Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ sex trafficking trial: Cassie takes the stand

FILE – Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean “Diddy” Combs appear at the premiere of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story” on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, took the witness stand in his sex trafficking trial on Tuesday, a day after prosecutors showed jurors video of the music mogul beating her in a hotel in 2016.

Testimony in the trial began Monday. Prosecutors told jurors that, for years, Combs used his status as a powerful executive to coerce women into abusive sexual encounters and became violent if they refused.

Here’s the latest:

Prosecutor emphasizes Combs’ alleged involvement

As she questioned Cassie, prosecutor Emily Johnson returned again and again to a simple, but important question: Whose decision was it?
“Sean,” Cassie replied each time, referring to Combs.

It was his decision, she said, to involve her in “freak offs,” to incorporate baby oil and male sex workers, to pour candle wax on her body, and more.

Each ‘freak off’ involved about 10 large bottles of Johnson’s brand baby oil, Cassie says Cassie said the “freak offs” were a “very choreographed experience,” with lots of baby oil.

The substance would be heated up — a closed bottle placed in a sink filled with hot water — and applied liberally because Combs wanted her glistening constantly, she said.

Combs would call out Cassie when she “looked dry” and ordered her to reapply, sometimes requiring a new coat of baby oil every five minutes, or so, she said.

On one occasion, she said, a blow-up pool of baby oil and lubricants was placed in a hotel room and she was told to get inside in her “outfit” and shoes.

She said close to 10 large bottles of baby oil would be used during a “freak off.”

“It was such a mess,” she said. “It was like, ‘What are we doing?'”

Cassie says Combs was ‘really happy’ with her after her first ‘freak off’

Cassie testified that her first “freak off” occurred in Combs’ Los Angeles home when she was 22, around 2008. She said a male Las Vegas stripper came to the home, just months after Combs told her about his interest in voyeurism.
Cassie said she felt a mix of emotions when they were finished — dirty and confused, but also relief that Combs was “really happy with me” that “I did something right.”

She said she felt obligated to go along with future “freak offs.”

“I just didn’t want to make him upset. I just didn’t want to make him angry and regret telling me about this experience that was so personal.”

Asked if there was anything she enjoyed about “freak offs,” an emotional Cassie said: “the time spent with him.”

Wiping away tears, she explained that those encounters provided some of the only one-on-one time she had with Combs.

Soon, she said, she was doing “freak offs” weekly. The final one, she said, occurred in 2017 or 2018.

Cassie says she saw Combs and his bodyguard grab guns to confront Suge Knight

Cassie recalled an incident in which Combs left her during a “freak off” at his Los Angeles home to confront rival record executive Suge Knight at Mel’s Drive-In, a landmark diner nearby.

Combs sprang into action after his bodyguard came in and told him of Knight’s whereabouts, she said. Combs and the bodyguard dressed in black clothes, grabbed guns from a safe and loaded into an SUV, she said.

“I was crying. I was screaming, like ‘Please don’t do anything stupid,'” Cassie testified. “I was really nervous for them. I didn’t know what they were going to do.”

She said, “It’s like I wasn’t even there.”

Cassie said Combs later returned, but she didn’t say if he told her what happened. It’s unclear if he ended up encountering Knight at the diner.

Before the break, Cassie testified about her music career and unreleased material

Before the trial paused for a 40-minute lunch break, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson pressed Cassie to explain what happened to her music career and the nine albums that were never released.

Cassie said she created hundreds of songs, some of which were released on the internet prior to “proper release and some just didn’t see the light of day.” Cassie testified that much of her week went toward the “freak offs.”

“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.

Just before the break, Cassie testified the longest ‘freak off’ she was involved in lasted four days

“The freak offs became a job,” she said, noting that other encounters took anywhere from 36 or 48 hours. The marathon sessions frequently required periods of recovery from dehydration, fatigue and drug use, she said.

Prosecutors delved deeper into the control Cassie says Combs exerted over her

She noted that the rap star paid her rent at apartments close to his residences in New York and later Los Angeles, had his own sets of keys and made “a lot of unannounced visits.”

Cassie said that as a birthday present, Combs rented her a Manhattan apartment a few blocks from where he lived. Another apartment Combs rented for Cassie in Los Angeles was just a three-minute drive from his home and he’d sometimes drive a golf cart to get from one residence to the other.

Cassie testifies she was ‘insanely jealous’ at the beginning of her relationship with Combs

Jealousy was cited during opening statements Monday as a source of much of the conflict between Combs and Cassie. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson elicited from Cassie that she and Combs were seeing other people at times.

In the beginning, Cassie said, she was “insanely jealous.” She said that resulted from being “super young.”

“I didn’t get that he was him. As he would say, ‘I’m Puff Daddy. Puff Daddy has many rules. Likes the company of women,'” she recalled.

She said that as time passed, she came to believe “more often than not” that they were in a monogamous relationship. “He expected that of me so I assumed it was the same.”

She said Combs told her: “I’m not dealing with anyone else. It’s just us.”

Over time, Cassie testified, Combs became increasingly controlling and sometimes was violent

She said Combs would get abusive over the smallest perceived slights — if she wasn’t smiling at him the way he wanted, or if he thought she was acting like a brat.

“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she said.

Cassie said that if she didn’t respond to his call right away, there would be incessant calls until she did and Combs’ staff, including security workers, would join in the pursuit.

As Cassie testified, the prosecution introduced photos of her and Combs at events in the mid-2000s

The numerous photographs included a photograph of the boat in Miami. Another photograph depicted the fledgling couple at a strip club in New York on Halloween 2007, shortly after the trip to Miami. Another picture showed them in the back of a car at the beginning of their relationship, Combs arm wrapped around her.

“I was just enamored by him. We were just having a good time. It was really fun, at this point,” she said.

Cassie noted that, early on in their relationship, they weren’t public about it. She said Combs had expressed concerns about perceptions, given that his company was also producing her music.

Having sex with Combs for the first time felt like a turning point for Cassie, she testified

After that, she said, she felt closer to the rapper and producer, started spending more time with him, and thought, at the time, that they were in a monogamous relationship.

In hindsight, she said, she knows that wasn’t the case. Asked why, she responded: “Sean Combs had many girlfriends.”

After Vegas trip, Cassie says Combs invited her to hotels

After the Las Vegas trip, Cassie said, she was invited by Combs to hotels in New York where they’d talk about music projects and albums.

When Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson asked what else happened at hotels, Cassie took a deep breath and said she was introduced to the “idea of oral sex” at the hotels.

Cassie also noted that Combs is 17 years older than her and that she was “sexually inexperienced” when they first got together.

She said she eventually had sex with Combs on a boat during a trip to Miami. She said she had wine in the afternoon and then Combs introduced her to ecstasy for the first time.

Cassie talks about Combs kissing her during a 21st birthday trip

After touching on the violence and “freak offs” that are central to the federal charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson returned to eliciting biographical and historical information about Cassie, including when she first signed to Bad Boy Records in early 2006.

She said her interactions with Combs, who owned the label, were platonic at first. But then he kissed her during her 21st birthday trip to Las Vegas in the bathroom of his hotel suite. “I was just really confused at the time,” she said. “And young.”

‘I just didn’t know. I didn’t know what would happen’

Elaborating on why she felt it was so difficult to refuse Combs’ demands, Cassie reiterated her fears of violence and blackmail videos from “freak offs” being disseminated on the internet.

“Sean is a really polarizing person, also really charming,” Cassie said. “It’s hard to really be able to decide in that moment what you need when he’s telling you what he wants. I just didn’t know. I didn’t know what would happen.”

Cassie, noticeably pregnant on the witness stand, was emotional from the start

She would take deep breaths and sometimes paused as she spoke.

When the prosecutor questioned her about “freak offs,” she said she was barely 22 when Combs first asked her to do them. She said she was “confused, nervous, but also loved him very much.”

Asked how she felt when Combs first proposed engaging in a “freak off,” Cassie said: “I just remember my stomach falling to my butt. Just the nervousness and confusion in that moment.”

She said she didn’t feel like she could say no to Combs because she “didn’t know what ‘no’ could be, or what ‘no’ could turn into,” which she said she learned could include violence and blackmail threats.

“Sean controlled a lot of my life, whether it was career, the way I dressed, everything, everything. I just didn’t have much say in it at the time,” Cassie testified.

Early in her testimony, Cassie was asked briefly about ‘freak offs’

“Freak offs” were the highly orchestrated sex parties which she said stemmed from Combs’ interest in voyeurism. They would entail hiring an escort and “setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean,” Cassie said.

Shown still images from the now-infamous 2016 security camera footage of Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel, Cassie said prior to the altercation: “We were having an encounter called a ‘freak off’ and I was leaving there.”

Cassie on the witness stand

Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson started questioning of Cassie by asking her age, which is 38, and her occupation, which she said is “musician, an entertainer.” She said she was in a relationship with Combs for just over 10 years.

Cassie testified that her relationship with Combs ran the gamut from good times to arguments and physical altercations.

“If they were violent arguments, it would usually result in some sort of physical abuse and dragging, just different things,” Cassie told jurors.
She testified that Combs would mash her head, drag her, kick her and stomp her in the head when she was down.

Asked how frequently Combs became violent with her, Cassie softly responded: “Too frequently.”

Before Cassie takes the witness stand

A judge ruled that her husband, Alex Fine, can be in the courtroom for most — but not all — of her testimony.

Judge Arun Subramanian, acting on a defense request, said Fine must leave the courtroom when questioning turns to Cassie’s allegation that Combs raped her in 2018.

That’s because Combs’ lawyers say they may call Fine as a witness later in the trial in an attempt to discredit Cassie’s allegation.

Prosecutors argued that Fine is part of the emotional support system for Cassie, who’s pregnant with their third child and should be in the courtroom when she testifies.

Judge Arun Subramanian has called a 10-minute break prior to R&B singer Cassie’s testimony

In open court, a lawyer for Combs asked that Cassie’s husband not be allowed in the courtroom while she testifies because he might be called as a witness.

Daniel Phillip’s testimony Tuesday morning

Combs’ trial resumed Tuesday with the hip-hop mogul’s lawyer questioning Daniel Phillip, a male stripper who says he was paid to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched.

Defense lawyer Xavier Donaldson pointed to Phillip’s past statements to federal prosecutors as he attempted to show inconsistencies in his recollection of events. Donaldson finished his cross-examination after suggesting Phillip had developed a crush on Cassie and wanted to isolate her from Combs so he could be with her romantically. Phillip denied that but admitted: “I was attracted to her. If she ever gave me the chance to date her, I absolutely would have.”

Once Donaldson was finished, a prosecutor asked Phillip more questions, underscoring the witness’ earlier testimony that it was Combs who directed his sexual activity with Cassie.

Prior to the start of the trial, numerous submissions by attorneys and prosecutors were sealed

Judge Arun Subramanian acknowledged that in his opening remarks about whether sexually explicit videos and images expected to be shown to the jury during testimony by R&B singer Cassie should be viewed by members of the media.

He said that while a lot had been handled under seal before the trial, “we are now in trial and there is a heightened First Amendment concern.”

More on arguments over whether the media should be able to view explicit material

During the discussion about whether sexually explicit videos should be available for viewing by members of the media, attorney Robert Balin told the judge on behalf of media outlets that news organizations weren’t interested in reporting “something salacious” and were not seeking copies of the exhibits.

He also suggested as an alternative that a group of pool reporters could be allowed to view the exhibits.

The arguments on if the media should be able to see sexually explicit material

Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson argued against letting media outlets see sexually explicit videos, saying there was good legal precedent to keep such materials out of the public record.

Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said there was no aspect of the videos that was not “in the nature of adult pornography.” He said they all contained images of people who are nude having sex or about to have sex.

On behalf of news outlets, attorney Robert Balin told the judge the First Amendment is “at a zenith” in this type of case and that it was important that the “people, though the press, be able to see justice is being done.” He said the best evidence of whether sexual acts that were recorded were coerced — as prosecutors allege — was the videos themselves.

Who is Cassie?

Cassie, a key prosecution witness expected to testify Tuesday, met Combs in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37. He signed her to his Bad Boy Records label and, within a few years, they started dating.

In her 2023 lawsuit, Cassie alleges Combs trapped her in a “cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking” for more than a decade, including raping her and forcing her to engage in sex acts with male sex workers. Combs settled the lawsuit the next day.

Among other things, Cassie alleges Combs raped her when she tried to leave him and often punched, kicked and beat her, causing injuries including bruises, burst lips, black eyes and bleeding. She also alleges that Combs was involved in blowing up rival rapper Kid Cudi’s car when he learned Cudi was romantically interested in her, and she alleges that Combs ran out of his home with guns when he learned Suge Knight, a rival producer, was eating at a nearby diner.