After a marathon two months and mountains of evidence, Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs has been convicted of the two least serious charges he faced – and cleared of the most grim.
The rapper, 55, still faces 20 years in prison after being found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution for his treatment of ex-girlfriends Cassie Ventura and ‘Jane’, a woman so traumatized she used a pseudonym throughout.
He was found not guilty of racketeering conspiracy – the top charge – and sex trafficking, the most crucial.
Diddy’s fans erupted in cheers and his family left Manhattan court on July 2 smiling after the rapper was handed the best possible verdict, besides a full acquittal.
It was an explosive trial filled with jaw-dropping moments and mentions of some of the world’s biggest stars.
Cassie, Diddy’s ex-girlfriend and the star witness, testified while heavily pregnant.
There was a cameo from Kanye West, constant warring between prosecutors and defense lawyers, and an army of Diddy die-hards who waited outside court every day.
Now, the music mogul begins a new fight in reducing his sentence. It remains unclear when he will learn his punishment.
Sean ‘ Diddy ‘ Combs was on trial for racketeering and sex trafficking. He was found not guilty of both charges
The jury of eight men and four women heard from 34 witnesses including two of Diddy’s ex-girlfriends and six of his former personal assistants since the trial kicked off on May 5
The jury of eight men and four women heard from 34 witnesses including two of Diddy’s ex-girlfriends and six of his former personal assistants since the trial kicked off on May 5.
Prosecutors painted a picture of a mob-like figure who threatened to kill people if they spoke out against him and ran a ‘criminal enterprise’ that covered it up.
It wasn’t enough to convince every juror of his racketeering guilt – the jury initially returned a split verdict on the racketeering conspiracy charge.
But they were quick to reach a verdict on the first four charges.
Those applied to his treatment of Cassie and ‘Jane’.
Both claimed they were forced to take part in freak offs, where they had sex with a male escort while covered in baby oil as Diddy masturbated while directing them on what to do.
The jury was shown multiple clips of the freak offs – which made one black female juror grimace, while another put her hand to her face. The X-rated material was not released to the public.
Dozens of celebrities were named but none were implicated in criminal wrongdoing and only one turned up to support Diddy, Kanye West, who briefly appeared in court.
THE CASE AGAINST DIDDY
In her closing argument, prosecutor Christy Slavik said that Diddy used a ‘methodical pattern of violence and coercion’ to force women into freak offs.
Slavik claimed that Diddy ‘groomed’ his victims and wanted ‘complete control’ over them which he achieved by drugging and abusing them.
Diddy often called himself ‘The King’ and wanted to be treated as such, the jury was told.
During a marathon summation which took nearly five hours, Slavik said that Diddy was a man who ‘doesn’t take no for an answer’.
The star witness for the defense was Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura, who dated Diddy for more than a decade and testified while eight-and-a-half months pregnant
In her closing argument, prosecutor Christy Slavik said that Diddy used a ‘methodical pattern of violence and coercion’ to force women into freak offs
She described him as the ‘leader of a criminal enterprise’ who had a group of ‘loyal lieutenants’ ready to protect him.
Emily Anne Johnson, another prosecutor, rejected the idea that Diddy was on trial for his sexual proclivities.
She said: ‘Let me be very clear…this case is not about a celebrity’s private sexual preferences. The evidence will show the sexual conduct at issue in this case was coercive and criminal because the defendant made women have sex when they didn’t want to’.
DIDDY’S DEFENSE
Diddy’s defense was that he was a terrible boyfriend but not a sex trafficker.
His lawyers said that he was a ‘complicated’ man who was sometimes a ‘jerk’ who admitted to beating up women.
His relationships with women were ‘toxic’ and driven by jealousy – but they were not criminal.
Opening the case, Teny Geragos told the court: ‘The evidence is going to show you a very flawed individual but it will not show you a racketeer or a sex trafficker’.
According to Geragos, even though Diddy was ‘kinky’, the government shouldn’t prosecute him for what he did in the bedroom.
Opening the case, Teny Geragos told the court: ‘The evidence is going to show you a very flawed individual but it will not show you a racketeer or a sex trafficker’
She said: ‘He had a bit of a different sex life.
‘You may know of his love of baby oil. Is that a federal crime? No’
Geragos urged the jury ‘not to judge him (Diddy) for his sexual preferences’.
She said: ‘You are here to evaluate whether the government can prove beyond a reasonable doubt what they actually charged him with’.
Diddy’s defense case took just 23 minutes and did not call any witnesses. Diddy did not testify himself, as his team instead relied on cross examination of the witnesses.
CASSIE VENTURA
The star witness for the defense was Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura, who dated Diddy for more than a decade and testified while eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her third child by her husband, personal trainer Alex Fine.
Ventura, now 38, met Combs when she was just 19 and signed to his Bad Boy Records label on a 10-album deal.
After they first kissed at her 21st birthday in Las Vegas, Combs flew Britney Spears in to celebrate – she quickly fell in love with him even though he was 17 years older than her.
Ventura said she was so sexually inexperienced that he had to teach her what oral sex was.
Rather than helping her career, Diddy made Ventura’s ‘job’ to perform drug-fueled freak offs for Combs with male escorts while he watched and masturbated.
Just one of her 10 albums would come out.
Ventura said: ‘Within the first year of our relationship Sean proposed to me this idea this sexual encounter that he called voyeurism where he’d watch me in sexual activity with a third party, specifically another man’.
Ventura is seen making her way to court on May 16
With a sigh, Ventura said in a halting voice: ‘It entails hiring of an escort, and… setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean’.
The toll on Ventura was steep: freak offs would go on for up to four days and when she wasn’t partaking in them, she was recovering from the effects of taking ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and GHB, also known as liquid ecstasy.
She frequently contracted UTI infections but didn’t always have time to recover before the next freak off, meaning that she endured a ‘burning’ sensation while having sex.
Ventura explained in explicit detail what freak offs involved: her and a male escort covering themselves in baby oil while Diddy told them how to have sex.
If Ventura refused then she would be beaten so badly the whites of her eyes would turn red, she told the jury.
‘If they were violent arguments would usually result in some sort of physical abuse,’ she said. ‘Dragging, just different things of that nature.
‘He would bash me on my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down’.
Prosecutor Emily Anne Johnson asked how frequently this would happen. ‘Too frequently’, Ventura said.
Diddy’s mood could change ‘at the drop of a conversation, bad conversation, that I had nothing to do with’, Ventura said.
‘The most complicated examples are the abuse. I also felt at certain times when I knew it wasn’t even about me. Yeah, make up the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face
‘If I wasn’t smiling at him the way he wanted I just looked a certain way he didn’t like. Maybe I was a brat or something he would let me know I need to fix my face or watch my mouth. Those were things that were said quite often. Fix your face, watch your mouth or you have a slick mouth’.
The jury was shown chilling footage from a time in 2016 when Ventura tried to escape a Freak Off at the InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles.
The CCTV camera footage – first aired by CNN last year – showed Diddy dragging Ventura by her hair and repeatedly kicking her while she was on the floor.
By 2017 Ventura was souring on the relationship and messaged Combs: ‘Nothing good comes out of FOs (Freak Offs) any more. You treat me like you’re Ike Turner’.
They broke up the following year but not before Combs allegedly raped Ventura on what she thought was one of their final dinners together .
Diddy’s lawyers used Ventura’s texts to try and undermine her testimony including some friendly ones sent after the alleged rape.
The following month, in September 2018, Ventura told Diddy: ‘I do love you’, and in another message she said: ‘Can’t wait to see you’.
Cassie is seen with a gash on her eyebrow in evidence photo
Cassie is seen with bruises on her body in evidence image
She also admitted that she had consensual sex with Diddy one time after the alleged rape – even though she was dating her now husband by then.
In August 2009, near the start of their relationship, Ventura told Diddy: ‘I’m always ready to Freak Off LOLOL’.
Two days later Diddy wrote to Ventura: ‘I can’t wait to watch you, I want you to get real hot’.
She replied: ‘Me too, I just want it to be uncontrollable’.
Diddy’s’ attorney Anna Estevao tried to portray his conduct as being due to his excessive drug consumption and said that jealousy, rather than abuse, was what drove their conflict.
They suggested she was jealous of Kim Porter, the mother of four of Diddy’s children and Gina Huynh, whom he is currently dating.
But Ventura remained a sympathetic figure and told the jury how in 2023 when she finally came to terms with what happened, she wanted to kill herself.
‘I was shooting a video with another music artist and kept having these horrible flashbacks,’ Ventura said.
‘I went home and it was super super late, my kids were asleep and I remember telling him (her husband) you can do this without me you don’t need me anymore
‘I couldn’t take the pain I was in any more so I tried to walk out the front door into traffic and my husband would not let me’.
During Ventura’s testimony it emerged that Diddy had paid her $20 million to settle a civil lawsuit she filed against him in 2023.
She is also expecting another $10 million from the InterContinental hotel.
Ventura gave birth nine days after she finished testifying.
THE RAIDS ON DIDDY’S HOMES AND THE DAMNING PHOTOS
Among the most shocking evidence were the photos and exhibits seized from the raids on Diddy’s hotel room in New York and his Miami mansion.
Diddy was staying at the Park Avene Hyatt on September 16th last year when it was raided.
Despite knowing he was coming to New York to face arrest, Diddy still had numerous bottles of baby oil, astroglide lubricant and mood lighting in the room.
He also had $9,000 in cash and bags of pink powder which tested positive for MDMA and ketamine.
A Homeland Security agent told the jury that during the raid on Diddy’s $40 million Miami mansion in March last year, they found dozens of bottles of baby oil throughout the house, as well as many bottles of Astroglide lubricant.
Despite knowing he was coming to New York to face arrest, Diddy still had numerous bottles of baby oil, astroglide lubricant and mood lighting in the room
There were pieces of AR-15 assault rifles which had the serial numbers removed, a handgun and boxes of 7 inch stiletto heels, which were apparently used during Freak Offs
He also had $9,000 in cash and bags of pink powder which tested positive for MDMA and ketamine
There were pieces of AR-15 assault rifles which had the serial numbers removed, a handgun and boxes of 7 inch stiletto heels, which were apparently used during Freak Offs.
The jury was also shown a black Gucci pouch which contained various illegal drugs including ketamine, cocaine and MDMA.
The photos of the raid on Diddy’s Los Angeles home in March last year were equally as damning.
The jury was shown 17 unopened boxes of Astroglide, part of a haul of 900 bottles of the lubricant found in the home, as well as 200 bottles of baby oil.
Diddy’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo tried to pass the haul off a ‘bulk buying’ by his client.
Another witness, Frederic Zemmour, the general manager of the L’Ermitage Beverly Hills, a luxury hotel where Diddy was a regular, told the court that they only let him stay in basic rooms because they were frequently damaged by excessive baby oil use.
Diddy was charged $45,000 by a hotel in New York for damage to its penthouse, apparently caused during a Freak Off.
KID CUDI
The rapper told the court how his $140,000 Porsche was blown up after Diddy found out he had been seeing his girlfriend.
Scott Mescudi, who is known as Kid Cudi, said the Porsche 911 Cabriolet was destroyed by the damage caused by a molotov cocktail thrown in by assailants who slashed the roof.
Mescudi said he suspected Diddy was involved in the terrifying attack at his home in Los Angeles because he was ‘violent’.
He also revealed that Diddy had broken into his home when he found out about his relationship with Cassandra Ventura.
Ventura had been dating Combs since 2007 but Mescudi thought she had broken up with him when they began seeing each other in 2011.
On December 22nd 2011 around 5.30am, Mescudi got a panicked call from Ventura while at his home in Los Angeles saying that Diddy had found out about them.
Kid Cudi told the court how his $140,000 Porsche was blown up after Diddy found out he had been seeing his girlfriend
The rapper’s car is seen charred after it was lit on fire
After picking her up, he called Diddy only to find the mogul was in his house.
By the time he arrived, nobody was there. The only damage was that some Chanel presents had been opened and Mr Mescudi’s dog had been locked in the bathroom.
According to Mescudi, he broke up with Ms Ventura in late 2011 ‘for her safety, for my safety…because I knew Sean Combs was violent’.
But the following month, Mescudi’s car was firebombed with a molotov cocktail.
A Los Angeles Fire Department report said that the Porsche was set on fire by an ‘incendiary device’ and that the cause was ‘intentional’.
Mescudi said that he arranged a meeting with Mr Combs for the next day at SoHo House in Hollywood because he ‘knew he had something to do with it’.
He said that Diddy was standing like a ‘Marvel Supervillain’ in a meeting room and that he denied having anything to do with the arson.
Prosecutor Emily Anne Johnson asked Mescudi: ‘What was your understanding when Mr Combs said he didn’t know what you were talking about?’
He replied: ‘That he was lying’.
DAWN RICHARD
The singer said that her years being in two of Diddy’s groups gave her a front row seat to his violent and abusive ways.
Richard, 41, who was in ‘Danity Kane’, which ran from 2005 to 2009 and ‘Diddy – Dirty Money’ which went from 2009 to 2012, said that Diddy once threatened to kill her if she spoke out about seeing his brutal assault on Ventura.
The next day she and another member of the group were summoned to the studio.
Dawn Richard said that her years being in two of Diddy’s groups gave her a front row seat to his violent and abusive ways
Richard and Diddy pictured in 2010
Richard said Diddy told them: ‘The incident was (due to) passion and Cassie was OK and that if we said anything we could go missing’.
Asked what Diddy meant by that, Richard said: ‘That we could die’.
Richard also testified about seeing Diddy secretly punch Ventura in the stomach at a celebrity-packed dinner in Hollywood with Usher and Ne-Yo among the guests.
THE MALE ESCORTS
The jury heard from two exotic dancers who said they were paid thousands of dollars to take part in Freak Offs.
One of them was known as ‘The Punisher’, a name he said that he got from playing basketball in his teens.
The escort, whose real name was Sharray Hayes, told how he normally worked as an exotic dancer – at one point bragging about his ability to ‘dry hump’ women.
But after being paid $2,000 by Ventura and Diddy, he took part in a Freak Off at a Trump hotel in New York.
Hayes said he wanted to create a ‘sexy scene’ so poured baby oil all over himself while Diddy watched.
Hayes, 51, told the court that he was hired for the Freak Off in 2012 and would go on to do around 10 more.
He later revealed he had written a book called ‘In Search of Freezer Meat’ about his erectile dysfunction issues.
The other escort, Daniel Phillip, said he was paid between $700 and $6,000 for taking part in Freak Offs.
But he stopped doing them after seeing Diddy beat Ventura, at which point he could no longer perform when Diddy was in the room.
Many of Ventura’s escorts were hired from a service called ‘Cowboys 4 Angels’ which was the subject of a Bravo reality TV series.
Jane, another of Diddy’s ex-girlfriends, found the men she did Freak Offs with from watching porn and messaging one of the performers she and Diddy liked.
THE ASSISTANTS
The trial heard from six of Diddy’s former personal assistants who told the court about the excruciatingly long hours they had to work for their demanding boss.
The most vivid testimony was from David James, George Kaplan and Capricorn Clark who said they had to be at his house before he woke up after 9am and would be with him in the studio until 4am.
Existing on between two and four hours of sleep a night caused Clark to lose her hair through stress.
The assistants’ duties included getting Diddy’s food, arranging his schedule, buying him drugs – and getting supplies set up in his rooms for Freak Offs
James, Kaplan and Clark said they felt conflicted about their time working for Diddy and said that they had learned a lot about how to operate as a businessman.
But they all had to look the other way to acts of violence – until they were the target.
Clark broke down in tears while describing how she was subjected to five days of lie detector tests in an abandoned building after some of Diddy’s jewels went missing.
Cassie and Capricorn attend Sean Combs’ October 2008 L’Uomo Vogue music issue cover celebration at 1OAK in New York City
George Kaplan arrives at Federal Court for Sean Combs’ sex trafficking trial
One of Diddy’s security guards took her to the sixth floor where there was a fold up table and a huge man sitting chain smoking.
Clark said: ‘He said I had been brought to the building to take a lie detector test to figure out what happened with this jewelry. He said if you fail these tests they’re going to throw you in the East River’, referring to the river off the coast of Manhattan.
Fighting back tears, Clark said she did the test because ‘I was afraid of what would happen if I didn’t pass….and the test was the only way to get through this thing’.
Another time Clark was kidnapped by a gun-toting Diddy who wanted to kill Kid Cudi, the rapper, after finding out he had been seeing Ventura.
At the end of the day, Ventura went back to Diddy who kicked her repeatedly and warned Clark to stay out of it or he would ‘f*** her up too’.
MIA: THE ASSISTANT ALLEGEDLY RAPED BY DIDDY
One of Diddy’s former personal assistant tearfully told the trial how she allegedly woke up in bed to find him raping her.
Mia – who testified under a pseudonym – said she allegedly felt the weight of the hip hop mogul’s body on her in the bunk at his home in Los Angeles.
Mia claimed that she ‘froze’ and felt ‘terrified’ as the alleged rape continued at his Los Angeles home in 2009.
She said: ‘I remember it was sort of like him telling me shhh, be quiet and using one hand to get his pants off’.
Looking down to the floor and crying, Mia claimed she felt ‘terrified and confused and ashamed and scared’.
Witness ‘Mia’ is questioned by prosecutor Madison Smyser
According to Mia, Diddy sexually assaulted her numerous times, each occasion leaving her with a ‘specific horrible, dark feeling in my stomach’.
Asked why she didn’t ever say no, Mia said that with Diddy ‘I couldn’t tell him no about a sandwich, I couldn’t tell him no about anything’.
She claimed : ‘Then he would know that what he was doing was wrong and I’d be a target’.
Crying and shaking, Mia alleged she was worried Diddy would ‘fire me and ruin my future’.
She also allegedly feared for her personal safety and thought she ‘would be somehow attacked or…I just didn’t want to die’.
THE SECURITY GUARD AND THE $100,000 BRIBE
A security guard told how Diddy counted out $100,000 from a brown paper bag to buy the only copy of a video showing him beating up his ex-girlfriend.
Eddy Garcia, who worked at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, told in vivid detail how the hip hop mogul used a counting machine to add up the money for the bribe in 2016.
Garcia said that Diddy called him ‘Eddy, my angel’ for deleting it from the servers and giving it to him on a USB stick.
Hotel security guard Eddy Garcia testifies in court
The money was split between Garcia, another security officer and the head of security at the hotel.
But another security officer secretly made a copy which was leaked to CNN in 2024: the airing of the footage helped lead to Diddy’s downfall and arrest in September that year.
THE FASHION DESIGNER DANGLED OVER A BALCONY
Fashion designer Bryana Bongolan told the jury that Diddy dangled her over a 17th storey balcony in 2016, leaving her sure she was going to die.
Bongolan said that she was left with ‘night terrors’ after the terrifying incident in 2016 which left her so disturbed she ‘screamed in my sleep’.
‘I was facing the view but he came up from behind me,’ she told the court.
Lifting up her hands, Bongolan said: ‘He lifted me up and then put me on top of the rail.
‘He came up from behind (with his hands) into my armpit and (lifted me) up’.
At the time Bongolan was just 110lbs and Diddy was bigger than her, she told the jury.
Bongolan said that her feet were ‘on the rail’. She said: ‘I was trying not to slip and pushing back on him, because I was scared to fall.
Cassie Ventura’s friend Bryana Bongolan, leaves the Federal court after testifying during the sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial
‘For a split second I was thinking if I was going to fall. For the most part he was yelling at me so I was trying to answer him. He kept repeating you know what the f*** you did’.
Bongolan said she had ‘no idea’ what she supposedly did. She told Diddy: ‘I don’t know what the f*** I did’.
During cross examination, Diddy’s lawyer Nicole Westmoreland brought up texts that contradicted the date Bongolan said the incident happened.
The judge appeared so impressed he later called it a ‘Perry Mason moment’ for the defense.
JANE: DIDDY’S GIRLFRIEND UNTIL THE END
‘Jane’, who testified under a pseudonym, claimed she was ‘obligated’ to take part in Freak Offs for the three years she dated Diddy off and on until his arrest in September 2024.
Jane claimed that the Freak Offs went on for up to three-and-a-half days and she was made to have sex with multiple escorts out of fear Diddy would stop paying the $10,000 rent on her Los Angeles home.
According to Jane, she was ‘consumed’ by Diddy and claimed that he emotionally manipulated her because she craved alone time with him.
But even when he promised her that, they would end up having a Freak Off, including on her birthday one year when she had sex with three different men.
Just like Ventura, Freak Offs were fueled by drugs and Jane said that Diddy would give her ecstasy pills every time.
She only tried to do without drugs twice: on one of those occasions she vomited in the bathroom but Diddy told her to get up and have sex with another man.
The jury was played a chilling audio in which Diddy mocked Jane’s request to use a condom whilst having sex with one of the escorts.
‘Jane’ is cross-examined by lawyer Teny Geragos
The jury heard a text from Jane to Diddy dated September 17th 2023 in which she talked about Freak Offs as a ‘Pandora’s Box’
She said that ‘one night of fun’ became ‘all I’m expected to do’
She wrote: ‘I don’t want to play this role in your life any more. It’s dark, sleazy and makes me feel disgusted with myself.
‘I feel it’s the only reason you have me around…I don’t want to feel obligated to do these nights in fear of losing the roof over my head’.
Jane’s relationship with Diddy nearly ended after he subjected her to a terrifying, all night assault at her Los Angeles home where he broke down three doors and a closet door.
Jane claimed that Diddy ordered her to have sex with a male escort and dragged her inside the house by her hair.
But after this she still went back with him and Diddy’s lawyers used this to suggest that she was a willing and enthusiastic participant in the Freak Offs.
In July 2022 she sent him a message saying ‘I had a great time with you too’ after one of their Freak Offs.
Another point made by Diddy’s defense was that the only financial hold Diddy had over Jane was the rent on her home: unlike Ventura Jane’s career was not in his hands.
Diddy’s lawyers also tried to portray Jane as a money grabber and asked her about Chanel and Bottega Veneta bags, which Diddy bought her.
Teny Geragos, one of Diddy’s lawyers, asked Jane: ‘How much do Bottega bags run?’
Jane snapped back: ‘How much does my body cost?’
During her testimony Jane put forward an extraordinary theory to explain why Diddy forced his girlfriends to do Freak Offs.
She said that after doing her own research she thought he was a ‘cuck’, meaning a man who may be bisexual but was too ashamed to have sex with another man so asked his woman to do so.
KANYE WEST
The rapper made a shock visit to the court to show support for Diddy, a friend of his.
West wore all white and spent an hour inside the courthouse in the fifth week and briefly watched the hearing in an overflow room before walking out.
Asked if he was there for Diddy, West nodded but did not otherwise speak.
His appearance sparked a frenzy in court, in part because the court had just heard testimony about a mystery rapper and his wife watching a male escort have sex in a hotel room with Diddy’s ex-girlfriend, ‘Jane’.
The rapper, described in court as an ‘icon’ of the music industry, flirted with Jane while watching the sexual performance at a hotel in Las Vegas in January 2024.
The unnamed rapper said he was part of ‘the lifestyle’ meaning that he liked having more than one sexual partner – and even asked for a recommendation of a porn star for future shows.
While the rapper was not named, West was in Las Vegas in January 2024 and many of the other details in Jane’s account matched up with his publicly known activities from that time.
JUROR DRAMA
One juror was removed from the panel midway through the trial after making ‘inconsistent’ statements about where he lived.
Juror no.6 was dismissed after claiming in Voir Dire he lived in the Bronx but later letting slip to a member of court staff he had recently moved to New Jersey.
The juror, a black man who likes 90s hip hop, was replaced by a white man from Westchester who works as a mechanical architect.
Diddy’s lawyers complained vehemently about the juror being dismissed and suggested it was racially motivated, a claim the judge slapped down.
Another juror was nearly dismissed after concerns were raised about him possibly talking to a former colleague about his jury service.
Juror no.7 was allowed to stay on after being questioned by the judge. TMZ reported that the juror got a text from an unknown number asking if he was the juror who had been dismissed.
The report sparked an angry reaction from the judge who threatened both sides with criminal prosecution as the details were under seal.
The trial paused for one day during the sixth week of evidence because a juror got vertigo while on the way in and had to turn back.
THE CELEBRITIES WHO WERE NAMED….AND THOSE WHO WERE NOT
Ahead of the trial Hollywood had been on edge that dozens of A-List stars would be named and dragged into the trial
And while some did come up, others who had been photographed at Diddy’s parties were spared.
Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura described how she was flirting with Michael B. Jordan in 2015 while in South Africa filming a movie, but distanced herself from him when Diddy found out.
Ventura described how Diddy flew Britney Spears to her 21st birthday party in Las Vegas, testimony which brought back reports of the singer’s disastrous 2007 VMAs performance after a night out partying with Diddy.
During jury selection, potential jurors were asked if they knew Mike Myers but he only came up fleetingly during the trial.
Capricorn Clark, Diddy’s former personal assistant, testified that she was on holiday with Rihanna when Diddy fired her.
A photo of what appeared to be Clark on a bed with Rihanna was submitted as part of a defense exhibit.
Among the artists that he helped to launch was Mary J Blige, Christopher Wallace – aka The Notorious B.I.G – Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez, whom Diddy once dated
Ventura described how Diddy flew Britney Spears to her 21st birthday party in Las Vegas, testimony which brought back reports of the singer’s disastrous 2007 VMAs performance after a night out partying with Diddy
Clark also said that she was once pursued by Mick Jagger and turned him down and worked for Madonna after leaving Diddy’s employment
Other famous people whose names came up in passing included Chris Brown, Lauren London, Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child, 50 Cent, Suge Knight and Whitney Houston.
Jane testified that she used to call Diddy ‘Michael Jordan’ because he was so good at sex and she was referred to as ‘Kobe Bryant’.
Ashton Kutcher, who had been photographed at Diddy’s infamous ‘White Parties’, was not mentioned during the trial.
Speaking in 2018, Kutcher said he had ‘a lot I can’t tell’ when it came to Diddy’s parties.
Midway through the trial Justin Bieber – who Diddy was a mentor to in his teens – put out a statement saying he was not abused by him in an effort to stop online speculation.
DIDDY IN COURT
Diddy’s family attended court most days and all six of his grown up children came for the first week of the trial.
Quincy Taylor Brown, 33, Justin Combs, 30, Christian Combs, 27, Chance Combs, 18 and twins D’Lila and Jessie Combs, 18 all sat in the third row of the public gallery.
They were joined by Diddy’s mother Janice Combs, 85.
Whenever Diddy saw them in court he would make heart or prayer symbols with his hands and sometimes blew them kisses.
While Diddy’s sons and his mother attended most days, D’Lila and Jessie Combs walked out midway through Ventura’s testimony when she was describing their father performing a vile sex act on her.
After a ruling from the judge, Diddy was allowed to wear civilian clothes but he shied away from designer gear and opted for crew neck sweaters, gray pants and loafers: the judge’s order forbade him from having shoe laces.
Janice Combs arriving at court Monday
Diddy’s 18-year-old daughters Jeesie, Chance and D’Lila Combs on May 13
Several sketches show Diddy expressing his emotions in court as he is seen making a heart gesture with his hands during his trial
King and Justin Combs seen outside the courthouse
Diddy’s confidence in court grew as the trial went on: on the first day of jury selection he asked for a bathroom break and told the judge he was ‘a little nervous’.
By week three he was, as one observer put it, acting like the ‘boss’ and writing remarks on copious amounts of Post-It notes.
He asked a pregnant woman in the public gallery how he was doing and asked the court sketch artists to stop making him look like a ‘koala’.
But Diddy pushed it too far and the judge upbraided him for nodding along and locking eyes with the jury which was ‘unacceptable’.
Another day, a woman was thrown out of court after being disruptive. As she was escorted out Diddy turned around and watched as the woman said the court was ‘laughing at you’.
Diddy brought a number of motivational books into court including ‘The Magic of Believing’, a best seller by Claude M. Bristol, which he pored over during breaks.
