NEW YORK (AP) — former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, took the witness stand in his sex trafficking trial on Tuesday, a day after prosecutors showed jurors video of the music mogul beating her in a hotel in 2016.
. Prosecutors told jurors that, for years, Combs to coerce women into abusive sexual encounters and became violent if they refused.
Here's the latest:
Cassie says she was ‘heavily objectified’ during the ‘freak offs’
Cassie testified that she tried to speed up “freak off” sex acts with male sex worker so she could get to the part she liked: alone time with Combs.
She said Combs dictated every aspect of the encounters and that he’d get mad if they ended too soon. “It was his fantasy,” she said. “He was controlling the whole situation. He was directing it.”
Cassie said sometimes Combs would make her repeat sex acts with the escorts. On other occasions, she said, multiple escorts were involved.
“I was an object being heavily objectified by men in that scenario,” she testified.
Combs didn’t always stay in the room to watch Cassie have sex with male sex workers, she said. Sometimes, he’d go to another room and watch them via FaceTime, the iPhone video call app, she testified.
Cassie says she used drugs during every ‘freak off’ she participated in
When a prosecutor asked why, she replied: “For me it was dissociative and numbing. I couldn’t imagine myself doing any of that without having some sort of buffer or way to not feel it for what it really was, which was emotionless sex with a stranger that I didn’t really want to have sex with.”
During her testimony, Cassie identified some of the many male escorts she says she hired for “freak offs” at Combs’ behest. As she spoke, prosecutors displayed photos of the men on courtroom monitors.
She identified some by their real names. Others she knew only by their nicknames, including “The Punisher.”
Cassie said some of the men, procured online, were flown to “freak offs” in such places as Los Angeles, Miami and Las Vegas. Others were only used for encounters in New York City. One of those men, a stripper named Daniel Phillip, testified on Monday and Tuesday.
Prosecutor emphasizes Combs’ alleged involvement
As she questioned Cassie, prosecutor Emily Johnson returned again and again to a simple, but important question: Whose decision was it?
“Sean,” Cassie replied each time, referring to Combs.
It was his decision, she said, to involve her in “freak offs,” to incorporate baby oil and male sex workers, to pour candle wax on her body, and more.
Each ‘freak off’ involved about 10 large bottles of Johnson’s brand baby oil, Cassie says
Cassie said the “freak offs” were a “very choreographed experience,” with lots of baby oil.
The substance would be heated up — a closed bottle placed in a sink filled with hot water — and applied liberally because Combs wanted her glistening constantly, she said.
Combs would call out Cassie when she “looked dry” and ordered her to reapply, sometimes requiring a new coat of baby oil every five minutes, or so, she said.
On one occasion, she said, a blow-up pool of baby oil and lubricants was placed in a hotel room and she was told to get inside in her “outfit” and shoes.
She said close to 10 large bottles of baby oil would be used during a “freak off.”
“It was such a mess,” she said. “It was like, ‘What are we doing?’”
Cassie says Combs was ‘really happy’ with her after her first ‘freak off’
Cassie testified that her first “freak off” occurred in Combs’ Los Angeles home when she was 22, around 2008. She said a male Las Vegas stripper came to the home, just months after Combs told her about his interest in voyeurism.
Cassie said she felt a mix of emotions when they were finished — dirty and confused, but also relief that Combs was “really happy with me” that “I did something right.”
She said she felt obligated to go along with future “freak offs.”
“I just didn’t want to make him upset. I just didn’t want to make him angry and regret telling me about this experience that was so personal.”
Asked if there was anything she enjoyed about “freak offs,” an emotional Cassie said: “the time spent with him.”
Wiping away tears, she explained that those encounters provided some of the only one-on-one time she had with Combs.
Soon, she said, she was doing “freak offs” weekly. The final one, she said, occurred in 2017 or 2018.
Cassie says she saw Combs and his bodyguard grab guns to confront Suge Knight
Cassie recalled an incident in which Combs left her during a “freak off” at his Los Angeles home to confront rival record executive Suge Knight at Mel’s Drive-In, a landmark diner nearby.
Combs sprang into action after his bodyguard came in and told him of Knight’s whereabouts, she said. Combs and the bodyguard dressed in black clothes, grabbed guns from a safe and loaded into an SUV, she said.
“I was crying. I was screaming, like ‘Please don’t do anything stupid,’” Cassie testified. “I was really nervous for them. I didn’t know what they were going to do.”
She said, “It’s like I wasn’t even there.”
Cassie said Combs later returned, but she didn’t say if he told her what happened. It’s unclear if he ended up encountering Knight at the diner.
Before the break, Cassie testified about her music career and unreleased material
Before the trial paused for a 40-minute lunch break, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson pressed Cassie to explain what happened to her music career and the nine albums that were never released.
Cassie said she created hundreds of songs, some of which were released on the internet prior to “proper release and some just didn’t see the light of day.” Cassie testified that much of her week went toward the “freak offs.”
“Freak offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” she said.
Just before the break, Cassie testified the longest ‘freak off’ she was involved in lasted four days
“The freak offs became a job,” she said, noting that other encounters took anywhere from 36 or 48 hours. The marathon sessions frequently required periods of recovery from dehydration, fatigue and drug use, she said.
Prosecutors delved deeper into the control Cassie says Combs exerted over her
She noted that the rap star paid her rent at apartments close to his residences in New York and later Los Angeles, had his own sets of keys and made “a lot of unannounced visits.”
Cassie said that as a birthday present, Combs rented her a Manhattan apartment a few blocks from where he lived. Another apartment Combs rented for Cassie in Los Angeles was just a three-minute drive from his home and he’d sometimes drive a golf cart to get from one residence to the other.
Cassie testifies she was ‘insanely jealous’ at the beginning of her relationship with Combs
Jealousy was cited during opening statements Monday as a source of much of the conflict between Combs and Cassie. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson elicited from Cassie that she and Combs were seeing other people at times.
In the beginning, Cassie said, she was “insanely jealous.” She said that resulted from being “super young.”
“I didn’t get that he was him. As he would say, ‘I’m Puff Daddy. Puff Daddy has many rules. Likes the company of women,’” she recalled.
She said that as time passed, she came to believe “more often than not” that they were in a monogamous relationship. “He expected that of me so I assumed it was the same.”
She said Combs told her: “I’m not dealing with anyone else. It’s just us.”
Over time, Cassie testified, Combs became increasingly controlling and sometimes was violent
She said Combs would get abusive over the smallest perceived slights — if she wasn’t smiling at him the way he wanted, or if he thought she was acting like a brat.
“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she said.
Cassie said that if she didn’t respond to his call right away, there would be incessant calls until she did and Combs’ staff, including security workers, would join in the pursuit.
As Cassie testified, the prosecution introduced photos of her and Combs at events in the mid-2000s
The numerous photographs included a photograph of the boat in Miami. Another photograph depicted the fledgling couple at a strip club in New York on Halloween 2007, shortly after the trip to Miami. Another picture showed them in the back of a car at the beginning of their relationship, Combs arm wrapped around her.
“I was just enamored by him. We were just having a good time. It was really fun, at this point,” she said.
Cassie noted that, early on in their relationship, they weren’t public about it. She said Combs had expressed concerns about perceptions, given that his company was also producing her music.
Having sex with Combs for the first time felt like a turning point for Cassie, she testified
After that, she said, she felt closer to the rapper and producer, started spending more time with him, and thought, at the time, that they were in a monogamous relationship.
In hindsight, she said, she knows that wasn’t the case. Asked why, she responded: “Sean Combs had many girlfriends.”
After Vegas trip, Cassie says Combs invited her to hotels
After the Las Vegas trip, Cassie said, she was invited by Combs to hotels in New York where they’d talk about music projects and albums.
When Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson asked what else happened at hotels, Cassie took a deep breath and said she was introduced to the “idea of oral sex” at the hotels.
Cassie also noted that Combs is 17 years older than her and that she was “sexually inexperienced” when they first got together.
She said she eventually had sex with Combs on a boat during a trip to Miami. She said she had wine in the afternoon and then Combs introduced her to ecstasy for the first time.
Cassie talks about Combs kissing her during a 21st birthday trip
After touching on the violence and “freak offs” that are central to the federal charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson returned to eliciting biographical and historical information about Cassie, including when she first signed to Bad Boy Records in early 2006.
She said her interactions with Combs, who owned the label, were platonic at first. But then he kissed her during her 21st birthday trip to Las Vegas in the bathroom of his hotel suite. “I was just really confused at the time,” she said. “And young.”
‘I just didn’t know. I didn’t know what would happen’
Elaborating on why she felt it was so difficult to refuse Combs’ demands, Cassie reiterated her fears of violence and blackmail videos from “freak offs” being disseminated on the internet.
“Sean is a really polarizing person, also really charming,” Cassie said. “It’s hard to really be able to decide in that moment what you need when he’s telling you what he wants. I just didn’t know. I didn’t know what would happen.”
Cassie, noticeably pregnant on the witness stand, was emotional from the start
She would take deep breaths and sometimes paused as she spoke.
When the prosecutor questioned her about “freak offs,” she said she was barely 22 when Combs first asked her to do them. She said she was “confused, nervous, but also loved him very much.”
Asked how she felt when Combs first proposed engaging in a “freak off,” Cassie said: “I just remember my stomach falling to my butt. Just the nervousness and confusion in that moment.”
She said she didn’t feel like she could say no to Combs because she “didn’t know what ‘no’ could be, or what ‘no’ could turn into,” which she said she learned could include violence and blackmail threats.
“Sean controlled a lot of my life, whether it was career, the way I dressed, everything, everything. I just didn’t have much say in it at the time,” Cassie testified.
Early in her testimony, Cassie was asked briefly about ‘freak offs’
“Freak offs” were the highly orchestrated sex parties which she said stemmed from Combs’ interest in voyeurism. They would entail hiring an escort and “setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean,” Cassie said.
Shown still images from the now-infamous 2016 security camera footage of Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel, Cassie said prior to the altercation: “We were having an encounter called a ‘freak off’ and I was leaving there.”
Cassie on the witness stand
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson started questioning of Cassie by asking her age, which is 38, and her occupation, which she said is “musician, an entertainer.” She said she was in a relationship with Combs for just over 10 years.
Cassie testified that her relationship with Combs ran the gamut from good times to arguments and physical altercations.
“If they were violent arguments, it would usually result in some sort of physical abuse and dragging, just different things,” Cassie told jurors.
She testified that Combs would mash her head, drag her, kick her and stomp her in the head when she was down.
Asked how frequently Combs became violent with her, Cassie softly responded: “Too frequently.”
Before Cassie takes the witness stand
A judge ruled that her husband, Alex Fine, can be in the courtroom for most — but not all — of her testimony.
Judge Arun Subramanian, acting on a defense request, said Fine must leave the courtroom when questioning turns to Cassie’s allegation that Combs raped her in 2018.
That’s because Combs’ lawyers say they may call Fine as a witness later in the trial in an attempt to discredit Cassie’s allegation.
Prosecutors argued that Fine is part of the emotional support system for Cassie, who’s pregnant with their third child and should be in the courtroom when she testifies.
Judge Arun Subramanian has called a 10-minute break prior to R&B singer Cassie’s testimony
In open court, a lawyer for Combs asked that Cassie’s husband not be allowed in the courtroom while she testifies because he might be called as a witness.
Daniel Phillip’s testimony Tuesday morning
Combs’ trial resumed Tuesday with the hip-hop mogul’s lawyer questioning Daniel Phillip, a male stripper who says he was paid to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched.
Defense lawyer Xavier Donaldson pointed to Phillip’s past statements to federal prosecutors as he attempted to show inconsistencies in his recollection of events. Donaldson finished his cross-examination after suggesting Phillip had developed a crush on Cassie and wanted to isolate her from Combs so he could be with her romantically. Phillip denied that but admitted: “I was attracted to her. If she ever gave me the chance to date her, I absolutely would have.”
Once Donaldson was finished, a prosecutor asked Phillip more questions, underscoring the witness’ earlier testimony that it was Combs who directed his sexual activity with Cassie.
Prior to the start of the trial, numerous submissions by attorneys and prosecutors were sealed
Judge Arun Subramanian acknowledged that in his opening remarks about whether sexually explicit videos and images expected to be shown to the jury during testimony by R&B singer Cassie should be viewed by members of the media.
He said that while a lot had been handled under seal before the trial, “we are now in trial and there is a heightened First Amendment concern.”
More on arguments over whether the media should be able to view explicit material
During the discussion about whether sexually explicit videos should be available for viewing by members of the media, attorney Robert Balin told the judge on behalf of media outlets that news organizations weren’t interested in reporting “something salacious” and were not seeking copies of the exhibits.
He also suggested as an alternative that a group of pool reporters could be allowed to view the exhibits.
The arguments on if the media should be able to see sexually explicit material
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson argued against letting media outlets see sexually explicit videos, saying there was good legal precedent to keep such materials out of the public record.
Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said there was no aspect of the videos that was not “in the nature of adult pornography.” He said they all contained images of people who are nude having sex or about to have sex.
On behalf of news outlets, attorney Robert Balin told the judge the First Amendment is “at a zenith” in this type of case and that it was important that the “people, though the press, be able to see justice is being done.” He said the best evidence of whether sexual acts that were recorded were coerced — as prosecutors allege — was the videos themselves.
Who is Cassie?
Cassie, a key prosecution witness expected to testify Tuesday, met Combs in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37. He signed her to his Bad Boy Records label and, within a few years, they started dating.
In her 2023 lawsuit, Cassie alleges Combs trapped her in a “cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking” for more than a decade, including raping her and forcing her to engage in sex acts with male sex workers. Combs settled the lawsuit the next day.
Among other things, Cassie alleges Combs raped her when she tried to leave him and often punched, kicked and beat her, causing injuries including bruises, burst lips, black eyes and bleeding. She also alleges that Combs was involved in blowing up rival rapper Kid Cudi’s car when he learned Cudi was romantically interested in her, and she alleges that Combs ran out of his home with guns when he learned Suge Knight, a rival producer, was eating at a nearby diner.
On the media’s request to view sexually explicit material in the trial
Judge Arun Subramanian says he’s inclined to grant a request by media organizations to view what a defense lawyer described as pornographic videos that will be shown to the jury as evidence in the case.
But he’s giving the parties another day to make submissions on the matter. The judge says he needs to balance privacy issues of the witnesses and defendant with the rights of the public to know what’s happening during the trial.
Combs’ appearance in court
Since his September arrest, Combs has been in Brooklyn.
Judge Arun Subramanian has granted Combs permission to wear regular clothes in court, instead of jail garb.
He is allowed up to five button-down shirts, five pairs of pants, five sweaters, five pairs of socks and two pairs of shoes without laces.
On Monday, he sported a gray sweater and a white button-down shirt. Because hair dye isn’t allowed in jail, his normally jet black mane is now mostly gray.
Under federal court rules, no photos or video of the trial will be allowed. Courtroom sketches are permitted.
Testimony on Tuesday morning
Testimony will continue with the cross examination of a male stripper who says he was hired by Combs and his girlfriend — R&B singer Cassie — to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and sometimes directed what should happen.
A defense lawyer said he expects to question the witness, Daniel Phillip, for about an hour.
Phillip set to retake the stand Tuesday
Daniel Phillip is set to retake the stand when court reconvenes on Tuesday.
Phillip told jurors that Combs was coy about his identity when they first met in 2012 at a Manhattan hotel.
The rap star wore a ball cap, obscured his face with a bandana and claimed to be in the importing and exporting industry, Phillip said.
The witness testified that it wasn’t until a subsequent encounter at a different hotel when Combs revealed who he was, answering the door in a suit and peacoat.
Judge rejects claim that Combs was treated differently because of his race
The judge presiding over the racketeering and sex trafficking trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs said last week there was no evidence to back up his lawyers’ claim he was treated differently because of his race.
Judge Arun Subramanian said Combs had shown no evidence of discriminatory effect or intent based on his race, when his lawyers made their arguments in Manhattan federal court in February. In a separate written opinion, the judge also refused to suppress evidence in the case.
The lawyers had written that the prosecution was unprecedented because, “most disturbingly, no white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution.”
The judge agreed with arguments by prosecutors that the extent of criminal conduct by Combs from 2004 to 2024 — when he was alleged to have overseen a racketeering enterprise that enabled him to sexually abuse women — was enough to separate from other prosecutions.
“It’s the severity of what Combs allegedly did — not his race — that mattered,” the judge wrote.
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Another topic the attorneys and the judge may discuss
Another possible topic for discussion between attorneys and the judge this morning could arise over an argument by media organizations that some recordings to be shown to the jury involving sexual activity should not be sealed.
The media outlets include ABC, CBS, NBC, The Associated Press, Business Insider, National Public Radio, Newsday, The New York Times, the New York Post, Reuters, New York Magazine and The Washington Post. The plan was for the jury to view the recordings, but not the public.
The media outlets say a viewing of the recordings is necessary because they could play a “central role” in determining the guilt or innocence of Combs. Lawyers for him say the sexual activity is a glimpse into the swingers lifestyle and not evidence of crimes.
A lawyer for R&B singer Cassie, who’s expected to testify Tuesday, opposed the media request, saying the news organizations cited no legal precedent for unsealing “videos depicting coercive sex acts.”
The allegations against Combs
Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but not illegal.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters he called “freak offs,” “wild king nights” or “hotel nights,” then kept them in line by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, often by the hair.
The prosecutor said Combs last year brutally beat another woman — identified only as Jane — when she confronted him about enduring years of freak offs in dark hotel rooms while he took other paramours on date nights and trips around the globe.
The sex parties are central to Combs’ sexual abuse, prosecutors say. Combs’ company paid for the parties, held in hotel rooms across the U.S. and overseas, and his employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, Johnson said. Combs compelled women, including Cassie, to take drugs and engage in sexual activity with male escorts while he gratified himself and sometimes recorded them, Johnson said.
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The jury isn’t expected in Manhattan federal court this morning until 9:30 a.m. ET
But the lawyers are supposed to meet a half hour earlier to resolve any last-minute legal issues in advance of testimony from the government’s star witness: R&B singer Cassie.
She’s likely to begin testifying by midday. Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, was intertwined with the hip-hop power broker for 11 years. Her lawsuit and allegations of sexual abuse in 2023 ignited the scrutiny that led to federal charges.
Defense conceded Combs had violent outbursts, but say no federal crimes occurred
The public knew Combs as a larger-than-life music and business mogul, but in private, he used violence and threats to coerce women into drug-fueled sexual encounters that he recorded, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at Combs’ sex trafficking trial.
”During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told the jury.
Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.
Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos, though, described the closely watched trial as a misguided overreach by prosecutors, saying that although her client could be violent, the government was trying to turn sex between consenting adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case.
Geragos conceded that Combs’ violent outbursts, often fueled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not sex trafficking and racketeering counts.
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Things to know about the trial so far
Witnesses began testifying this week in the trial for one of the biggest music moguls and cultural figures of the past four decades.
The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks in all. Here’s a look at some of the details:
1. The witnesses:
2. The trial’s first witness, Israel Florez, who was working hotel security at the time, testified about responding to a report of a woman in distress and witnessing Combs tell Cassie:, “You’re not going to leave.”
3. Jurors also heard from Daniel Phillip, who said he was a professional stripper who was paid to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and gave instructions. He testified that he once saw Combs drag her by her hair as she screamed.
4. The trial’s main players
5. The trial is in the courtroom of U.S. District.
6. The prosecutionteam consists of eight assistant U.S. attorneys, seven of them women.
7. Combs’ team of seven defense attorneys is led by New York lawyer Marc Agnifilo, who, along with his wife Karen Friedman Agnifilo is also defending .
R&B singer Cassie set to testify in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex trafficking trial
The R&B singer Cassie could testify as soon as Tuesday in sex trafficking trial, as the Bad Boy Records founder faces charges that he orchestrated a deviant empire of exploitation that forced women into drugged-up sex parties called “freak offs.”
, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has been at the center of Combs’ stunning downfall. She alleging years of abuse. A surveillance video made public last year showed Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. CNN aired the video last year, leading .
The video, which was played for jurors, shows Combs wearing only a white towel, punching, kicking and dragging Cassie in a hotel hallway.
Israel Florez, a former security officer at the hotel, testified Monday that he came across Combs while responding to a call about a woman in distress, and found Combs sitting in a chair with “a devilish stare.” Florez said Combs offered him a stack of money and said “Don’t tell nobody.”
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The Associated Press
