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The second week of testimony in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs began on Monday.
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.”
Tuesday’s witnesses are expected to include an alleged escort known as “The Punisher,” as well as Cassie Ventura’s mother, prosecutors said on Monday.
The trial entered its second week on Monday.
Former Sean Combs assistant David James took the stand for the prosecution. He testified that he remembered interviewing to be Sean Combs’ personal assistant at the headquarters of Bad Boy Entertainment on Broadway, during which time someone remarked on a photo of Combs hanging on the wall.
“This is Mr. Combs’ kingdom. We’re all here to serve it,” James testified the woman told him.
James told the jury about what he said were demanding hours, the weapons Combs’ security staff allegedly carried and the time James said he, Kerry Morgan and Cassie Ventura were smoking cigarettes on Combs’ dock in Miami Beach.
“She said to me, ‘Man this lifestyle is crazy,’” James testified of Ventura. “She said, ‘I can’t get out.’ You know, ‘Mr. Combs oversees so much of my life. He controls my music career, he gives me an allowance.’”
James also told the jury that part of his job was ensuring that hotel rooms in which Combs would stay were stocked with items Combs wanted.
Court adjourned just after 3 p.m. ET. Prosecutors said Tuesday’s witnesses will include an alleged escort known as “The Punisher,” as well as Cassie Ventura’s mother.
Defense attorneys questioned Kerry Morgan regarding why she hasn’t rekindled her friendship with Cassie Ventura since their last meeting, in 2018.
“I draw the line at physical abuse,” Morgan testified. “The reason I stopped speaking to her was she was not supportive of me after that incident,” referring to Combs’ alleged assault on Morgan.
Morgan testified earlier in the day that Combs allegedly caused her to have a concussion after she told the jury he threw a wooden hanger at her at Ventura’s home in 2018. Morgan testified that she received $30,000 from Combs after threatening a lawsuit regarding the alleged incident.
“I didn’t demand money from anyone. She offered it,” Morgan testified, referring to Ventura. “The money wasn’t coming from her. She was the in-between” for Combs, Morgan told the court.
Morgan testified that Ventura offered her the money to sign an NDA, or nondisclosure agreement. “That was essentially to close the case on it. You don’t get to sue anybody or say anything public about it,” Morgan alleged.
“And you still never became friends again?” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked, referring to Ventura.
“She still hasn’t reached out to me,” Morgan responded. “I’m sure she doesn’t have the same phone number.”
Much of the defense cross-examination of Morgan focused on jealousy, seeking to reinforce the defense’s contention that Combs became violent not to coerce women into sex but because of jealousy and drugs.
Agnifilo showed Morgan a text exchange in which she sent Combs a lengthy “affirmation” that Agnifilo said was penned by an author who writes about self-love.
“Did you believe Mr. Combs did not love himself?” Agnifilo asked Morgan.
“Sometimes it seemed like he did not,” Morgan testified.
On re-direct, prosecutor Meredith Foster argued that jealousy was not part of either of the alleged assaults on Cassie Ventura that Morgan claimed in previous testimony to have witnessed.
Referring to the alleged assaults in Los Angeles and Jamaica, Foster asked Morgan: “Prior to that what, if any, argument did you hear about jealousy?”
Morgan replied, “None.”
Morgan’s testimony has concluded.
David James, a former personal assistant for Combs, is the next witness.
Kerry Morgan testified that she and Cassie Ventura “often” discussed whether Ventura should stay in her relationship with Sean Combs.
“Sometimes I would tell her she should leave him,” Morgan testified. According to Morgan, Ventura answered “that she couldn’t” leave Combs because of “her job, her car, her apartment.”
“He controlled everything,” Morgan testified Ventura told her.
Combs’ alleged exertion of control, including leveraging financial support, are elements of the alleged racketeering conspiracy with which Combs is charged.
Morgan testified that she and Ventura last spoke in 2018. She told the court that she recalled being at Ventura’s apartment, listening to music when Sean Combs entered and allegedly “came up behind me and choked me and boomeranged a wooden hanger at my head.”
The coat hanger hit her behind the right ear and left her with marks on her neck and a concussion, Morgan told the court.
Morgan further testified that Combs demanded that she tell him “who Cassie was cheating on him with.” According to Morgan’s testimony, Ventura had locked herself in a bathroom as this allegedly transpired.
Morgan told the court that she recalled seeing Combs’ personal assistant there at the time shrug as Morgan left the apartment. “I don’t think he knew what he could do about it,” Morgan testified.
A month later, Morgan testified, she and Ventura met at a pizza place to discuss a $30,000 payment Morgan told the court that Combs made to her after she threatened a lawsuit over the alleged attack.
“She told me she thought I was milking it, I was over-exaggerating,” Morgan told the court.
The two never spoke again, Morgan testified.
The court then broke for lunch.
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