2024, Bongolan hired a lawyer to make a monetary demand from Combs because of the balcony altercation, but she fired her lawyer when she saw he put incorrect information in the paperwork. She was then contacted by a music producer she knew who worked with Combs, saying that Combs wanted to settle with her. Bongolan hired another lawyer, however, and told the jury she is seeking $10 million in her civil suit against Combs. When the defence asked her whether she was doing so for an "opportunity to become a millionaire," Bongolan answered, "I can't agree with that."

Bongolan's cross-examination on June 5 posed difficulty for the prosecution, as Combs's lawyers revealed holes in the witness's account of the balcony assault. Mostly, they called into question Bongolan's memory of the event; she had said the photo of bruies was taken hours after the incident, on September 26. But the defence showed that Combs was in New York at the time for a performance in Newark, New Jersey. However, Bongolan was firm that the assault took place: "I will never forget him holding me on that balcony," she said.

Also on June 5, Judge Arun Subramanian gave a warning to the defense, after Combs was seen interacting with the jury by "nodding vigorously" during Bongolan's testimony. "It is absolutely unacceptable," the judge said.

The jury then reviewed texts between Combs's chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, and Ventura from 2016. "I just found out some crazy shit," Ventura wrote. "He came into my house while my friends were here and we were all sleeping and they woke me up because he was ringing the bell crazy at 3 a.m. and when he came in, I went to my room and he went at Bona choked her and then dangled her feet off the balcony. This is crazy. I have to stay away." Digital forensics analyst Enrique Santos took the stand to testify on recovering messages and deleted records from three phones that belonged to Ventura.

The anonymous witness "Jane" took the stand next. Jane said she was in a relationship with Combs from 2021 to 2024, and said they called each other Bert and Ernie. She met the producer on a trip to Miami in November 2020; Combs was seeing her friend, whom she was with, at the time, and he paid for the trip. She described going with Combs to pick up a pink powder drug — likely tusi — from his studio, but she left the trip not long after, as her friend suspected she and Combs were flirting.

Jane kept in touch with Combs, and went to Miami in January 2021. They spent several days together, she said, and "made lots of love," adding that she was "pretty head over heels" for the mogul. They shared other trips together, including going to Turks and Caicos in 2021, where she said they took ecstasy about ten times over nine days. She said that between February and May of that year, she did drugs every time she saw Combs, including E, molly, blow and ketamine; she testified that before she met him, she had only taken drugs twice before.

During that time, sex took place between just the two of them, often for twelve to 24-hour sessions. Then, in May 2021, Combs asked if she would be into sleeping with another man. She agreed, thinking that she was just "playing into the fantasy," but then Combs went to his phone and said, "We can make that happen tonight."

Within hours, they were at a hotel in Miami where Combs's assistants were preparing the room. She had sex with an escort and then Combs, and said she was "exhilarated." But then, "there was so much of it after, and it was too much of it," she said, adding that about 90 percent of the time she had sex with Combs afterwards, it involved another man. Jane told Combs verbally and over writing that she did not want to have sex with other men, but "whenever the topic came up...I could just feel that the tension was building," adding that he was "dismissive."

Similar to what Ventura said in her testimony, Jane told the jury that she felt she was obligated to "perform these nights for him," particularly because he was paying her rent. Instead of freak-offs, Combs referred to the occasions as "debauchery" or "hotel night," and Jane said every time she saw him from May 2021 to October 2023 involved a "hotel night." She said they would use more than 24 bottles of baby oil in one "hotel night," which would occur in L.A., New York, Miami and Turks and Caicos. Combs would "direct" the "prolonged foreplay" and actions between Jane and the male escorts, and that the "hotel nights" could take up more than 24 hours. She said she got infections from the hotel nights, and Combs would get angry with her if she suggested using a condom. Jane said that every time she had sex with escorts, her genitals felt sore and that it would take her a week to two weeks to recover.


On June 6, she testified that there were two "hotel nights" in which she decided to be sober because "I was tired of doing that to my body." But the first time, she "ended up asking for a pill," she said, to feel better. The second time, she got through without drugs, but it made her feel even more "disgusted," she said. "I was just repulsed. I was just so mad at myself for doing that. I just deeply regretted that."

The jury saw texts in which Jane told Combs, "Ever since I opened Pandora's box I've never been able to close it," referring to the hotel nights. She discussed being in hotels and "doing things that make me feel disgusted with myself," adding, "I feel it's the only reason you have me around and why you pay for the house. I don't want to feel obligated to perform these nights for you."

Combs responded, "Girl stop."

The jury even got to hear how angry Combs would be when Jane would express her dissatisfaction with the hotel nights. A voice memo from the Bad Boy founder was played, in which he yells, "You're fucking nuts! So be sad, go crazy, do whatever the fuck you want to do."

In November 2021, Jane had texted Combs and said she felt that she was "feeling some type of way" about their relationship. "I need a breather and a break from you. This doesn't make me feel good at all," she wrote, referring to the hotel nights. "Your true intentions with me are in plain sight."

She testified, "I felt mistreated that I was coming there to do a hotel night and when I leave he's giving another woman this quality time that I was like, begging for." She said Combs was dating another woman, which made her feel "cheap."

However, after fights over hotel nights, Combs "would say all the things wanted to hear," Jane told the jury. "He would say that it's not what I'm thinking. ... He would just downplay whatever I was freaking out about and that he loved me, and he missed me and wanted to see me."

Khorram came up again for the countless time in trial, when Jane said she spoke with her about picking up drugs. Combs had told Jane to get drugs from his L.A. home and bring them to Miami. She asked Khorram whether "this was safe and okay" to fly with the substances, to which Khorram said, "It's fine. I do it all the time. Just put it in your check-in luggage."

Jane said she and Combs were on a break between October 2023 and February 2024, and that after they got back together, they only had about five "hotel nights," with the last occurring in August 2024. Not long after Jane began participating in the hotel nights, she was allowed to choose the escorts, but had to ask for photos of their penis to show Combs for approval.

Also similar to Ventura, Jane had a birthday ruined by Combs's desire to watch her have sex with another man. "I just remember at this point in our relationship, this had become so routine that I just was in my same rhythm, just like, robotically just the same thing," she said. Three different male escorts came to the hotel that night at separate times to have sex with her in front of Combs. After that night, Combs brought his other girlfriend on a vacation.

"It broke my heart because I just finished spending my birthday with these guys having sex with me and then just for my partner to leave and do such a romantic gesture for someone else," she said.

In text messages seen by the jury, Jane expressed her disappointment to Combs. "It really feels like you use me to get off and then go away for a week," she wrote to him. "I'd like to get off the hamster wheel and do something different with you. I deserve it too."

"I didn't want to do all of that on my birthday," she noted. "You knew how tired I was."

Combs responded, "Let's be friends because I can't take this part for real. I'm done with you comparing yourself to someone else. I treat you good and if you don't feel so let's just be friends. ... I'm tired of these long texts telling me what I'm doing wrong."

Jane finished the conversation by writing that she wanted to "do things outside of these rooms. I won't miss it because I'm more than that." Combs continued to text Jane afterwards, but she did not answer for almost two weeks. The jury also saw a note from her phone that she wrote in February 2023 about Combs: "You know what babe it's okay I just accept the fact that you were a pathological liar."

In November 2023, she drafted another note: "I'm sorry, I don't want to do drugs for days and days and have you use me to fulfill your freaky wild desires in hotel rooms."

Jane said she was too frightened to send the notes to Combs himself, telling the jury, "I didn't have the courage."

After their February 2023 breakup, Jane testified that Combs's staff also began reaching out to her on his behalf. She was about to board a flight to Paris for fashion week when Combs began calling her nonstop and texted her over and over about Paris. She said she had "no idea how he found out" that she was going to the city.

When she got back from Paris, she began speaking to Combs again, and suggested she come to Miami for a "birthday make-up trip." After they went on the trip to Turks and Caicos, that's when their "love contract" for him to pay her rent began. He also bought her veneers "because he didn't like my teeth," Jane said. When she texted him again that she wanted to see him outside of hotel rooms, he responded, "Well get over it please. Look at the roof over your head and that pretty smile. I don't want to do anything if that's still an issue."

Diddy Trial Week Five: Jane Finishes Testimony, Kanye West Makes Brief Appearance

Sean Combs's ex-girlfriend Jane took the stand again on June 9, beginning the fifth week of the historic trial. The jury was shown more texts between the couple and learned more about Combs and Jane's freak-offs, which they called "hotel nights." She had expressed her disappointment with their relationship several times, according to the text messages, such as, "I don't want to be used and locked in a room to perform and fulfill your fantasies."

She recaled a time they transported the same escort used in New York for a hotel night to Miami for a "part two." In other texts from an October 2023 conversation, she told Combs, "I don't feel like performing loveless cold sex." She testified that "I had to earn just basic things from my relationship like love and respect and romance, but I felt like he was giving it to everyone else," noting again that he would date other women — "Gina," whom he also dated while he was with Ventura, again was referenced — and take them on fancy trips while relegating her to hotel nights.

Jane said several times that Combs — much like other abusers — would begin "love-bombing" her in order to get her to stay in the relationship, writing such things as, "I want to see you, we don't have to have sex I want to spend the day with you please." But later, he would begin threatening to take away her rent, in a veiled way, particularly after the "sobriety party" Jane testified to the week prior.

She said when Ventura filed her lawsuit against Combs in the fall of 2023, "I almost fainted. In fact, I think I did," saying that there was a "harrowing resemblance" to her relationship with Combs. "I can't believe I'm reading my own story," she remembered thinking. Jane texted Combs a few days later, writing, "I feel like I'm reading my own sexual trauma. ... Even two of my own birthdays you forced men on me. ... The sick part is you knew this was coming and you gaslit me and made me feel crazy about the sex trauma I was developing knowing you've been here before. It's all so clear that this was sexual exploitation that you framed as love for you sick fetishes."

Combs didn't respond until two days later, when he wrote, "Call me on this phone important."

A recorded phone conversation between Combs and Jane was heard by the jury. It was recovered from Kristina Khorram's phone, although Jane said she didn't know that she was being recorded or that anyone else was on the call, but she did testify that she could overhear who she assumed was Combs writing notes during the conversation.

Combs told Jane that the hotel nights were "just some kinky shit that I thought we both — you know what I'm saying — enjoyed. ... I need you to be there for me."

"Who's there for me when I close my eyes and have these fucked up things in my head?" Jane replied.

They had another recorded conversation afterwards, and other text messages through December 2023 showed Jane telling Combs how traumatized she was by their relationship. She told the jury she didn't confide in anyone about the hotel nights "because it was just a shameful dark secret of mine."

In late December 2023, Jane texted Khorram that Combs was threatening her with the sex tapes, texting the former chief of staff, "He said that he would expose me and send them to my child's father. He has been bothering me for two months." Jane testified that she and Khorram spoke on the phone the next day, and Khorram said she would hide the phones with the tapes.

Jane and Combs got together again in February 2024 because Combs texted her, and she said she "missed him dearly." She went to his Miami home for her birthday, and had sex with an escort in front of Combs. Her reasoning, she told the jury, was "I'm just so used to this being the outcome of whatever we're doing that I just accept it." Combs had also given her ecstacy that night.

More freak-offs followed after their reconciliation. After the Intercontinental Hotel video was released last year, Combs told Jane that "that was the only time they had physical violence like that," and that Ventura was "a hitter and that she would hit."

In June 2024, they got into a heated argument, with Jane accusing Combs of cheating. She said she hit his head into a counter and threw candles at him. As the fight escalated, she locked herself in a bathroom, which he kicked open. She fled to a closet, which he also kicked in, and she began running to the front door. "Sean kicked me in the back of my thigh and I fell down. Then he picked me up in a chokehold and choked me," she said, adding that she was able to wrangle her way out of his grasp and ran. She then hid in bushes for two hours, she testified.

When she began to walk back to her house, she saw Combs was waiting for her down the street. "I was scared but I was quiet and I just kept walking back to the house because I didn't want to wake up the neighbors," she told the jury. She went into a guest bedroom, and Combs kicked in the door. As she ran onto a patio, Combs chased her, and "I puched him and then he punched me," she said. She fled into her yard and "went into a ball" on the ground. "He started punching my head, he started kicking me, he started saying all kinds of things and just kept punching me," she told the jury.

He then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back to the house. Inside, she called the woman whom she accused Combs of going on a trip with. The woman began insulting her, and Combs "was holding me down and making me listen to her insults," Jane said. She then went to take a shower, and noticed she had large welts on her head and a black eye forming. Combs went into the bathroom, as well, and Jane said she told him that she hated him. Combs then slapped her three times, with her falling to the ground. He then used her phone to watch porn.

Combs invited an escort over, telling Jane, "We're going to end the night like this." The escort, called Antoine, was someone Jane had seen at a party while she and Combs were on a break, and Combs saw texts between them about seeing "mutual friends." He asked her about the texts, Jane said, and then insisted she take ecstacy. Jane said she didn't want to, and Combs replied, "Is this coercion?"

Jane ended up returning to the escort and had sex with him in front of Combs. Afterwards, Combs had his assistant and security guard bring Jane more than $10K in cash to cover the damages to her home after their altercation, where four doors were damaged.

The last time Jane saw Combs was in August 2024, a couple months after the abusive incident. Again, he invited an escort over whom she had sex with in front of him. However, they continued to communicate until his arrest. She testified Combs is paying for her attorney and is still paying her rent, and has no plans to file her own lawsuit against Combs.

"I just pray for his continued healing," she said. "I pray for peace for him."

Jane continued her testimony on June 10, telling the defense that her choices "were made under a lot of emotional pressure" after being "hooked" into the relationship. "I resent him for leading me to the lifestyle he led me to," she said. To her, the hotel nights were something that she didn't want to "judge" him for, saying, "I felt that my partner was trusting me in a very vulnerable moment and...he made me believe that this was something really special. This was something only he and I did, and I really took that on very strongly," she told the jury.

The defense also showed text and voice messages between the couple expressing the fun they had in Turks and Caicos, with Combs bringing up the "contract" they made. "Everything just feels good, and I'm so happy," she told him in a voice message. But Jane told the jury that she was speaking to the time she spent with Combs, not the escorts. Meanwhile, Combs, who had told Jane he was polyamorous when they started dating, began to publicly date Yung Miami. Jane said, "I didn't sign up to date a man that was in a public relationship."

Jane also testified that she was okay with being filmed during hotel nights, and there were "rare" times when Combs agreed to have an escort leave because she didn't feel any attraction. Jane emphasized that Combs would only allow them to leave after she had sexual interactions with them.

The defense also appeared to be leaning into Combs's apparent drug addiction to excuse his behavior, asking about times when Jane would cry and Combs would say he was "too high" to notice.

Her cross-examination continued throughout June 11, when the defense again brought up texts between the couple in which Jane was angry that Combs was on a vacation with another girlfriend, "Gina," who has been mentioned several times throughout the trial since Ventura's testimony. It was revealed that Jane got Combs to leave the trip early by threatening to withhold future hotel nights, and that she arranged one with two escorts when Combs returned. She also had Combs tell Gina to delete a social-media post in which she was wearing a necklace that matched a bracelet Combs gifted her. Other texts showed a time when Combs said it was "all good" to not have a hotel night.

While text messages from Jane expressed how much she loved Combs and how much fun she had, she again pressed that she felt that she "couldn't say no to him."

Jane's testimony came to an end on June 12, after five grueling days. She again recounted the June 2024 argument in which Combs beat her, and she called him a pedophile. She also discussed the January 2024 party in Las Vegas where she saw an escort whom she and Combs used; the party was held by a high-profile rapper, she said, who expressed he had a crush on Jane. The rapper, whom she described as being "very close" with Combs and an "icon" in the industry, had her flown to the party on his private jet, and Jane said the rapper and his girlfriend seemed to also partake in similar sexual events as her and Combs. The judge determined the rapper's identity would not be made public to the court, despite the defense's request. Jane said the party was to celebrate the birthday of the rapper's girlfriend or wife.

Combs had been very angry she went to another rapper's "freak-off," Jane said he told her, after seeing the texts between her and an escort about a "mutual friend," referring to the Las Vegas party. After the June 2024 altercation, the two discussed breaking up, and when Jane saw he was with another woman in July, she sent him a slew of texts, such as, “At least say you understand that it wasn’t cool to have me just doing hotel nights and everyone got private jets all over the world. I don’t even have anything post worthy from our relationship.”

Jane would continue to speak with Combs, and the last time she saw him was in August 2024 in Miami, a month before his arrest in New York. She told the defense she had had a good time with him.

The prosecution said it plans to rest the case by the end of next week.

Oddly enough, Kanye West showed up to the trial on June 13, telling press he was there to support Combs. (West was in Las Vegas in January 2024 to celebrate his wife Bianca Censori's birthday and the release of an album, although he has not been identified as the rapper Jane referred to in the trial.) West was only at the courthouse for a little over thirty minutes before leaving.

The week ended with several testimonies, beginning with ex-assistant Jonathan Perez, who worked for Combs from 2021 to 2024. He also discussed Kristina Khorram, who was Perez's supervisor and told Perez that Combs would have "king nights," which he said were described as Combs going to a hotel "to have private time with a female." He said that staff would receive a two-hour or full-day's notice to prepare hotels for "king nights."

"It was a lot of packing materials, making sure that [Combs] was going to have everything he would need for twelve to 24 hours without having to bother anybody," Perez explained, adding that supplies included red lights, lube, music supplies, liquor and honey, which "enhances the man's libido," he said. He testified that he would also pick up drugs for Combs, which he would pay for in cash from Combs's security or a Gucci pouch that Combs ordinarily kept filled with drugs and cash.

Perez would also clean up after the freak-offs, and the jury saw texts between him, Khorram and another assistant discussing how a cleanup went. "Slipped and fell twice," an assistant said, referencing the baby oil. Perez testified that he considered setting up freak-offs or king nights and picking up drugs as personal favors instead of work related.

Perez said one of Combs's staff found a video of Jane and another man having sex on an iPad that was ordinarily used by the staff. He told Combs and Khorram about the video separately, and Khorram told him if it were to happen again, he should just give the footage to her and she would tell Combs. The jury heard a recording of the call between Khorram and Perez, which Perez said he did not know was being recorded.

Perez quit his job in September 2024 because "there was a lot going on personally for Mr. Combs and there wasn't a lot of communication about what was happening, so I thought it was a good time to leave to hopefully avoid a situation like this," he said, referring to having to testify in court. He said the last time he spoke to the disgraced mogul was when he was arrested.

When the prosecution asked Perez how he feels about Combs to this day, he was positive. "I feel great about him," he said, "the same way I felt when I was leaving my employment."

Perez also said "yes" when the defense asked whether Jane was a "willing participant" in the freak-offs. He confirmed that she never appeared to be "upset or unhappy" afterwards, when he would schedule IV treatments for the couple.

Diddy Trail Week Six: Prosecution to Rest Its Case This Week

Prosecution said during the fifth week of trial that it would likely rest its case during the sixth week, which began on June 16. Most of the day centered around texts between Combs and his staff, including his security guard D-Roc, Kristina Khorram, personal assistants, Ventura, Jane, Mia and more. A juror was also dismissed by the judge on June 16, because the juror had been inconsistent about questions over where he lives. Summary witnesses provided testimony to the legitimacy of call, text and travel records.

The texts showed how much planning went into freak-offs beyond Combs and his partner, with Khorram and assistants texting about hotel rooms and getting cash, drugs and baby oil. Khorram appears to refer to freak-offs as Combs's "wild king" nights, and acts as a middleman for Combs and other associates. For example, she would text Ventura, "Dave is at your door with the green," or to an assistant, "Heads up, he's probably about to do wild king tonight." In texts with Combs, she would tell him whether the room was ready or not; in November 2021, he said he didn't want the hotel to know his identity so there wouldn't be "unneeded charges."

She would discuss damage charges with him, and take measures to ensure they didn't happen, such as texting Jane to ask hotel staff "if they can bring up like 15 bath towels." Khorram would also pick up drugs for Combs, according to texts shown to the jury. Some texts showed Khorram asking Combs to text a security guard to tell him what drugs to pick up; Combs replied that he wanted fifteen pills of molly.

Khorram was also very aware of Combs's abuse, as Ventura, Mia and Jane testified. When Ventura texted her that she had been dragged by her hair and that she locked her doors for safety, and that she didn't have any of her personal things or money, Khorram said she would talk with Combs.

Security would also speak to Mia, Ventura or Jane on Combs's behalf. Texts between D-Roc and Mia aligned with her testimony that a security guard reached out to her after Ventura's lawsuit. 

Bringing Khorram and other staff's involvement into the case could underscore the racketeering charge, showing that Combs's business was related to his freak-offs, which the prosecution says involved coercion.

In November 2023, after Ventura's lawsuit, Khorram texted her boss, "If you cannot be honest with me, this doesn't work. We all know what your Kryptonite is and where you don't make the best choices."

The jury was also shown texts between Combs and Ventura planning freak-offs, with one showing Combs saying, "No. No way," when Ventura asked whether he filmed one of the sex marathons. The jurors were also shown clips from freak-offs for the first time, created in October 2012 and 2014 and December 2014.

More texts, call logs and freak-off videos were shown on June 17, and there was also a little courtroom drama when Judge Arun Subramanian said an article had been published that had details of sealed proceeding. Although both the prosecution and defense denied the breach, the judge threatened to take their devices and have testimony under oath if it happened again, according to CNN.

The jury saw that Combs used five different bank accounts to pay for an escort's round-trip flight from L.A. to New York in 2014, with some accounts linked to Bad Boy Entertainment and Combs Enterprises. Showing Combs used his company funds to pay for escorts and transportation will be key to the racketeering charges.

In summary reports, photos, texts and call logs also added more context to the Intercontinental Hotel beating from March 2016. Images showed Ventura wearing sunglasses with a busted lip at 11:35 a.m., just ten minutes after Combs called her eight times, which went unanswered. He called her three times at 11:36 a.m., and she called him twice afterwards, with both calls lasting around a minute. Combs followed that up with three more unanswered calls, and texted her, "Call now."

"I went and checked everything and spoke to security," Ventura replied. "Jules left so you're good and as long as you don't disturb the other guests they'll leave you be." Combs continued to try to call her unsuccessfully before texting her "Call me" and "Call me the cops are here" (this was false). He called her again, and the conversation lasted eighteen seconds before he unsuccessfully called two more times. Around that time, at 12:09 p.m., Ventura called D-Roc, which lasted 22 seconds.

"You gonna abandon me all alone," Combs texted again, and called twice to no avail. "Call me pls," he wrote at 12:10 p.m.

"I have a premiere Monday. For the biggest thing I've ever done in my life. I have a black eye and a fat lip. It was time for me to go," Ventura replied via text. "You are sick for thinking it's okay to do what you've done. Please stay far away from me." She did not respond to calls from D-Roc or Combs after that text, although she returned the security guard's call for a two-minute conversation. As Combs repeatedly tried to call her over the next ten minutes, she called D-Roc twice.

"I'm about to be arrested. Thanks," he texted her at 12:19 p.m. before calling her again. He then texted, "If you don't pick up you'll never here [sic] my voice again." He then called her five times in the ensuing thirty minutes. Khorram also tried to call Ventura in that timeframe. Ventura did not answer.

"This is crazy he won't stop. Please tell him the neighbors are about to call the police," Ventura texted Khorram at 2:30 p.m. The former chief of staff said she was with him and they were in the elevator to leave. Ventura also asked Khorram to "please takeaway whatever keys he thinks he has." As she and her friend Kerry Morgan testified, Combs went to her apartment after she left.

Khorram texted Ventura to try to get her to speak with Combs. "Talk to him. He promised he won't go back over if you will just talk to him for five minutes," she wrote, later adding, "Sorry don't want to be in the middle just don't want him to go back over." Ventura and Combs spoke on the phone for eighteen minutes and then ten minutes.

Ventura also spoke with Combs's assistant Elie Maroun on to calls after 5:30 p.m., and then there were four calls between Ventura and Combs. Maroun and Khorram then started texting about damages at the hotel, with Khorram telling Maroun to tell hotel staff that "they [Combs and Ventura] had a fun drunk night to try and get more info." Maroun replied, "Lol no shot they aren't playing nice."

Maroun also tells Khorram, "He wants to speak to Spanish security guard." Khorram asked Maroun at 9:55 p.m. whether the assistant had gotten the security's phone number. When Maroun replied that the hotel "wouldn't give it to me," Khorram asked "What is eddys [sic] last name" via text. Eddy Garcia is one of the hotel security who testified in the trial under immunity, admiting he took Combs's bribe.

Ventura took calls from Combs and D-Roc between 6 and 7 p.m. Morgan, Ventura's friend, then texted Khorram at 6:55 p.m., "I don't think anyone should call her," along with a picture of an LAPD business card.

Photos from Ventura's phone a little after 7 a.m. the next day were shown to the jury; one was of two men, the other was of someone sitting on a couch, per CNN. Combs texted D-Roc asking how Ventura was doing at 9:32 a.m., and D-Roc replied, "She's ok she's eating breakfast. Her face don't look bad. She good."

On March 7, two days after the hotel incident, Ventura texted Combs, "This was supposed to be a really exciting day for me and I wish I could just crawl in bed and stay there until I look better." Combs's phone record showed several calls between him and Garcia that day, and the jury saw a photo of Garcia's license from Khorram's phone.

In the following days, Combs texted Ventura, "Baby I cant say it enough Im so sorry!!!!!" She wrote, "I still have crazy bruising from Friday. I would be a dummy to subject myself to that possibly happening again. When you get fucked up the wrong way, you always want to show me that you have the power and you knock me around. I'm not a rag doll, I'm someone's child."

The defense has been focusing on texts in which Ventura was helping to plan freak-offs or expressing love for Combs.

The court was adjourned on June 18 after a jury member called out sick.

After the Juneteenth holiday, court resumed on June 20 with testimony from Brendan Paul, a former assistant of Combs who is testifying under immunity. He began working for Combs in 2022, and stopped in March 2024 after he was arrested for cocaine possession. Paul said that the blow was "in my Goyard bag for personal assistant duties," noting he tucked it in there after "sweeping" Combs's room before joining him on a family vacation. He said he didn't tell the police the coke was Combs because of "loyalty," and noted that the charges were dropped "because I have a really good lawyer."

He had applied to the job after it was recommended by Combs's personal assitant Elie Maroun, who told Paul that the "tumultous job" would require "all of my attention." He got the job after interviewing with Khorram as well as Combs's music manager, Frankie Santella, and said his duties were divided between other personal assistants. He would work between 80 to 100 hours a week for four to six days, and was paid $75K with a raise bumping that to $100K.

Paul testified that Combs fired him a few times, noting that in the late fall of 2023, he told Combs he had forgotten his Lululemon fanny pack. "Call KK [Kristina Khorram] and tell her you're fired," Combs told Paul, the former assistant told the jury.

He said Combs or another assistant would order him to pick up drugs. Paul testified that he would pick up a pound of cannabis for $4,200, and that he would buy more elicit substances less than ten times, including molly, ketamine and coke.

Paul also said that Khorram "didn't really want me involved in 'wild king nights,'" but he did set up and clean up for several of the freakoffs with Jane. He would wear gloves "for sanitary reasons," he said, ading that the rooms were in "disarray." He said Combs stopped hosting the drug-and-sex marathons at hotels after Ventura's lawsuit.

When asked by the defense whether he was a "drug mule," Paul replied, "Abosolutely not," and said that he considered the "wild king nights" as "an escape" for Combs. He also said that Jane appeared to be a "willing participant."

After Paul's testimony, the jury saw more text messages between Combs and Ventura, as well as hotel records detailing damage fees, alongside testimony from a special agent for Homeland Security, Joseph Cerciello.

Diddy Trial Week Seven: Prosecution Rests Its Case

The seventh week of trial began with more testimony from Joseph Cerciello explaining summary charts detailing Combs's abuse. That included several videos, which the agent said are collectively several hours in length. Fify explicit videos were recorded between December 17 and 21 in 2021 alone.

Other records showed that hotel stays were booked on a credit card paid for by Bad Boy Entertainment, critical to the racketeering charge. Texts between Khorram and Combs also show that Combs was using his employees to facilitate freak-offs and travel plans for male sex workers. Messages from Khorram to staff also laid out how to set up hotels for "king nights."

On June 24, the jury saw more texts between Jane and Combs regarding escorts, with them coordinating how to keep the male prostitutes hidden from hotel staff, as well as Combs saying he didn't want Khorram to know about a "king night." Afterwards, the prosecution officially rested its case.

The defense is now arguing that the prosecution did not prove the sex-trafficking charge, saying that Ventura "enjoyed the sexual activity and did not feel coerced." In regard to Khorram being labeled a coconspirator, the defense said that there is no evidence, and that Combs lied to Khorram: "That's not the way coconspirators act with each other," said attorney Alexandra Shapiro.

As for the racketeering charge, the defense argued that “There’s, at best, thin proof that any of the other employees willingly participated in crimes with and for Mr. Combs” and that Combs “actually took steps to conceal the nature of the sexual activity he was engaging in from his employees.”

Combs confirmed he will not be testifying in the case. The defense rested its case within thirty minutes, mostly concentrating on romantic texts exchanged between Combs and Ventura.

On June 25, the prosecution and defense met with a judge for a charge conference, in which they discuss instructions for juror deliberation. The prosecution decided to drop the charges related to attempted arson and attempted kidnapping in regard to the racketeering charge. Charges of him committing arson and kidnapping remain. 

Closing Arguments

The prosecution made its closing arguments on June 26. U.S. attorney Christy Slavik listed Combs's crimes, finishing with "the brutal crimes at the heart of this case: sex trafficking."

She pointed to the similarities between the assault of Ventura in March 2016 and when Combs assaulted Jane in June 2024, saying, "They're not separate stories — they're chapters in the same book: the story of Sean Combs and the criminal enterprise he led, made up of his inner circle." She said his criminal enterprise "serviced the defendant's every desire through a methodical pattern of violence, coercion and manipulation. The defendant counted on silence and shame to keep his crimes hidden. He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law, but over the course of this trial, his crimes have been exposed."

The prosecution then walked through the charges and how they were proved during the trial.

For the racketeering conspiracy, Slavic said that the criminal enterprise was not Combs Enterprises, but his inner circle that "existed to serve his needs and what he said," noting such people as Kristina Khorram and assistants, whom she described as "loyal lieutenants." These "foot soldiers," she said, were paid by Combs's companies. "The defendant used the money and gravitas from his businesses to facilitate the crimes that he and his inner circle committed," she said. "He was the boss of every member of his inner circle, and he was in charge."

She listed the crimes Combs and his inner circle facilitated and committed: arson, drug transportation, witness bribery, forced labor, engaging in prostitution and sex trafficking Ventura and Jane. In regard to Ventura and Jane, the prosecution noted that drugs were essential to the relationship: "He fed them drugs for years, and you know he didn't get those drugs on his own," Slavic said. "He used his enterprise." She noted that the prosecution proved co-conspirators distributed drugs knowingly.

She pointed to Capricorn Clark's testimony, as well: "Security locked Capricorn in the building and made her take lie detector tests over and over for five days. ... The man administering these tests told her that if she failed, 'They're going to throw you in the East River.' You know that she didn't consent to this. She didn't want to be in that building taking the tests, but what choice did she have?"

Clark's testimony also underscored the kidnapping charges; so did Ventura's testimony in which she said Combs made her stay in a hotel after kicking on her face in a car in 2009. Combs's security had taken her back to his house after she had attempted to jump out of the car and escape. His team brought her food and clothes and his security was watching to be sure she wouldn't leave. "This is kidnapping," Slavic said.

She reminded the jury of Clark's testimony that Combs forced her to come with him to Kid Cudi's house, saying, "Get dressed, we're going to kill Cudi." Combs then wouldn't allow Clark to leave his home unless she brought Ventura to his house; when she did, Clark witnessed Combs kicking Ventura while she laid on the ground outside his home.

As for arson, the prosecution pointed to Kid Cudi's car, which was burned in January 2012 after Combs discovered he was dating Ventura. "Of course, the defendant was behind this. Now it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that we're not suggesting the defendant personally cut the hole in Kid Cudi's Porsche. You heard the audio notes. The defendant didn't even buy his own soup," Slavic said.

The prosecution also addressed the bribery charges, underscoring testimony from Intercontinental Hotel employees. Slavic noted how Combs's inner circle, such as Khorram, went into clean-up made, as well, helping to facilitate the bribe. She said it showed "members of Combs's enterprise not stopping at anything to make sure the video wouldn't fall into the hands of law enforcement."

The enterprise also allowed Combs to sex traffick Ventura and Jane; Slavic noted that the jury doesn't need to see coercion or force in every freak-off instance, as the law doesn't require either of the victims to have said "no" to Combs at the time for it to be considered sex trafficking. "This is not an attempt to criminalize dysfunctional relationships or unconventional sexual preferences," she said. The prosecution also showed the jury images of 27 men that were hired for freak-offs with Jane, Ventura or both.

The victims' state of mind were also at play, the prosecution said. Combs would "love bomb" and "groom" Jane, Slavic said, to ultimately get her to agree to hotel nights, later using such actions as paying her rent as a means to coerce her into participating. "Threatening to take away her home could turn a no into a yes," Slavic said. "That's coercion and it worked."

"The defendant's conduct had one purpose: to get Jane to agree to do 'hotel nights.' And because the defendant knew exactly what he was doing, this was sex trafficking," she said.

Combs's alleged enterprise was aware of this, the prosecution argued. Jane wrote a text to Khorram in December 2023, writing: "Hey, I know I would normally not involve you in anything, but he just threatened me about my sex tapes that he has of me on two phones. He said that he would expose me and send them to my child’s father. He has been bothering me for two months, after all I’ve been asking for is my space … He knew that, and all I asked for was my space and quiet time. I’m traumatized from my experience with him, and I’m just privately healing and he keeps bothering me … Mind you, these are sex tapes where I’m heavily drugged and doing things that he asked of me for the past three years that I am currently recovering from. It’s all so extremely hurtful, very hurtful. For him to exploit me all this time and then threaten me with sex tapes. Please talk some sense into him because this isn’t fair to me at all whatsoever. I’m beyond hurt by him."

"I always tell him all the time to just give these things space," Khorram replied, "otherwise we end up in a situation like we're in now," referring to Ventura's lawsuit.

Slavic noted that Combs coerced and sex trafficked Jane in September 2023, promising that there wouldn't be a hotel night on a New York trip. He convinced her to fly there, but then said he had a "surprise" after she landed: a male escort. He "enticed and transported Jane to get on that plane by telling her a material lie," Slavic said. She also referenced the "sobriety party" instance in October 2023, when Jane "told the defendant multiple times, repeatedly, that she doesn't want to keep doing these 'hotel nights,'" she said. Jane only came to Combs when he said he was "sick" and need her to care for him. Slavic added that in June 2024, Combs used force and threats to coerce Jane to perform with an escort, leading to the violent assault at her house. After the fight, Combs told her to put ice on her face and demanded she take ecstacy, saying, "You're not going to ruin my fucking night." When Jane refused, Combs asked her, "Is this coercion?"

"He used that very specific word. Remember, at this point he knew he was under investigation and he ovciously knew what crimes the feds were investigating," Slavic said, adding, "In that moment...he was brazenly acknowledging that he was breaking the very same law, the very same law that he had broken repeatedly before."

The prosecution then moved to Ventura's testimony, in which she described drug use, abuse, rape and forced freak-offs. Slavic pointed to assistant David James's testimony, in which he said Combs say that Ventura was "right where I want her. She's young...she was very moldable."

"The defendant wouldn't take no for an answer, and with Cassie, the defendant thought he found someone who wouldn't even try," Slavik said.

"He made her dependant on him," she said, noting he paid for her apartment, car, phone and more, and that he wouldn't release more music or allow her to take other opportunities. "And when he wanted to, he took those things away or had security do those things for him."

The prosecution underscored that Ventura was forced to perform in freak-offs despite illnesses. The video footage of the freak-offs were then used as collateral.


She emphasized that Ventura felt as if she could not leave because of fear. "The defendant created a climate of fear that can't be isolated to one moment in time," she said. She also slammed the defense for suggesting Ventura liked the freak-offs as she implied in texts to Combs. "She knew that when he was happy, she was safe," she said.


The sex trafficking relates to the racketeering charge, the prosecution said. “Just like with everything else, he (Sean “Diddy” Combs) did not do it alone,” she said. “He needed help getting drugs for the ‘Freak Offs,’ getting cash to pay the escorts, and he needed help keeping Cassie and Jane in line. For those things, he again turned to his most loyal lieutenants.”

As for the transportation for prostitution charges, Slavik noted Combs would pay for male escorts to travel to engage in freak-offs or hotel nights. Khorram, whom Combs called KK, would help to arrange these "king nights" and cover them up. "At times, it seemed like KK was disapproving, but that doesn't matter," Slavik said. "She knew exactly what was happening and made sure the defendant had everything he needed."

She also turned to Mia's testimony. The former assistant had told the jury that she was sexually assaulted by Combs several times, and that he raped her. Slavik recounted how even though she witnessed abuse against Ventura and herself, she was afraid to go to the police because Combs was "above the law."

He also did not pay for Capricorn Clark's overtime, which underscores the forced labor charge. Because he had said he would get her blacklisted in the music industry, she was afraid to leave her job.

Slavik said Combs attempted to obstruct justice and tamper with witnesses after Ventura's lawsuit. "For years, the defendant took great pains to keep his criminal conduct from being exposed. But many of the crimes that we've speaking about were made public when Cassie filed her lawsuit," she said, adding that Combs asked his inner circle to help "neutralize" any witnesses who could damage him. That's when Khorram and Combs began calling Jane and recording the calls.

Combs and D-Roc also were "working together to neutralize the Mia threat," Slavik said, noting records that prove the security guard and his boss would discuss how they were reaching out to Mia in the winter of 2023 and 2024. D-Roc would send updates to Combs. "As a criminal investigation became more and more real, the defendant tried repeatedly to reach out to Mia," Slavik said.

The prosecution wrapped up the argument by the end of the day. "You heard how the defendant ran his criminal enterprise with total control and with the loyal assistance of his inner circle: his chief of staff, who was his right hand, and his security team, whose names changed over time," Slavik said.

After listing witnesses, text messages, images, video footage and more that the jury digested over the last several weeks, she said, "All this evidence paints a clear picture of how the defendant committed crime after crime for two decades. How he didn't take no for answer. The evidence shows you how he and his inner circle committed crimes and how far they would go to cover them up.

"Up until today, the defendant was able to get away with these crimes because of his money, his power, his influence. That stops now," the prosecutor concluded. "It's time to hold him accountable."

Diddy Trial Week Eight: Jury Deliberations

The jury was given instructions by the judge on deliberations on June 30. The jury sent a note to the judge expressing concerns that one juror wouldn't follow instructions. The judge instructed the jury to continue deliberations.

By July 1, the jury said it had reached a verdict on all but one count — racketeering conspiracy. That is the heftiest charging, carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison. Combs is charged with five counts. One count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

On July 2, the jury found Combs guilty of the two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, in relation to Ventura and Jane. He was acquitted on racketeering and the two counts of sex trafficking.

This post will be updated as more testimony comes in.