WARNING: This article contains explicit content and language.
As the trial against Sean 'Diddy' Combs began in New York City on Monday, May 12, the hip-hop mogul maintained his innocence against charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
If convicted on all charges, which also include arson and bribery, Combs could face a mandatory 15-year prison sentence, with the possibility of life behind bars.
As the prosecution argues coercion, the defense is countering with consent. But both sides agreed that in order to get to the bottom of the case, there would be a lot of witnesses and a lot of shocking details about Combs' sexual proclivities.
Cassie Concludes Direct Testimony
Court wrapped Wednesday afternoon with Cassie Ventura concluding her direct testimony. She will be back for cross-examination on Thursday [today]. She told jurors she had come forward to "to do the right thing" and to rid herself of "the shame" and "guilt" she has carried all these years.
"I can’t carry this anymore, the shame the guilt, what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong," she said. "People aren't disposable."
She had shared that as part of her therapy and personal healing, she'd written a book about her experiences with the aid of her mother that she'd wanted Combs to read so he could "understand" the "pain he put me through."
Despite sending the book to Combs' team, she finally heard back from them that the book "wasn't taken seriously."
Ventura also testified that she'd "wanted to be compensated for the many, many years. And the pain." That's what precipitated her 2023 civil suit against Combs where she accused him of rape and years of physical abuse.
Combs has denied these allegations. Twenty-four hours after they were filed, Ventura revealed that they settled and she received $20 million from Combs and his companies.
Cassie Alleges She Was Raped
Thinking she was going to have a "closure conversation," Cassie Ventura testified in court that she met with Combs for a dinner in 2018. She was at this time seeing the man who would become her now-husband.
She described Combs as playful and romantic at dinner before he offered to drive her home. CNN reports that Ventura paused for a period of time on the witness stand, before continuing, "And then he raped me in my living room."
"I just remember crying and saying 'no,' but it was very fast," she said on the stand. She doesn't know if Combs noticed her crying. She did concede that they had had one more voluntary sexual encounter after that, and that they had had "a few check-ins" after that: "just checking in, sending love, nothing crazy."
When asked why she would willingly have sex with him after rape, Ventura replied, "We had been together for over 10 years. You don’t just turn feelings off that way."
She said the last time they were in a room together before this trial was at Kim Porter's funeral in 2018.
She testified that Combs nevertheless continued to threaten her even after their relationship had ended, including asking to be reimbursed as the man she would go on to marry, Alex Fine, was her former personal trainer, meaning he was on Combs' payroll.
"If I was you, I would get me my money," Combs wrote her in a message from 2019 read out in court. When she pushed back at all, Combs messaged in all caps, "YOU WILL NOT BE THREATENING ME."
She said he went on to say she had "too many iPads full of skeletons," but she defiantly countered, "Do you want me to tell the truth? It's way deeper than iPads."
In court, she told the jury, "There was way more than 'freak offs.' There was abuse, there was many things that happened over our relationship."
She said that it took her years to begin to overcome what she'd gone through, including going to rehab and getting clean from drugs, as well as attending trauma therapy in 2023.
She said she was suffering from flashbacks and suicidal ideation.
"I didn't want to be alive anymore at that point," a tearful Ventura said in court, per CNN. "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."
Cassie's Alleged Abuse Begins
In testimony Wednesday afternoon, Cassie Ventura recalled what may have been the first instance, saying it left her "shocked" and "angry" as it appeared to come out of nowhere. According to Ventura's testimony, it began after she saw Combs flirting with another woman in a restaurant somewhere around 2007 or '08.
When another woman reportedly clocked Ventura noticing, she said she just shrugged her shoulders. Afterward, when they were in the car, Ventura said Combs abruptly "hit me in the side of my head and I fell to the floor of the [vehicle]."
"He shook me up and scared me quite a bit," she continued, per NBC News. "So I got out of the car, I was shocked, I didn't understand what happened and why he was so angry." Ventura said that Combs' driver and security were both present for this alleged inicident.
"I was just shocked, and I didn’t necessarily understand what happened and why he was so angry except for the little bit he said as he was hitting me in the car," Ventura continued. "I just went home and kind of hid out after that."
In another alleged incident, Ventura said it began at a part in LA when Combs called her name. Drunk at the time, Ventura said she responded by punching him in the face. She said in court that this prompted Combs to beat her and stomp on her face as she lied on the floor of his vehicle.
After making it to the house, Ventura said she jumped out of the car and tried to run down the street, only to be stopped by his security -- who had chased her -- and brought back home.
She said that when she finally looked at her face in the mirror, she couldn't even recognize herself, describing it as "just knots and bleeding, swollen everything. I looked horrible."
Following this incident, Ventura said that Combs told her she would need to "sneak out of the house" with security to go stay at a hotel, which she said she did "covered up, because no one could see me like that." She had wanted to stay at his home to recover, but said he wouldn't allow it.
As for why she did not leave, Ventura said it was a combination of not feeling it would be "safe" to do so, and not having the means.
"I didn’t have the resources I needed to get out and move, to get out and not have anybody stop me," she explained. "I understood Sean’s capabilities, his access to guns, and the threats that he made prior to that."
A third incident occurred, according to Ventura, when she attended a Prince party without telling Combs only to then spot him there. She said he later "burst" into her hotel room and attacked her: "He beat me up in that room. He was throwing luggage at me, just calling me all kinds of names."
Violence and Permanent Scar
In a later moment, a text from Ventura to Combs was revealed where she wrote, "You treat me like you Ike Turner."
"He was abusive and controlling. I mean, he was actually physically abusive. He put me down a lot. As much as I was built up, I was put down quite a bit," she explained on the stand. "It’s also the just sheer embarrassment, like, how he treated me in front of other people."
She detailed an encounter where he allegedly gashed her face in 2013 leaving a permanent scar. "Sean came in. I was asleep. He was trying to attack me. We went into the master bedroom. My friends were jumping on his back trying to stop him."
"I cut my eyebrow on the corner of the bed. Sean threw me onto the bed frame. I had a significant gash. I didn't go to the ER; it was a Sunday. Sean had security take me to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills."
The incident left her with a permanent scar on her eyebrow, which she pointed at for the jury, adding, "I cover it with makeup."
She said she texted him a photo of the injury after, "so you can remember." She added to the jury that at "the very least, I just wanted him to be sorry about it."
"You dont know when to stop you have pushed it too far," Combs reportedly replied, to which she sent back, "Just say sorry, I dont know why I deserve that you could care less if I was ok."
'Freak Off' Blackmail, Leak Fears
Ventura said she was perhaps even more concerned about anyone finding out about them, or getting their hands on any of the footage. She had previously testified removing such video and photographic evidence from her phone, and shared texts asking Combs to do the same.
She said that he told her he had, but she would sometimes find some of that content still in existence. In one instance, she said that left her feeling "trapped," Ventura said she spotted Combs watching one of the videos on a commercial flight from Cannes in 2013.
This was after an argument they had purportedly had where he accused her of stealing drugs from him and kicked her off of a friend's boat. She said at a Cannes Film Festival event he gave her "evil glares" and "would grab my leg and like squeeze my thighs tight as he could, and I was wearing a beaded dress, so it was really painful."
On the plane afterward, Ventura said Combs "pulled up 'freak off' videos on his laptop that I thought were deleted. He was showing them with other people around. I said, 'You are embarrassing me.' I was scared, I felt trapped, how do you get out of this situation? I felt trapped."
According to Ventura, Combs told her "that he was going to embarrass me and release them." It wasn't the only time he would remind her that he had these videos when he was upset with her, according to NBC News, threatening to release them.
Ventura told the jury Combs would make these threats "usually when he was angry about something or just really wanted me to fear." She said that one time he was jealous of her dating another man and threatened to "put out two embarrassing videos."
In March 2014, according to Ventura's testimony, she got word that a sexually explicit video of her had leaked, saying, "Immediately my thoughts went to a ‘Freak Off’ video," per CNN.
When she shared what she'd learned with Combs, Ventura said he told her to find out everything she could about it, including what the room looked like in the video. "You gotta tell him this is your life, this is serious," she said Combs told her.
Health Impact of 'Freak Offs'
Describing how much she disliked participating in "freak offs," Cassie Ventura said on the stand Wednesday that she was often fueled by ketamine, "because it was the most dissociative." She said that she even tried to get out of one for her 29th birthday, but ultimately relented when Combs would not back down.
She further shared that she had regular gastrointestinal issues, mouth sores, and urinary tract infections from the "freak off" encounters, and often during "freak offs."
"I tried to flush it out with water. I got to the point where CIPRO (an antibiotic) didn’t work anymore. It was a mess," she testified, per NBC News. "It was really painful for a long time. I can’t believe I actually dealt with that."
She testified that recovery from a "freak off" often involved the use of IV fluids, massages, and opiates. "Opiates made me feel numb, which is why I relied on them so heavily," Ventura said, per CNN.
Ventura said that she would feel "empty" after a "freak off." "I definitely felt just gross," she told the jury, and that it would be worse if she didn't stay with Combs after, like, "Okay I did my job and now I’m going about the rest of my life. The same feelings over and over."
Opiate usage became a crutch for Ventura, who admitted, "I had an addiction to opiates, so I would take pills to come down. I wanted to feel numb and not know what was going on in my mind."
After Cassie Left Hotel
Still focusing on the viral 2016 hallway video from the InterContinental Hotel, Ventura shared details about what happened in the immediate aftermath of her exiting the scene and leaving Diddy there, as seen in the newly-released unedited footage, detailed by TMZ.
Ventura said that she took an Uber back to her apartment after the presence of a security guard (now LAPD officer), Israel Florez, enabled her to get her things and leave the hotel. She then shared a list of texts she says she received from Diddy after she left.
As detailed by CNN, those messages included: "Call me," "Yo pls call me," "I got six kids," "Pls call me," "Yo pls Im surrouned," "Call me," "For my kids help." She testified that she told him to "put the robe on," as he was still in the towel seen in video footage, "because he was running around in a towel, and I was just looking out."
She also detailed two selfies shown in court from after the hotel altercation where she said she had a "fat lip" and "black eye" underneath her sunglasses.
Back at home, a friend did contact police, but Ventura said she declined to say who had assaulted her, "so they left." When asked why she would defend Combs, Ventura testified, "Just in that moment, I didn’t want to hurt him that way. It was just too much going on."
According to her testimony, Combs reached out to her with a message she did respond to: "Call me the cops are here you’re going to abandon me all alone," Combs purportedly wrote. Ventura responded to him, "I have a black eye and a fat lip. You are sick for thinking it’s okay to do what you’ve done please stay far away from me."
Ventura said that she was concerned because she had a movie premiere that night to attend.
Later that day, she testified that Combs arrived at her apartment and was "banging, kicking, yelling," trying to get in, which she described in court as "pretty normal" behaviour for him.
DAY TWO: Cassie Details Viral Video
Sharing her side of the viral 2016 video from the InterContinental hotel, Ventura said that what was seen on the video is what happened after she'd tried to leave a "freak off" before it was "over," per CNN. She said that "it got violent and I chose to leave."
As seen in the video, Combs followed her into the hallway. "He grabbed me up, threw me on the ground, kicked me, tried to drag me back to the room, took my stuff," Ventura said on the stand.
She explained that this "freak off," which occurred on March 5, 2016, was the same day as her first movie premiere, so she didn't want to compromise herself before that.
"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 recalled on the stand. "I had my premiere, I didn’t want to mess it up, so I left."
She said that the escort seen by security was in a separate room from where she was allegedly hit. She said that she fled the room while Comb was still in the shower, putting her shoes in her bag because it was faster.
When asked by the prosecution how many other times Combs had beat her, Ventura replied, "Too many to count. I don't know."
Cassie Ventura told the jury that there was a similar pattern to "freak offs," per CNN's reporting. "It was established pretty early on in doing the Freak Offs that Sean enjoyed a lot of conversation and describing," she said of Combs.
She went on to say that it generally started with "oil and touching," before moving on to oral sex and ultimately sexual intercourse. She said she would often ask him if they could move into the next stop to speed up the process.
She said that he began to record these sessions "pretty early on, in the first year," at first on a video camera, and later on both of their electronic devices.
She said she would delete the ones on her devices as she found them "humiliating" and "disgusting," and asked him to delete his, as well, in part because she knew his staff members had access to his devices.
"I never wanted anyone to ever see me like that," she testified.
She said that she would use "marijuana, ketamine, mushrooms, whatever was the drug of choice at that point" to get through the experience, per NBC News. "I couldn’t imagine myself doing any of that without having some sort of buffer," she explained.
According to her testimony, Combs would urge her to continue even if she got sick or vomited, and while she was on her period. She said that he had an escort urinate on her because it was a "turn on" for him, and that he participated, as well.
"It was too much," she said. ""I choked, I didn’t want to be doing that, I was in a position I couldn’t easily get out of. I eventually put my hands up and Sean saw and told him to stop."
When asked why she didn't just say no, Ventura explained, "I was squeamish immediately, but high in the moment. That’s about it, you don't have a lot of control at that moment."
Ventura also explained the baby oil angle, saying that Combs was very into it. "Sean wanted it heated and he wanted it to be glistening so we applied every five minutes," she said, noting they would pour it over the bodies of everyone involved.
She detailed an experience at the Montage Beverly Hills where he requested her to get into a "pool filled with baby oil" during a "freak off."
"If Sean wanted it to happen, that was what was going to happen, there was no way around it," she said. "We used 10 bottles of baby oil, regular size."
Cassie on Male Escorts
Cassie Ventura returned to the stand after a short break before testifying that Combs tasked her with the job of finding escorts to partake in the "Freak Offs," per CNN.
She recalled having to search for men of a specific look and body type before having to show Combs for approval. She revealed that she found potential men through ads on Craiglist and Backpage through Comb's direction.
"I'd usually show them to Sean and see if that person was of interest for a 'Freak Off,'" Ventura said, per CNN. "I definitely had to show him."
She said she would also contact dancing or stripping services. According to Ventura's testimony, the chosen male escorts were paid between $1,500 and $6,000 at the end of the session. Combs would give her the cash and then she gave it to the escorts.
If an escort had not been used by Combs in the past, Ventura said she was required to clarify the person was not a cop. Prosecution then showed photos of some of the escorts that had been used in "Freak Offs."
She then testified that some of the escorts were used in multiple states and that their travel was sometimes coordinated by her, per CNN. The escorts were allegedly referred to as new staff members when discussing their arrangements with Combs' travel agent.
Cassie Recalls First Sex and Violence
According to Cassie Ventura, her first sexual encounter with Combs was while she was high on drugs and on a boat in Miami. She testified in court on Tuesday, "I was drinking wine, then started to take drugs, a blue dolphin ecstasy pill," which she said Combs gave her.
"I had never taken it before. I was just out of it, laughing, didn't know what it was until a little bit later," she said, saying the drugs made her feel "euphoric" and as if she was "just really high, sensitive to touch and all of your senses."
She said that the relationship shifted to becoming more intimate after this, though they were not public about it as Combs was still in a relationship with Kim Porter at the time.
She also testified, "Sean Combs had many girlfriends," though for a time, she believed it was just her. She said they kept it quiet because she was signed to his label, and because of his family.
"He just didn't want it to look bad, but also knew it was because of his children and personal things like his family," Ventura explained. Ultimately, she said that she and Combs were involved "for a little over ten years," per CNN.
Ventura testified that she went from "enamored" by his personality and lavish lifestyle to more wary when she began to "experience a different side of him, which was his abusive side."
She said that he would experience dramatic mood swings, and sometimes lash out even if she wasn't the reason he was in a bad mood. "Make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I would get hit in the face," she said. "He would say, 'Watch your mouth.'"
She said that some of the arguments would lead to physical abuse. "He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down," she testified, per CNN, answering "too frequently" when asked how frequently it would occur.
Cassie on Meeting Diddy
On the stand, Cassie Ventura spoke about first meeting Combs, when she was a 19-year-old aspiring artist who's just signed with his Bad Boy Records label. They'd signed a 10-album deal, she said, but she would only release one album with Bad Boy in 2006.
"He was a larger-than-life musician, a fan of music, didn’t know too much about him personally," she said on the stand.
Things took a shift in their relationship, according to Ventura, when he kissed her in the bathroom in Las Vegas, where she was celebrating her 21st birthday.
"I was confused, I was a new artist that didn't know the lay of the land and things like that," Ventura testified. She said she hadn't wanted to kiss him that day, citing their 17-year age gap.
"I wasn’t used to an executive or anyone being that forward that way with me, in a more than friends way, a sexual way, a romantic way," she continued. "I remember running out and back to my hotel and telling someone about it."
Ventura went on to testify how the relationship evolved over subsequent meetings at the Trump Hotel to discuss her career.
"I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time — just this exciting, entertaining, fun guy that also happened to have my career in his hands," she testified, per CNN. "It felt special because not a lot of people got that time with him.
In these, she alleged Combs introduced her to the idea of receiving oral sex, going so far as to give it to her. She said she did not reciprocate.
"He made me feel crazy for not reciprocating, at the time I did not understand that kind of relationship and I was in a relationship with someone else," Ventura argued.
"I was just so young and did not have the vocabulary for some of the things we talked about. I was just trying to understand it, just completely inexperienced at that point."
She also noted she was still in a relationship at that point, as was Combs.
Asked to identify the hallway from the viral video of Combs attacking her. Ventura said, per NBC News' reporting, "That's me and Sean, InterContinental, Century City. We were having an encounter, we call it a 'freak off.'"
When asked to define the phrase "freak off," Ventura explained that it was a sexual encounter Combs first proposed within the first year of their relationship. In it, she would "perform" for him with a third party, usually a hired escort, "and he would direct us in what we were doing."
She said that Combs did the hiring at first for the "freak offs," but this eventually became her responsibility. She described it as a "job," saying she had to book everything and felt she had little time for anything else. According to TMZ, she stated the longest "freak off" as lasting four days.
She also said that she didn't particularly enjoy the encounters, but went along with them to please Combs.
"I was 22 at the time, my stomach churned, didn't have a concept of how that would be a turn on but I accepted the responsibility," Ventura testified, per NBC News. "I was confused, nervous, but also loved him very much and wanted to make him happy."
"I didn't know what 'no' could turn into," she said, claiming that at this point, Combs was controlling a lot of her life, including "career, the way I dressed, everything," per ABC7.
"And I just didn’t feel like I had much say in it at that time, being really super young, naive, total people pleaser," she added, per CNN. She testified that she feared he might get "upset enough to be violent or not want to be with me at all."
She also expressed fear that she might be blackmailed with video and photos of her encounters with various escorts, adding that she would keep broken electronics because she didn't know what might be on them.
Exotic Dancer Testifies (Conclusion)
The second day of the trial kicked off with male sex worker Daniel Phillip returning to the stand to continue cross-examination by Combs' legal team.
He shared that it wasn't long after his first sexual encounter with Combs' then-girlfriend Cassie that he was asked to come back -- in fact, it was the same day, per CNN's coverage. He said he agreed and returned to have sex with her again "for a few hours."
When asked about Combs' involvement in this encounter, Phillip testified that the rapper did not give any direction. He was then asked if she appeared to be sober and "in complete control of everything she was doing" during their time together. To this, Phillipe responded, "I cannot say that."
Asked multiple times if she appeared under the influence of anything, as the prosecution had argued, Phillip said he could only recall one of their multiple encounters where she did appear that way, according to NBC News.
Phillip was asked to revisit his allegation that he witnessed Combs assault Ventura, again reiterating that it happened at her apartment after she'd sent him the address, and after he and Ventura had had sex.
The defense pushed back against Phillip's Monday claim that Combs pushed him and Ventura to again have sex after the alleged assault by citing a 2023 interview with law enforcement where he purportedly said Combs told him, "Yo man, I’m going to need to deal with this, you need to get the f--k out."
Phillip testified that he did not recall telling investigators that. He further stated that all of his encounters were at the direction of Combs and that he was paid for all of them, except for one time when he was physically unable to perform.
Combs' attorney suggested that Phillip had developed a crush on Ventura and that he was motivated to isolate her from Combs so that he could be involved with her romantically.
Phillip denied this, but did concede, per ABC7, "I was attracted to her. If she ever gave me the chance to date her, I absolutely would have." He maintained, though, that he never saw her outside of his paid encounters or developed romantic feelings for her, per NBC News.