Latest news with #celebrityTestimony
Fox News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Whitney Houston, Mike Myers name-dropped in Diddy's high-profile sex trafficking trial
Celebrities continue to be name-dropped during explosive testimony in Sean "Diddy" Combs' trial. Whitney Houston, Mike Myers and Mariah Carey are a few A-list stars who came up during testimony in the third week of Diddy's sex trafficking and racketeering trial. The testimony in the 55-year-old music producer's trial began May 12. The disgraced music mogul appeared in court to sit through testimony from another alleged victim, "Mia," his former assistant Capricorn Clark and celebrity stylist Deonte Nash. Here's a look at the celebrities mentioned in court this week. Diddy's former executive assistant, Capricorn Clark, mentioned both Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey during her testimony in the sex trafficking trial. Capricorn claimed she thought Cassie was talented but was more of a studio artist. "Why do you think she just had talent as opposed to being very talented?" Diddy's lawyer asked the ex-assistant. "Um, talented to me is Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey," Capricorn said. "Very talented is that level of performer, entertainer. Cassie was more of a studio artist." Capricorn described a studio artist as "a little bit more comfortable in the vocal booth to have a little bit of things equalized for you and, you know, engineered properly. Less of a live performer." Diddy's alleged victim, who has been allowed to testify under the pseudonym "Mia," testified she previously worked for Mike Myers. "What did you do for Mike Myers?" the prosecution asked in court. "I was his personal assistant," Mia replied. Myers was also a celebrity name mentioned during jury questioning ahead of the trial. Myers' "Austin Powers" features a joke about the disgraced rapper. Prior to working with Mike Meyers, "Mia," the alleged victim who worked for Diddy from 2009 until 2017, also worked as a personal assistant for fashion designer Georgina Chapman. "Who were Georgina's Chapman's clients?" the prosecution asked during direct examination. Mia answered, "It was all like red-carpet celebrity dressing." Chapman was previously married to Harvey Weinstein, who is facing a rape retrial in New York, from 2007 until 2021. Chapman filed for divorce in 2017 after multiple women came forward accusing Weinstein of sexual misconduct. Chapman is the co-founder of the fashion brand Marchesa and has been dating actor Adrien Brody since 2020. Musicians Nas and Kelis were mentioned during Diddy's ex-assistant's testimony. Capricorn Clark claimed Diddy took her to Central Park and threatened to kill her after he learned she had previously worked for Suge Knight. "Did you ever walk in Central Park other than that one time with Mr. Combs?" Diddy's defense asked during the cross-examination. "Earlier that day," she said. "We, he was giving me the run of the, you know, run of show, what the job would be like. And we walked from the east side of the park to the west side of the park, and we ran into Nas and Kelis in the middle of the park." Diddy's former stylist, Deonte Nash, mentioned rapper French Montana during his cross-examination. When asked who was signed by Bad Boy Records while he worked for Diddy, Nash replied, "Um French Montana." "Wait. French Montana, the hip-hop person, rap star?" Diddy's defense lawyer asked. "Yes. I mean, and Puff. That's all I can really remember right now," Nash added. During celebrity stylist Deonte Nash's cross-examination, he told the jury about a mixtape he helped Cassie Ventura produce in 2013, "RockaByeBaby." Nash testified there was a team behind the mixtape. He confirmed that he did not get paid to work on the tape. "No one got paid for the mixtape," he said. Nash testified that A-list rappers were on Cassie's mixtape. Rick Ross, Wiz Khalifa, Meek Mill and other well-known artists were featured, according to Diddy's former stylist. The celebrity stylist, who also worked with Cassie, told the jury Diddy threatened not to release the "Me & U" singer's mixtape. "He told her that one time if she keep — if she keeps having a smart-a - mouth, her little mixtape won't be coming out," Nash testified.
Fox News
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Celebrities reportedly lawyering up to avoid testifying in Diddy's sex trafficking trial
Some celebrities are reportedly worried about being called to testify in the Sean "Diddy" Combs sex trafficking trial and have hired lawyers. "I have heard that there are some celebrities worried about being called to testify and have even lawyered up trying to fight that," TMZ founder Harvey Levin tells Fox News Digital. "I think [rapper Kid] Cudi and Cassie were the star witnesses, but I don't know who else the prosecution has up their sleeve," Levin said. "I don't know what's going on behind the scenes there, but they've got four weeks left of testimony before they hand it over to the defense. We will see. But what they clearly are doing is cobbling together what they claim is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he has committed these various crimes." Levin didn't detail which celebrities might be called to testify. Diddy's ex, Cassie, rapper Kid Cudi and singer Dawn Richard have already taken the stand. The rapper went on trial this month after being charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution. On Wednesday, arson investigator Lance Jimenez, who investigated the car fire that damaged Kid Cudi's Porsche beyond repair in 2012, and Diddy's former stylist both testified. Jimenez testified he believed the Porsche was targeted after Kid Cudi's testimony that he thinks Diddy was involved in setting the car on fire. Kid Cudi had been dating Cassie at the time, while she was on a break from Diddy. Jimenez told the jury he believed someone lit a Molotov cocktail and dropped it into the cut-open roof of Kid Cudi's car. He said he tried unsuccessfully to reach Diddy's assistant at the time about the vandalism. The assistant testified she hung up on him because she "wanted this whole thing to be over." Jimenez also tried to reach Cassie. According to Jimenez, no charges were brought in the car fire case, but he never closed the case. It is currently listed as "inactive." Following Jimenez, Diddy's former stylist, Deonte Nash, testified that he witnessed the rapper threaten Cassie often, calling her names like "b----" and "s---" and allegedly warning that he would "beat her a--." "I have heard that there are some celebrities worried about being called to testify and have even lawyered up trying to fight that." He claimed he also saw Diddy hit her more than once, including a time when he came over to her house unannounced and allegedly beat her until she was bloody, telling her, "Look what you all made me do." Nash also testified that Diddy once choked him, accusing him of going out with Cassie without his permission. The prosecution has been focused on Cassie in the Diddy trial so far, which experts previously told Fox News Digital is their "star witness." Levin told Fox News Digital if the jury believes Cassie's earlier testimony that Diddy showed her a sex video from a "freak off" he filmed while on an airplane returning to New York from Cannes, threatening to release it unless she did another freak off with him in New York, "I think they could nail him certainly as it pertains to Cassie because that clearly would show coercion." He added, "So, I think Diddy has a big problem there if the jury believes it. Diddy also has a problem with the interstate transportation of sex workers, I think." But Levin said he wasn't clearly seeing proof of racketeering. "When you look at all of the things he did, he's burglarizing Kid Cudi's house and going not for money or drugs or jewelry or anything like that. He is going for the Christmas present that he was going to give Cassie, and then he torches Cudi's car, and then makes threats against her mother. This feels like a crazed, criminal, jealous boyfriend," Levin said. "And I don't think it necessarily shows him to be a racketeer." Levin said Diddy did allegedly use his employees to do "various things, but usually when you talk about racketeering and organized crime, you're talking about having an undercover illegal business, selling drugs, running guns, doing hits on people. He's not selling drugs. He's using people to help him buy drugs. That, to me, is not racketeer. So I have a feeling. At least at this point, the jury isn't sold on that."
