Diddy trial recap: Ex-assistant Mia was 'young and manipulated,' says mogul caused PTSD

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2 days ago

This page reflects the news from Sean "Diddy" Combs' trial on Friday, May 30. For the latest updates from Diddy's trial, read USA TODAY's live coverage for Monday, June 2.
This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
A former member of Sean "Diddy" Combs' inner circle returned to the courtroom May 30 to offer more details of the hip-hop moguls' alleged pattern of sexual and physical abuse during his criminal trial.
After a harrowing day of testimony from Combs' ex-assistant, a woman going by the pseudonym "Mia," prosecutors returned to continue building their case against the Grammy-winning rapper in his sweeping federal sex-crimes case.
During her second day of testimony, Mia painted a picture of long-term emotional and professional manipulation. She described a dynamic where Combs' alleged threats were used to maintain control, including using an unreleased ABC series as leverage, and caused lasting trauma.
Mia's testimony followed similar allegations from Deonte Nash, a friend and stylist of Ventura Fine, who claimed Combs tried to control all aspects of Cassie's life during their decadelong relationship.
Combs, 55, was arrested in September 2024 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.
Diddy on trial newsletter: Step inside the courtroom as music mogul faces sex-crimes charges.
In court, there was a 40-minute disagreement about showing a video of Mia singing "Happy Birthday" to Combs, which the defense submitted during the lunch break at 1:07 p.m.
Combs' attorney Brian Steel said it was "prohibitive to show her demeanor and energy" and that it shows a "night and day" difference with how she was presented during direct examination.
Combs' lead defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said that "the jury might conclude that her affect on the stand is an act," noting the video confirms that her testimony is "false." The defense said they just found the video on Thursday, May 29, and people emailed it to them as well. But Judge Arun Subramanian watched the video but precluded it as evidence and said the relevance is minimal.
One of the trial's most contentious moments took place Friday.
Steel asked, "Isn't it true that Mr. Combs never had forcible, sexual misconduct with you?" Mia said firmly, "I have not lied to anyone at all." Steel pushed back, saying, "Isn't it true that it never happened as many times as you told this jury?" Mia replied, "Everything I've said in this courtroom is true." Steel doubled down: "What if you're not a victim of sexual assault? Then what?" Prosecutors immediately objected, and Subramanian sustained it.
During her testimony, Mia said everyone around Combs "upheld his behavior and punishment toward me." She said it was "an abusive relationship, a cycle of violence" and that she was "always searching for approval and confused what I had done wrong," she testified.
"I don't know how to explain it. I was young and manipulated. There were no streaming documentaries, no one was standing up," Mia said. Steel then asked, "Why did you need someone else saying that it was wrong when Mr. Combs made you feel, according to your testimony, that he would kill you?" Mia responded, "My logic brain and my trauma brain: My trauma brain wins all the time." Mia called herself a rule follower and a people pleaser: "You make excuses for people. I tend to take a lot more than normal people," she said.
Steel then asked, "Mia, you're not a weak person, are you?" to which she responded, "I'm not sure."
Steel continued to go through social media posts of Mia supporting Combs through the years.
The court saw a scrapbook Mia made for Combs for his 45th birthday, which included clippings of magazine articles about Combs from 1991 to 1999. Mia wrote a sweet message in the scrapbook about reaching new heights and reminding Combs to take in his accomplishments. She wanted to remind him of "when this world made your eyes light up," Mia wrote in the scrapbook. On the stand, Mia said he had come to her "depressed" and recalled Combs said, "I used to look at the world the way you did. What's left if I've done everything?"
"He felt sad to me," Mia testified, and she wanted to remind him that his success and life weren't meaningless. Steel asked, "Did you ever tell him 'you made my life feel meaningless, too'?" Mia said no, and that she has an "empathetic nature." Steel asked how it's even possible for Mia to be around a man who traumatized her and Cassie so much. "It's called psychological abuse," Mia said.
Steel disclosed that Mia has met with prosecutors or investigators 27 times in preparation for her trial testimony. She responded that she didn't remember exactly how many times it was, but that it was a lot. She also told prosecutors that she couldn't remember all the times that Combs sexually assaulted her.
"How do you have a good experience with a man who terrorized you?" Steel asked. "It's easy," Mia said, "because the dynamics would shift."
On the stand, Mia said she was in fear of upsetting Combs, but there were good moments where he treated her like a best friend. Asked her how she could be best friends with someone who allegedly did all of these things to her, she quipped back, "I guess we can ask my therapist." She added that Combs was "vulnerable" with her and that she felt "responsible" for him.
Asked how she could forget Combs slamming Ventura Fine into the bedframe, which the former assistant testified to May 29, Mia responded, "You don't forget that. You get punished for bringing it up again."
Steel continued to pull up social media posts, including one of Mia wishing Combs' son Justin Combs a happy birthday and another congratulating Combs on a Ciroc event in Times Square, using the hashtag "family."
"In these postings, do you ever say anything about how Mr. Combs violated you?" Steel asked, with Mia responding, "Never."
Steel pulled up another post from 2014, captioned, "legends recognizing legends" of Combs giving an award to Jimmy Iovine. Steel asked, "One of the legends is the person who has traumatized you physically, emotionally, financially?"
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More of Mia's posts were mentioned, including from "The Chris Gethard Show" and another from "Funny or Die." Mia explained that "Puff wanted to break into the comedy world" and that "it was great for Puff to have that comedic exposure." She clarified that the posts were her promoting work.
"Once again, you post a picture on social media of the person who ruined your life?" Steel asked. "And my boss, yes," Mia said.
Mia defended her posts, saying, "Of course I want to highlight the highs. I don't think people wrote about the bad stuff on Instagram back then." She added, "It was a very confusing cycle of ups and downs and violence."
"You were in fear of Sean Combs every day, is that true?" Steel asked, with Mia clarifying she wasn't on the days when Combs called her his best friend. Steel asked why she never told her family or friends about the alleged assaults, and Mia said she didn't get to talk to her family and friends regularly. "I had to get permission to leave or do things. I had to beg to go to my grandma's funeral," Mia said.
Steel brought up again that Mia had said she loved Combs with all her heart. "That's how I write to the people in my life," Mia said. Steel asked, "Including the person you're terrified of?" Mia responded, "Especially the person I'm terrified of."
During cross-examination, Steel showed Mia a number of old social media posts. One was a social media post for Combs' 45th birthday, where she wrote, "Happy birthday, Puff Daddy. Thank you for being the good kind of crazy," adding that she loved him with all her heart. Steel remarked that this was five years after Combs first allegedly sexually assaulted her.
"You have Sean Combs shirtless in two of the pictures" in the collage of photos of Mia and Combs together, he said. "At this point, you have taken in so much trauma from him."
"When the highs were high and the goods were good, you tried so hard to stay in that," Mia said. Steel pressed her multiple times, saying, "Haven't you said you've been sexually assaulted so many times that you can't even remember?" Mia responded: "I don't remember phrasing it that way."
In more emotional testimony on May 30, Mia said she hired an employment lawyer to try to get a settlement from Combs after her exit, and asked for $10 million; ultimately she only received $400,000, half of which was taken by the lawyers.
She said she never said anything about the sexual assaults in those transactions, even though she mentioned some of Combs' violence. She told the court that she would have taken her own sexual assault allegations aimed at Combs to her grave.
During the fall of 2016, Mia was told that Combs' Revolt Films company, which she helped lead, was about to be shut down because the producer "no longer wants to be involved" in the film business. She said she was left completely traumatized and depressed.
Despite departing Combs' company in 2017, Mia continued to hear from Combs and Damion "D-Roc" Butler, his associate and security guard.
After Ventura Fine filed her civil lawsuit in November 2023, Mia said that D-Roc made numerous attempts to call her and that she received texts from both him and Combs. She said she felt threatened and like they were trying to get her to agree not to say anything.
"He sounded nervous and was talking in circles," she said of D-Roc on one of the few calls she answered. When Combs called her, she felt so traumatized that she said she threw her phone and ran outside. Ultimately, she never did speak to Combs, but prosecutors introduced into evidence an email from Combs in which he said, "You were my right hand for years," and that he just wanted to talk to her for 10 minutes to refresh his memory about who was around him at the time and what happened.
"I wanted nothing to do with him. He was the person I was traumatized by. And he was coming back," she said.
While detailing Combs' alleged control tactics, Mia said she was suspended without pay several times, typically because she was on the receiving end of being screamed at on behalf of the Bad Boy Records founder. Mia said that on one occasion, she was suspended because Combs didn't like the workout clothes that she had laid out for him. Another time, the prosecutor showed an email from Mia to D-Roc (who she said was like a big brother) in which she described Combs: "He's so psycho... He's so mean."
She also described an incident on a yacht that Combs had chartered in St. Barts in 2010, when he asked her to count money in a safe. She said that security usually did that and she wasn't good at it, but was trying to do a good job, when Combs suddenly started screaming at her that she was counting too slow.
"He got really irate with me," Mia said. She added that Combs told her to get "out of here" despite being on the boat. "You better learn to walk on water like Jesus did," she claimed Combs said, cursing at her.
When she went up to the third floor of the yacht and ultimately tried to get off the boat, she said the crew tried to return her to shore but didn't, because they received a phone call ordering her to be brought back on Combs' orders.
"I just wanted to run and hide and figure out a way out of St. Bart's, to get away from him," she said. Instead, she said Combs ordered her to accompany him on a jet to Las Vegas because he had a sudden change of plans, which she said traumatized her even further. Mia testified that she was suspended for that incident because she had acted insubordinately.
Early in her testimony May 30, Mia recalled how she had finally realized a lifelong dream and was involved in film production, including pitching a show to ABC that was loosely based on her role as a personal assistant working for a major celebrity like Combs.
She said Combs would constantly threaten to fire or suspend her, and even threatened to take away the opportunity that the ABC show provided. Ultimately, she said nothing ever came of the show.
"Mia" discussed her work for Combs as part of his entourage, who accompanied him on trips around the world. In court, she said the embattled mogul emotionally abused her to the point that she now suffers from "complex severe PTSD." Due to her post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis, Mia said she can't get or keep a job because she is triggered by the most minor things, like somebody asking where she is.
"I would have to leave (work) because I would be triggered by very normal situations with an overwhelming fear of being in trouble," the witness told the court. She added that "all of those feelings of getting in trouble come flooding back."
When Mia was asked who triggered those feelings in her, she answered "Puff," referring to Combs by his former moniker.
No, despite handing down a flurry of pardons this week, including one for reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, President Donald Trump did not include Combs on that list. But that doesn't mean he can't. According to Michigan State law professor Brian Kalt, Trump would be within his presidential rights to extend a preemptive pardon to Combs.
"These are federal charges so that's the main limit," Kalt tells USA TODAY. "The matter has (to) be federal, it has to be criminal vs. civil, and related to something that's already been done. But the person doesn't have to even be charged yet or convicted. The Supreme Court has said preemptive pardons are OK."
It is unclear whether Trump has an interest in Combs' case.
Could Trump pardon Diddy and end his trial?
Mia, who worked for Combs from 2009 to 2017, testified on May 29 that he sexually assaulted her on "more than one" occasion. The former assistant alleged the first time Combs assaulted her was at the Plaza Hotel in New York City when they were celebrating his 40th birthday in 2009.
Who is 'Mia'? Why you won't see photos of Diddy's ex-personal assistant during trial
Mia recalled having two shots that were affecting her much more than alcohol typically impacted her memory and balance. She said Combs approached her in a penthouse suite and sexually assaulted her, and she woke up sitting on a chair in the morning.
In later years, Combs allegedly assaulted her several additional times, including at his Los Angeles home and on a private plane.
Prosecutors asked Mia on May 29 about a party at Prince's house in 2011 or 2012. At the time, Mia and Cassie were staying at a hotel without Combs, but the two decided to sneak out to the "intimate" gathering at the late musician's home.
Although the women reportedly attempted an abrupt exit from the party when they saw Combs arrive, Mia testified that Combs "caught up" with them and attacked Ventura Fine, with Prince's security swiftly intervening. The next day, Mia said she was told Combs was suspending her without pay because she was "being insubordinate."
Mia choked up while taking the stand on May 29 as she described an alleged incident during which she was afraid that Combs would "kill" Ventura Fine.
She said she was with Cassie and Nash at the singer's Los Angeles apartment, helping her pack for a trip. They heard banging on the door, and a "very irate" Combs let himself in with a key and began screaming at Ventura Fine, later attacking Cassie and throwing her to the ground.
Mia claimed that working for Combs also entailed caring for Ventura Fine's injuries, which included bringing her "whatever she needed," such as arnica gel to help heal her bruises. When the wounds were "too obvious to cover up," Ventura Fine was forced to stay at hotels, the woman explained.
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.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Diddy trial recap: Ex-assistant Mia reveals alleged abuse