Latest news with #Offs'
The Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Trump: No requests to pardon Sean 'Diddy' Combs, but will look at the facts
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday that no one has asked him to pardon Sean 'Diddy' Combs but that he would look at the facts of the hip-hop mogul's case. Trump's comments at a White House news conference came as Combs attended the 13th day of testimony in the rapper's criminal sex trafficking trial. The Bad Boy Records founder has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. During a press conference at the White House, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Trump whether he would consider pardoning Combs, noting that the businessman-turned-politician said during a 2012 episode of his 'Celebrity Apprentice' reality show that he was friends with the rapper. 'Nobody's asked. You had to be the one to ask, Peter,' Trump said. 'I think some people have been very close to asking. First of all, I'd look at what's happening, and I haven't been watching it too closely although it's certainly getting a lot of coverage.' Since taking office on January 20, Trump has made extensive use of his power to pardon or commute the sentences of people accused of or convicted of federal crimes - a break with tradition as presidents normally wait until near the end of their terms before granting clemency. Trump, a Republican, said he had not seen or spoken to Combs in years. Combs could face life in prison if convicted on all counts. Also known throughout his career as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs is known for turning artists like Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige into stars. In the process, he elevated hip-hop in American culture and became a billionaire. The criminal charges filed last September, as well as dozens of civil lawsuits accusing Combs of sexual abuse, have left his reputation in tatters. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say Combs over two decades coerced women to take part in drug-fueled sexual performances known as 'Freak Offs' with male sex workers. Two women have testified that Combs had raped them. Combs' lawyers have acknowledged that he was at times abusive in romantic relationships, but argued that the women who took part in 'Freak Offs' did so consensually.
The Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Trump: No pardon request yet for Diddy, will review case
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday that no one has asked him to pardon Sean 'Diddy' Combs but that he would look at the facts of the hip-hop mogul's case. Trump's comments at a White House news conference came as Combs attended the 13th day of testimony in the rapper's criminal sex trafficking trial. The Bad Boy Records founder has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. During a press conference at the White House, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Trump whether he would consider pardoning Combs, noting that the businessman-turned-politician said during a 2012 episode of his 'Celebrity Apprentice' reality show that he was friends with the rapper. 'Nobody's asked. You had to be the one to ask, Peter,' Trump said. 'I think some people have been very close to asking. First of all, I'd look at what's happening, and I haven't been watching it too closely although it's certainly getting a lot of coverage.' Since taking office on January 20, Trump has made extensive use of his power to pardon or commute the sentences of people accused of or convicted of federal crimes - a break with tradition as presidents normally wait until near the end of their terms before granting clemency. Trump, a Republican, said he had not seen or spoken to Combs in years. Combs could face life in prison if convicted on all counts. Also known throughout his career as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs is known for turning artists like Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige into stars. In the process, he elevated hip-hop in American culture and became a billionaire. The criminal charges filed last September, as well as dozens of civil lawsuits accusing Combs of sexual abuse, have left his reputation in tatters. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say Combs over two decades coerced women to take part in drug-fueled sexual performances known as 'Freak Offs' with male sex workers. Two women have testified that Combs had raped them. Combs' lawyers have acknowledged that he was at times abusive in romantic relationships, but argued that the women who took part in 'Freak Offs' did so consensually.
India Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
Sean Diddy's ex-assistant accuses him of sexual assault in court testimony
Music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is facing fresh accusations of sexual assault as his high-profile federal trial for sex trafficking and racketeering continues in Manhattan. A second woman, a former personal assistant identified as 'Mia,' testified on Thursday that Combs raped her on at least two occasions during her time working for back tears, Mia recounted a harrowing incident in which she said Combs forced oral sex on her while she was frozen in fear. 'I just let it happen,' she said, describing the moment to a panel of jurors. She also claimed that Combs raped her while she slept, unable to Life in Prison Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to five federal charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking. Prosecutors allege he orchestrated a decades-long scheme involving coercion, drugs, and manipulation, forcing women into disturbing sexual situations referred to as 'Freak Offs' by male sex Combs has admitted to being abusive in past relationships, his legal team insists all sexual encounters were consensual. During Mia's testimony, Combs reportedly showed little emotion, occasionally passing notes to his Among Key WitnessesEarlier in the trial, singer Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura, Combs' ex-girlfriend, testified about the physical and emotional abuse she endured during their 11-year relationship. She accused Combs of raping her after their final breakup and said he used threats of exposing sex tapes to control her participation in the 'Freak Offs.'advertisementOther witnesses, including friends and industry insiders, painted a grim picture of Combs' inner circle. Dawn Richard, formerly of Danity Kane, testified that she felt intimidated by Combs' warning to stay silent. Rapper Kid Cudi also took the stand, stating his car was mysteriously set on fire in 2012 after Combs discovered his past relationship with is currently being held at a federal facility in Brooklyn. If convicted, he could face life imprisonment. The trial, now in its third week, has captured national attention due to Combs' immense influence in the music industry.(With inputs from Reuters)Trending Reel
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
Takeaways from Cassie Ventura's testimony in Sean ‘Diddy' Combs' racketeering trial
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you or someone you know is struggling with intimate partner violence, there are resources available, including the National Domestic Violence Hotline. 'The government calls Cassandra Ventura.' With those five words, the prosecution dove into the heart of the racketeering and sex trafficking case against Sean 'Diddy' Combs – the testimony of his former longtime girlfriend. Known as 'Victim 1' in the indictment and 'Cassie' in the music world, Ventura – who is pregnant and in her third trimester – took the stand Tuesday in what is likely to be several days of intense testimony. She was on the stand for about 4.5 hours Tuesday and is set to return Wednesday for further questioning. Prosecutors have said Combs and his inner circle used threats, violence, drugs, bribery, arson, kidnapping and lies to coerce Ventura and another woman into extended sexual performances known as 'Freak Offs' and to protect the music mogul's reputation. The defense acknowledged Combs has been violent with romantic partners and has a 'different' sex life. However, they argued the women consented to these sexual arrangements and evidence of domestic violence does not mean he committed racketeering or sex trafficking. Combs has pleaded not guilty to five counts including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to life in prison. Tuesday's highly anticipated testimony represented the first in-person meeting between Ventura and Combs in over six years. The pair first began dating around 2007 and went public with their relationship in 2012. They split in 2018. Ventura and Combs last saw each other in November 2018 at the funeral of Kim Porter, the actress who had three children with Combs, defense attorney Teny Geragos said in opening statements Monday. When Ventura entered the courtroom, she walked down the center aisle with her eyes facing forward. Wearing a brown dress, Ventura passed by the jury box to the witness stand. Combs turned around in his chair and watched her walk to her seat. She did not appear to make eye contact with him. Ventura, now 38, detailed how she and the now 55-year-old Combs – who she called 'Sean' – began dating nearly two decades ago. Ventura first met Combs when she was about 19 years old. She signed a contract with his company, Bad Boy Records, in early 2006, and they struck up a platonic relationship. After a boat party in Miami, their relationship became more intimate and sexual. 'I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time – just this exciting, entertaining, fun guy that also happened to have my career in his hands,' Ventura said. 'It felt special because not a lot of people got that time with him.' She said she soon fell in love with him and 'traveled with him everywhere…like (his) little shadow.' Over time, Ventura said she began to see Combs' more controlling and abusive qualities. 'Control was everything, from the way that I looked, to what I was working on that day, who I was speaking to,' she said. He had mood swings that led to physical abuse, she said. 'You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew, I was getting hit in the face,' she said. 'If I was a brat or something, he would let me know I needed to 'fix my face' or 'watch my mouth.'' If he disapproved of something she did, he directed his staff to take her belongings away, she said. He'd also kick her out of the house or her apartment that he was paying for, she testified. Ventura said some of her arguments with Combs became violent. 'He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down,' she said. She added she suffered injuries from the abuse, including knots on her forehead, busted lips, and 'bruises all over my body.' Asked how frequently he was physical with her, she responded, 'Too frequently.' Early in their relationship, Combs proposed the provocatively named 'Freak Offs' in which he would watch her have sex with another man while he pleasured himself, a form of sexual voyeurism, Ventura testified. Each 'Freak Off' would usually consist of two to three sexual sessions – each session lasting an hour to three hours – and could involve three or four different men, she explained. 'It's his fantasy. He was controlling the whole situation, he was directing it,' she said. The 'Freak Offs' became almost weekly, she testified, and stretched until 2017 or 2018. When Ventura 'gently' brought up not wanting to do them anymore, Combs was dismissive, she said. 'It got to a point where I just didn't feel like I had much of a choice, didn't really know what 'no' could be or what 'no' could turn into,' testified said. 'Sean controlled a lot of my life, whether it was (my) career, the way I dressed, like everything, everything. And I just didn't feel like I had much say in it at that time, being really super young, naive, total people pleaser,' she said. 'I didn't know if he would be upset enough to be violent or if he would write me off and just not want to be with me at all.' She testified she took 'all kinds' of drugs provided by Combs or his staff at the 'Freak Offs' as a way of dissociating and numbing herself. At a certain point, a 'big chunk of her life' was spent recovering from taking drugs and dehydration stemming from the 'Freak Offs,' she said. 'The 'Freak Offs' became a job, where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,' she said. Ventura stoically described the sexual acts that occurred during 'Freak Offs' but eventually broke down when she was asked how she felt about them. 'I felt disgusting, I was humiliated,' Ventura said. 'I didn't have the words to put together at the time how horrible I really felt, and I couldn't talk to anybody about it.' When asked what she enjoyed, if anything, about the 'Freak Offs,' Ventura broke down into tears. 'The time spent with him,' she said. 'As sad as it was, I thought that like it was (the) only time I could get.' The central evidence in the trial so far has been surveillance video showing Combs beating and kicking Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, and in court she offered more details on what led to that incident. At some point the 'Freak Off' turned violent, Ventura said. 'I'm not sure what happened, but I got hit by Sean and I had a black eye, and at that point all I could think about was getting out of there safely,' she said. The attack came after she attempted to leave a 'Freak Off' before it was 'over,' she testified. 'It got violent and I chose to leave,' Ventura said. 'Sean followed me into the hallway by the elevators, he grabbed me, threw me on the ground, kicked me, tried to drag me back to the room, took my stuff.' Ventura said she grabbed her belongings and 'ran out as fast as I could,' without putting her shoes on, while Combs was in the shower. She said he had beat her in that same way seen on the surveillance video 'too many (times) to count.' 'Are there occasions when you tried to fight back when Sean hit you?' the prosecutor asked. 'No,' Ventura said. Video of the attack was first published by CNN last year. The jury has viewed surveillance footage of the attack at least five times in the trial so far. Some of Ventura's testimony touched on the role that Combs' employees and staff played in the 'Freak Offs' – a key part of the prosecution's allegation that he and his inner circle constituted a criminal enterprise. She testified Combs' staff would sometimes book the hotel rooms for the 'Freak Offs,' and that Combs told her which escorts to hire. Ventura said he paid them in cash and facilitated the escorts' travel to wherever the couple was at the time. Ventura said she found the escorts online and then would show them to Combs for him to approve. Escorts were paid between $1,500 and $6,000 after the 'Freak Offs' in cash that was provided by Combs, she said. Some of the escorts participated in 'Freak Offs' in multiple states, according to Ventura. When she needed to fly in an escort for a 'Freak Off,' Ventura would tell Combs' travel agent to arrange travel for a new staff member, she testified. At Combs' direction, she purposely concealed the true reason for the travel request, Ventura said. 'It was important to Sean not to have (the escorts') identity known,' she said. She also said that Combs' staff would provide materials such as baby oil, Astroglide and condoms for the 'Freak Offs,' and when they ran out of lubricant, they'd call someone on Combs' staff or the hotel desk to bring more. Law enforcement discovered more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil in searches of Combs' homes last year, and Ventura explained the product's role in the 'Freak Offs.' 'If he felt like you were too dry, he'd let you know,' she said. 'He would say 'you were too dry you need to put more oil on,' or 'you need to be glistening.'' They used about 10 large bottles of baby oil each time. At one 'Freak Off' there was even an inflatable pool filled with baby oil, she testified, and Combs told her to get into the pool to cover herself in oil. Hotel rooms would typically be trashed after 'Freak Offs,' and many times one of Combs' staff members would go in and clean up, she said. The hotels often charged Combs for the damage, and she recalled hearing staff members take calls from hotels about it. The defense has said the case is really about jealousy, and Ventura admitted in her testimony she was 'insanely jealous' of Combs' other girlfriends. 'I didn't get that he was him – he was Puff Daddy, and Puff Daddy has many women,' Ventura said. 'He likes the company of women, and I had to just really learn that over time, despite what he would tell me just between us.' She continued, 'He made me feel like we were in a monogamous relationship more often than not. It was really me figuring out that we were not.' Ventura was not the only person to take the stand Tuesday. The day began with the continued cross-examination of Daniel Phillip, the 41-year-old who testified a day earlier that he was paid thousands of dollars on multiple occasions between 2012 and 2014 to have sex with Ventura while Combs watched and pleasured himself. Ventura appeared to be sober during these sexual encounters, except on one occasion when she was 'slumped over' on a couch, Phillip testified. In that instance, Combs stepped in and said they could not have sex, he said. Ventura testified later Tuesday that she usually took narcotics with Combs before an escort would join them. Phillip first took the stand Monday afternoon as the second witness in the government's case. CNN's Lisa Respers France and Elise Hammond contributed to this report.
TimesLIVE
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- TimesLIVE
Sean 'Diddy' Combs defence lawyers face uphill battle in bid to undermine accusers: analysts
Sean 'Diddy' Combs will argue at his sex trafficking trial beginning next week that women who took part in his elaborate sex parties did so willingly, but his lawyers will face an uphill battle trying to undermine the credibility of accusers who say the hip-hop mogul forced them to participate. Combs, a one-time billionaire known for elevating hip-hop in American culture in the 1990s and early 2000s, has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts including racketeering and sex trafficking. Prosecutors with the Manhattan US attorney's office say for two decades he used his business empire to lure women into his orbit with promises of romantic relationships or financial support and then used violence and threats to obligate them to take part in days-long, drug-fuelled sexual performances known as 'Freak Offs' with male sex workers. 'The defence has quite the uphill battle ahead,' said Heather Cucolo, a New York Law School professor. 'There was a clear power dynamic and that is going to be a main focus and a main issue.' Lawyers for Combs, 55, have said prosecutors are improperly trying to criminalise a consensual 'swingers' lifestyle in which he and his longtime girlfriends sometimes brought a third person into their relationships. Jury selection for his trial got under way on Monday, with opening statements scheduled for May 12. To persuade the jury, his lawyers will have to undermine the accounts of at least four women expected to testify that he coerced them into taking part in unwanted sex acts. Combs' lawyers have signalled they intend to argue the women had financial incentives to falsely accuse Combs of abuse. Other high-profile criminal defendants in sex abuse trials have deployed similar strategies in a #MeToo era that has encouraged victims to come forward. Many of these defendants, such as R&B singer R Kelly and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, have been convicted anyway. Combs' defence says it has evidence the accusers are not being candid. Defence lawyer Teny Geragos said at an April 14 court hearing one accuser, referred to in court papers as victim 4, had 'cherry-picked' material she chose to hand over to prosecutors, leaving out important context. At a November 22 2024 court hearing, defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo said another woman, referred to in the indictment as victim 1, had her lawyer ask another of Combs' lawyers for $30m (R548m) in exchange for not publishing a memoir. When the money did not materialise, she sued Combs in November 2023 and settled the case for an undisclosed amount, Agnifilo said, without naming the accuser. R&B vocalist Casandra Ventura, Combs' longtime former girlfriend who performs under the stage name Cassie, accused Combs of sex trafficking in a November 16 2023 lawsuit. The case was swiftly settled and terms were not disclosed. Combs denied the allegations. 'It's our defence to these charges that this was a toxic, loving, 11-year relationship,' Agnifilo said at the hearing last November. Combs faces a major obstacle: a hotel surveillance video prosecutors want to show the jury depicting Combs kicking and dragging a woman in a hallway. Prosecutors say the woman had been trying to leave a 'Freak Off' at a Los Angeles hotel in March 2016.
