Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Cassie Ventura breaks down as testimony concludes

The hip-hop mogul is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

Last Updated: May 19, 2025, 9:00 AM EDT

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.

May 13, 10:11 am

Sean Combs trial underway

The highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is underway. Combs 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.

Combs' 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."

May 14, 2025, 4:33 PM EDT

Cassie Ventura testifies that Combs threatened to blow up Kid Cudi's car after learning of Ventura's relationship with him

Cassie Ventura broke off her brief relationship with Kid Cudi because “it was just too much," she testified, saying there was “too much danger, too much uncertainty of what could happen if we continued to see each other.”

Ventura told the jury that Combs allegedly told her that he was going to hurt her and Kid Cudi and that Combs allegedly would later speak of arson.

“Scott’s car would be blown up,” Ventura testified Combs told her. “Sean wanted Scott’s friends to be there to see the car get blown up in the driveway.”

Ventura, Combs and Cudi all met at the SoHo House social club in Los Angeles to discuss the relationship, according to Ventura's testimony.

“Scott said, ‘What about my vehicle?’ and Sean said, ‘What vehicle?’ And that was the end of the meeting,” Ventura testified.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to leading a racketeering conspiracy. One of the alleged acts of threatened violence included in the racketeering count is arson.

May 14, 2025, 3:54 PM EDT

Cassie Ventura describes fight with Combs after he learned of her relationship with Kid Cudi

Cassie Ventura testified that in 2011, when the relationship between her and Sean Combs was “not in the greatest place," she began briefly dating Scott Mescudi, the performer better known as Kid Cudi.

Ventura told the court that Combs learned of the relationship during a "freak off" in Los Angeles: “He went through my phone and saw emails between me and a staff member."

“I just remember him putting a wine bottle opener in between his fingers and lunging at me,” Ventura testified.

Ventura kept a “burner” phone to communicate with Kid Cudi because “I didn’t want Sean to find out,” she testified.

Ventura testified that she later went to Combs’ home because he allegedly said he wanted to talk.

“He was irate, He was just so angry,” Ventura testified. “When I was in the room, he told me about videos that he had and how it was going to hurt Scott and I.”

Ventura told the court that the videos Combs referenced were videos of "freak offs."

“Sean kicked me in the back on the way out so I had a big bruise on my back,” Ventura testified. “I had bruises in other places on my body.”

Ventura testified that she flew to Connecticut. On the plane ride there, Ventura testified, she wrote an email to her mother under an alias she used -- Veronica -- warning her mother that “Sean Puffy Combs is going to release two explicit sexual tapes of me … he also said that he will have someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi.”

Once in Connecticut, Ventura testified that her mother took photos of her injuries. The jury was shown an image of a welt on her back.

May 14, 2025, 3:29 PM EDT

Cassie Ventura testifies about first time Combs allegedly beat her

Cassie Ventura testified about the first time she recalled Sean Combs “knocked me around," describing a time in New York City when, she alleged, he “hit me in the side of the head and I fell to the floor.”

Ventura testified that they were in a car when the alleged assault took place in front of a driver and staff.

Ventura told the court that she, too, sometimes initiated physical violence, recalling to the court a party where she said she had been drinking and speaking to a producer about music.

In the car ride home, “Sean called me a 'slut' or 'b----' or something. I punched him in the face,” Ventura testified.

“How hard did you hit him?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked.

“As hard as you can hit someone when you’re drunk,” Ventura responded, adding that she did not appear to injure Combs.

“After I punched him, he attacked me,” Ventura testified, telling the court that she was on the floor of Combs’ Cadillac Escalade trying to cover her face “because he was trying to stomp on it with his foot” and that one of Combs’ assistants and a security guard were in the car at the time.

“I was getting really, really badly beaten,” Ventura testified.

Ventura told the court that Combs ordered staff to take her to a hotel and ordered her to cover her face when she went inside. She was not allowed to leave until seven to 10 days later, she told the court, when an employee of Combs’ allegedly told her that Combs wanted her at a recording studio.

“My eyes were still bloodshot in both eyes. I still had some bruising,” Ventura testified, adding that she remembered wearing glasses and heavy makeup to cover what she said were her injuries.

May 14, 2025, 2:47 PM EDT

Jurors are shown still images from videos of 'freak offs'

Federal prosecutors showed the jury a series of seven still images taken from video recordings of "freak off" sex encounters in which Cassie Ventura has testified Sean Combs forced her to participate.

“That’s me and Dave,” Ventura testified when asked to identify a person who was seen in one of the images. “We are in a 'freak off.'”

After being shown images from a Freak Off, jurors are shown images of what Casandra "Cassie" Ventura described as bruises from Sean "Diddy" Combs at Combs' trial before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian in New York City, May 14, 2025.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Ventura in earlier testimony identified "Dave" as one of the male escorts allegedly hired to have sex with her while Combs watched.

Only the jury, the witness and the attorneys viewed the explicit images. Monitors in the courtroom were turned off to prevent anyone else in the courtroom from viewing them.

Ventura testified that the images came from videos that had been recorded on broken electronic devices that she had turned over to the government.

“That’s me,” Ventura responded quietly when asked to identify who was shown in another video still image.

“What’s on your skin?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked.

“Oil,” Ventura replied.

Federal prosecutors gathered their video evidence in part from the multiple electronic devices Ventura turned over to them as well as from devices that agents seized from Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, where agents said they found a cellphone “stored inside of a black Balenciaga boot” in a master bedroom closet.

The attorneys for the prosecution and defense could view the images in a binder. At the defense table, Combs appeared to lean over to look at them.

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