Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial recap: Cassie Ventura testifies she was blackmailed with ‘freak-off’ sex videos

U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian sent jurors home for the day, telling them to return Thursday at 9:30 a.m. "on the dot."

That's when Combs' defense lawyers are set to begin what could be a lengthy cross-examination of Cassie Ventura.

In general, Ventura kept her composure today, answering questions in a calm and matter-of fact tone. But she became more visibly emotional as she described Combs allegedly raping her in 2018, and she broke down in tears shortly after as she recounted her trauma, suicidal ideation and “personal shame.”

Ventura wrapped up her direct testimony, telling jurors she took the witness stand to rid herself of “the shame, the guilt” she has carried.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson asked Ventura why she put herself through this process.

“I can’t carry this anymore, the shame, the guilt, what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong, people aren’t disposable,” Ventura said.

The jury is now on a short break before cross-examination is expected to begin.

Cassie Ventura testified that Combs raped her in 2018 after she said they were supposed to have a "closure conversation."

She said the two went out to dinner at a restaurant in Malibu, Calif. She recalled their conversation being "nice" and "playful." At that time, she said she was already in a relationship with her now-husband, Alex Fine.

Combs eventually took her back to her apartment, Ventura told the court.

“I went inside, he came in and raped me on the living room floor,” Ventura alleged in court. “I remember crying and saying no. It was fast, his eyes were black, he wasn’t himself, it was like somebody taking something from you.”

She said after that incident, the two were intimate voluntarily one other time.

The court was shown a close-up picture of Ventura's eyebrow and black eye. When asked who gave her the black eye, Ventura responded: "Sean."

Combs prevented his family from seeing Ventura after she had sustained any injuries, she said.

"He told me to make sure his son couldn’t see me like that, the bruises on my face," Ventura told the court.

Cassie Ventura said in 2011, while she was at home in Connecticut during the holiday season, she called off her relationship with Scott Mescudi (otherwise known as rapper Kid Cudi) after Combs threatened them both.

“I had broken off the relationship with Scott Mescudi, [there was] too much uncertainty if we continued to see each other,” she said, adding that there was danger and “Sean said he was going to hurt the both of us.”

At one point, she said Combs told her that when she was out of the country “Scott’s car would be blown up.”

Cassie Ventura told the jury that she went to see her mother in Connecticut after allegedly being physically beaten by Combs.

Ventura said she raised her shirt, allowing her mother to take photos of the bruises to her lower back and butt, along with wounds on her right thigh.

"I believe I told her this was the first time, and I didn't tell her about the 'freak offs,'" Ventura said in court, adding that she felt she couldn't "justify it to anyone, especially my mom."

Cassie Ventura recalled another incident in which she alleged Combs beat her, saying he got angry with her after she was at a party at Prince's house.

Ventura went to the basement, believing the late artist was going to play music, she told the court.

"I caught a glimpse of him (Combs), so I ran out as fast as I could because I thought he was angry," Ventura recalled. "I knew he was angry, his facial expression, he came after me."

Later, at a Los Angeles hotel room where she was staying, she said Combs "beat me up and threw luggage at me. I had bruising on my face, knots on my head."

Ventura recalled a violent outburst by Combs that she said happened early in their relationship that left her "shocked" and "angry."

Ventura said she had spotted Combs flirting in a restaurant with another woman and when they got back to their car, the rapper "knocked me around" in an outburst that allegedly happened in either 2007 or 2008.

"He hit me on the side of my head and I fell to the floor of the Escalade," Ventura said. "He shook me up and scared me quite a bit. So I got out of the car, I was shocked, I didn't understand what happened and why he was so angry."

She added: "I knew his capabilities, his access to guns, and threats he made."

Post-lunch proceedings were delayed as the court put finishing touches on installing personal video screens for each juror, so sensitive video and still images are shielded from public view.

Ventura identified herself and others engaged in various sex acts as the jury paid very close attention. The courtroom was silent. One female juror nodded as Ventura identified people, and one male panelist took written notes.

“That’s me,” Ventura said of an image, adding that she had baby oil applied to her.

Tents suggest that some people spent the night in line today to enter federal court for Combs' sex trafficking trial. On Monday, at least 20 fans of Combs camped out overnight ahead of the court’s doors opening.

The security video of Combs assaulting Cassie Ventura at a hotel in 2016 played as she testified in court today.

Cassie Ventura appears less outwardly emotional during today's testimony, not breaking down in tears on the stand as she did several times yesterday.

Combs' ex-girlfriend is more composed today, speaking in a calm but somber tone of voice.

She is wearing a gray turtleneck dress and a black coat in court.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian sent jurors off to lunch, with hopes to have proceedings resume at 1:15 p.m. ET.

Combs' former girlfriend Cassie Ventura is expected to still be on the witness stand when court resumes.

Prosecutors presented a text message exchange in which Cassie Ventura described how badly Combs allegedly abused her.

“You treat me like Ike Turner,” Ventura wrote to Combs, a reference to the volatile marriage the late musician was known to have had with his ex-wife, the late Tina Turner.

“He was abusive and controlling. He was physically abusive. He put me down a lot as much as I would be built up, the sheer embarrassment, how he treated me in front of other people,” Ventura testified of Combs.

Cassie Ventura recalled a time when Combs attacked her and gashed her face in 2013, then forced her to go to a plastic surgeon to treat the wound.

"Sean came in. I was asleep. He was trying to attack me. We went into the master bedroom. My friends were jumping on his back trying to stop him," she testified. "I cut my eyebrow on the corner of the bed. Sean threw me onto the bed frame. I had a significant gash. I didn't go to the ER; it was a Sunday. Sean had security take me to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills."

After the incident, she said she texted Combs a photo of the injury, writing: "so you can remember."

"You dont know when to stop you have pushed it too far," Combs replied.

"Just say sorry, I dont know why i deserve that you could care less if i was ok," Cassie responded.

Cassie Ventura felt mortified and "trapped" when she spotted Combs watching videos of her having sex as they flew on a commercial jet, she testified.

They had been arguing during a 2013 trip to Cannes and the flight home took an embarrassing turn, Ventura said.

"He pulled up 'freak off' videos on his laptop that I thought were deleted," Ventura testified. "He was showing them with other people around. I said, 'You are embarrassing me.' I was scared, I felt trapped, how do you get out of this situation? I felt trapped." 

She said she arranged a freak off within hours of their landing so he wouldn't get angry. If she didn't, she testified "he said the videos would be released."

Cassie Ventura testified that sometimes she would be afraid during the “freak off” parties, which often turned violent.

“Sean would put his hands on me, he would push me down ... kick me,” she told the courtroom.

“There were other times, if we were having a bad time or if I was scared of him, uncomfortable, typically I would leave and go out the back of the hotel,” she said.

When asked by prosecutors how often Combs would injure her during the “freak offs,” she replied, “Too often.”

Combs told his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura that having multiple sex partners was a "lifestyle" and "turn on" for the rapper, the witness said.

"What he told me is we could swap partners, a certain lifestyle and that was a turn on for him," Ventura said after a prosecutor asked if she was a swinger with Combs.

This "lifestyle" included sex club visits, which Ventura said she didn't enjoy. When she didn't want to go, Combs still pressed the issue, the witness said.

"Some of the time he would try to turn the energy around and keep it positive, become playful and funny and not scary," Ventura said. "He would push and try to convince me."

When the prosecution asked why she drank so much at these sex clubs, Ventura responded, "Because I didn't want to be sober."

Cassie Ventura said that "freak offs" would sometimes cause her to have urinary tract infections, mouth sores and gastrointestinal issues.

"When we were having frequent 'freak offs' — they were back to back — and sometimes I would do a 'freak off' with the infection," she said. "I tried to flush it out with water. I got to the point where CIPRO (an antibiotic) didn’t work anymore. It was a mess."

"It was really painful for a long time," she added. "I can’t believe I actually dealt with that."

Cassie Ventura said after a “freak off” she would go back to Combs’ place, where they would have massages to take care of themselves.

“I had an addiction to opiates, so I would take pills to come down,” she told the courtroom. “I wanted to feel numb and not know what was going on in my mind.”

She said she got the drugs from a drug dealer, who sometimes did the drugs with her beginning in 2007.

When asked how she felt after a “freak off,” Ventura said, “I felt so tired, achy, dehydrated, not really eating too much. Emotionally, I felt empty, gross. Like I did a job.”

Cassie Ventura recalled the panic she felt after first learning that video of her having sex with another man, at Combs' direction, might have leaked.

The former girlfriend was hosting an event in Atlantic City when "someone I was working with said they saw a sexually explicit video of me, so I reached out to Sean," Ventura told jurors.

“I need you to call me ASAP,” according to a text message she sent to Combs on March 9, 2014.

Ventura said that any leaked footage "would put my career in jeopardy" and cause great embarrassment to "my mother, my family."

King Combs, son of Sean Combs, held an umbrella for his grandmother, Janice Combs, mother of Sean Combs, as they arrived at court in the rain today.

Cassie Ventura said that when Combs was upset with her, he would frequently remind her that he had videos of her having sex at his "freak offs."

She said that Combs brought up the videos on the night of her birthday, when she refused to leave her friends to go with Combs to a "freak off."

"It is horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone," she said of the alleged blackmail. "It could ruin everything I worked for, make me look like a slut."

"I wasn't supposed to be on those videos," she said. "I didn't want to be in them."

Ketamine was the drug of choice for Combs and Cassie Ventura during their orgies with sex workers, she told the court.

"Ketamine, Sean had it, it took time out of the 'freak off,'" said Ventura, testifying about having sex with other men at Combs' direction as he watched. "That was my preferred drug because it was the most dissociative."

The prosecution showed Ventura a dozen photos of sex workers hired for these "freak offs." Ventura remembered many but not all of the names, such as "Ash," "Islander," "Skyler" and "Jake" from the website Cowboys 4 Angels.

"Don't remember his name, he looks familiar from 'freak offs,'" she said of one picture.

The court is now looking at text messages and photos shortly after the hotel attack took place.

Cassie Ventura said she had to attend the premiere of her movie "The Perfect Match" with bruises on her face and body.

She said she thought at the time Combs was "sick" to think that it was OK to do that to her and wanted him to stay away.

The court was also shown a photo of Ventura and Combs smiling at the premiere. She said she had to change her outfit to cover up bruises on her legs and needed to apply a lot of makeup to cover her black eye and fat lip.

Combs pounded on Cassie Ventura's apartment door, demanding to see his then-girlfriend after assaulting her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, the witness said.

Ventura still isn't sure how Combs got to the 17th floor of her Westwood apartment building, calling the scene "chaos outside the door, banging, kicking, yelling and banging."

He didn't get inside.

Cassie Ventura described how Combs lost control during a 2016 meltdown in a Los Angeles hotel hallway, hurling a vase that just missed her.

"I don't remember exactly his words," she told the court. "I’m sure he was calling me something other than my name."

Security was eventually called, but Combs allegedly made himself clear that Ventura wasn't free to leave on her own accord.

The defendant told Ventura "that I wasn’t going to leave him, that I couldn’t," according to Ventura.

Before Cassie Ventura retook the witness stand, prosecutors and defense lawyers clashed over how much notice each side deserves about upcoming trial strategy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey was noticeably angry as she lashed out at the defense for allegedly not turning over exhibits it was planning to use to question Ventura: "We don't want a trial by ambush."

But defense attorney Marc Agnifilo insisted his side doesn't need to tip its hand about how it will cross-examine prosecution witnesses: "They have the burden of proof. We don't have to give the government what we are going to use so they can prepare their witness."

U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian denied the government's request that the defense turn over what it expects to use for Ventura's cross.

Combs, Cassie Ventura and the jury have entered the courtroom to begin today's proceedings.

Combs is wearing a grey sweater over a white shirt.

Cassie is wearing a light gray dress with a jacket with wide lapels. For the second day in a row, she walks into the courtroom without looking toward Combs at the defense table.

Cassie will return to the witness stand today, where prosecutors are expected to resume questioning her on the 2016 assault viewed on hotel surveillance cameras.

Combs’ former girlfriend was mostly composed during hours of testimony yesterday, despite breaking down in tears at one point while discussing the emotional toll of trying to keep Combs happy and avoid his temper.

Cassie, now married to someone else, is visibly pregnant and took several steadying breaths while answering uncomfortable questions all day. She described how Combs’ constant demand for “freak-offs,” or drug-fueled sexual encounters, left her feeling “worthless.”

“I didn’t want him to be upset or not trust me,” she told the court. “He was a scary person, he would be violent.”

The R&B singer Cassie gave uncomfortable testimony yesterday during the sex trafficking trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, detailing allegations of physical abuse and control that included dayslong, drug-fueled sexual encounters with male escorts under his direction.

“I felt pretty horrible about myself. I felt disgusting. I felt humiliated,” Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, said in a federal courtroom in Lower Manhattan, describing how at times Combs’ “eyes would go black. The version I knew of him was no longer there.”

Ventura, the star prosecutorial witness whose 2023 lawsuit against Combs became a framework for the government’s sprawling case against him, took the stand for several hours on the trial’s second day. Wearing a modest long-sleeved brown dress accentuating her pregnant belly, Ventura, 38, remained mostly calm and soft-spoken.

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