Diddy trial live: Pregnant Cassie Ventura breaks cover as she prepares to take the stand

The singer was pictured leaving her home on Tuesday as she is scheduled to testify against her ex and alleged abuser Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.

The singer and star witness has taken the stand and begun her testimony against Diddy on Tuesday.

Diddy makes a hand gesture to family members arriving at his sex trafficking trial on Tuesday.

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.

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.

Daniel Phillip’s time on the stand has concluded.

Cassie’s testimony should begin within minutes after a 10-minute sidebar.

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.’

Diddy’s mother and children arrived to Manhattan court shortly before Judge Arun Subramanian started the prooceedings.

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.

Janice Combs has entered Manhattan federal court on Tuesday as she supports her son Diddy during his sex-trafficking trial.

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 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.

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’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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.’

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.

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 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.

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.