Another of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former assistants testified on the eighth day of the music mogul’s federal racketeering and sex trafficking trial
Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Casandra Cassie Ventura, testified for four days last week about how he physically abused her and forced her to perform sex acts with male escorts
Combs pleaded not guilty to all charges
Arranging trips for Sean “Diddy” Combs was a massive undertaking, as the rap mogul had a long list of must-haves for his hotel stays, a former assistant testified on Wed., May 21.
George Kaplan said he would often be given just a few hours’ notice from Combs or his chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, to ready hotel rooms in cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Miami.
Combs or Khorram would give Kaplan exacting instructions in how to set up the hotel rooms, Kaplan told jurors in Manhattan federal court on the eighth day of Combs’ high-profile trial.
Related: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Seen Kicking Cassie After Throwing Her to Ground in 2016 Hotel Surveillance Video
Two of the tycoon’s preferred places to stay were The InterContinental in Los Angeles — where Combs’ beating of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in an elevator bank was captured on surveillance video — and Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City, Kaplan told jurors.
REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
Sean Combs listens as his ex-girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, testified about how he beat her in an elevator bank at the InterContinental Hotel in L.A. in 2016.
To protect Combs from fans and prying eyes, hotel rooms would often be booked under the name “Frank Black,” Kaplan testified.
The alias was a play on “Frank White,” a nickname for the late rapper Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls — one of the first artists Combs signed to his Bad Boy Records label.
Before Combs arrived at a given hotel room or suite, “There was a bag. I unpacked it. Clothes, a speaker, a candle, Astroglide, baby oil, liquor,” Kaplan testified.
Related: What Feds Found in Diddy’s Closet: Astroglide, Baby Oil… and a Rubber Duck?
When asked who purchased those items, he responded, “Often me,” with a corporate card, Kaplan testified.
He said “as he grew to trust me more, he had me around more.”
Combs would frequently call Kaplan from the hotel room asking him to bring food, clothes and “sometimes drugs,” he said.
“I did it,” he testified.
Kaplan said Combs also kept a toiletry bag stocked with Advil and ketamine. “I picked up drugs for him” he testified.
Asked if he cleaned the rooms, Kaplan said on the stand, “Yes. Bottles of baby oil, Gatorade. Once brown crystalized powder on the counter of the bathroom sink.”
When prosecutors questioned why he, not hotel staff, did the cleaning, Kaplan replied, “It was implied — protect his public image. I was keen on doing that.”
Kaplan was the latest in a string of witnesses in Combs’ trial where he is facing charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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Combs could face up to life in prison if he is convicted on all counts. Since his arrest, he has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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