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Ben SisarioJulia Jacobs and Joe Coscarelli
Five takeaways from Cassie’s final day on the stand.
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The first week of Sean Combs’s sex-trafficking trial was dominated by four days of searing testimony by Casandra Ventura, the singer known professionally as Cassie, who told the jury that he had raped and abused her and subjected her to degrading marathon sex sessions with male prostitutes known as “freak-offs.”
Ms. Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, stepped down from the witness stand on Friday afternoon after a long and sometimes meandering cross-examination by lawyers for Mr. Combs, who has pleaded not guilty.
Here are five takeaways:
Mr. Combs’s lawyers suggested she was a willing participant in the “freak-offs.”
In contrast to the prosecution’s questioning of Ms. Ventura, which traced a narrative of a troubled relationship from its origins until a painful collapse after years of abuse, the defense’s cross-examination frequently jumped back and forth in time. By zooming in on dozens of text messages from throughout her years in a relationship with Mr. Combs, his lawyers tried to paint a very different picture of the freak-offs.
In many of those messages, which could be flirtatious in tone or matter-of-fact in setting up logistics, his lawyers noted, Ms. Ventura appeared to express willingness, or even excitement, about the sexual encounters.
But Ms. Ventura pushed back, saying that she was just acceding to his requests. “I would say loving FOs were just words at that point,” she said, commenting on a 2017 text message chain about planning a freak-off, or “FO.”
The sometimes repetitive pattern of the cross-examination led to a complaint by prosecutors. In a letter to the judge early Friday, they said that the “inefficiency of cross-examination” raised the possibility of a mistrial if Ms. Ventura went into labor before the questioning was completed. The judge urged the parties to stick to a schedule of completing Ms. Ventura’s testimony by the end of the week, and it ended midafternoon Friday.
Cassie said she would gladly “give that money back if I never had to have freak-offs.”
During Ms. Ventura’s testimony, she revealed that Mr. Combs had paid her $20 million to settle a bombshell lawsuit she filed against him in November 2023.
Under questioning from Mr. Combs’s lawyers, she revealed a second settlement: with InterContinental, the company that owned the hotel where Mr. Combs assaulted her in 2016. She testified that she had reached an agreement with the company over the past month and that she expects to receive about $10 million.
The defense used those settlement figures to suggest that Ms. Ventura had been motivated to go public with her account of abuse in the relationship because she was experiencing “financial issues,” at a time when she and her family had moved into her parents’ home in Connecticut.
Ms. Ventura denied that she had been motivated by money problems. She said that she had used her parents’s home temporarily during a move to the East Coast.
When the prosecutor Emily A. Johnson got a chance to question her again, she asked whether she would give the millions back if it meant never having had to participate in the sexual encounters at the center of her testimony.
“I’d give that money back if I never had to have freak-offs,” Ms. Ventura said.
Cassie was mostly calm, but wept a few times on the witness stand.
Ms. Ventura remained largely dispassionate throughout her hours of testimony this week, speaking in a soft but firm voice as she recounted incidents like Mr. Combs’s violence and her experience of degrading incidents like being urinated on during freak-off sessions. In the witness box, she sometimes placed a hand on her belly as she shifted around or got up during breaks in testimony.
On the stand, she frequently dabbed her eyes with a tissue but wept on only a few, brief occasions. She cried when saying she had considered suicide years after leaving Mr. Combs, and toward the end of her testimony on Friday, when she talked about Mr. Combs beating her during freak-offs. A defense lawyer then asked if she needed a break. “You can continue,” she said.
Baby oil and drugs were found in the hotel where Mr. Combs was arrested last year.
The government’s fourth witness was Yasin Binda, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, who searched Mr. Combs’s room at the Park Hyatt hotel in Manhattan, where he was arrested in September 2024.
Mr. Combs had traveled to New York expecting to turn himself into the authorities. But he was arrested in the lobby. Inside his hotel room, Ms. Binda testified, she found baby oil, the lubricant Astroglide, a “mood lighting” device and two small baggies of pink powder. One tested positive for ketamine and the other for ketamine and MDMA.
She also found a medication bottle for a benzodiazepine with the prescription made out to Frank Black — an alias that Ms. Ventura testified that Mr. Combs used. Ms. Binda also testified that a fanny pack with $9,000 in cash was hanging off the bed.
What’s next in the case?
Much of Ms. Ventura’s testimony was focused on the government’s allegations that Mr. Combs’s sex-trafficked her throughout their yearslong relationship. But the case against him is much broader than that, accusing him of running a criminal enterprise in which he and some of his employees conspired to commit a series of crimes over two decades.
While questioning Ms. Ventura, the government laid the groundwork for trying to prove several of those crimes. Prosecutors also asked her to identify employees and associates of Mr. Combs who were asked to do his bidding.
As the case proceeds, the prosecution is expected to try to prove that an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees helped him commit crimes, including kidnapping, arson, drug violations and sex crimes. The jury is also expected to hear from at least two other women whose accusations of sexual coercion are at the heart of the government’s case.
The defense is expected to try to flesh out the argument they made in their opening statements, that Mr. Combs is a flawed and sometimes violent man but that he is not guilty of a racketeering conspiracy or sex trafficking.
Anusha Bayya contributed reporting from the courtroom.
Anusha Bayya
Reporting from the courtroom
When Casandra Ventura broke down on the stand during discussions of violence and coercion during freak-offs, Sean Combs turned his head to the jury and scanned the panel. He then passed a note to one of his lawyers. After his lawyer, Anna Estevao, finished one of her final rounds of questioning, Combs gave her a hug.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
It has been an intense four days on the witness stand for Casandra Ventura, who has testified about harrowing physical abuse and graphic sexual situations, and has read aloud scores of intimate messages between herself and Sean Combs.
The issue of consent and coercion came up again and again, as did her and Combs’s copious drug use during their relationship. She faced a barrage of final questions this afternoon, resulting in her breaking down briefly when a prosecutor asked her about violence during freak-offs.
Otherwise, Ventura spoke calmly and assuredly.
Key Players
Casandra Ventura
Combs’s former girlfriend and a singer known as Cassie
Anna Estevao
Lawyer for Combs
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Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
Casandra Ventura’s testimony is over. “Have a great weekend,” Judge Arun Subramanian told her. Ventura stood up and walked out of the witness box with her hand on her pregnant belly.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The defense and prosecution went back and forth on their final stretch of questioning.
“Do you have any financial stake in the outcome of this trial?” asked Emily A. Johnson, the prosecutor.
“Absolutely not,” Ventura replied.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
Casandra Ventura confirmed on the witness stand that she made a legal demand of the owner of the hotel where Sean Combs assaulted her in 2016; excerpts from the hotel’s surveillance video were published on CNN last year.
She confirmed that she anticipated receiving a settlement of about $10 million, and said she reached the settlement over the “past month.”
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Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The defense asked Casandra Ventura about Sean Combs’s tendency to be “controlling,” suggesting that she might not have received special treatment as a singer on his label, Bad Boy.
“Were you aware of him being controlling of other artists on his label?” the lawyer, Anna Estevao, asked.
“I was aware,” Ventura replied.
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Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
Anna Estevao, a lawyer for Sean Combs, is suggesting that Casandra Ventura’s relationship with the record executive gave her career opportunities, including chances to record with major artists including Kid Cudi and Lil Wayne, trying to undercut the prosecution’s assertion that her career foundered amid their relationship.
“You were given opportunities in terms of your ability to access contacts in the entertainment industry?” Estevao asked.
“Sometimes given, but earned as well,” Ventura replied.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The questions are moving quickly now in what seems to be the final stretch of Casandra Ventura’s testimony. She broke down in tears when a prosecutor asked her about Sean Combs beating her during freak-offs.
When a defense lawyer took over a moment ago to ask additional questions, Ventura faltered for a moment. “My mind’s a little all over the place,” she said.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
“Would you give that money back if it meant you never had to have freak-offs?” Emily A. Johnson, the prosecutor, asked Casandra Ventura about the $20 million settlement.
“If I never had to have freak-offs I would have agency and autonomy,” Ventura testified. “I wouldn’t have had to work so hard to get it back.”
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
Casandra Ventura testified that she canceled a music tour after she settled her lawsuit against Sean Combs because she was overwhelmed and did not want to be away from her children.
The defense had tried to suggest that it was because she had secured a $20 million settlement, and no longer had financial concerns.
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Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The prosecution is addressing an inconsistency in Casandra Ventura’s timeline of her rape allegation against Sean Combs, which the defense brought up during cross-examination. Combs’s lawyers noted on Friday morning that in her civil lawsuit, filed in late 2023, Ventura said the incident took place in September 2018, but that in a meeting with the government in preparation for trial she said it happened in August.
“Do you have a clear memory of August 2018?” Emily A. Johnson, the prosecutor, asked.
“Not super clear, but clear enough,” Ventura replied.
“Do you have any doubt that Sean raped you?” Ms. Johnson asked a bit later.
“No,” Ventura replied.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The prosecution underscored again the events of March 5, 2016, when Sean Combs assaulted Casandra Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel, striking her, kicking her and starting to drag her around the corner of a hallway.
The government has been trying to show that Combs was dragging her back to a freak-off in the hotel room, and this is the clearest Ventura has been so far on this point.
“He followed me into the hallway and tried to bring me back,” Ventura said.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The prosecution just addressed the defense’s suggestion throughout the trial that Sean Combs’s violence was connected to drug use.
“Did using drugs ever make you get violent?” Emily A. Johnson, the prosecutor, asked.
“I feel like drinking more so than drugs,” Ventura replied.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The prosecution revisited a recording of Casandra Ventura threatening a man who had alluded to seeing a sexually explicit video of her in 2014. In the recording that was played for jurors, Ventura repeatedly threatened to kill the man.
“I was just sick about it and was feeling pressure from Sean,” Ventura said, noting that Combs had directed her to speak with the man.
“It was a weird day,” she testified.
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Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The prosecution is revisiting Casandra Ventura’s testimony that at times, Sean Combs could not remember instances when he had physically abused her.
“When that happened, did you believe him?” Emily A. Johnson, the prosecutor, asked.
“No, not every time,” Ventura replied.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
Casandra Ventura testified that she was told to cancel work obligations at times because of freak-offs. She said she was “basically a sex worker,” a statement that drew a swift objection from the defense. The judge asked the jury to disregard the comment.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
After a day and a half of cross-examination, in which the defense tried to establish that Sean Combs and Casandra Ventura had a passionate and consensual, if tumultuous, sexual relationship, the prosecution is now reminding jurors of how Ventura sees it.
Ventura testified that Combs’s “moods” impacted “my whole life, my career, how I felt about myself, my self worth.” She said that she only wanted to have sex with him, despite his requests that she have sex with male escorts in front of him. And she testified that her music career was hindered by his sexual demands.
“If he was in the mood to have a freak-off, my work would take a backseat,” Ventura testified.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
Emily A. Johnson, a prosecutor, is questioning Casandra Ventura, asking about periods of time when Sean Combs was “kind and loving,” which the defense highlighted multiple times through text messages entered into evidence.
“Did those periods ever last?” Johnson asked.
“No,” Ventura replied.
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Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The sudden end of Casandra Ventura’s cross-examination is surprising. The defense had told the judge that it could not assure him that it would be done by the end of the week. That led to the prosecution suggesting that Sean Combs’s team was trying to stall the testimony, potentially leading to a mistrial if Ventura, nearing her ninth month of pregnancy, went into labor. Now, we’re onto the government’s re-direct much sooner than expected.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
Sean Combs’s lawyer just abruptly ended her cross-examination after showing an exchange of messages between Casandra Ventura and Combs from 2012 in which he asked if she wanted to have a freak-off for the “last time.”
Ventura responded that no, she wanted to have a freak-off for the “first time” — “for the rest of our lives.”
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
Casandra Ventura agreed with Sean Combs’s lawyer that she canceled a planned music tour after she settled her lawsuit against Combs for $20 million.
“As soon as you saw that you were going to get the $20 million, you canceled the tour because you didn’t need it anymore, right?” the lawyer, Anna Estevao, said.
“That wasn’t the reason why,” Ventura replied.
Julia Jacobs
Reporting from the courthouse
The defense has shifted to the period before Casandra Ventura filed a lawsuit in November 2023 accusing Sean Combs of years of abuse. Combs’s lawyer, Anna Estevao, suggested that the month before the suit was filed, Ventura and her family moved into her parents’ home in Connecticut because of “financial issues.” Ventura rejects that idea, saying that they moved because they wanted to be on the East Coast.
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Ben Sisario
Who is Dawn Richard, the singer who will soon testify at Sean Combs’s trial?
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Dawn Richard, the singer expected to take the stand as a witness at the Sean Combs trial after Casandra Ventura, was part of two of Mr. Combs’s best-known acts over the last two decades. She was in the R&B girl group Danity Kane, familiar to viewers of his MTV reality show “Making the Band,” and a trio called Diddy — Dirty Money.
And like Ms. Ventura, she has accused Mr. Combs of misconduct during her time with him, alleging in a lawsuit filed last year that he threatened her, groped her and would fly into “frenzied, unpredictable rages” while he oversaw her career. In response to that suit, a lawyer for Mr. Combs said in a statement that Ms. Richard had “manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a payday.”
Danity Kane was assembled by Mr. Combs during the third iteration of “Making the Band,” which began in 2005. On the show, 11 finalists were winnowed to a final team of five, their name inspired by a superhero character that Ms. Richard had drawn.
Ms. Richard, now 41, grew up in New Orleans, and she was the subject of the premiere episode of the show’s third season, as the group visited her hometown and surveyed the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. That season ended with the quintet’s filming a video for its debut single, “Show Stopper,” which reached No. 8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
Danity Kane opened for Christina Aguilera on tour and released two albums before going on a hiatus in 2009. Then, Ms. Richard remained in Mr. Combs’s musical tent as part of Diddy — Dirty Money, a trio that also featured Mr. Combs as well as another singer, Kalenna Harper.
After one album, Mr. Combs disbanded the trio — over email — but Danity Kane reunited, releasing a third and final album in 2014. After another break, Danity Kane was active again, from 2018 to 2020.
In recent years, Ms. Richard — whose surname is pronounced “rih-SHARD” — has continued with her solo career, which has veered from the pop familiar to fans of Danity Kane and into more eclectic, even experimental areas. She has released two albums on the independent label Merge, which is best known for working with cerebral indie acts like Arcade Fire and the Magnetic Fields. Last year, she released “Quiet in a World Full of Noise,” her second collaboration with the composer Spencer Zahn.
“Drawing upon her own familial trauma — including a beloved cousin’s killing and her father’s cancer diagnosis — Richard melds the stylings of jazz, R&B and spoken-word poetry to deliver some of her most arresting lyricism yet,” the New York Times pop music critic Lindsay Zoladz wrote of the LP.
Her solo work has drawn critical notice, but in an interview with The Times in 2021, upon the release of her album “Second Line,” she complained that the praise seemed to downgrade her previous work.
“It made me feel like maybe Danity Kane was a joke,” Ms. Richard said in the interview. “Like everything that I had done before had been seen as some bubble gum thing, and now I’m a legitimate artist,” she added. “I was mind boggled by that because I hadn’t changed anything. I just literally got an opportunity to write more.”
In her lawsuit against Mr. Combs, Ms. Richard detailed a litany of complaints from her time working with him, and described a culture in which her boss would order her to strip down to her underwear, smack her behind, throw objects such as laptops and food, and at times fail to pay her for her work.
On Thursday, prosecutors in Mr. Combs’s trial told the judge that Ms. Richard was one of the witnesses they expected to call to the stand after Ms. Ventura’s testimony finishes. The government — and the judge — have pushed for Ms. Ventura’s testimony to wrap on Friday afternoon.
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