Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial updates: Cassie Ventura breaks down as testimony concludes
The hip-hop mogul is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.
Friday is day five in the trial of Sean Combs after the jury was seated.
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May 16, 2025, 2:33 PM PDT
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Sean Combs trial begins
Opening arguments got underway Monday in the highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who has been accused of sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy as part of a blockbuster federal indictment originally filed in September 2024. He later faced two additional superseding indictments. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Combs is accused of being the ringleader of an alleged enterprise that “abused, threatened and coerced women” into prolonged, drug-fueled sexual orgies with male prostitutes, which he called “freak offs,” and then threatened them into silence. Combs has said that all of the sex was consensual and that while his relationships sometimes involved domestic violence, he wasn’t engaged in trafficking. His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Combs was simply part of the swinger lifestyle and that he “vehemently denies the accusations made by the SDNY” and “looks forward to his day in court.”
Dawn Richard testifies about seeing Cassie ‘attacked’ by ‘screaming, belligerent’ Combs
Dawn Richard, a member of music groups Diddy Dirty Money and Danity Kane, testified to the jury she “observed Cassie being attacked” by Sean Combs in his Los Angeles hotel in 2009.
“She was attacked by Sean Combs,” Richard testified. “He came downstairs screaming, belligerent, asking where his phone was, and proceeded to hit her in the head and beat her on the ground.”
Richard testified she was in the residence recording at the time.
“He said ‘where the f— is his eggs,'” Richard testified. “He took the skillet with the eggs” and took a swing at Ventura, Richard alleged.
She testified that Ventura dropped to the ground, “literally trying to hide her face or her head.”
Richard has made similar allegations in a civil lawsuit filed against Combs in 2024. Combs has broadly denied the allegations contained in the lawsuit.
The defense objected to many of the questions put to Richard by the prosecution so the judge adjourned the court and instructed the jury to return 8:30 a.m. ET Monday.
Court is scheduled to adjourn each day next week at 3 p.m. ET
Special agent’s testimony concludes as prosecution calls Danity Kane’s Dawn Richard to the stand
Federal agents seized a small black fanny pack from Combs’ hotel room containing $9000 cash, Binda testified.
Binda used scissors to cut open an evidence bag, extracted the cash and fanned it for the jury to see.
Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo has previously said Combs had come to New York in September 2024 to negotiate a surrender prior to his arrest.
At the time, Binda testified, Combs was staying in a Midtown hotel room containing $9,000 cash, illegal drugs, baby oil, lubricant and a device that the federal agent testified could be used for “mood lighting.”
Binda’s testimony has concluded as the prosecution calls former member of the pop and R&B group Danity Kane, Dawn Richard.
Special agent testifies to drugs, baby oil in Combs’ hotel room at time of arrest
The night Sean Combs was arrested in New York he was in possession of illegal drugs kept under an alias, a federal agent testified Friday.
Combs was arrested at the Park Hyatt hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Sept. 16, 2024.
Special Agent Yasin Binda of Homeland Security Investigations, the prosecutions next witness, walked the jury through what she testified was the search of the room at the Park Hyatt, which she said turned up a pill bottle containing clonazepam under the name Frank Black, an alias Cassie Ventura testified Combs used.
There were also glassine bags containing pink powder that tested positive for ketamine and MDMA, the agent testified. The jury was allowed to examine the exhibit.
“This shows five bottles of baby oil that were found in the bathtub,” Binda said, showing the jurors an image of the baby oil.
The jury was shown another photo of a Ziploc bag containing bottles of baby oil, and a photo of lubricant she said was found in a nightstand.
Jurors were also shown a photo of a device that Binda testified could be set up for “mood lighting,” which Ventura testified were the kind of supplies Combs had in hotel rooms for “freak offs.”
Cassie Ventura, Alex Fine share statement through attorney after 4-day testimony
Cassie Ventura, through a statement read by her attorney Douglas Wigdor outside court, thanked her supporters for their kindness and vowed to never forget what she says Sean Combs did to her.
“I hope that my testimony has given strength and a voice to other survivors and can help others who have suffered to speak up and also heal from abuse and fear. For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember, and the more I can remember, the more I will never forget,” she said in a statement.
Her husband Alex Fine, in a statement read by Wigdor, commended Ventura for her bravery testifying for four days in front of “a person who tried to break her.”
“So to him and all of those who helped him along the way, please know this: You did not break her spirit nor her smile that lights up every room. You did not break the souls of her mother, who gives the best hugs and plays the silliest games with our little girls,” Fine said in the statement, calling Combs a “demon.”
He also rejected the notion that he was the one who helped Ventura escape Combs, saying such a suggestion is an “insult to the years of painful work my wife has done to save herself.”
“Cassie saved Cassie. She alone broke free from abuse, coercion, violence and threats. She did the work of fighting the demons that only a demon himself could have done to her. All I have done is love her as she has loved me. Her life is now surrounded by love, laughter and our family. This horrific chapter is forever put behind us,” he said.
Cassie Ventura concludes her testimony after 4 days
After four days on the witness stand, Cassie Ventura concluded her testimony Friday at the trial of her ex-boyfriend, Sean Combs.
On re-cross-examination, defense attorney Anna Estevao questioned whether Combs coerced Ventura into sexual activity as alleged, confronting her for a second time with some of her explicit text exchanges with Combs.
“You are actively participating in this sexting?” Estevao asked. “Mm hm,” Ventura responded.
Ventura also testified that she had reached the end of settlement discussions with the InterContinental Hotel, where she appeared on the 2016 video of Combs attacking her, and expected to receive $10 million, the first time the figure has been publicly revealed. She confirmed settlement negotiations concluded shortly before her testimony.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson asked Ventura, “Do you have any financial stake in the outcome of this trial?” Ventura responded quickly, “Absolutely not.”
After Ventura compared being Combs’ girlfriend to being “basically a sex worker” in prior testimony, Estevao on re-cross-examination highlighted what the defense argued were benefits of the relationship.
“Stand by his side at the Met Gala and premieres?” Estevao asked. “Yup,” Ventura answered.
“You were given opportunities in terms of your ability to access contacts in the entertainment industry?” Estevao asked. “Sometimes given but also earned,” Ventura responded.
Cassie Ventura breaks down over ‘freak off’ testimony as redirect examination concludes
On re-direct examination, prosecutors returned to an expletive-filled recording of Cassie Ventura, first played by the defense during cross-examination, during which she appeared to threaten to “kill” a man called Sugit who said he had seen a sexually explicit video of her.
“I was just sick about it and was feeling pressure from Sean,” Ventura testified, referring to her reaction on the recording.
“Who directed you to talk to Sugit?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked. “Sean,” Ventura responded.
Ventura testified about a time on a flight home from France when she said Combs showed her a video of a “freak off” he had recorded on his phone.
“He said he was going to release the tape to embarrass me,” Ventura testified.
Upon landing in New York, Ventura said there was a “freak off.” She said she didn’t want to partake in it but “feared he would release the video.”
After maintaining her composure during the entirety of cross-examination, Cassie Ventura broke down in a loud sob when the prosecution asked whether Sean Combs beat her during “freak offs.”
“Yes,” she testified, then sobbed loudly.
“How did you feel during ‘freak offs’ when Sean beat you?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked. “Worthless, just like dirt, that I didn’t matter to him, like I was nothing,” Ventura testified.
The tears began when Johnson asked whether she would give back the $20 million she received as part of her 2023 civil settlement with Combs if it meant not having to have ever participated in a “freak off.”
“I’d give that money back if I never had to do ‘freak offs.’ I would have agency and autonomy,” she said through tears. She reached for a tissue and dabbed her eyes. “I wouldn’t have had to work so hard to get it back.”
Redirect examination has concluded, as re-cross-examination starts now.
Cassie Ventura says she only wanted to have sex with Combs throughout relationship
After the defense pointed to what they argued were benefits Cassie Ventura received during her relationship with Combs, Ventura said under re-direct examination her music career suffered.
“I had to give him all of my attention and made the choice to listen to him because he was the person that was running everything,” Ventura testified. “When I wasn’t working I was his girlfriend.”
Prosecutors suggested she did not have the kind of agency the defense argued.
Ventura said she could not work on herself because she had another job.
“What was that job?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked. “Basically a sex worker,” Ventura responded, prompting a sustained objection from the defense.
After the defense tried to depict Ventura as a willing participant in so-called “freak offs,” Ventura suggested she did not want to have sex with male prostitutes.
“Throughout your entire 11-year relationship with Sean, who did you want to have sex with?” Johnson asked. “I wanted to have sex just with him,” Ventura said.
Defense concludes their cross-examination of Cassie Ventura
The cross-examination of Cassie Ventura concluded with a 2012 text exchange in which Sean Combs asked Ventura if she wanted to “have a ‘freak off’ one last time.”
Her response said she wanted to “‘freak off” for “the first time for the rest of our lives”
Prosecutor Emily Johnson immediately showed the exchange on re-direct examination as part of a longer thread in which Ventura expressed different feelings about “freak offs.”
The defense again attempted to portray Ventura as a willing, even eager, participant in the kind of sexual lifestyle Combs wanted.
The defense also asked Ventura about her Instagram post after CNN first aired the 2016 hotel surveillance video depicting Combs attacking her near an elevator.
“Domestic violence is the issue and it’s an important issue,” Ventura posted in part on May 23, 2024. “My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time. It takes a lot of heart to tell the truth out of a situation that you were powerless in,” the post continued.
“That’s what you focused on in your Instagram post?” defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. “There was more to it but yeah,” Ventura replied.
The defense has argued that Ventura may have been a victim of domestic violence, but she was not a victim of sex trafficking.
The defense has also argued Ventura is motivated by money and pointed out she canceled an Australian and New Zealand tour after settling her 2023 civil lawsuit.
“You saw you would get $20 million and you canceled,” Estevao said. “That wasn’t the reason why,” Ventura testified.
Cassie Ventura’s husband exits courtroom during alleged rape testimony
Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, who has been in the courtroom each day of her testimony, left during the portion of questioning about the alleged rape. Defense attorneys had suggested at the outset they may call him as a witness.
The jury’s interest appeared piqued by the discussion about the alleged rape and the defense attempts to cast doubt on Ventura’s account. During testimony on the recording of the conversation between Ventura and Sugit about a sex tape, jurors seemed interested. On the tape, Ventura spoke loudly or with anger. Based on her reaction, she seemed to be amused by her tone on the recording.
The cross-examination is set to resume momentarily following the lunch break.
Defense digs into Ventura and Combs’ 2018 breakup, rape allegation
The jury is seeing messages and hearing testimony about the prolonged breakup of Sean Combs and Cassie Ventura in late 2018, which the defense appears to be using to try and raise further doubt about her rape allegation.
“You don’t say anything to the effect of, ‘the last time we saw each other you raped me,'” Estevao noted about Ventura’s communications with Combs.
According to Ventura’s testimony, the last she and Combs had sex was Sept. 27, 2018, when Ventura testified she received a FaceTime call from her now-husband Alex Fine.
“Did you answer that call?” defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. “No,” Ventura responded.
“Was it in the middle of sexual intercourse that you received this call?” Estevao asked. “We were together. I don’t know,” Ventura responded.
“Your husband learned about your evening with Mr. Combs, right?” Estevao asked. “You told your now-husband that Mr. Combs raped you.”
“That wasn’t the evening I was raped,” Ventura testified. When Fine eventually found out about the alleged rape, Ventura testified that he punched a wall.
Earlier, the defense showed Ventura transcripts of her interviews with law enforcement agents, pointing out that she told them that the night of the alleged rape Combs was acting “nice but strangely.” The defense also tried to point out how Ventura wondered whether the alleged attack occurred because of Combs potentially having bipolar disorder, the first time such a condition was mentioned at trial.
Combs discussed his mental health struggles in a 2009 Playboy Magazine article.
“I think therapy is good. I’ve been called bipolar – I’m not; I just have very drastic mood swings,” he said in the interview.
The jurors are in a lunch break.
Defense attempts to show Ventura’s agency in ‘freak offs,’ relationship with Combs
The defense introduced scores of text messages during the cross-examination that contain a mix of affection, sexually-charged banter, domestic negotiation and bickering.
The defense has attempted to demonstrate that those messages show Ventura’s agency in a relationship that she described on direct examination as colored by Sean Combs’ alleged control, threats and beatings.
In one exchange the defense pointed to, Ventura texted, “Freak off w/a girl” and Combs responded, “What makes you wanna do that”
Defense attorney Anna Estevao asked, “You were suggesting a freak off with a girl?”
Ventura responded flatly, “That’s what it says.”
“That’s what you were suggesting at the time?” Estevao followed up. “That’s what I was suggesting,” Ventura replied.
Estevao said the exchange followed an earlier conversation between Ventura and Combs about getting their relationship “to a good place.”
The defense also appeared to question Ventura’s recollection of when an alleged rape occurred, suggesting she switched the date from September 2018 to August 2018.
Around that time, Ventura received a message from Combs saying, “I know I look bad to you. I could tell I didn’t turn you on yesterday. I fell off. I’m about to get my s— together.”
Ventura had previously testified on Wednesday that Combs allegedly raped her in her living in room in 2018. Combs and Ventura broke up the same year.
Defense questions Ventura on PTSD and opiate addiction treatment
Cassie Ventura testified she has been taking Suboxone, a treatment for opiate addiction since 2022.
In 2023, she attended a 45-day in-patient treatment program in Arizona that included neuro-feedback therapy and EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, a psychotherapy technique meant to help process distressing memories, according to her testimony.
“You understood that you were being treated for PTSD?” defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. “Yes,” Ventura testified. She denied being treated for sex or love addiction, which the facility also offers.
The testimony has been interrupted by calls for conferrals between the parties.
The judge called a recess to remind the defense of his rules and to impose new ones.
Jury hears dramatic recording of Ventura threatening man who said he had ‘freak off’ video
The jury heard a dramatic recording of a March 2014 conversation in Atlantic City between Cassie Ventura and a man called Sugit, who claimed he had seen her in a sexually explicit video taken during a “freak off.”
“Tell me what exactly you saw,” Ventura is heard telling Sugit. “You told me somebody else was in there f—— me.”
A moment later her voice is heard rising.
“You have it? Why didn’t you show me?” Ventura said. “Because I’m not disrespectful,” Sugit is heard answering meekly.
“You’ve had it the whole time?” Ventura said. “It’s my f——- life and I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you if you don’t show me. Pull it up. If you have it pull that s— up or I’m going to kill you!”
Ventura is heard telling Sugit, “We’re staying here until you show me that s—. I’m going to kill you I don’t give a f—. I’ll kill you because you’re f—— with me!”
Ventura testified about another time she said she became concerned about a sex tape, one taken by one of the male escorts who participated in a “freak off.”
“I was in the room with him and I saw the phone up so I told Sean about it after,” Ventura testified,
“You were concerned he was recording?” defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. “Yes,” Ventura answered.
“What happened when you told Mr. Combs your suspicion?” Estevao asked. “He said, ‘I’ll take care of it,’” Ventura responded.
Ventura testified she also grew concerned that some of the male escorts hired for “freak offs” were participating in a reality television show featuring the escort service she said she and Combs used.
Cassie Ventura testifies on multiple instances of Combs’ alleged intense jealousy
Cassie Ventura testified about a time in August 2016 when she and Sean Combs were in a car and he allegedly swiped her phone from her hand, jumped from the vehicle and ran down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
“Right before my 30th birthday, I think, and I was dating someone else and I’m not sure how he found out,” she testified. “He grabbed my phone and ran out of the car.”
When she returned home without her phone, Ventura said her mother called the police. Ventura said she did not know how Combs found out she was seeing the other person, whom she said was an NFL player.
“Mr. Combs was insanely jealous?” defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. “He was upset with you when he suspected you of cheating?”
Ventura responded, “When I was with anyone else. I don’t know if I would call it cheating”
Estevao said, “You understood he thought it cheating.”
Ventura responded, “That’s a technicality. We weren’t married.”
The defense has been highlighting episodes of infidelity and jealousy that plagued their relationship.
Estevao asked about another instance of jealousy: “He found out that you were dancing with another person in the entertainment industry and took your phone?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Ventura responded.
“You remember the occasion when he suspected you of dancing with Chris Brown?” Estevao asked, referring to the R&B singer.
Ventura said that she remembered Combs being upset but she denied dancing with Brown.
Cassie Ventura begins cross-examination on what’s expected to be her final day testifying
Cassie Ventura returned to the witness stand for a fourth day Friday to continue cross-examination.
She took her seat wearing a baggy pin-striped suit and long, untucked light-colored shirt. She appeared calm and composed, as she has throughout her testimony.
“You understand you are still under oath?” Judge Arun Subramanian asked her. “Yes,” she replied.
The expectation is this will be Ventura’s last day on the witness stand after prosecutors argued she could give birth as soon as this weekend. Ventura is eight months pregnant.
Prosecutors accused the defense of being inefficient with cross-examination on purpose, hoping to “risk a mistrial,” if she goes into labor. The defense argues that they should have the right to thoroughly cross-examine the witness.
The testimony picked up where it left off Thursday, at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City where Ventura testified there was a “freak off” in 2016 she attempted to escape after she alleged Combs became violent prior to the premiere of her movie “The Perfect Match.”
“I believe that he was intoxicated,” Ventura testified, describing Combs during the encounter. She then read a message she sent him afterwards: “When you get f—– up the wrong way you always want to show me you have the power and knock me around. I’m not a rag doll. I’m someone’s child.”
The defense has argued Combs became violent because of his drug use and not as a means to strong-arm Ventura into sex.
Cassie Ventura takes the witness stand for 4th day
Cassie Ventura has taken the witness stand for the fourth consecutive day to continue her cross-examination in the trial against her ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Federal prosecutors claim defense is attempting to prolong Cassie Ventura’s cross-examination in letter to judge
Defense lawyers for Sean Combs are trying to prolong their cross-examination of Cassie Ventura into next week, hoping to “risk a mistrial if the witness goes into labor,” federal prosecutors said in an overnight letter to the judge.
The letter pointed to the “inefficiency” of the defense cross examination as proof the defense “hopes to accomplish precisely that outcome.”
Prosecutor’s argued that Ventura was often made to read long excerpts of text messages with no real question, an approach prosecutors called a “filibuster” and asked the judge to order the defense to finish by 4:30 Friday, allowing a half hour for re-direct.
Prosecutors said defense counsel has known for weeks about Ventura’s pregnancy and they earlier told the judge Ventura could have her baby as soon as this weekend.
The defense argues that they should have the right to thoroughly cross-examine the witness.
Defense questioning Ventura’s account of March 2016 hotel attack; court adjourns
The jury saw Cassie Ventura’s text messages from the days leading to the premiere of “The Perfect Match,” about which she previously testified, and her “freak off” with Sean Combs at the InterContinental Hotel in March 2016.
“Thank you,” Ventura said after defense attorney Anna Estevao said she would spare Ventura from reading the explicit texts aloud.
At the time, Ventura said, Combs was not feeling well. The defense suggested he could have been suffering the effects of drug withdrawal in the days before the assault that was captured by hotel surveillance cameras.
The defense also suggested it was Ventura who pushed the idea of a “freak off” before the movie premiere, pointing to one message in which Ventura told Combs, “Baby I want to f.o. so bad but I don’t want to f— myself up. What am I to do?”
“You proposed a ‘freak off,’” Estevao said. “You kept asking him.”
The defense suggested Combs could have become violent during the “freak off” at the Century City InterContinental because he and Ventura took bad drugs.
“The drugs that you and Mr. Combs took that day were a bad batch of MDMA, right?” Estevao said.
“I have no idea,” Ventura testified.
Court has adjourned for the day. Ventura will return to the stand Friday.
Defense questions Cassie Ventura’s testimony on violence, drug habits
The defense questioned whether Cassie Ventura had really witnessed Sean Combs dangle one of her friends over a balcony, as she previously testified that she had.
“You learned about this after the fact,” defense attorney Anna Estevao said.
“I saw what I saw, so I don’t know,” Ventura answered.
The defense also questioned Ventura’s prior testimony recounting a time when she alleged Combs and others went to confront record executive Suge Knight at a diner, and her account of Combs allegedly attacking her friend Kerry Morgan.
Estevao elicited testimony from Ventura about Combs’ alleged drug use and its effect on his moods. Ventura testified that Combs could be “pretty explosive.”
The defense also attempted to establish instances when Combs in turn worried about Ventura’s drug use.
“He wanted you to stop doing drugs,” Estevao said.
“He wanted me to stop doing drugs with other people,” Ventura responded.
The cross-examination at times became disjointed and meandering such that at one point, Estevao declared, “I know I’m all over the place.”
