Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs bombshell sex-trafficking and racketeering trial is underway in New York City for the third week.
The disgraced music mogul, 55, has put his notorious charisma on full display, chatting to his lawyers and making heart signs to the audience as he hears the prosecution describe him as the head of a criminal enterprise focused on fulfilling his sexual fantasies.
Jurors have heard from over a dozen witnesses, including Diddy’s ex-girlfriend and main accuser Cassie Ventura, as well as his former band mate Dawn Richard, the rapper Kid Cudi and his ex-assistant Capricorn Clark.
Much of the case presented by prosecutors so far has revolved around accusations that Combs physically and sexually abused Cassie for years, and coerced her into sexual encounters called “freak-offs” with men who were paid thousands of dollars to have sex with her.
Diddy denies all allegations against him. His lawyers admit he’s a woman beater – although he does not face domestic abuse charges – but that he is not guilty of sex trafficking or racketeering.
Cassie wanted to date Jay-Z, according to Diddy’s ex-assistant Capricorn Clark
Diddy’s former assistant Capricorn Clark told the jury on Tuesday that Cassie once suggested she wanted to date Jay-Z.
In a meeting with Diddy’s lawyers in April, 2024, Clark said she once told Cassie to date other people than Diddy – but Cassie apparently replied that Jay-Z was taken.
Agnifilo asked Clark: ‘Do you remember saying at the meeting that … you told Cassie, you have to — you should move away from [Diddy] and date other people, right?’
The attorney added: ‘And she said to you that Jay-Z was taken, who would she [date]?’
She added: ‘She did [say that.]’
Diddy, Beyonce and Jay-Z are pictured together in 2005.
All the explosive testimony from inside Diddy courtroom on Daily Mail’s podcast The Trial
To hear all the explosive testimony from singer Cassie Ventura and the other witnesses in Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs’ trial, tune in to Daily Mail’s hit podcast The Trial.
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.
LA fire official takes the stand to testify about Kid Cudi’s car bombing
LAFD Arson investigator Lance Jimenez has taken the stand Wednesday after LAPD officer Ignacio.
Jimenez has worked on the force for 22 years and was one of the officials who responded to Kid Cudi’s home in 2012 after a molotov cocktail was placed in his car.
Cudi said on the stand last week that he believes Diddy was responsible for the arson.
LA cop says there was no car chase after Kid Cudi break-in
Contradicting the testimony of Diddy’s ex-assistant Capricorn Clark, LA police officer Ignacio said he did not see Kid Cudi’s Porsche around Diddy’s Escalade after the break-in at the rapper’s mansion in 2011.
Clark claimed she saw Cudi arrive after Diddy forced her to take him to his house.
She said Cudi took off as he noticed the Escalade in the driveway, and that Diddy followed him.
Diddy’s defense appeared to use the moment to undermind Clark’s claims.
Who are Diddy’s lawyers?
Once one of the most powerful music moguls in the world, Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs is now relying on a $10 million team of legal heavyweights to rescue his ruined reputation as his sex trafficking trial rolls on for another six weeks.
The defiant Grammy Award winning rapper is used to commanding a crowd – but he has been sitting silently on the defense benches while eight key defense attorneys take center stage during the blockbuster case in Manhattan federal court.
His leading lawyers are Marc Agnifilo, 60, a former Manhattan District Attorney who has tried more than 200 cases during his 30-year career, and millennial ‘nepo baby‘ defender Teny Geragos, 34, who has been using TikTok to argue Diddy’s case.
LA cop takes the stand, says he saw Diddy’s car leave Kid Cudi’s mansion after break-in
Officer Ignacio took the stand on Wednesday for the prosecution.
He was the officer to respond to Kid Cudi’s house in 2011 after Diddy allegedly broke into the home after learning of the rapper’s romance with Cassie Ventura.
Igancio said when he arrived he found a black Escalade in the driveway, with tinted windows.
‘It was parked directly in front of the residence and as soon as we arrived it took off up the hill,’ Ignacio told the jury.
Diddy’s former assistant Capricorn Clark testified on Tuesday that the mogul was inside the vehicle at the time.
On Wednesday, Ignacio confirmed the vehicle was registered to Bad Boy Productions Inc.
Alleged Diddy victim may share secrets she ‘would have taken to her grave’
One of the witnesses expected to take the stand today, who is going by the name Mia, was said to be extremely nervous before her testimony.
Her lawyer, Michael Ferrara, said his client will tell about the worst things ever to happen to her.
Those things, he said, she otherwise would have taken ‘to her grave.’ He said she will want emotional support during her testimony.
‘Candidly, her nerves are through the roof,’ he said.
‘I don’t know how to support her if we can’t discuss the pain she’s going to experience from having to tell the world about her worst experiences.’
Will Diddy take the stand? All the witnesses at rapper’s blockbuster trial
So far, the blockbuster trial has consisted of a number of bombshell testimonies from his ex-girlfriend and main accuser Cassie Ventura, rapper Kid Cudi, Dawn Richard, a former member of Combs’ pop group Danity Kane, and his former executive assistant George Kaplan, among others.
Here is a full list of everyone who has taken the stand so far:
Ex-assistant says Diddy’s staff threatened to throw her in the East River
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner questioned Capricorn Clark about her off-and-on employment with Combs from 2004 to 2018, beginning with her first day when she said Combs and a bodyguard took her to Central Park after 9pm and said he hadn’t been aware of her past work for other rappers.
Clark testified that Combs told her that if that work became an issue, he’d have to kill her.
Clark said she was only weeks into the job when Combs tasked her with carrying diamond jewelry and it went missing. As a result, she said, she was repeatedly given lie detector tests over five-day stretch by a man who seemed five times larger than her own size.
‘He said: “If you fail this test they’re going to throw you in the East River,”‘ she recalled, adding that they eventually let her return to work.
Even the alleged kidnapping didn’t scare Clark away, Agnifilo noted.
‘Freak off’ videos will NOT be shown in court
Judge Arun Subramanian provisionally denied a joint application by news outlets for the videos to be played in open court and be described by the media.
He agreed with a prosecution argument that playing them would ‘revictimize’ Ventura and one of the unnamed female victims who will testify later iun the trial.
The judge also denied an alternative proposal to allow three pool reporters to stay in court when they were played, and share reports with other outlets.
“I’m not seeing any case that would suggest in any way, shape, or form that images or videos of these types of acts that are alleged to be sexual abuse would be required to be shown in open court when they pose the obvious risk of revictimization,’ he said.
Robert Balin, the lawyer who argued on behalf of the press, earlier said the First Amendment was ‘at its zenith’ in the case.
He argued it was important ‘people, though the press, be able to see justice is being done’.
Balin said the best evidence of whether the sex acts in the ‘freak offs’ were coerced – which underpinned the prosecution’s case – were the videos themselves.
The application was only ever to view the videos and describe them, not for the footage to ever become public.
Kim Kardashian’s ex Ray J breaks silence on Diddy in shock interview
Ray J spoke about his former mentor Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ ongoing sex-trafficking trial while appearing on Piers Morgan Uncensored.
‘I think it’s kind of becoming a circus, and with all the allegations and now with everybody explaining what’s happening in the bedroom, I mean, every day. It just sounds crazier and crazier and freakier and weirder, right?’ he said.
He continued: ‘I’m trying to understand, with all this being said, like with Kid Cudi going on and saying everything that happened, but then ended up saying, “Cassie played both of us”… Where are we trying to go? Are we just trying to tell all of these crazy stories, and then that equals out to sex-trafficking?’
Ray J went on to say that he felt the claims against Diddy were ‘starting to become outrageous.’
Diddy’s former assistant breaks down in tears as she recalls terrifying threats by his staff
Taking the stand on Tuesday, Capricorn Clark said she was left ‘petrified’ after being brought to an abandoned building in New York and locked in while being questioned about the hip hop mogul’s missing jewelry.
Another time, she claimed Diddy kidnapped her at gunpoint and drove her to a love rival’s house where he intended to shoot the man dead, the court heard.
The extraordinary claims emerged during the testimony of Clark, 46, who repeatedly broke down in tears while describing her nightmarish employment with Diddy.
Diddy arrives in court
Diddy is in court ahead of the 11th day of his sex-trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan federal court.
He’s wearing a Navy sweater today – as he did on Tuesday.
The mogul arrived earlier than usual and began speaking to his lawyer at the table.
He is allowed to wear his own clothes to the trial but with some conditions.
He can only have up to five pairs of pants, shirts and socks and only two pairs of shoes – with no laces.
Usher, Ne- Yo, dragged into Dawn Richard’s testimony
Former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard said on the stand that Diddy punched Cassie in the stomach during a private argument at a West Hollywood restaurant in 2010.
She claimed several celebrities were at the dinner, including Usher, Ne-Yo and superstar music executive Jimmy Iodine.
‘Mr Combs punched Cassie in the stomach,’ Richard told the jury.
‘They were having a private conversation, we were all sitting eating at the tables together. Some of Bad Boy label mates, some celebrities were in the room.
‘They were secretly arguing [and] he punched her in the stomach.
Richard added: ‘[Cassie] immediately bent over and he told her to leave, I could see him point out and she went out.’
Diddy’s ex Cassie Ventura has gone into labor after a day of explosive testimony recapped on Daily Mail’s podcast The Trial
All the celebrities named so far in Diddy’s trial
The trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is in its third week in New York and several A-list celebrities have been named-dropped throughout the bombshell testimony.
His former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, delivered graphic testimonies alleging that the music mogul physically and psychologically abused her over more than a decade from 2007-2018.
Diddy’s ex-assistant Capricorn Clark exposed the mogul’s list of celebrities enemies and many other A-listers have come up in testimony.
The trial has even inspired deep fake videos that use AI-generated images to falsely claim that certain celebrities, such as Oprah and Jennifer Lawrence, have been mentioned in the mogul’s sex-trafficking case.
Here is a list of all the celebrities named in the trial so far:
Who will take the stand on Wednesday?
The government plans to call a Los Angeles police officer and arson investigator to the stand on Wednesday.
Stylist Deonte Nash and an alleged victim who was also one of Combs’s former employees, who is going by the name Mia, are also expected.
Suge Knight says Diddy ‘definitely should walk’
Diddy’s longtime rival Suge Knight told NewsNation‘s Chris Cuomo that he believes the music mogul should be declared not guilty in his sex-trafficking and racketeering trial.
‘I say this all the time, Puffy and I are not friends,’ the Death Row records founder said on a phone call from prison.
‘But, Puffy should definitely walk.’
‘I don’t think this is a case where Puffy should be going to prison,’ Knight, who is serving a 28-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter, added.
Meanwhile Ray J told Piers Morgan on Tuesday that his longtime friend will soon be freed from jail.
‘I personally think it’s gonna happen faster than a lot of people think, because I think we’re all starting to see what this is, even if you’re on the other side of it,’ Ray J said on Piers Morgan Uncensored.
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Diddy assistant says Cassie lusted after Jay Z behind closed doors in shocking court allegations: Live updates