What the key witnesses at Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial told the jury
They included Combs' ex-girlfriends Cassie and Jane, who said he forced them into drug-fueled sex marathons they called 'freak-offs' and 'hotel nights,' a sex worker they knew as 'The Punisher,' personal assistants who said they witnessed his violence and facilitated his sexual exploits, and other women who accused him of abuse.
All of the witnesses were called by the prosecution. Combs waived his right to testify — not unusual for criminal defendants — and his defense team declined to call any witnesses of their own. Instead, they sought to undercut the allegations via cross-examination during the prosecution's case.
Here are some of the key witnesses and what they said:
Cassie
Cassie, the R&B singer whose real name is Casandra Ventura, dated Combs from 2007 to 2018 after he signed her to his Bad Boy Records label. Over four days, she told jurors Combs beat her and ordered her to have 'disgusting' sex with male sex workers during multi-day 'freak-offs.' She also said Combs raped her after she said she was ending their relationship.
In 2016, security cameras captured Combs hitting, kicking and dragging Cassie as she left his room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. The video was shown repeatedly throughout the trial. A hotel guard testified that Combs paid $100,000 to hide the video. It remained secret until CNN aired it in May 2024.
Jane
Jane, testifying under a pseudonym, dated Combs from 2021 until his arrest last September. The model said she repeatedly told Combs she didn't want to have sex with other men but that he kept pressuring her. She said she felt 'obligated' in part because he paid her rent.
Last year, Jane said, Combs put her in a chokehold, punched her in the face and forced her into an encounter with a sex worker. She said he told her: 'You're not going to ruin my night like this.' Both women said Combs threatened to release their sex videos if they refused his demands.
Kid Cudi
Rapper Kid Cudi testified that Combs broke into his home in late 2011 after learning he and Cassie were dating. His Porsche was firebombed a few weeks later. Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, said he knew Combs 'had something to do' with it, but Combs told him he wasn't involved.
Cudi said he thought Combs was lying when he claimed he knew nothing about the car.
Daniel Phillip
Daniel Phillip, an exotic dancer involved in 'freak-offs' from 2012 to 2014, said he was paid $700 to $6,000 to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and barked orders at them. He recalled the hip-hop mogul telling them: 'You need to rub more baby oil on each other. You don't have enough on.'
Another time, Phillip said, Cassie jumped into his lap — her body shaking — after it sounded like Combs was slapping and slamming her around an adjoining room. He said he stopped meeting the couple after seeing Combs throw a bottle at her before dragging her by her hair into a bedroom as she screamed.
'The Punisher'
Sharay Hayes, an exotic dancer known by the stage name 'The Punisher,' said Cassie used the ruse of a birthday striptease to lure him to his first 'freak-off.' He recalled seeing baby oil bottles in bowls of water and getting handed $800 in cash. Later, after Combs watched him have sex with Cassie, he said he was handed $1,200 more.
Combs kept his face hidden during their initial meetings, and Hayes said he didn't realize it was him until he saw a message on a hotel room TV screen that said: 'Essex House would like to welcome Mr. Sean Combs.'
Capricorn Clark
Ex-Combs employee Capricorn Clark said Combs came to her home waving a gun the day of the break-in and demanded she get dressed and go with him because 'we're going to kill Cudi.'
After the break-in, Clark said, Combs told her she had to convince Cudi 'it wasn't me.' 'If you don't convince him of that I'll kill all you,' he said, punctuating his threat with an expletive, Clark recalled.
Mia
A former personal assistant testifying under the pseudonym 'Mia' said Combs put his hand up her dress and forcibly kissed her at his 40th birthday party in 2009, forced her to perform oral sex on another occasion and raped her in 2010. His lawyers say the claims are false.
Confronted on cross examination with loving texts she sent Combs long after her employment had ended, she said: 'I was still brainwashed.'
Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan
Cassie's friend Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan testified that Combs dangled her over the railing of Cassie's 17th floor balcony and threw her onto patio furniture in September 2016, leaving her bruised and traumatized.
But defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland exposed holes in her story on cross examination, showing that Combs was on tour on the East Coast in 2016 when she said she suffered the bruises shown to jurors in a picture she had taken of her injuries.
George Kaplan
George Kaplan said he'd toss out liquor bottles and drugs and clean up baby oil from Combs' hotel rooms. He said he quit after seeing Combs fighting with Cassie but didn't report it to authorities. Kaplan said he still sends Combs birthday greetings and invited him to his wedding. Kaplan told jurors he was grateful to work for Combs and still has 'a great deal of respect' for him.
David James
David James testified that Combs had him stock hotel rooms with baby oil, condoms, Viagra and other supplies while he worked up to 20-hour days as a personal assistant from May 2007 to May 2009. James said he saw Combs with three handguns on his lap as they drove to confront Combs' record industry rival Suge Knight in 2008.
On another occasion, he testified, Combs asked him to bring his iPod from his residence to his hotel and, when nobody answered the door, he went in and saw Cassie on the bed in a white comforter and a 'completely naked' man he did not recognize who walked 'across the room and kind of scurried away.'
Brendan Paul
Brendan Paul, who worked as a personal assistant to Combs for about 18 months ending in March 2024, said he bought drugs for Combs including cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy and marijuana.
His employment ended when he was arrested at a Miami, Florida airport for possession of cocaine, which he testified came from Combs' room.
Deonte Nash
Combs' lawyers confronted celebrity stylist Deonte Nash with messages he sent expressing love for Combs. Some of them were from 2019 and 2020, two years after their professional relationship ended.
A reluctant witness for prosecutors, he nonetheless gave them insight into the relationship between Cassie and Combs, saying Cassie was 'quite often' left with bruises to her legs, arms and neck, besides an incident when Combs left her with a large, bloody gash above her eye during a beating.
Dawn Richard
Dawn Richard, a singer in the Bad Boy Records groups Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, testified that she witnessed Combs acting violently toward Cassie, including swinging at her with a skillet and beating her in 2009. She says Combs made a threat, which she took as a death threat, if she didn't keep quiet.
Combs' lawyers contend Richard's story has been inconsistent and that she is motivated to speak against him because she is suing him
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The Hill
37 minutes ago
- The Hill
Sean ‘Diddy' Combs acquitted of most serious charges, convicted of prostitution-related offenses
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean 'Diddy' Combs was convicted of prostitution-related offenses but acquitted Wednesday of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put one of hip-hop's most celebrated figures behind bars for life. The mixed result came on the third day of deliberations. It could still send Combs, 55, to prison for as long as a decade, and is likely to end his career as a hitmaking music executive, fashion entrepreneur, brand ambassador and reality TV star. After hearing the verdict, Combs held his hands up in a prayer motion, looking at jury and hugged defense lawyer Teny Geragos. Combs' relatives and supporters in the audience could barely contain their relief, despite the judge's admonition to avoid outbursts: When the first 'not guilty' was read aloud, someone shouted, 'Yeah!' Combs later continued to pump his right fist subtly, seemingly satisfied that he was acquitted on the most serious charges. Combs was convicted of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and paid male sex workers, to engage in sexual encounters, a felony violation of the federal Mann Act. But the jury of eight men and four women acquitted Combs of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges, related to allegations that he used his money, power and frightening physical force to manipulate his girlfriends into hundreds of drug-fueled sex marathons with the men. Combs' defense team argued that the women were willing participants and that none of his violence justified the severity of the charges. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian was weighing whether to free Combs on bail in the wake of the verdict. The judge adjourned the court while he considers the matter. Combs appeared overwhelmed as court adjourned for at least a few hours. He wiped his face, turning and kneeling at his chair, his head bowed in prayer. In the audience, his relatives stood and applauded as he faced them. 'I'll be home soon,' he said, and 'I love you, baby.' 'I love you, Mom,' he added. His relatives applauded him and his lawyers as he was led out of court. Combs has been behind bars since his arrest in September. His lawyers argued that the acquittal on the most serious counts changed the legal landscape enough that he should get bail. Jurors deliberated for about 13 hours over three days before announcing their verdict. It came after they said late Tuesday that they had decided on four counts but were stuck on the racketeering one. At that point, the judge told them to keep deliberating and keep the partial verdict under wraps. Combs did not testify at his trial, which featured 34 witnesses as well as videos of the rapper attacking his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie. Cassie testified for four days about her turbulent 11-year relationship with Combs, which began after she signed with his Bad Boy record label. Cassie said Combs became obsessed with voyeuristic encounters, arranged with the help of his staff, that involved sex workers and copious amounts of baby oil. During the sex events, called 'freak-offs' or 'hotel nights,' Combs would order Cassie to do things with other men that she found humiliating, she testified. When things didn't go Combs' way, he would beat her, she said. 'I'm not a rag doll. I'm somebody's child,' Cassie told Combs after he dragged her down a hotel hallway in 2016. Another ex-girlfriend, testifying under the pseudonym 'Jane,' told the jury she repeatedly told Combs she didn't want to have sex with the men hired for their trysts. 'I'm not an animal. I need a break,' she told him. Nevertheless, she said she felt 'obligated' to comply with his demands, in part because he paid her rent. The trial's most famous witness, rapper Kid Cudi, said Combs broke into his home in late 2011 after learning he and Cassie were dating. After his car was firebombed a few weeks later, Cudi — whose real name is Scott Mescudi — said he knew Combs 'had something to do' with it. Combs denied it. Combs' defense team acknowledged that he could be violent but argued that prosecutors were intruding in Combs' personal life. In his closing remarks to the jury, defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo said it wasn't illegal for Combs to make 'homemade porn' with his girlfriends. 'They go into the man's bedroom. They go into the man's most private life. Where is the crime scene?' Agnifilo said. While Jane described violence — like a night when Combs choked her, punched her face, leaving welts and a black eye, when she resisted an encounter with a sex worker — she also acknowledged on the witness stand that her feelings are complicated. She testified that she still loves Combs and had planned to meet him in New York for one last 'hotel night' when he was arrested last September. The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Cassie has. Combs was at the center of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the 1990s and became one of the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades, diversifying his interests with the Sean John fashion label, Ciroc vodka, a cable TV channel and a film and TV studio. Along with his protege Biggie Smalls — the Notorious B.I.G., who was shot and killed in 1997 — Combs worked with artists including Mary J. Blige, Usher and Lil Kim. In 2001, Combs was at the center of one of the biggest hip-hop trials of its era, stemming from a Manhattan nightclub shooting that injured three people in 1999. Combs was acquitted of charges that he took an illegal gun into the club and tried to bribe his driver to take the fall. His career recovered quickly that time. Combs' reputation may have suffered irreparable damage, though, after Cassie sued him in November 2023, alleging years of sexual and physical abuse. He settled the next day for $20 million, but more lawsuits by other women and men followed. Most are still pending.
Miami Herald
an hour ago
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Diddy do it? Jury says music exec not guilty of sex trafficking
Music executive Sean 'Diddy' Combs on Wednesday morning was found not guiltyof federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges with links to Miami in a federal court in New York City, according to the Associated Press. If he had been convicted of those offenses, he was facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars. However, the 55-year-old could still spend up to a decade in prison because jurors found Diddy guilty of a prostitution-related crime. The verdict came after three days of deliberations — and almost a year after Diddy's enclaves in Miami Beach and Los Angeles were blitzed by federal agents. Diddy was arrested in September 2024, six months after the raids. The Grammy Award-winning music mogul was accused of running a 'racketeering conspiracy' by having 'engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals.' Much of that alleged activity occurred at Diddy's posh homes on Star Island. READ MORE: Prostitutes, opioids and guns? Cops called to Diddy's Miami Beach mansions over 30 times The Bad Boy records label founder owns 1 Star Island Drive, which he purchased from Gloria and Emilio Estefan in 2021 for $35 million, and 2 Star Island Drive, which he has owned for more than two decades. The Herald's review of police records show that officers were called to Diddy's mansions more than 30 times — with callers complaining about prostitution, drugs and illicit weapons inside the sprawling homes since 2021. Singer Cassie, Diddy's ex-girlfriend whose real name is Casandra Elizabeth Ventura, was the catalyst to Diddy's legal woes. In a lawsuit, Cassie alleged that Diddy raped her and made her have sex with male sex workers throughout their decade-long relationship. Diddy settled that lawsuit the day after it was filed. This report will be updated as more information becomes available
Fast Company
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Sean 'Diddy' Combs was found guilty on Wednesday of prostitution-related offenses, but cleared of more serious charges after a criminal trial in which two of the music mogul's former girlfriends testified that he physically and sexually abused them. Combs was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution but acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking, a partial win for the former billionaire known for elevating hip-hop in American culture. After the jury read its verdict, defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked Subramanian to release Combs on bail. 'This is his first conviction and it's a prostitution offense, and so he should be released on appropriate conditions,' Agnifilo said. Combs faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence on each of the two prostitution counts. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian will determine Combs' sentence at a later date. The acquittals on the sex trafficking counts means he will avoid a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence. He could have faced life in prison if he were convicted on sex trafficking or racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors say Combs for two decades used his business empire to force two of his romantic partners to take part in drug-fueled, days-long sexual performances sometimes known as 'Freak Offs' with male sex workers in hotel rooms while Combs watched, masturbated and occasionally filmed. During raids of Combs' homes, authorities found drugs and 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant that he would use in the performances, prosecutors said. Combs, 55, had pleaded not guilty to all five counts. His lawyers acknowledged that the Bad Boy Records founder, once famed for hosting lavish parties for the cultural elite in luxurious locales like the Hamptons and Saint-Tropez, was at times violent in his domestic relationships. But they said the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual. The seven-week trial in Manhattan federal court exposed the inner workings of Combs' business empire and gave the 12-member jury an intimate look into his volatile romantic relationships with the rhythm and blues singer Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura and a woman known in court by the pseudonym Jane. Ventura sued Combs in November 2023 for sex trafficking, the first of dozens of civil lawsuits accusing him of abuse. Combs, also known throughout his career as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy and once feted for turning artists like Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars, settled with Ventura for $20 million. He has denied all wrongdoing. At the trial, jurors saw surveillance footage from 2016 showing Combs kicking and dragging Ventura in the hallway of an InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles, where she said she was trying to leave a 'Freak Off.' Jane later testified that Combs in June 2024 attacked her and directed her to perform oral sex on a male entertainer, even though she told him she did not want to. That alleged attack took place a month after Combs apologized on social media for his 2016 attack of Ventura, footage of which had been broadcast on CNN. According to prosecutors, physical violence was just one way Combs compelled Ventura and Jane to take part in the performances – an act of coercion they say amounts to sex trafficking because the male escorts were paid. Both women testified that he threatened to withhold financial support and to leak sexually explicit images of them if they refused to comply. 'The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,' prosecutor Christy Slavik said in her closing argument on June 26. 'He doesn't take no for an answer.' Combs' defense lawyers argued that while Combs may have committed domestic violence in the context of volatile romantic partnerships, his conduct did not amount to sex trafficking. They argued that Ventura and Jane were strong, independent women who voluntarily took part in the sexual performances because they wanted to please Combs. Both women testified they spent time with Combs and took part in sexual performances after he beat them. Defense lawyers argued that Ventura and Jane were retrospectively accusing Combs of forcing their participation in the performances because they were jealous he was seeing other women. 'If he was charged with domestic violence, we wouldn't all be here,' Combs' defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo said in his closing argument on June 27. 'He did not do the things he's charged with.' RACKETEERING CONSPIRACY Besides Ventura and Jane, jurors also heard testimony from Combs' former personal assistants who said their jobs included setting up hotel rooms for 'Freak Offs' and buying their boss drugs. An InterContinental security guard testified that Combs, in the presence of his chief of staff, paid him $100,000 to hand over what he thought was the only copy of the surveillance tape of his attack on Ventura. And Scott Mescudi, the rapper known as Kid Cudi, told jurors Combs was likely involved in an arson on his car after Combs found out he was romantically involved with Ventura. According to prosecutors, those were all acts Combs and his associates undertook in furtherance of a racketeering conspiracy whose aim was, in part, to facilitate his abuse and keep evidence of his wrongdoing under wraps. The defense argued Combs was a successful entrepreneur who used drugs recreationally, but kept his professional and personal lives separate.
