Diddy trial updates: Sean Combs' former assistant details allegedly abusive workplace
Diddy trial updates: Sean Combs' former assistant details allegedly abusive workplace
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Witness says she posted praise for Diddy because it was her job
A witness named 'Mia' testified in Sean Combs' sex trafficking trial, saying she feared no one would believe her allegations of sexual assault.
This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
Sean "Diddy" Combs was an entertainment industry titan, but the alleged toxicity of his media empire, including claims of physical and sexual abuse, is coming to light amid his criminal trial.
The embattled hip-hop mogul returned to Manhattan court on June 3 following additional testimony from a former assistant, a woman going by the pseudonym "Mia," who said she was "brainwashed" by her ex-boss despite his constant threats and assault.
Mia, whose communications with Combs have been scrutinized in court, was accused by the rapper's attorneys of taking legal action as part of a "#MeToo money grab." The woman, who grew emotional at times on the stand, maintained she does not want to sue Combs for monetary gain.
Diddy on trial newsletter: Step inside the courtroom as music mogul faces sex-crimes charges.
As Combs' trial stretches into another week, several new names are expected to testify in the sweeping federal sex-crimes case, including radio personality Enrique Santos and two employees of the InterContinental Hotel, where video captured the music mogul assaulting ex-girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura Fine.
Combs, 55, was arrested in September 2024 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.
Mia, a former personal assistant who worked for Combs from 2009 to 2017, testified on May 29 that he sexually assaulted her on "more than one" occasion. The woman alleged that the first time Combs assaulted her was at the Plaza Hotel in New York City when they were celebrating his 40th birthday in 2009.
In later years, the music mogul allegedly assaulted her several additional times, including at his Los Angeles home and on a private plane.
Combs is facing federal sex-crimes and trafficking charges in a sprawling lawsuit that has eroded his status as a power player and kingmaker in the entertainment industry.
He was arrested in September 2024 and later charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. The rapper has pleaded not guilty to all five counts against him.
Racketeering is the participation in an illegal scheme under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute, or RICO, as a way for the U.S. government to prosecute organizations that contribute to criminal activity.
Using RICO law, which is typically aimed at targeting multi-person criminal organizations, prosecutors allege that Combs coerced victims, some of whom they say were sex workers, through intimidation and narcotics to participate in "freak offs" — sometimes dayslong sex performances that federal prosecutors allege they have video of.
The trial will not be televised, as cameras are typically not allowed in federal criminal trial proceedings.
USA TODAY will be reporting live from the courtroom. Sign up for our newsletter for more updates.
Contributing: USA TODAY staff
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text "START" to 88788.
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USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Something insidious is coming out of the Diddy trial: Laughter
Something insidious is coming out of the Diddy trial: Laughter | Opinion We must resist the urge to make everything into a joke. We must take some things seriously – and domestic violence should be one of those things. Show Caption Hide Caption Security guard says Sean Combs offered cash for hotel video Eddy Garcia testified Sean Combs paid $100K for hotel footage showing him kick, hit and drag Cassie Ventura Fine, according to court testimony. There's something I've been noticing when I scroll through Instagram. Any time I see an advertisement, any advertisement, really, there always seems to be a peculiar comment underneath the video. 'Nice try, Diddy.' The spam comment, which refers to rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs, has been around for almost a year now. According to Know Your Meme, a Wikipedia-esque website dedicated to the inside jokes of the internet, it's unclear what the spam comment means. What is clear is that it is as commonplace as these advertisements themselves. What's also clear is that people are joking about something that isn't really that funny. 'Nice try Diddy' is not the only joke that's come out of the bombshell sex crimes trial against Combs, in which the rapper and mogul has been charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. For the past year, people have latched onto the salacious details of the case – from 'Diddy parties' and 'freak offs' to baby oil to the sketches from the courtroom – to joke about on the Internet and with their friends. The only problem? We seem to always be laughing about the wrong things. SNL, memes mock Diddy trial. But it can retraumatize survivors of abuse. There are more than 70 lawsuits against Combs, with at least 81 people accusing the rapper of sexual assault. What we've heard has been harrowing. Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura Fine, who dated Combs on and off from 2007 to 2018, testified in the first days of the trial about the physical and emotional abuse that she suffered. There is a video of him physically assaulting her at the InterContinental Hotel, a video that a hotel security guard alleges he was paid $100,000 to destroy. There's footage of Combs throwing a vase at her head. There are photos of bruises and cuts that Ventura Fine allegedly suffered after altercations with Combs. A friend of Ventura Fine's testified that he threw a knife in the singer's direction. That's not the only testimony that stands out. In May, rapper Kid Cudi testified that his car was set on fire by an 'incendiary device,' alleging that Combs was the perpetrator. Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan testified on June 4 that Combs dangled her over a 17-story balcony and threatened to kill her. I encourage anyone joking about this case to read the victims' statements – they are no laughing matter. Opinion: Diddy trial and Macron shove reveal our blind spots about domestic violence That hasn't stopped comedians, whether they be on Instagram or on "Saturday Night Live," from lampooning the trial as it unfolds. It hasn't stopped the memes, like "The Diddler" and baby oil. There were also jokes about Amber Heard during her trial with Johnny Depp, jokes that experts claimed exacerbated the trauma survivors suffer from. In the same way, levity about the alleged abuse and coercion that Combs' victims experienced could hurt people who have also experienced these things. When will we stop laughing at abuse victims? I understand the urge to make a joke out of serious matters. Humor helps us cope with the horrific realities of life. It's akin to the way people joke about President Donald Trump's administration: The details are so egregious, they feel like parody. But for victims of sexual violence, this trial is anything but funny. It isn't just a meme or a spicy headline; it's the terrifying reality of abuse. It's the reality of a world where women are not believed, and where the justice system fails to intervene until the damage is already done. Opinion: I work with sex trafficking victims. Here's how Diddy's trial could help them. Despite the mountain of evidence against Combs, there are still people who believe he is innocent, or at least shouldn't be the only one on trial. On 'Piers Morgan Uncensored' in late May, rapper Ray J told the host that there were never any 'freak offs.' About the same time, Death Row Records cofounder Suge Knight told journalist Chris Cuomo that he believed his longtime musical rival should walk free, saying that other executives were involved in the events. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, including Combs. Still, it makes me uneasy that there are people who would be so quick to defend him. To me, the flippancy with which people are treating the case is just as dangerous as the jokes made about it. We must resist the urge to make everything into a joke. We must take some things seriously – domestic violence should be one of those things. We can't let our urge to laugh at discomfort win over our desire for justice. Something has to matter. Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Between Combs and Weinstein, #MeToo is back in the hot seat. Its founder wants to highlight a few important things
At one point during Sean 'Diddy' Combs' federal criminal sex trafficking and racketeering trial, defense attorney Brian Steel asked a witness, who was testifying under a pseudonym, if she retained counsel in order to 'join the #MeToo money grab against Mr. Combs.' The question came during one of the three days the woman, referred to on the stand as 'Mia,' testified about multiple alleged instances of physical, emotional and sexual abuse by Combs. Though the question was sustained by the judge, the moment speaks to the movement that looms large over two high-profile cases that are taking place in courts mere blocks from one another in New York City. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. Meanwhile, in a state court, disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein – whose initial fall from grace was the impetus for #MeToo going viral in 2017 – will soon face a verdict in his sex crimes retrial. Weinstein, 73, has also pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Empowering survivors was at the heart of the #MeToo movement that gained wide awareness as a hashtag in 2017, but it started more than a decade before that, when it was founded by survivor and activist Tarana Burke. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister recently sat with Burke for 'Laura Coates Live' to discuss where the #MeToo movement stands now. #MeToo bills itself as 'a global, and survivor-led, movement against sexual violence,' according to its website. The founder of the movement stressed one vital point: outside of legal consequences within the justice system, most survivors of gender-based and intimate partner sexual assault or violence simply want to be acknowledged and believed. This conversation has been edited for clarity and condensed. CNN: This is obviously your life's work, but #MeToo came into the public forum in 2017. How are things different today than they were in 2017? TARANA BURKE: I think there's some significant differences. People have language now to talk about this thing that we couldn't talk about, at least publicly. After Me Too, survivors know that they can say, 'I had this experience.' Even if they don't want anything to happen – they're not trying to get anybody arrested, they're not trying to have some sort of remedy happen – but they can say out loud, 'This thing happened to me.' And it should be acknowledged. I think that we don't understand what it feels like to be acknowledged for something incredibly traumatic and painful that happened to you that you then swallowed, and that society tells you is your shame. There's a lot left to do. There's a lot left to happen, and I think sometimes people try to quantify it based on numbers of cases and who went to jail, but the real way to quantify it is about numbers of survivors and people who've been able to say, 'Me too,' and that that process has opened up something for them, something cathartic, something healing. I think people are also more knowledgeable about sexual violence in a way that we weren't before 2017. CNN: How important were the initial allegations against Harvey Weinstein symbolically for the movement? BURKE: It was huge. We actually would not be here without that happening, and I think it's fair to always acknowledge those survivors who came forward around Harvey Weinstein, because technically that's pre-#MeToo. There was no impetus from the public, there was no guarantee of what was going to happen to those women afterwards. Weinstein was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, who could just like that take away somebody's career. So the bravery of those women should never be diminished. CNN: Weinstein's New York sex crimes conviction was overturned last year, and he is currently back on trial. What was your reaction when that conviction was overturned? BURKE: Surprise, but also not deep concern. This movement is not really about how many of these people can we get in jail; it's about upending the American justice system. We have to do something completely different. In reality, the conviction rate for sexual violence in this country is very, very low. So the act of getting a Harvey Weinstein in a courtroom is monumental. It really is. We cannot understate what it takes to get somebody as powerful as Diddy (Sean Combs) or Weinstein or R. Kelly or these various people into a courtroom, to get them past the different steps in that process. Getting to conviction though is a whole other feat by itself. CNN: Can you talk about how Cassie Ventura filed under the Adult Survivors Act and how that ultimately contributed to this criminal trial against Combs? (Ventura filed a civil suit against Combs, which was quickly settled.) BURKE: One of the things that I've heard almost consistently since #MeToo went viral is, 'When is this going to come to hip-hop?' There's been so many stories, allegations, rumors throughout the years about the misogyny that exists inside of hip-hop. I had a number of people tell (me) their personal stories, but when I would ask these women – most of the time Black women who were in the industry, some well-known – and say, 'Why don't you talk about it?' they would say, 'Oh, I would be completely canceled.' And that's the tide that has turned, and the significance of what Cassie did. The significance of that lookback law is that this was years after #MeToo. We were five years or more past the hashtag going viral. Black women and women of color, particularly in the music industry and hip-hop, had not had their moment – and I would submit still probably haven't had their moment. CNN: If Sean Combs is acquitted, what do you think happens with his power and standing in the industry? BURKE: You know, there's two separate parts of the power. There's the power of being a Diddy, Puffy, the public figure, but then there's always the power of money. If he walks away from this case by some miracle – or maybe not a miracle – we need to be talking about what we all witnessed together. You can't unring this bell. We all listened to Cassie. We all saw that video. We've heard this testimony that's not going anywhere. We sometimes have short memories though. One apology video, one great produced song, and (he could) start building (himself) back. I think we have to have a longer memory. So regardless of the outcomes of these trials, (I hope) that we have an institutional memory of what we saw. And don't doubt and don't gaslight yourself. Don't doubt your own eyes and ears. We saw that man beat that woman in that hotel. Whatever the reasons behind it, we saw what we saw. CNN: Are you concerned about the optics of the #MeToo movement right now in media and on social media? BURKE: It concerns me. You have young people who are graduating high school, even graduating college, that were very young when #MeToo went viral. So they have some understanding, they've grown up in a world with this language and with this sort of new understanding. But social media is really effective. And so when you start having people pick apart these things and say, 'This was a conspiracy,' that concerns me because whoever holds the narrative holds the key. And that is a really powerful place to sit when you have ability to shape narrative around a particular topic. The psychology behind survivorship is so complicated, and so complex that the average everyday person watching at home and giving their analysis cannot understand it unless they've actually been through it. And sometimes even when they've been through it, because each of us respond differently. CNN: What is next for the #MeToo movement? What work are you focused on now? BURKE: We're really focused on safety. I think that #MeToo has been really bogged down by this narrative that it's about going out and getting people, and we've forgotten the thread that most survivors want to protect other survivors. And so we are really focused on, what does it look like to end sexual violence? What does it look like to solve the issue of sexual violence, because this is a solvable issue. We deal with healing and action. A lot of that action is how do we keep more people from not from not having to say, 'Me too.'
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Who Am I Sitting Next To?': NFL Star Travis Hunter Wins Hearts With Humble Airport Encounter
Travis Hunter, the Jacksonville Jaguars' No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, is making headlines for all the right reasons after a heartwarming interaction with a fellow passenger on a recent United Airlines flight. The former Colorado star and Heisman Trophy winner left a lasting impression on Sandy Hawkins Combs, who had no idea she was sitting next to a future NFL sensation until other passengers began approaching him. Combs shared her experience in a Facebook post that quickly went viral, praising Hunter for his exceptional manners and down-to-earth personality. The young athlete offered to help her with her bag, addressed her as 'ma'am,' and engaged in pleasant conversation throughout the flight. What stood out most to Combs wasn't Hunter's athletic achievements but his genuine humility and respectful demeanor, qualities that have endeared him to fans. This chance meeting between Hunter and Combs happened as she was flying home from Denver. Travis Hunter Shows MVP-Worthy Manners On Flight 'Anyone would be proud to have him as a son or grandson – so polite,' Combs wrote in her viral Facebook post. It wasn't until fellow passengers began approaching Hunter for photos that Combs realized her seatmate was someone special. 'I turned and asked him, 'Who am I sitting next to?' I looked at his Jaguar pants, smiled, and asked, 'Are you an athlete?' He smiled and said, 'I'm Travis. Yes, I was drafted by the Jags.' I already told my sons I want his jersey,' she recounted. Advertisement Hunter's impression on Combs extended beyond their brief encounter. She expressed her newfound support for the Jacksonville Jaguars, writing, 'He's so humble and down-to-earth—I would have never guessed he was a professional athlete. JACKSONVILLE JAGS, you did good! I will be buying tickets.' The Jacksonville Jaguars invested heavily to secure Hunter in the draft, trading up for the No. 2 pick by parting with the No. 5 overall pick, No. 36, No. 126, and a 2026 first-round pick. The post 'Who Am I Sitting Next To?': NFL Star Travis Hunter Wins Hearts With Humble Airport Encounter appeared first on Travel Noire.
