Diddy, Cassie and the Allure of Victim Blaming

New York Times

4 days ago

Earlier this month, when I searched on TikTok for Casandra (Cassie) Ventura's testimony in the federal sex trafficking trial against Sean Combs, one of the first autocomplete suggestions was 'cassie is a liar diddy.'
Ventura is not on trial. She is considered to be the government's star witness in the racketeering conspiracy case against Combs. There are many other high-profile witnesses who testified to Combs's violence, including the rapper Kid Cudi, who briefly dated Ventura, and Dawn Richard, who is a former member of the group Danity Kane. The entire world saw hotel surveillance video depicting Combs physically assaulting Ventura that was obtained by CNN, and Combs paid Ventura an eight-figure settlement after she sued him for sex trafficking and sexual assault in 2023.
Ventura would seem to be a trustworthy witness to her own experience. Yet social media commentators have been trying to undermine public support for her and, by extension, cast doubt on the question of Combs's culpability. These influencers tend to present some of Ventura's comments to Combs out of the larger context of his alleged abuse, preying on a public that is poorly informed about sexual assault and domestic violence.
During cross-examination, Combs's lawyers had Ventura read text messages where she seemed to be responding enthusiastically to some sexual encounters that Combs planned. But Ventura testified that she felt coerced into this behavior, and it would make sense that she was trying to placate him; for example, she said that Combs threatened to release videos he recorded of their sex acts if she refused his demands.
Combs's defenders do not seem to care about this context. For example, on X, Andrew Tate, the manosophere influencer who has over 10 million followers and whose tagline is 'I think women are dumb,' called Ventura a gendered slur, went after her husband and claimed, 'No victims. Only volunteers.' (British prosecutors authorized 10 charges, including rape and human trafficking, against Tate this week, adding to his international legal troubles.)
The basic line from most of the anti-Cassie content is that maybe she was beaten up — they have to concede that because of the hotel video — but she's lying about the rest of it, because she's a vindictive, bitter, money-grubbing ex trying to bring a successful man down.
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