Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial live updates: Cassie Ventura faces cross-examination in federal sex trafficking case

Yahoo

15-05-2025

The trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs continues in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, with Cassie Ventura, his former girlfriend, returning to the witness stand for the defense's cross-examination.
The 55-year-old hip-hop mogul is facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. Federal prosecutors say that for decades, Combs abused, threatened and coerced women to participate in marathon sexual encounters called "freak offs" and used his business empire, along with guns, kidnapping and arson, to conceal his crimes.
During two days of direct questioning from prosecutors, Ventura told the court her decade-long relationship with Combs was frequently marked by violence and physical abuse, describing in detail the drug-fueled "freak offs" that would take days to recover from. Jurors were also shown a 2016 surveillance video of Combs hitting, kicking and dragging Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel.
Combs has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face life in prison. He is being held without bail in a Brooklyn jail. A jury of 12 New Yorkers and six alternates will decide his fate. The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks.
Follow the live blog below for the latest updates on the trial, culled from various reporters and news organizations in the courtroom, including the Associated Press, CNN, the New York Times and NBC News.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Find more resources here.
During her direct testimony, Cassie Ventura said that when she tried to break it off with Combs, he threatened to end her career by releasing videos of her participating in "freak offs."
During cross-examination, however, defense lawyer Anna Estevao asked Ventura whether it was fair to say her explosive 2023 lawsuit against Combs effectively ended his career. The lawsuit was quickly settled out of court for $20 million, but it was followed by dozens of similar suits and led to this federal criminal case.
"When your lawsuit was publicized in November 2023, you understood that his career was ruined at that point, right?" Estevao asked in court.
"I could understand that, yeah," Ventura replied.
As the defense continued to have Ventura read her messages to Combs from the beginning of their relationship, Ventura smiled.
"It's making me giggle because it's from 2007," Ventura said after defense attorney Anna Estevao showed her an email she sent Combs 18 years ago.
"I know," Estevao said. "We're taking you back."
The 2007 message to Combs said, "I never felt so loved, safe and empowered since we've come together." But then, Ventura added, "On the other hand, you're constantly weary of me ..."
'It was usually, like, a one-way street when it came to messages like this,' Ventura testified.
The defense continued showing more sexually explicit messages between Ventura and Combs regarding "freak offs" early on in their relationship.
Some of the messages included logistics, like buying candles at a pharmacy before the "freak off." In one message, Ventura asked Combs if he had any more pills.
In another message to Combs in 2009, Ventura wrote, "We used to freak off when we were so in love. There were no questions asked, it felt right, like it literally made sense for the next step in our life together. I get nervous that I'm just becoming the girlfriend that you get your fantasies off with and that's it. I don't get the other part. ... Anymore at least."
The defense appears to be using email and text messages between Ventura and Combs in an attempt to show that she was a willing participant in the "freak offs," undercutting the narrative established during her direct testimony that she was coerced into them by Combs.
"I'm always ready to freak off lolol," Ventura wrote in one 2009 message.
'I can't wait to watch you. I want you to get real hott,' Combs wrote to Ventura in another exchange.
'Me Too, I just want it to be uncontrollable,' Ventura replied.
Combs's family is in the courtroom again today. His mom, Janice Combs, 85, and his three sons, Quincy Brown, 30, and Christian, 25, and Justin Combs, 29, are all seated in the spectator's gallery.
CNN reported, citing a source close to the family, that Combs's twin daughters, Jessie and D'Lila, have missed court because they're traveling for their high school prom this weekend.
Read more about the Combs family from Yahoo: Hollywood has distanced itself from Sean 'Diddy' Combs. His children remain his most loyal supporters.
After defense attorney Anna Estevao asked Cassie Ventura what made her fall in love with Combs, the questions turned to how Ventura felt she had earned Combs's trust and what she did to please him.
"To make him happy, you told him that you wanted to do 'freak offs'?" Estevao asked.
"No," Ventura replied. "There's a lot more to that."
The "freak offs" refer to the drug-fueled sex parties Combs organized, which have been discussed throughout the trial. Ventura previously testified she never wanted to participate in "freak offs."
The defense showed another text exchange from Ventura to Combs in 2009, where they discuss having a "freak off" with an escort named Jules.
"I'm always ready to freak off lolol," Ventura wrote.
Amid his ongoing sex trafficking trial, Sean "Diddy" Combs is facing a new civil lawsuit by a woman who alleges he raped her in 2001.
According to People magazine, the suit was filed in New York County Supreme Court on Wednesday by a woman who identified herself as Jane Doe. She claimed that during a night out with Combs, her friend and others, on or around July 31, 2001, they stopped at his apartment where he forcefully led her into his bedroom, put one hand around her throat and said, "I'm going to suck the life out of you."
After releasing her neck, she alleged Combs held her arm down "while using his other hand to swiftly unbuckle his belt and pants, before pulling out his erect bare-skinned penis which appeared to be the length and girth of a large tootsie roll."
She told him to stop but he allegedly ignored her, "slid her underwear to the side, and forcefully engaged in vaginal intercourse with her without her consent and against her will."
The lawsuit alleges that she "suffered physical abuse, emotional abuse, trauma, injury, and psychological damage, as a result of the defendants' intentional, negligent, and criminal actions." She is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.
The defense has presented its first pieces of evidence — loving messages between Cassie Ventura and Combs.
Anna Estevao, an employer for Combs, had Ventura read several messages the two exchanged early on in their relationship.
"I miss you sooo much and I'd fly wherever you needed me whenever!!!!!!!" Ventura wrote in an email to Combs in 2008.
"I love you sooooo much it makes me cry," Combs messaged her in August 2009.
As the messages were shown on the monitor to the court, Ventura testified that she called Combs "Pop Pop," and he sometimes called her "Baby Girl" or "BG."
"Going to sleep now so it can be tomorrow faster and you can be home," Ventura wrote to Combs in April 2010. "Love you!!!"
"Love my baby," Combs responded.
Returning to the witness stand for the third straight day, Cassie Ventura was questioned by the defense for the first time.
Defense attorney Anna Estevao began the cross-examination by asking a series of yes-or-no questions about Ventura's relationship with Combs.
Estevao: "You loved him?'Ventura: 'I did.'Estevao: 'And you believe that he loved you as well?'Ventura: 'Yes.'
Ventura then answered affirmatively when asked if her love for Combs explained why it hurt "so badly" when he lied and cheated on her.
Here's what to expect at Sean Combs's criminal sex trafficking trial on Thursday:
Court resumes at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Cassie Ventura, Combs's former girlfriend and the prosecution's star witness, is expected back on the stand for cross-examination from the defense.
Defense attorney Anna Estevao told Judge Arun Subramanian that the defense team expects their cross-examination will take all day and likely go into Friday.
Testifying for more than 10 hours over two days, Ventura described in detail the grueling "freak offs" she said she took part in at Combs's direction.
She also recounted the years of physical and emotional abuse she endured during her decade-long relationship with Combs, including several violent assaults.
Court is expected to conclude at 5 p.m. ET.
Cassie Ventura's testimony has concluded for the day, and her cross-examination is scheduled to begin on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Defense attorney Anna Estevo told Judge Arun Subramanian that the defense team expects their cross-examination will take all day tomorrow and likely go into Friday, but it should be completed by the end of the week.
Ventura has spent the last two days recounting the more than 10 years she spent in an on-and-off relationship with Sean "Diddy" Combs.
During Wednesday's testimony, Ventura described several violent situations she faced with Combs, including when he assaulted her in a hotel hallway in 2016 and the first time he beat her, sometime in 2007 or 2008. She testified that he pressured her into "hundreds" of drug-fueled sex performances known as "freak offs," which subsequently caused her to develop an addiction to opiates. Ventura recalled how she did not feel that she had the resources to leave Combs when she wanted to and did not feel safe asking her friends or family for help.
She also told the jury that Combs raped her after a dinner in 2018, at the end of their relationship, where they had what she'd interpreted as a "closure conversation."
The prosecution told Judge Arun Subramanian that it has no further questions for Cassie Ventura at this time.
Ventura concluded her direct testimony by estimating she had been in "hundreds" of "freak offs" during her relationship with Sean Combs and hasn't been involved in any since they broke up in 2018. She testified that she settled her lawsuit against Combs for $20 million.
While the prosecution has pushed for cross-examination to begin today, the judge has called for the defense to start questioning Ventura tomorrow.
After two days on the stand, Cassie Ventura finally broke down Wednesday afternoon while answering questions about why she decided to go to rehab and trauma therapy in 2023.
"I was spinning out," she said. "I didn't want to be alive anymore at that point."
Ventura said she decided to start writing a book about her relationship with Sean Combs after she went to rehab. She said her mom helped her write it.
"I really wanted Sean to read the information. I wanted him to understand what I had to learn to understand over that period," she said.
Editor's note: If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, you can dial or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org for free, confidential support.
Cassie Ventura testified that she agreed to see Sean Combs for dinner in Malibu, Calif., in August 2018 for what she thought was a "closure conversation" at the end of their relationship. Ventura said she had started seeing her now-husband, Alex Fine, around that time.
Ventura said Combs was playful and somewhat romantic during their dinner, and he drove her home.
"Then he raped me in my living room," she said. "I just remember crying and saying 'no,' but it was very fast."
She said she was consensually intimate with Combs once more after that, but the relationship officially ended around that time. Ventura said they had some sporadic contact afterward until March 2019, when Combs sent her a message that referred to "iPads full of skeletons," which she interpreted as referring to the sexual videos they had recorded.
As Cassie Ventura continues to testify about what she describes as Sean Combs's violence throughout their relationship, she noted his physical abuse was not limited to her.
She said she personally witnessed him assaulting his own employees and assistants, from punching one man in the head to dragging another woman, known in the trial as "Mia" or "Victim-4," out of bed during a trip.
Ventura said her friends weren't safe either. She said she watched Combs once attack a friend by holding her over a 17th-floor balcony — an incident that was mentioned in her 2023 civil lawsuit as well as a 2024 lawsuit filed by fashion designer Bryana "Bana" Bongolan. Ventura said she watched Combs hit one of her best friends with a wooden hanger in 2018, which ended their 17-year friendship.
In response to Sean Combs's reaction to Cassie Ventura dating Scott Mescudi, also known as rapper Kid Cudi, Ventura said she ended the relationship in early 2012.
"Too much danger, too much uncertainty of what could happen if we continued to see each other," she said.
Ventura testified that Combs had threatened to blow up Mescudi's car, hoping that Mescudi and his friends would be present when it happened. She mentioned the allegation in her 2023 lawsuit, claiming, "Around that time, Kid Cudi's car exploded in his driveway." Through a spokesperson, Mescudi told the New York Times that one of his cars did explode in early 2012. "This is all true," the spokesperson said.
The indictment from last year that led to Combs's arrest states he used arson to control victims.
In the courtroom, Ventura testified that the three met at the Soho House after she broke up with Mescudi. She said Mescudi asked, "What about my vehicle?" to which Combs replied, "What vehicle?"
Cassie Ventura testified that she went to see her mother in Connecticut in December 2011 after Sean Combs had allegedly beaten her and that her mom took photos of her bruises.
But during the same visit, Ventura said she lied to her mother by saying it was "the first time" she had been assaulted by Combs.
And Ventura said she had not told her mother about the "freak offs."
'I couldn't hurt her like that,' Ventura said. 'You can't justify it to anyone. Especially not your mom.'
Cassie Ventura testified that in late 2011, she met the rapper Kid Cudi (whose real name is Scott Mescudi) and they soon began dating.
When Sean Combs found out about her new relationship during one of their "freak offs," Ventura said he lunged at her with a wine bottle opener. She fled to another hotel and called Mescudi on a "burner" phone to pick her up.
She said Combs subsequently threatened to release two "freak off" videos and have someone "hurt" Ventura and Mescudi while he was out of the country.
Ventura sent an email to her mom and one of Combs's employees detailing the alleged threats.
Ventura said Combs became violent with her after a party at a Los Angeles nightclub in 2009 and started calling her names. She testified that she drunkenly punched him in the face after hearing him insult her — "as hard as you can hit somebody when you're drunk like that," she testified — and he responded by throwing her to the floor of the car and stomping on her face.
When they arrived at Combs's house, she tried to run away, but Combs's security staff caught her and brought her in. She said she did not recognize herself when she looked in the mirror.
She testified that Combs told her she needed to stay in a hotel with security to recover. She said she wanted to stay at Combs's house instead of a hotel, but he said no. She explained that even when she felt ready to leave the hotel after staying there for about a week, she felt like she couldn't.
"I didn't have the resources I needed to get out and move, to get out and not have anybody stop me," she said. "I understood Sean's capabilities, his access to guns and the threats that he made prior to that."
Ventura said she didn't feel comfortable potentially getting other people involved by telling them what was happening. She said her mom read a gossip item online about the nightclub incident and called Ventura to ask if it was her.
"I didn't tell my mom the truth because I was ashamed, but I also felt like at that point I didn't know what was going to happen," Ventura said. "I didn't want to put my mother in danger of knowing anything of that magnitude."
Cassie Ventura testified about the physical violence in her relationship with Combs, stating that the first incident was around 2007 or 2008. (The two first met in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37.) Ventura said she saw Combs flirting with someone else at a group dinner, and when they got into his car after the meal, she said "he knocked me around and was just really mean."
Ventura said Combs hit her on the side of the head, causing her to fall to the floor of the car in front of security staff and his driver.
"I was just shocked," she said.
Ventura said that she initiated some of the physical fights throughout their relationship, but she said Combs was never injured after those incidents. But when he got physical with her, she said she would get bruises and would sometimes hide out for days afterward.
She said that there were multiple employees who witnessed Combs's abuse, including members of his security team, his management team and his assistants. She testified that at least one assistant had told her that they quit because of how Combs treated her.