Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
Prosecutors in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex-crimes trial continue to zero in on the music mogul’s decades of alleged abuse as they unveil harrowing witness testimony.
The high-profile legal proceeding resumed in Manhattan court on May 15 after Combs’ former girlfriend, singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura Fine, took the stand for two days of emotional accounts on the pair’s allegedly abusive relationship.
Ventura Fine is facing cross-examination from Combs’ attorneys, who have signaled they will ask her about what they have called her own history of domestic violence. The rapper’s lawyers have also alleged she was motivated by money to get back at him.
The defense showed emails and text messages from early in the relationship, where Ventura Fine and Combs professed love for each other and she sought more attention from him.
“I wanted to spend so much time with him, at this point in 2010, because I’d fallen in love with him and I cared about him very much,” Ventura Fine told jurors.
Cassie’s testimony comes a year after CNN released 2016 hotel surveillance video that showed Combs kicking, hitting and dragging the woman during an altercation at a Los Angeles-area hotel. Combs apologized for his violent behavior soon after the video’s release.
In court, Ventura Fine said Combs repeatedly threatened to release videos of her participating in his alleged drug-fueled “freak offs.”
Before Combs, 55, was arrested in September 2024 on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, Ventura Fine accused the hip-hop icon of rape, physical abuse and sex trafficking in a November 2023 lawsuit, which was quickly settled one day after its filing.
Lawyers read sexually explicit messages between Cassie, Diddy in court
Diddy’s lawyers read texts between the former couple in the early years of their relationship, including extremely explicit messages, in court.
In messages from August 2009, the couple discussed plans for a freak off.
Combs wrote, “When do you want to freak off?” with Ventura Fine responding, “I’m always ready to freak off. Lolol” He wrote, “You tell me the day, you choose.”
In more texts from 2009, the court saw sexually explicit messages between them. In one message, Ventura Fine expressed eagerness to have sex, with Combs responding, “I can’t wait to watch you. I want you to get real hot.” On another occasion, she texted Combs how she anticipated being positioned during sex.
Diddy on trial newsletter: Step inside the courtroom as music mogul faces sex-crimes charges.
Combs’ lawyers hone in on jealousy angle in Ventura Fine cross-examination
During cross-examination, the defense sought to paint Ventura Fine as a jealous ex-partner. “This is about natures of relationships,” attorney Marc Agnifilo said before she took the stand. “This is about jealousies.”
The defense said Combs needed someone to take care of him, and Ventura Fine was one of the only people who saw the “real” him. “You knew how special you were to him,” the defense said, to which Ventura Fine responded, “Sometimes.”
The defense went on to say that Combs lied and cheated on Ventura Fine and let her down, but she “kept coming back to him for 11 years.” She paused before responding, “I wouldn’t use ‘coming back.’”
Ventura Fine said she was in love with Combs, a “charismatic, big personality that everybody really loved,” and described him as “sweet” and “caring” at times.
Cassie previews bigger discussion on alleged ‘freak offs’
Recalling the “early stages” of her relationship with Combs, Ventura Fine said she spent a lot of time feeling hurt. In texts from April 2010, she wrote: “So you hung up…It’s like I need … I haven’t seen you at all.”
She testified that she was worried she would lose him if she didn’t have sex with him the way he wanted. When asked whether she told him she wanted to do “freak offs” to make him happy, she responded, “No, there’s a lot more to that.”
“I’m sure we’ll get to that,” the defense attorney replied.
Defense shows affectionate messages between Cassie, Diddy
Combs’ attorneys kicked off their cross-examination by displaying kind messages sent between Cassie and Diddy early in their relationship.
“I’m truly a lucky man. I love you, I miss you,” Combs wrote in one email shown during cross-examination. She emailed back saying that she was a lucky woman. In another text from 2009, Combs wrote, “I love sooooo much it makes me cry,” to which she responded “You hungry, pop pop?”
Ventura Fine was previously asked by prosecutors about her and Combs’ nicknames for each other. Ventura Fine revealed Combs called her “BG” for baby girl and “CC,” which stood for Cassie Combs. Her nickname for him was “pop pop,” which he decided on after asking what she called her grandfather.
In another text exchange, from a little over two years into their relationship, Combs wrote: “I love you so much it consumes my life. I never knew it could be like this.” A text from the same year from Ventura fine read: “Pop pop, I really miss you.”
When the defense asked how often they saw each other, Ventura Fine said there were long breaks between seeing one another since they both traveled for work.
Diddy’s lawyers, federal prosecutors spar over evidence
The proceedings kicked off with a major back and forth between the defense and prosecution over evidence.
Combs’ legal team dropped 400 exhibits overnight heading into May 15, and federal prosecutors called the “dump” of messages, documents and other potential evidence “enormous,” “duplicative” and “inefficient.”
Prosecutors have raised objections for almost every piece of evidence shown so far, but Judge Arun Subramanian has overruled most of their requests.
Cassie in 2023 ‘didn’t want to be alive anymore’
Ventura Fine in court testified that in early 2023, around the time before she went to rehab for opioid addiction and began trauma therapy, she experienced suicidal ideation.
“I was spinning out” at the time, Ventura Fine testified. “I didn’t want to be alive anymore at that point.”
She recalled a time when she went home to her husband Alex Fine and children, “I remember telling him, ‘You can do this without me.'” Ventura Fine said during testimony it all just felt “too painful” and that “I tried walking out the door into traffic and my husband wouldn’t let me.”
Cassie alleges Diddy raped her in 2018 after she met her now-husband Alex Fine
Another major revelation came from 2018, after Ventura Fine and Combs were no longer together and she had started dating her now-husband, Alex Fine. She said she and Combs met up for dinner, during which he was friendly and kind.
Afterward, he drove her back to her home and walked her inside. “And then he raped me in my living room,” Cassie alleged. She said she cried and told him “no” during the alleged rape.
Prosecutors asked how she felt in that moment: “It was like someone taking something from you.”
Cassie says Diddy attacked her after discovering Kid Cudi relationship
Cassie testified about her brief relationship with rapper Kid Cudi in 2011, which began after they started working together on music.
Ventura Fine said she didn’t initially tell Combs about Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, but Combs went through her phone during a “freak off” and found out about the relationship.
He allegedly became enraged after he saw the emails, lunging at Cassie with a wine bottle opener between his fingers, she testified. As she left Combs’ house, Ventura Fine said the rapper kicked her in the back. When she got back to her hotel room, someone had urinated on the floor, knocked over the furniture and defecated in the toilet without flushing it.
Cassie alleges Diddy assaulted and threatened her over Kid Cudi relationship
Cassie says Diddy attacked her in her sleep
Ventura Fine also testified about an alleged August 2017 incident, telling the court that while preparing to go to the OVO Music Festival, two friends, identified as Mia and Deonte, witnessed Combs enter her room and attack her in her sleep.
Deonte and Mia jumped on Combs’ back, and he threw her into the bed frame, Ventura Fine said, which caused a gash on her eyebrow. The court then saw a photo of her face with the gash and some blood. Combs had a plastic surgeon whom Ventura Fine went to after the incident, she said, revealing she had a permanent scar on her eyebrow.
In texts shown to the jury, Ventura Fine sent Combs a photo of the gash and wrote: “So you can remember.” Combs replied that Ventura Fine didn’t know when to stop during arguments, and she wrote back that she didn’t know what she’d done to deserve it.
These Diddy family members have been in court amid his sex-crimes trial
Several members of the embattled rap mogul’s family, including his adult children, have turned out in New York this week as his criminal trial gets underway.From stepson Quincy Brown to Combs’ biological sons and daughters and former partners, here’s a look at his loved ones who have been spotted at the courthouse.
Why is Diddy on trial?
Combs is facing federal sex-crimes and trafficking charges in a sprawling suit that has eroded his status as a power player and kingmaker in the entertainment industry.
He was arrested in September 2024 and has been charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all five counts.
What is racketeering?
Racketeering is the participation in an illegal scheme under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute, or RICO, as a way for the U.S. government to prosecute organizations that contribute to criminal activity.
Using RICO law, which is typically aimed at targeting multi-person criminal organizations, prosecutors allege that Combs coerced victims, some of whom they say were sex workers, through intimidation and narcotics to participate in “freak offs” — sometimes dayslong sex performances that federal prosecutors claim they have video of.
Where can I watch the Diddy trial?
The trial will not be televised, as cameras are typically not allowed in federal criminal trial proceedings.
USA TODAY will be reporting live from the courtroom.
Contributing: USA TODAY staff; Reuters
This article discusses suicide and suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental and/or substance use disorders, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration‘s free and confidential treatment referral and information service at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). It’s available 24/7 in English and Spanish (TTY: 1-800-487-4889).
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Diddy trial updates: Lawyers read explicit texts between Diddy, Cassie
