‘Will Sean Combs Testify?' and Other Burning Questions We Still Have

Yahoo

4 hours ago

Follow all of our Sean Combs trial coverage
With Sean Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial entering its sixth week, much of the closely guarded case is now public record. Jurors have sat through days of highly emotional testimony from the two principal alleged victims, Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura and a recent ex-girlfriend testifying under the pseudonym 'Jane.'
More from Rolling Stone
Matthew Perry's Ketamine Death: Second Doctor Agrees to Plead Guilty
Judge Dismisses Sean Combs Juror Over Inconsistent Statements
Sean Combs Trial: Possible Juror Dismissal and Mogul's 'Threatening' Voice Notes
In disturbing detail, the women described Combs feeding them drugs and stage-directing them through days-long sexual marathons with male escorts. The women said Combs threatened to release their intimate videos or yank financial support if they resisted. Both described Combs turning violent, breaking down doors, and giving them black eyes.
Jurors listened as one former assistant said Combs kidnapped her at gunpoint and another said he raped her in a staff bunk bed at his home. They heard Kid Cudi describe Combs as a 'Marvel supervillain' who broke into his house, opened his holiday gifts, and allegedly later firebombed his Porsche in 2012. They watched a hotel security guard describe how Combs handed him $100,000 stuffed in a paper bag to buy and bury video of Combs viciously beating Ventura at L.A.'s InterContinental Hotel in 2016.
While prosecutors have pieced together most of the evidence they say should land Combs in prison for life, Combs' defense has yet to take center stage – and many questions remain. Rolling Stone reached out to experts and pored over transcripts to get some clarity on some of the biggest, still-lingering unknowns.
Throughout the trial, Combs has been visibly engaged, leaning forward, passing notes to his lawyers and even nodding so 'vigorously' in the direction of jurors, the judge threatened expulsion from the courtroom.
Combs also has a history of speaking up when the legal chips are down. He testified in his own defense at his 2001 trial over charges he brandished a gun during a shooting in a Manhattan nightclub, leading to an acquittal. After CNN released damning video last year showing him kicking and dragging Ventura at the InterContinental, he responded within 48 hours, releasing a lengthy video apology, making 'no excuses.' He clearly likes to share his thoughts.
'I'm sure Sean Combs wants to testify. I'm also sure his lawyers are telling him that would be a terrible idea,' David Ring, a plaintiff's lawyer who represented Evgeniya Chernyshova, the Italian actress whose testimony led to Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction in California, tells Rolling Stone.
Experts say Combs taking the stand is 'extremely risky' because it could open the floodgates to testimony about a long list of alleged prior bad acts that otherwise would not come in.
In her opening statement, defense lawyer Teny Geragos sounded fully resigned to any charm offensive being pointless. 'Sean Combs has a bad temper,' she told jurors, predicting they would consider him a 'jerk' and say to themselves, 'Wow, he is a really bad boyfriend.' The defense position, she said, was that 'he is not charged with being mean,' he's charged with running a racketeering enterprise (a charge Combs denies.)
'Usually, when you're a celebrity, you get on the stand and the jury falls in love with you. They are not going to fall in love with him. It's too late for that,' Ring said. 'The jury already hates him. They might not convict him, but they hate him. So for him to get on the stand, it's not going to change their opinion of him.'
If he does testify, experts said he likely would be on the stand for more than a week. The way the trial is running, such testimony would push any verdict beyond the Fourth of July. Jurors previously heard their service likely would wrap up in time for the holiday.
When Combs' indictment was first unsealed last September, his online court docket referred to him as 'Sealed Defendant 1.' Many speculated that meant others would be charged but is still under wraps. That's not necessarily the case, experts tell Rolling Stone.
Echoing Dave Chappelle's viral Saturday Night Live joke last January – where the comedian said he knew things were bad for Combs because 'they've got this guy in a RICO case … by himself!' – experts say it's not only possible, but even likely, Combs will be the only one charged.
'A lot of these people who are functioning as part of the government's theory – the allegedly corrupt enterprise – they worked under Combs. They allegedly were doing things at his direction,' Alyse Adamson, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, tells Rolling Stone.
Adamson says it's possible, though looking less likely by the day, that prosecutors made still undisclosed, top-secret deals where people pleaded to lesser charges or avoided charges altogether in exchange for their cooperation. These deals can be common with co-conspirators whose testimony is needed or whose experience also involved being victimized by the main target of an investigation. (Two former assistants to Combs, George Kaplan and Jonathan Perez, already have testified under grants of immunity.)
Adamson says many of the alleged crimes listed as predicate acts in Combs' indictment – such as bribery and arson – have charging windows that are now closed. It's possible prosecutors' only option was to bring an actual RICO charge to file anything against the people under Combs, she says, and maybe they lacked the evidence for that.
'Or maybe they've been interviewed, but they weren't granted immunity, so they're in a holding pattern because they're not going to get up on the stand,' Adamson says. (Those involved could invoke their Fifth Amendment right to not testify.)
'There has to be a conspiracy, but the government doesn't have to charge the other co-conspirators,' Ring says. 'I doubt anyone else will be charged.'
Ring says Combs' security, his assistants, the people who allegedly carried drugs for him, and those that set up the freak-offs could all qualify as co-conspirators without being charged. He adds that charging them could actually backfire. 'When people cut a deal and then they take the stand, it's fair game for the defense to question their credibility because, hey, they took a deal and got something in exchange for their testimony,' he says.
Khorram, also known as K.K., started working for Combs in 2013 and became his longtime chief of staff. In a 2021 Facebook post, Combs called her his 'right hand,' claiming he couldn't 'function without her.'
Prosecutors didn't name Khorram in their opening. Instead, they were general, saying Combs relied on his inner circle, including 'chiefs of staff,' to run 'all aspects of his life.' On June 5, prosecutors got more specific, dubbing Khorram, 38, an 'agent and co-conspirator.'
Jurors have heard Khorram's name over and over. Ventura said she communicated with Khorram 'every day,' adding that Khorram knew Combs was physically abusive. She said Khorram reached out directly after the InterContinental incident to say Combs was looking for her.
Indeed, it was on Khorram's seized devices that investigators found the photo IDs for the hotel security guards linked to the $100,000 'bribe' from Combs. One of the guards testified it was Khorram who called repeatedly and showed up in the hotel's lobby looking for him before the deal was brokered.
For her part, Jane testified Khorram encouraged her to smuggle Ecstasy pills for Combs in her checked luggage. 'It's fine. I do it all the time,' Khorram allegedly said. Jane also claimed Khorram booked her travel for the so-called 'hotel nights.'
'Her name has come up so much during the trial, if she's not put on the stand, the jury will be wondering, 'Where's Kristina?' Adamson tells Rolling Stone. 'She could have some of the highest evidentiary value here … in terms of proving the alleged conspiracy.'
On Friday, prosecutors hinted they would rest their case this week without calling Khorram. They listed their final witnesses as Combs' former assistant Brendan Paul, a law enforcement officer, and three summary witnesses.
'If she's not called, it could be she's too risky [and] that prosecutors are worried her testimony would cut favorably to Diddy,' Adamson says. 'Or it could be that they're not giving her immunity, and she has a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.'
Experts who spoke with Rolling Stone say that given Khorram's high-level position, it's also possible she's a target. 'Maybe she's been charged. and we don't know it, because it's sealed,' Adamson says. 'That's just in the range of possibilities – but less likely.'
From the moment of Combs' arrest, his defense team has painted the government's case as a broad abuse of power, coming into his bedroom, scrutinizing his personal sex life, and deeming it as criminal. They've been open that Combs is polyamorous, engaged in 'kinky' sex, was a jealous lover, and part of a swingers' lifestyle. They also readily admitted there were episodes of domestic violence, particularly in Combs' decade-long relationship with Ventura.
But they were adamant that Combs' conduct and perhaps taboo sexual preferences do not equate to the serious charges he's facing. 'Domestic violence is not sex trafficking,' Geragos said in her opening statement.
That argument will likely be prominent as the defense presents its case later this week or early next week. Combs' defense team has also raised questions about his former girlfriends' roles in these 'toxic' dynamics. 'The alleged victims who will testify in this case are capable, strong, adult women,' Geragos said. 'They all had the personal responsibility and the freedom to make the choices that they made.'
Combs' all-star defense team has also grilled witnesses on their motives, particularly those related to financial gain. They've elicited testimony from several of Combs' former employees who praised the mogul's brilliance and 'can't stop, won't stop' work ethic, suggesting that due to the nature of Combs' around-the-clock schedule, his personal life inherently meshed with his business duties. They said the blurred lines don't constitute conspiring to run a criminal enterprise.
While those are just some of the defenses Combs' side has offered during the prosecution's case, his team has kept a tight lid on who he might call to the stand. They've only revealed they plan on calling Dr. Sasha Bardey, a psychiatrist, to rebut the testimony of government witness Dr. Dawn Hughes, who testified about sexual abuse, coercive control, and intimate partner violence.
Shortly before the expected eight-week trial commenced, a long-whispered-about woman identified as Victim-3 vanished from the prosecutors' case. The woman first emerged in a second superseding indictment against Combs in March.
Unlike Ventura and Jane, Victim-3 wasn't connected to a specific sex trafficking charge. Instead, she was mentioned under the racketeering conspiracy count. The government alleged Combs lured the woman into his orbit 'under the pretense of a romantic relationship and used physical violence, threats, financial control, and coercion to allegedly compel her to engage in commercial sex acts, known as 'freak-offs.''
In late April, just a few weeks before the trial's start, the woman agreed to testify under her real name. But, on the eve of the trial, prosecutors reported difficulties in contacting the woman and her attorney, later stating that she would no longer testify.
The government would confirm Victim-3 as Gina, one of Combs' girlfriends who has been in an on-off relationship with him since around 2015. Her name has continually surfaced during the trial, with Ventura admitting that Gina was a source of contention in her decade-long relationship with Combs, a refrain echoed by Jane, who dated Combs from 2021 until his September arrest.
One of Combs' former assistants, George Kaplan, alleged he once observed a fight between Combs and Gina, in which Combs hurled apples at her, and Gina later yelled to be let out of Combs' Miami mansion in the middle of the night. But prosecutors lost their bid to include a text conversation between Combs and his former head of security, who issued a dire warning to Combs that he could go to jail if word leaked about an apparent violent incident between the couple in October 2015 in Atlanta.
'If anyone called the police, the police is a 100 percent going to lock you,' the security member allegedly texted Combs. 'Even if she begs them not to, it's the law. So once they put the cuffs on you, your life and career is over.'
It's still unclear if another alleged victim, Victim-5, will take the stand. Prosecutors haven't mentioned the person in any publicly filed documents, but Combs' defense attorneys objected to portions of their testimony in a heavily redacted filing. The judge ruled any testimony from the alleged victim had to be narrowly tailored.
As Combs faces up to life in prison if convicted, he's also facing another legal crisis on the civil front. In the wake of Ventura's pivotal November 2023 filing, a tidal wave of more than 50 women and men have claimed the larger-than-life mogul abused and sexually preyed on them over three decades.
While more than a dozen of the civil suits include accusations of sexual assault that overlap with SDNY prosecutors' timeframe of the alleged racketeering conspiracy — 2004 until 2024 — the deluge of filings has barely played a role in the criminal case. Only the testimonies of fashion designer Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan and former Bad Boy artist Dawn Richard have come into the trial so far.
Although both women alleged sexual misconduct by Combs, prosecutors essentially used their testimonies to boost corroboration of Ventura's claims that Combs would unleash brutal attacks on her. Richard testified that on her first day recording the 2010 Diddy-Dirty Money album, Last Train to Paris, she saw Combs attempt to hit Ventura with a frying pan before dragging her to an upstairs bedroom by the hair because he was upset about how she was cooling his eggs.
Richard was not permitted to discuss her separate personal claims against Combs, claiming he sexually harassed and groped her and once ordered one of his executives to lock her in a freezing car for hours after speaking back to Combs.
Bongolan, who forged a close friendship with Ventura in 2015, claimed she saw the lengths to which Combs would go to attempt to control Ventura, incessantly blowing up her phone and monitoring her location. She said she routinely observed bruises on Ventura and allegedly saw Combs once hurl a knife in his girlfriend's direction after showing up to her apartment unprompted.
But unlike Richard, Bongolan was able to testify more about her personal experiences with Combs. She claimed he once called himself the 'devil' and warned he 'could kill' her. She claimed the powerful music executive almost dangled her over Ventura's 17th-floor balcony, yelling, 'You know what the fuck you did!'
The government used the alleged incident as evidence that Combs' abuse of Ventura was boundless, spreading to her closest friends when he flew into a rage. They also suggested it reinforced Ventura's fear of Combs and kept her trapped in the decade-long relationship.
Best of Rolling Stone
Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs
The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs
All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked