WARNING: This story contains allegations of sexual violence and may affect those who have experienced it or know someone affected by it.
Prosecutors in the sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of hip hop mogul Sean (Diddy) Combs have rested their case after calling 34 witnesses to testify over the course of more than six weeks.
The music mogul is charged with leveraging his status to coerce women — including his ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie — into abusive sexual encounters and using violence if they refused.
Prosecutors have cited drug-fuelled multi-day events that Combs referred to as “freak-offs” as evidence of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
They argued Combs relied on employees, associates and his business accounts to fly male sex workers to Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, where his staff set up hotel rooms for the encounters and cleaned up afterward.
Later in the afternoon, the defence rested without calling any witnesses.
Combs’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian to toss out the charges, arguing they weren’t proven. The judge said he’ll rule at a later date.
The 55-year-old rapper, producer and founder of Bad Boy Entertainment has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges in the trial. He did not testify in his own defence and his legal team chose not to call any of their own witnesses.
He has been jailed since his arrest in September. If convicted, he could get at least 15 years and up to life in prison.
Closing arguments were tentatively scheduled to begin on Thursday.
Here are some of the key moments from the trial.
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Combs’s decision not to testify
After prosecutors rested, Subramanian directly questioned Combs about his decision not to testify, standard practice at federal criminal trials, in part to ensure the defendant knows it’s his decision, regardless of what his lawyers have told him.
The judge asked Combs how he was doing.
“I’m doing great, your honour,” he answered. “I want to tell you thank you, you’re doing an excellent job.”
Combs said he “thoroughly” discussed the matter with his lawyers before deciding not to testify and said it was “solely my decision.”
He further clarified: “It’s my decision with my lawyers.”
Cassie feared Combs would release freak-off videos
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, was the prosecution’s star witness and testified over four days in the first week of the trial.
The 38-year-old said Combs dictated every aspect of the freak-off events.
She said Combs asked her to perform degrading and painful sex acts with male sex workers and that she was doing freak-offs weekly for a decade, with the final one taking place in 2017 or 2018.
She said though she loathed having drugged-up sex with strangers, she couldn’t reject Combs’s demands because he would make her “look like a slut” by releasing recordings of the freak-offs.
She testified she sometimes took IV fluids to recover and eventually developed an opioid addiction because it made her “feel numb.”
Combs’s lawyers sought to show the jury that Cassie was a willing participant in his sexual lifestyle and say that, while he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise.
WARNING: This video may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it. | Cassie, the R&B singer whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, testified for a second day at her ex-boyfriend Sean (Diddy) Combs’s sex trafficking trial on Wednesday, saying the music mogul locked her into a life of physical abuse by threatening to release degrading sexual videos of her.
‘Jane’ participated in freak-offs to please Combs
Another former girlfriend, testifying under the pseudonym Jane, fought through tears and sobs to recount frequent sexual performances she participated in with male sex workers to please Combs and keep their three-year relationship alive until his September arrest.
Jane, who testified for six days over the last week of the trial, said she never wanted to have sex with other men but did to please Combs because she loved him.
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Jane described having nearly the same experiences Cassie did from 2021 until last August, though she called them “hotel nights.”
She said her relationship with Combs began with romance but later became reliant upon the sexual performances, especially after Combs began paying her rent.
The defence has insisted Jane and Combs only engaged in consensual sex and that Jane’s protests to Combs in text messages were fuelled by jealousy.
Kid Cudi recounts car being set on fire
Rapper Kid Cudi testified that Combs broke into his Hollywood Hills home in 2011 after finding out he was dating Cassie, and that someone set fire to his car weeks later.
He said he took Cassie to a West Hollywood hotel when he got a call from Combs’s assistant, Capricorn Clark, who told him Combs and an associate were in his house and that they’d forced her to go with them.
Cudi — whose given name is Scott Mescudi — said he called Combs and asked why he was in his house. He said Combs calmly replied, “I want to talk to you.”
But Cudi said Combs wasn’t there when he arrived and that he called police.
A few weeks later, Cudi testified, his Porsche 911 convertible was destroyed by fire while parked in his driveway.
Photos shown to the jury showed a hole cut in the car’s fabric roof. A Molotov cocktail was found on the passenger seat, Cudi said.
Former aide says Combs kidnapped, threatened to kill her
Days later, Clark testified Combs waved a gun as he kidnapped her in an angry rush to find Cudi.
Clark recounted how they rode in a black Cadillac Escalade to Cudi’s Los Angeles home, where Combs and his bodyguard entered the residence.
After the break-in, Clark testified Combs told her she had to convince Cudi that he wasn’t involved, telling her, “If you don’t convince him of that, I’ll kill all you,” punctuating his threat with an expletive.
Rapper Kid Cudi testified at the Sean (Diddy) Combs trial about his car being set on fire in 2011 after a confrontation with Combs over his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. Combs has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Cassie’s friend says Combs hung her over balcony
The court also heard accusations of other violent behaviour.
Bryana Bongolan, Cassie’s friend, testified that Combs held her over a 17th-floor balcony of Cassie’s Los Angeles apartment.
Bongolan said she feared she would plummet to her death as she pushed back against Combs.
Combs was yelling at her throughout the ordeal, Bongolan said, estimating he held her over the railing for 10 to 15 seconds.
Combs feared video of Cassie assault would ‘ruin career’
The court heard how Combs paid a hotel security officer to hand over surveillance footage that showed him violently attacking Cassie in a hallway.
Eddy Garcia, who had worked at a Los Angeles InterContinental hotel, testified on June 3 that Combs contacted him shortly after the incident and asked for the footage. Garcia said Combs told him he would “take care” of him if he gave Combs the video.
Jurors had previously been shown a March 2016 surveillance video from the hall of the hotel where Combs, wearing only a towel, threw Cassie to the ground, kicked her and dragged her away.
“He was concerned that this video would get out and that it would ruin his career,” said Garcia, who was granted immunity from prosecution to testify.
Garcia said that when he told his boss what Combs said about the video, he said Combs could have it in exchange for $50,000. The boss gave Garcia a USB drive with the footage to give to Combs. When Garcia gave it to him, Combs returned with a brown bag and a money counter.
CNN got access to the video and aired it last year, leading Combs to apologize.
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Support is available for anyone who has been sexually assaulted. You can access crisis lines and local support services through this Government of Canada website or the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
