Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura was pictured leaving her New York home she took the stand to testify against him in his sex-trafficking and racketeering trial.
The disgraced music mogul, 55, is accused of leading a criminal enterprise for 20 years, using his fame and wealth to coerce and threaten women into submission.
Before Cassie took the stand, Diddy’s lawyers asked judge to ban Cassie’s husband Alex Fine from courtroom while she testifies because they may want to call him up as a witness later in the trial.
Combs’ defense says he is guilty of domestic violence but not of sex-trafficking or racketeering, and that the government is targeting him for his sexual preferences.
Diddy lawyers want Cassie’s husband banned from court during her testimony
Diddy’s lawyers have told the judge they want Cassie’s husband Alex Fine to not be in the courtroom while she testifies because they may want to call him up as a witness later in the trial.
The defense is claiming Fine has relevant information regarding an alleged rape of Cassie by Diddy in the the fall of 2018.
Diddy’s attorney said Fine sent Diddy a text message saying he ‘wanted to beat the f word out of him.’
They added they are okay with Cassie’s brother to remain in the room while she testifies.
Prosecutors argued that Fine is part of the emotional support system for Cassie, who’s pregnant with their third trial and should be in the courtroom when she testifies.
A judge ruled that her husband, Alex Fine, can be in the courtroom for most — but not all — of her testimony.
Fine is seen arriving to court on Tuesday.
Court resumes after lunch, Cassie is back on the stand
Judge Subramanian asked Cassie if the temperature in the room was okay as she went back on the stand following a lunch break.
Prosecutors asked her about Diddy’s instructions for her appearance.
Cassie claimed Diddy once told her she ‘looked too Mexican with her hair like that.’
The mogul allegedly demanded her nails be painted white, with fren tips.
The rapper also allegedly told her to work out to prepare for the Freak Offs.
All the explosive testimony from inside Diddy courtroom
From sworn testimony to video evidence and the rapper’s every subtle move, our team of journalists take you inside the courtroom of the world’s biggest celebrity case.
Daily Mail has been following Diddy’s downfall from the very beginning. Join us as we hear from experts involved in the case, and members of the rapper’s inside circle.
Cassie refers to Diddy as ‘Sean’ during her testimony
The singer used the rapper’s birth name, Sean, as she spoke about their relationship on Tuesday.
The two did not look at each other throughout her testimony.
Diddy passed notes to his attorneys and whispered to them as she spoke from the stand.
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.’
WATCH: Diddy’s mother and kids arrive to court
Prosecutors ask Cassie about her music career
Assistant US 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.’
She said participating in the Freak Offs began taking much of her time and energy and her career stalled.
Cassie testimony to resume after lunch break
The court has gone on lunch break.
Before the break, a heavily-pregnant Cassie testified that her relationship with Combs ran the gamut from good times to arguments and physical altercations.
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 after they become a couple, 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.
Freak Offs could last days on end, Cassie says they became her job
Cassie told the court the Freak Offs could last for days on end and that she had to stay awake throughout them.
‘When I wasn’t working on my music I was recovering from partying that took a big chunk out of my life,’ she said.
‘The Freak Offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and try to feel normal again.
‘Staying up for days on end, taking drugs and other substances, drinking. Having sex with a stranger for days.’
Cassie added that she could spend anywhere from 33 to 72 hours engaged in a Freak Off.
The last one, she told then jury, lasted four days.
‘I’m Puff Daddy and Puff Daddy has many women’
‘I was insanely jealous but also super young, didn’t get it at all,’ Cassie said of being nonmongomous with the music mogul.
‘I didn’t get that he was him. As he would say, “I’m Puff Daddy and Puff Daddy has many women.”
Cassie added of Diddy: ‘He likes the company of women. I had to learn that over time.’
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.’
Cassie explains why she took part in the ‘Freak Offs’
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.’
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.
Diddy has claimed the encounters were consensual.
‘Control was everything’
Cassie told the jury she eventually began tp ‘experience a different side of’ Diddy.
‘His abusive side,’ she called it. ‘Very controlling over my life, the things I wanted to do… But there’s still love there.’
She added: ‘Control was everything from the way I looked to what I was working on that day, who i was speaking to. Control was an all around thing to a certain point.’
‘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.
‘I really fell in love with him’
Cassie told the court that she fell in love with Diddy after their relationship became physical when she was 21.
She said she started traveling and going to the studio with him, refering to herself as his ‘little shadow.’
We had fun. It was my first adult relationship, or I thought it was. It was so different than anything as you can imagine. His lifestyle was much different than mine
He had assistants at his beck and call, he could get anything done quickly. He had respect from everyone. And traveled quite a bit, he was moving around a lot.
A heavily-pregnant Cassie is emotional as she testifies against Diddy
The singer, who is heavily pregnant, has repeatedly taken breaths as she recalls her relationship with Diddy.
She has been taking pauses before answering questions on the stand.
At times in her testimony, Cassie rested her hands on her pregnant belly. At particularly emotional points, she sniffled and dabbed her eyes with a tissue.
Cassie says Diddy tricked her into taking drug
The singer said she first had sexual intercourse with Diddy during a trip to Miami after her 21st birthday party.
She told the jury Diddy gave her ecstasy in a pill that had a blue dolphin on it.
‘I was out of it, with friends, laughing,’ she recalled.’I didn’t know what it was until later.’
Cassie recalls start of sexual relationship with Diddy when she was 21 and he was 37
Cassie said her interactions with Combs, who owned the label she was signed to, 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 remember being introduced to the idea of oral sex. It wasn’t something I really understood or did at that point,’ Cassie said as she took repeated breaths.
‘He basically taught me how… He made me feel crazy for not reciprocating. At that time I didn’t understand that kind of sexual relatioinship. I was also still in a relationship with someone else.
‘I was so young. I didn’t have even the vocabulary for some of the things we talked about.’
Cassie says she was afraid of saying no to disgraced music mogul
Sean is a really polarizing person, also really charming… 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 says she was 22 when she Diddy asked for the first ‘Freak Off’
Casse 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.’
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.
Cassie describes alleged physical abuse by Diddy
He would bash me on my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down.
I’d get knots in my forehead. Busted lips, swollen lip,swollen eyes… whites of eyes would be red. Bruises all over my body.
Asked how frequently Combs became violent with her, Cassie softly responded: ‘Too frequently.’
Cassie takes the stand
The singer and star witness has taken the stand and begun her testimony against Diddy on Tuesday.
PICTURED: Diddy is seen in court on day two of his trial
Diddy makes a hand gesture to family members arriving at his sex trafficking trial on Tuesday.
Did Cassie settle a lawsuit with Diddy?
Cassie Ventura settled a lawsuit with the music mogul just a day after it was filed in November, 2023.
The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount.
Cassie to testify any moment now
Daniel Phillip’s time on the stand has concluded.
Cassie’s testimony should begin within minutes after a 10-minute sidebar.
Judge rejects claim that Combs was treated differently because of his race
The judge presiding over the racketeering and sex trafficking trial of hip-hop mogul Sean Combs said last week there was no evidence to back up his lawyers’ claim he was treated differently because of his race.
Judge Arun Subramanian said Combs had shown no evidence of discriminatory effect or intent based on his race, when his lawyers made their arguments in Manhattan federal court in February. In a separate written opinion, the judge also refused to suppress evidence in the case.
The lawyers had written that the prosecution was unprecedented because, ‘most disturbingly, no white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution.’
Diddy’s team goes after male escort’s credibility
Defense attorney Donaldson is grilling Daniel Phillip on discrepancies between his testimony and previous statements to prosecutors.
The defense claims Phillip told prosecutors in March that the mogul did not direct his sexual encounters with Cassie, which contradicts what he said on the stand on Monday.
Phillip said on Tuesday he always felt he ‘had a bond’ with Cassie and admitted he would have liked to date her.
‘I was attracted to her and had she given me the chance to date her, I absolutely woul have,’ he said.
Diddy’s lawyers are depicting Phillip as jealous of the rapper.
Diddy’s girlfriend Dana Tran back in court for day two of his trial
Combs — who shares seven kids with four different women — disclosed that he had fathered his youngest child on December 10, 2022.
Diddy has never confirmed having a relationship with Tran, and little is known about how they met.
Diddy’s ex Sarah Chapman in court
Sarah Chapman is a close friend of Diddy who had a baby with him in 2006, while his late partner Kim Porter was pregnant with twins.
Cassie’s husband Alex Fine arrives in court ahead of her testimony
Fine and Cassie met while he was a physical trainer for Diddy.
The couple is expecting their third child together in just a few weeks.
Lawyers argue over media’s access to video evidence
Assistant US 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.
Male escort Daniel Phillip resumes testimony against Diddy
Diddy’s lawyers have resumed their cross-examination of Phillip, who told the jury he was paid to have sex with Cassie as Diddy watched.
Phillip told jurors that Combs was coy about his identity when they first met in 2012 at a Manhattan hotel.
The rap star wore a ball cap, obscured his face with a bandana and claimed to be in the importing and exporting industry, Phillip said.
The witness testified that it wasn’t until a subsequent encounter at a different hotel when Combs revealed who he was, answering the door in a suit and peacoat.
Who took the stand on Monday against Diddy?
The trial’s first witness, Israel Florez, who was working hotel security at the time, testified about responding to a report of a woman in distress and witnessing Combs tell Cassie:, “You’re not going to leave.”
Jurors also heard from Daniel Phillip, who said he was a professional stripper who was paid to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and gave instructions. He testified that he once saw Combs drag her by her hair as she screamed.
DR PHIL reveals Diddy’s trial tactics: How he could walk FREE
Opening statements have just begun in the trial of Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs, yet the case against the multi-millionaire hip-hop superstar may already have been won… or lost.
For it all comes down to the jury.
From a pool of 150 potential jurors, the judge, defense team and federal prosecutors have selected 12 people (and six alternates should one of the active jurors become, for whatever reason, incapable of fulfilling their obligations).
Diddy allowed to wear his own clothes during trial
Judge Arun Subramanian has granted Combs permission to wear regular clothes in court, instead of jail garb.
He is allowed up to five button-down shirts, five pairs of pants, five sweaters, five pairs of socks and two pairs of shoes without laces.
On Monday, he sported a gray sweater and a white button-down shirt. Because hair dye isn’t allowed in jail, his normally jet black mane is now mostly gray.
Diddy ‘filmed women as he forced them into days-long drug-fueled ‘Freak Off’ sex parties
For decades, the music mogul ran a ‘criminal enterprise’ built around trafficking victims, with his ‘inner circle’ helping to cover up his offences, prosecutors told the opening of his trial in New York.
He once stamped on a girlfriend’s head, dangled one woman from a balcony and allegedly tried to set fire to another man’s car, it was claimed.
Cassie is pictured ahead of her testimony on Tuesday
The singer was pictured leaving her home on Tuesday as she is scheduled to testify against her ex and alleged abuser Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Diddy’s courtroom gesture to mom Janice
Diddy’s girlfriend Dana Tran makes surprise appearance at court
Diddy‘s baby mama Dana Tran made a surprise appearance on the first day of his sex trafficking trial.
Tran, who has a two-year-old daughter with the disgraced rapper named Love Sean, strolled into the Southern District of New York Federal Court on Monday.
The cybersecurity director arrived in an all-black outfit of a frilly blouse, pants, high heels and sunglasses and carried a matching Chanel purse.
Sex encounters could last up to 10 hours, jury hears
Male escort Daniel Phillip said his sexual encounters with Cassie and Diddy could last anywhere from one to 10 hours.
He said after he was done having sex with Cassie, she and Diddy would head to the bedroom.
‘I would be sitting in that room for hours, just sitting there,’ Phillip said.
‘Sometimes they’d come out and say, OK you can go. Other times they’d ask me if I’m ready to go again.’
Court is in session for day two of Diddy’s trial
Diddy’s mother and children arrived to Manhattan court shortly before Judge Arun Subramanian started the prooceedings.
Full breakdown of Diddy’s relationship with Cassie Ventura
As Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs faces charges of sex-trafficking in Manhattan federal court, his relationship with the singer Cassie is at the center of the horrific allegations.
The music mogul’s staggering downfall began when Cassie, real name Cassandra Ventura, filed a bombshell lawsuit in 2023 detailing terrifying claims of sexual abuse and violence.
The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount just a day after it was filed, but it was too late for Diddy’s reputation, and the rapper was then hit with dozens of lawsuits including similar claims.
Diddy’s mother arrives in court ahead of Cassie testimony
Janice Combs has entered Manhattan federal court on Tuesday as she supports her son Diddy during his sex-trafficking trial.
Sec. guard described Diddy’s ‘devilish stare’ after alleged hotel attack on Cassie
The first witness called on Monday was Israel Florez. He’s now a Los Angeles Police Department officer, but in March 2016, he was working at a Los Angeles hotel as assistant director of security when he got a call that a woman was in distress on the sixth floor and encountered Combs.
Florez said he recognized Diddy immediately after getting called up to his room and only later understood it was Ventura with him.
According to Florez, Diddy was ‘on the chair slouched down and was in a blank stare’
He said: ‘As soon as I walked out…it was a devilish stare, looking at me. When I got out of the elevator I’m looking at him, he’s looking at me with no movement. He was wearing just a towel and socks.’
Florez told the court that Ventura looked ‘scared.’
He said: ‘She was in the corner. She had her hoodie on, pretty much covered up, I couldn’t see her face. She was pretty much in a corner.’
Cassie’s statement following assault video last year
Cassie addressed the chilling video in a statement, which read: ‘Thank you for all of the love and support from my family, friends, strangers and those I have yet to meet.
‘The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning.
‘Domestic Violence is the issue. It broke me down to someone I never thought I would become. With a lot of hard work, I am better today, but I will always be recovering from my past.’
Days after the video was released, Diddy posted a video apologizing.
Who is on the Diddy jury?
Eight men and four women are on the final panel of 12 with a further four men and two women listed as alternates. On the main juror panel, four are white, two are Hispanic, five are black and one is Asian. Of the six alternates, four are white and two are black.
Diddy and Cassie’s lawyers arrive in court for day two of his trial
Diddy’s lead attorney, Marc Afnifilo has entered Manhattan deferal court for day two of the mogul’s trial.
Cassie Ventura’s attorney Douglas Wilder has also arrived ahead of her scheduled testimony.
LISTEN: The ‘King’ on Trial
On the latest installment of the Mail’s The Trial of Diddy podcast, reporter Germania Rodriguez described Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ muted reaction to the prosecution’s opening remarks against him, which included ‘graphic’ detail from the rapper’s former partner Cassie Ventura.
Diddy’s ex Misa Hylton seen outside court
Diddy’s former partnet Misa Hylton was seen at court today.
Hylton was Diddy’s first public relationship and the pair share 30-year-old son Justin Combs together. She also has a son and daughter with ex-husband Jojo Brim.
Who is Cassie Ventura’s husband Alex Fine?
Just a year before she was last seen with Diddy, Cassie married Alex Fine, who was originally Diddy’s personal trainer.
Cassie became pregnant soon after she started dating Fine. The couple is currently expecting their third child.
Fine was seen in court on Monday for the first day of Diddy’s trial.
Jury shown 2016 hotel assault on day one of Diddy’s trial
Combs shook his head slowly from side to side and the packed courtroom fell silent as jurors were shown the 2016 hotel security camera video for the first time.
The video didn’t have sound.
Jurors watched intently on video monitors at their seats in the jury box, but there were no discernible, visible reactions.
Jurors ended up seeing the video four times.
First prosecutors showed it all the way through. Then, they played it as the hotel’s assistant security director at the time, Israel Florez, described what was happening.
Prosecutors then played a different version of the footage that Florez recorded off a monitor with his iPhone.
Combs’ lawyer then showed it again as she sought to poke holes in Florez’s recollection of events.
Diddy’s lawyers tried to go after Phillip’s credibility
Phillip testified that he didn’t ask for money during his encounters with Cassie and sometimes he wasn’t paid, saying: ‘In my head, I was just excited I was in this world and happy to be involved with people of such notoriety.’
On cross-examination, defense attorney Xavier Donaldson tried to attack Phillip’s credibility, mocking the slogan of the male review show company Phillip worked for and its slogan that it ‘provided the ultimate ladies night experience.’
Phillip testified that when he got to the door of the New York hotel room the first time he met Cassie, she told him that his boss had told her that she had to give him $200 upon his arrival. ‘And then she handed me $4,000.’
Phillip set to retake the stand when court resumes Tuesday
A male escort who began his testimony on Monday is set to retake the stand when court reconvenes on Tuesday.
Phillip told jurors that Combs was coy about his identity when they first met in 2012 at a Manhattan hotel.
The rap star wore a ball cap, obscured his face with a bandana and claimed to be in the importing and exporting industry, Phillip said.
The witness testified that it wasn’t until a subsequent encounter at a different hotel when Combs revealed who he was, answering the door in a suit and peacoat.
Diddy’s lawyer’s astonishing request of eight-and-a-half-months-pregnant Cassie
Lawyers for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs requested if the rap mogul’s ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura could be readily seated when she testifies against her ex in court, instead of walking to the stand in front of the jury.
Marc Agnifilo, one of Combs’ attorneys, made a request of District Court Judge Arun Subramanian to stop her from walking to the stand in front of potential jurors, hoping to avoid emotionally swaying from those deciding his fate.
Diddy’s children and mother supporting him during trial
Diddy’s mother Janice Combs and six of his seven children arrived in court for opening statements Monday.
They were escorted past a crowd of media and would-be trial watchers and brought straight into the building.
They sat together during witness testimony, with the rapper’s sons looking uncomfortable as sordid details were shared on the stand.
Diddy tried to obstruct justice from jail, prosecutors argued
In November, prosecutors claimed that the rapper had tried to reach out to prospective witnesses and influence public opinion from jail in a bid to affect potential jurors ahead of the trial.
Prosecutors wrote that a review of recorded jail calls made by Combs showed he asked family members to reach out to potential victims and witnesses and urged them to create ‘narratives’ to influence the jury pool. They said he also encouraged marketing strategies to sway public opinion.
An attorney for Combs, Anthony Ricco, said in court that the prosecution’s portrayal of Combs as ‘a lawless person who doesn’t follow instructions’ or ‘an out-of-control individual who has to be detained’ was inaccurate.
Judge Arun Subramanian denied the bail application, saying evidence showed Combs to be a ‘serious risk of witness tampering.’
What Diddy’s overheard courtroom whispers to heavily pregnant TV reporter reveal
If any other man had asked how she was feeling, pregnant Fox5 reporter Michelle Ross wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.
But coming from the lips of the most famous showbiz villain in the world, the simple ‘how are you?’ carried what could be perceived as a seedy undertone.
Ross, who is seven months pregnant, isn’t the only expectant mother on the rapper’s mind.
Next week, Cassie Ventura, who is also heavily pregnant, is expected to take the stand in Diddy’s blockbuster sex trafficking trial.
The rapper’s ex-girlfriend and victim of the notoriously violent smackdown video that was the catalyst for his arrest, she now holds the key to the most hotly anticipated celebrity trial in recent memory.
Read the full list of charges against Diddy
Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs faces a slew of charges related to his alleged sexual and physical abuse of women.
He was charged with three crimes – racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Heavily-pregnant Cassie seen days before she takes the stand against Diddy
The singer, who is expecting her third child with husband Alex Fine, was spotted in New York this week as jury selection in her ex partner’s case dragged on.
She announced her pregnancy in February this year, and is understood to be in her third trimester.
Will Diddy’s trial be televised?
Unlike other high-profile cases, the rapper’s trial will not be televised as it is in federal court.
Electronic media, including cameras, are banned in the Manhattan court room.
A sketch artist’s work will be the only visuals coming out of the courtroom.
Full testimony of male escort who claims he was paid by Diddy to sleep with Cassie
Daniel Phillip, 41, took to the stand for an hour yesterday afternoon to allege how Combs paid him up to $6,000 each time to take part in orchestrated sexual relations with R&B singer Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura.
Diddy would often direct their encounters, forcing them to engage in awkward ‘role play’ before giving Mr Phillip specific instructions on when and where to orgasm, the male escort alleged.
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Diddy asks Cassie’s husband Alex Fine to leave the courtroom as she testifies about freak-offs: Live updates
