NOTE: The next article accommodates disturbing particulars and video footage. Please learn at your individual discretion.
Because the intercourse trafficking trial for Sean “Diddy” Combs enters its third day, Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, took the stand Wednesday to renew her testimony after a day spent recounting grotesque and humiliating particulars of her life with him.
Ventura is taken into account a star witness for the prosecution and her testimony is especially beneficial. Combs was captured on safety video violently assaulting Ventura in a lodge hallway in 2016.
Ventura sued Combs in 2023, alleging years of rape and abuse. The swimsuit was settled inside hours, however was adopted by dozens of comparable authorized claims and touched off a felony investigation.
Throughout her first day of testimony, on the second day of the blockbuster trial, Ventura described being pressured into degrading sexual encounters with paid intercourse staff. She additionally recounted being crushed quite a few instances by Combs when she did issues that displeased him — like smiling at him the fallacious manner.
“You make the fallacious face and the subsequent factor I knew I used to be getting hit within the face,” she mentioned.
Ventura accused Combs of gaining her subservience by threatening to publicly launch movies of her with male intercourse staff.
Combs’ attorneys have acknowledged the rapper may very well be violent however preserve that the sexual acts had been consensual. They are saying nothing he did amounted to intercourse trafficking or racketeering (the fees he faces), however insisted he simply has distinctive sexual proclivities.
Day 3
Ventura returned to the witness stand shortly earlier than 10 a.m. on Wednesday throughout Combs’ sex-trafficking trial, answering questions posed by prosecutor Emily Johnson for a second day.
For a 3rd day in a row, the jury watched the lodge surveillance footage of Combs’ 2016 assault on Ventura however the video had no sound. She mentioned she recalled Combs throwing a vase with flowers in it.
“I didn’t get hit. I bear in mind it hitting the wall. He was yelling at me and threw it at me,” she mentioned.
Ventura mentioned that as she was attempting to depart the lodge, Combs informed her “that I wasn’t going to depart him there. That I couldn’t.”
The prosecution confirmed two pictures of Ventura following the lodge assault and textual content messages between the previous couple.
Ventura mentioned that she took selfies on her Uber experience away from the lodge. She had a swollen lip and testified that beneath her sun shades, she had a black eye.
Combs texted Ventura after the assault and mentioned, “the cops are right here,” begging her to name him. In response to Combs, Ventura mentioned that she had a film premiere for “the most important factor I’ve ever finished in my life” and now she had a “fats lip” and black eye.
“Please keep distant from me,” she texted him.
Ventura mentioned Combs claimed police had been about to arrest him and informed her if she didn’t reply his telephone calls she’d “by no means hear my voice once more.”
Ventura’s buddy referred to as the police following the assault they usually confirmed as much as her condo to query her, however she mentioned that she didn’t wish to say who assaulted her.
“Did you wish to shield Sean?” Johnson requested.
“Yeah, after all,” Enterprise replied. “In that second, I didn’t wish to harm him that manner. I wasn’t prepared.”
Ventura mentioned that after the assault, Combs confirmed as much as her condo and she or he heard “chaos exterior of the door” together with “banging, kicking, yelling.”
She mentioned that she went to the house of one in every of Combs’ safety guards, D-Roc, not too lengthy after the assault “to really feel protected.” She then went to Combs’ home to do a becoming for her upcoming transfer premiere for a romantic comedy she starred in referred to as The Excellent Match.
The premiere came about two days after the lodge assault and the jury was proven a photograph of Combs and Ventura on the afterparty. She identified bruises on her physique that had been seen within the pictures and mentioned she was unable to cowl up all of the injury with make-up.
The prosecution confirmed a 2016 textual content message from Combs to Ventura in regards to the freak-offs. He proposed they’ve a “correct” freak-off with out the drug ketamine concerned.
In a textual content message, he wrote {that a} “profitable” freak-off was “after we bear in mind.”
“I gained’t deliver up once more till you might be in that temper,” he wrote.
Ventura informed the courtroom ketamine was her most popular drug in the course of the freak-offs as a result of “it was very dissociative.”
She then mentioned how movies of the freak-offs had been became “blackmail supplies.” She mentioned that when Combs was indignant along with her, he usually reminded her of the sexually specific movies he had saved.
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“One time I dated another person and that’s what it was all about — ‘I’m going to place out two embarrassing movies of you,’” she mentioned, including that she believed Combs “simply needed to harm me.”
She mentioned the movies may smash every thing she’d labored for and “make me appear to be a slut.”
“I feared for my profession. I feared for my household. It’s simply embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting. Nobody ought to try this to anybody,” she mentioned.
In a 2013 textual content message, she wrote to Combs: “Please delete any video out of your iPhone when you have. Too many ppl have entry to your stuff.”
Combs informed her that he had deleted them however there have been instances of their relationship that she mentioned she noticed the movies he claimed to have deleted.
When Johnson requested Ventura if she ever tried to struggle again when Combs picked a struggle along with her, she mentioned she tried earlier of their relationship however discovered “it may escalate the struggle extra, make it worse for myself.”
Ventura testified that she had an “off-and-on” dependancy to opiates. She mentioned she took them to come back down off occasion medication, together with ecstasy, which she mentioned she’d use throughout freak-offs.
“Opiates made me really feel numb, which is why I relied on them so closely,” she informed the courtroom, including, “I didn’t wish to really feel what was really happening in my thoughts, in my life, in actual time. It was simply an escape for me.”
She additionally testified that she had persistent urinary tract infections (UTIs) when she and Combs had been having freak-offs. She mentioned she would proceed to participate within the freak-offs regardless of the infections, calling the ache “horrible.”
In one other textual content message between Ventura and Combs, she informed him that she had sores on her tongue. Ventura informed the courtroom that she thought the sores had been from taking medication and performing oral intercourse in the course of the freak-offs.
Combs responded to Ventura, writing, “I’m sorry.”
After freak-offs, Ventura mentioned, she felt emotionally “simply actually empty and I felt gross.” She additionally mentioned she “felt like I did my job.”
Ventura mentioned that Combs would “put his arms on me” throughout freak-offs with different male escorts.
“He would seize me up. Push me down. Hit me within the facet of the pinnacle. Kick me. You title it,” Ventura mentioned.
On one event in 2013, whereas packing to go to Drake’s OVO music pageant in Toronto, Ventura mentioned Combs “attacked” her buddies and threw her right into a mattress body.
She mentioned when Combs went to “assault” her, her buddies “jumped on his again.”
Enterprise mentioned she suffered a “fairly important gash” above her left eye, and Combs’ safety introduced her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills to get the wound stitched up.
She texted Combs a photograph of her damage after and wrote: “So you’ll be able to bear in mind.”
“You don’t know when to cease. You pushed it too far. And continued to push. Unhappy,” Combs replied.
Ventura mentioned that she has a everlasting scar on her eyebrow from the 2013 altercation.
She additionally spoke about attending the Cannes Movie Pageant in 2013 and revealed that Combs had kicked her off the yacht they had been staying on after getting right into a struggle.
Combs accused Ventura of taking medication from him and made her go away the boat with out footwear, her passport and different belongings.
She mentioned she ended up staying at a lodge the place Combs’ staff had been staying.
She testified that once they had been on a aircraft coming back from the pageant, Combs pulled up freak-off movies on his laptop computer and informed her that he was going to “embarrass” her “and launch them.”
“I simply felt trapped,” she informed the courtroom.
After the aircraft landed in New York, she mentioned, Combs mentioned he needed to have a freak-off.
“At that time, no matter was going to make him not be indignant at me and threatening me, I used to be keen to do,” she mentioned. “I simply didn’t wish to really feel scared anymore. It was the one factor he made me really feel like I used to be good at.”
Ventura learn a textual content message she despatched to Combs in 2017, through which she wrote that “nothing good” comes out of the freak-offs.
“You deal with me such as you’re Ike Turner,” she wrote, referring to Tina Turner’s former husband, who was bodily abusive in the direction of the singer.
Cassie Ventura, proper, walks out of the courtroom previous Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs after testifying in Manhattan federal courtroom, Tuesday, Could 13, 2025, in New York.
Elizabeth Williams by way of AP
There was dialogue between prosecutors and the choose about exhibiting sealed proof to solely the jurors, attorneys and Ventura whereas utilizing privateness screens.
The prosecutor mentioned movies of Ventura concerned in sexual conditions wouldn’t be proven throughout direct examination nevertheless it’s unclear whether or not the defence will present the footage.
Ventura was proven 5 pictures from freak-offs that solely she and the jury may see.
In one of many pictures, Ventura recognized a future witness for the prosecution who has been known as “Mia,” however is listed in courtroom paperwork as “Sufferer-4.”
Ventura additionally recognized pictures of herself having sexual contact with “Jules,” “Dave” and “Greg,” three of the escorts she has referred to in her testimony.
She mentioned the pictures had been taken from movies that had been saved on an digital machine that she thought was damaged, however was turned over to the federal government as proof.
Ventura mentioned that a number of staff of Combs witnessed him abusing her over the course of their relationship. She testified that one assistant informed her they stop due to the way in which Combs handled her.
She conceded that she initiated bodily fights with Combs at instances throughout their relationship, however claimed he was not injured throughout these fights. Ventura added that when Combs was bodily along with her, there could be bruises that might require her to cover out with a purpose to stop anybody from seeing them.
Cassie Ventura wipes tears from her eye whereas testifying in Manhattan federal courtroom, Tuesday, Could 13, 2025, in New York.
Elizabeth Williams by way of AP
Ventura additionally spoke in regards to the first time Combs bodily abused her, after she witnessed him flirting with another person at a bunch dinner in 2007 or 2008. She mentioned she shrugged her shoulders when any individual else who noticed it checked out her.
She mentioned once they acquired into his Escalade after the dinner, “he knocked me round and was simply actually imply.” She added that he hit her within the facet of the pinnacle, which despatched her flying onto the ground of the car.
“I used to be simply shocked,” she added.
When recounting one other time she was crushed by Combs, she recalled hiding out at a lodge for every week so her wounds may heal. She mentioned she needed to go to her mom’s home however knew she was not allowed.
“It wouldn’t be protected. I understood Sean’s capabilities, his entry to weapons, the threats he made previous to that. I used to be privy,” she informed the courtroom.
Ventura additionally spoke about an incident in 2011 when Combs found that she had begun courting rapper Child Cudi, whose actual title is Scott Mescudi.
Scott ‘Child Cudi’ Mescudi attends Critics Selection Affiliation’s fifth Annual Celebration Of Black Cinema & Tv at Fairmont Century Plaza on December 05, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Pictures for Critics Selection Affiliation
Combs went by means of Ventura’s telephone throughout a freak-off and lunged at her with a “wine bottle opener” after he learn textual content messages between the 2.
Ventura and Mescudi. She mentioned that Combs threatened to harm her and Mescudi, in addition to launch two freak-off movies.
Ventura mentioned Combs “attacked” her at his dwelling and when she returned to her lodge room, it had been trashed, with urine and feces strewn within the lavatory.
She informed the jury that she finally went to see her mom in Connecticut, the place she allowed her to take pictures of the bruises on her decrease again and proper thigh.
“I consider I informed her this was the primary time, and I didn’t inform her in regards to the freak-offs,” Ventura mentioned, including that she felt she couldn’t “justify it to anybody, particularly not your mother.”
Ventura grew to become emotional and requested a break after talking about mendacity to her mom.
When she returned to the stand after a 10-minute break, Ventura testified that she ended issues with Mescudi following Combs’ threats in opposition to them on the finish of 2011.
“An excessive amount of hazard, an excessive amount of uncertainty of what may occur if we continued to see one another,” she mentioned.
Ventura mentioned that Combs threatened to explode Mescudi’s automotive and that he needed Mescudi’s buddies to be there when it occurred.
The courtroom was proven a close-up image of Ventura’s eyebrow and black eye. When requested who gave her the black eye, Ventura responded: “Sean.”
Combs didn’t need his household to see Ventura after she had sustained any accidents, she mentioned.
“He informed me to ensure his son couldn’t see me like that, the bruises on my face,” Ventura mentioned.
As she continued her testimony about notable acts of violence she mentioned she witnessed, Ventura introduced up an incident the place she mentioned she noticed Combs maintain one in every of her buddies over a balcony railing at her Los Angeles condo.
On one other event, she mentioned, she noticed him hit a distinct buddy — with whom she had been near for 17 years — within the head with a wood hanger.
“It simply ended our friendship,” Ventura mentioned, including that she hasn’t spoken to her since.
She additionally testified that her life reached a climatic second in early 2023 when she had “horrible flashbacks” as she was capturing a music video.
She mentioned she later informed her husband at dwelling that “you are able to do this with out me. You don’t want me right here anymore.”
She mentioned she couldn’t take the ache anymore and “tried to stroll out the entrance door into visitors and my husband wouldn’t let me.”
Weeks later, she was present process rehab and trauma remedy.
Requested why she was testifying at Combs’ felony trial, she mentioned: “I can’t carry this anymore. I can’t carry the disgrace, the guilt.”
What he’s on trial for
U.S. prosecutors allege that for 20 years, behind the scenes, Combs was coercing and abusing girls with assist from a community of associates who helped silence victims by means of blackmail and violence.
Combs faces an indictment that features descriptions of freak-offs, that are outlined within the courtroom doc as “elaborate and produced intercourse performances that Combs organized, directed, masturbated throughout, and sometimes electronically recorded.”
Quite a few witnesses have come ahead to accuse Combs of terrorizing folks into silence by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, based on prosecutors. One indictment alleges that Combs dangled somebody from a balcony.
Though dozens of women and men have alleged in lawsuits that Combs abused them, this trial will spotlight the claims of 4 girls.
Combs is charged with intercourse trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. He has denied all the fees in opposition to him and has rejected a plea deal, selecting to go to trial as an alternative.
If discovered responsible within the New York courtroom, he may face life in jail.
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World Information will likely be masking the Diddy trial in its entirety. Please examine again for updates.
— With information from World Information’ Michelle Butterfield and The Related Press
