This report includes descriptions of physical and sexual violence.
After six weeks, federal prosecutors rested their case Tuesday (June 24) against hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, also known as Diddy or Puff Daddy. Here's an overview of the evidence and witnesses that the Southern District of New York has presented against Combs — materials and statements that they hope will persuade the jury to convict him of sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering.
It's been a wild month and a half outside of the actual courtroom proceedings. Neither the media nor the public are allowed to bring any electronics into court, so dozens of reporters and many fans have been handwriting hundreds of pages of notes apiece during the trial. There are scores of TikTokers and YouTubers attending the proceedings each day — many sitting in the overflow courtroom that offers a live video feed of the main courtroom — and then stampeding outside during breaks to stream hot-take videos for their followers. Diddy superfans and manosphere influencers proclaim their allegiances aloud in the overflow room (and in the actual courtroom as well). Each day, there are curious international tourists who stop by to take in a thoroughly American celebrity trial. There was even a brief appearance by the musician now known as Ye. Starting in the pre-dawn hours every weekday, there are scrums of camera crews who spend hours lurching across lower Manhattan's Pearl Street in hopes of grabbing shots of the extended Combs clan, including many of the tycoon's sons and daughters and his flamboyantly dressed mother, Janice Combs.
The scene inside the courthouse is often no less intriguing, and sometimes feels nearly as chaotic. On June 16, Judge Arun Subramanian dismissed one of the jurors, who gave inconsistent answers about whether he lives in New York City or in New Jersey. The judge agreed with the prosecution's concerns that the juror was potentially looking for a way to be part of a high-profile criminal trial. Last week, the judge also questioned another juror about potentially improper conversations he may have had with a former colleague. In mid-June, Subramanian chastised both the prosecution and defense teams about a leak of sealed evidence to TMZ and The Daily Mail. "Someone is lying here," Subramanian said.
As the prosecution's case drew to a close on Monday, defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo told Subramanian that his team did not plan to call any witnesses on Combs' behalf. Instead, the defense will present evidence that they hope persuades the jury that the women involved with Combs were not victims but willing participants.
The charges against Combs, who has pleaded not guilty, are vast. Over the month and a half the federal prosecutors spent presenting their case, their narrative against Combs has been rather meandering — and it's unclear whether that was an intentional strategy or simply a matter of managing witnesses' schedules and needs. One of their prime witnesses, Combs' ex-girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura, was noticeably pregnant when she took the stand, and delivered her baby just two weeks after stepping down. Additionally, many of the roughly 30 witnesses and much of the evidence the prosecution has presented to the jury cover multiple elements of the government's accusations.
Within that densely knotted web, it's often been hard to tease out which elements of evidence and statements from the stand prosecutors hope to align with which of their accusations. Here's a look at the charges and what the government has presented to the jury.
Sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution
The charges include two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion as well as bringing people across state lines to engage in prostitution.
Both alleged victims named in the criminal proceedings — Cassie Ventura and "Jane" — described very similar situations and environments surrounding the so-called "freak-offs, "hotel nights" or "wild king nights," which allegedly included taking drugs and performing sexually with male sex workers in front of Combs for many hours at a time, with Combs directing their specific activities while filming them.
Wearing headphones, the jury also viewed video clips and screengrabs of some of these sex sessions; those videos were presented under seal, so that neither the public nor the media would be able to see or hear the material. The defense maintains that the sexual encounters in this footage were entirely consensual.
Over four days of testimony, Ventura — who filed the first prominent civil suit against Combs (which was settled a day later for $20 million) — alleged that he had physically assaulted her on numerous occasions, raped her, trafficked her and sought to control every aspect of her personal and professional life. Ventura testified that she loved Combs deeply, but that their relationship was built on control, power imbalances, coercion and physical abuse, and that he would allegedly threaten to blackmail her with the videos of the sexual encounters. She also said that on a widely seen surveillance video from 2016, in which Combs violently attacked her in a California hotel hallway, she was trying to leave a freak-off. The jury also saw photos of Ventura's bruises and injuries from other alleged physical incidents.
The prosecution offered both witnesses and written evidence that attempted to confirm that Combs had brought sex workers, Ventura and Jane across state lines to participate in the freak-offs. Jurors have also viewed receipts, phone records and texts referring to some of those interstate trips. Additionally, they heard testimony from government agents with Homeland Security Investigations, who raided Combs' properties and found guns, drugs and thousands of bottles of baby oil and lubricant allegedly used in the freak-offs.
The jury has also heard first-person testimony from some of the sex workers, including Daniel Philip and Sharay Hayes, who used the nickname "The Punisher." Many other witnesses said that they either saw Combs physically assault Ventura, or that they knew about the alleged extortion attempts.
During her six days of testimony, Jane said that in the course of her relationship with Combs, he promised a romantic relationship with her in the form of dates and quality time, but instead pressured her into sex marathons. Like Ventura, Jane said that preparing for and recuperating from Combs' sex marathons took up so much of her time that her career took a backseat, leaving her financially dependent on Combs. She also said that the hotel nights were so frequent that she often developed urinary tract and yeast infections.
After she read Ventura's civil lawsuit against Combs in November 2023, Jane texted him: "I feel like I'm reading my own sexual trauma." Prosecutors also showed texts and notes entries she wrote to Combs over a three-year period saying that she did not want to have sex with other men, and that the hotel nights made her feel humiliated. The jury also saw texts from Combs' employees that implied hiring male sex workers had become a running joke among his staff.
Combs' defense team has argued that while the rapper and producer has "unconventional" sexual preferences that include a "swinger lifestyle," he is not a sex trafficker, and that the sex marathons were all consensual encounters. It also pointed to texts in which both Ventura and Jane expressed love for Combs, and helped him plan and coordinate these marathons, suggesting that they were in fact willing participants.
Racketeering conspiracy
This is the RICO charge that alleges Combs used his business empire — and his employees — to hide criminal activities. According to the indictment, those "members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice." Within those charges, the government does not have to prove that Combs committed any of the acts himself, but show the jury beyond a reasonable doubt that such acts were committed to ultimately benefit Combs and fulfill his wishes.
Some former Combs employees whose names came up again and again on the stand did not testify for the prosecution. They include Kristina Khorram, Combs' former chief of staff, who witnesses accused of helping Combs obtain the footage from the 2016 California hotel incident; assisting Combs in transporting illegal and prescription drugs across state lines; and monitoring Ventura's activities and whereabouts for Combs. The jury has viewed texts sent by Khorram in which she described various activities she undertook on Combs' behalf, including obtaining drugs for her boss and taking them across state lines.
The jury has also viewed texts between Kristina Khorram and Jane, in which Jane told Khorram that Combs had threatened to release sex tapes of her, indicating that Khorram knew about an alleged blackmail attempt. The jury has also seen texts between Khorram and Ventura discussing an alleged episode in Los Angeles in September 2016 in which a friend of Ventura, Bryana Bongolan, says that an enraged Combs dangled her over a balcony.
The jury also heard recorded phone calls between Khorram and Jane made after Ventura filed her lawsuit, in which Jane told Khorram that she felt used and exploited — but that Khorram continued to book hotel rooms and travel for Jane to participate in the hotel nights.
Several former assistants testified that they set up or cleaned hotel rooms for the freak-offs or picked up or bought drugs for Combs as part of their jobs. But many of them also spoke highly of Combs and his business acumen. One, George Kaplan, testified that he quit after witnessing Combs behave violently toward Ventura and another girlfriend — but also called him "a god among men."
The government also showed hotel invoices and flight records from accounts owned by Combs and his companies that confirmed payment for travel and hotel rooms and for extensive damages to those rooms, including from baby oil.
Forced labor
In addition to the freak-offs and the alleged coercion of Combs' girlfriends into de facto sex work, several former employees of Combs testified about how the hip-hop tycoon mistreated them as staffers.
During her three days on the witness stand, a former employee testifying under the pseudonym Mia said that Combs often asked her to work 20-hour days, on one occasion kept her from sleeping for several days and refused to pay her overtime. Mia also testified that Combs physically and sexually assaulted her multiple times over the eight-year span she worked for him, but said that she stayed in the job because she was "brainwashed" to believe that the work environment was acceptable if she wanted a bigger career in the entertainment industry. The defense called out dozens of social media posts in which Mia lavishly praised Combs. "The highs were very high and the lows were very low," she said repeatedly.
Kidnapping
Capricorn Clark, a former Combs employee, testified that she had been kidnapped by people associated with Combs in 2004 after Combs suspected her of stealing high-end jewelry. She said that associates of Combs locked her into a dilapidated office building for five days, subjecting her to numerous lie detector tests. Additionally, she said that her interrogator told her that if she failed the tests, she would be "thrown into the East River"; the tests were inconclusive. She says she was fired when she reported the alleged kidnapping to executives at Combs' Bad Boy Records. She later received a settlement from Combs after she accused him of wrongful termination.
Clark later returned to working for Combs, after being unable to secure any other job in the music industry. Again in his employ and under his control, she said that Combs kidnapped her once more in 2011, after he learned that Ventura had been dating the musician Kid Cudi and that Clark knew about it.
Arson
Musician Scott Mescudi, who records as Kid Cudi, took the stand to testify that in December 2011, while he was romantically involved with Cassie Ventura, there was a break-in at his home. On the stand, he said he and Ventura ended their relationship because he was concerned for his personal safety: "I knew Sean Combs was violent," he testified.
The following month, someone set fire to Mescudi's Porsche, which was parked just outside of his home; years later, he said Combs pulled him aside at an event and apologized for "everything."
The prosecution also called officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department whose testimony aligned with Mescudi's about the break-in and arson. LAFD arson investigator Lance Jimenez said that the fire was caused by a Molotov cocktail in what he opined was a "targeted" incident. LAPD officer Christopher Ignacio testified that while responding to a call about a possible break-in at Mescudi's residence, he observed a Cadillac Escalade in front of the home, and that the Escalade was registered to Combs' recording label.
While she was on the stand, Clark said Combs forced her to accompany him to Mescudi's house, saying "We're going to go kill him." She also testified that Combs threatened to kill her if she went to the authorities, and that he said he would kill her, Mescudi and Ventura if Mescudi told police he suspected Combs of having been in his home. Additionally, she said she witnessed Combs brutally beating Ventura after he learned of her relationship with Mescudi.
Bribery
On June 3, Eddy Garcia, a former security supervisor at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, testified that Combs bribed him and his colleagues with $100,000, delivered in a paper bag, in exchange for the 2016 hotel security video. Garcia also testified that he signed a nondisclosure agreement that called for the destruction of evidence and for Garcia's silence. (Nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs, do not prevent people from testifying truthfully in legal proceedings.)
According to Garcia, Kristina Khorram was also involved in that negotiation for the security tape, buttressing the prosecution's claims of racketeering. The jury also viewed texts between Ventura and Khorram, in which Ventura wrote "no one deserves to get dragged by their hair."
Mia also testified that she believed a former security employee nicknamed D-Roc tried to bribe her after Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against Combs; the jury saw a blizzard of texts and phone calls that Diddy, Khorram and D-Roc sent Mia in that time period, including one in which D-Roc wrote: "I know u didn't ask for anything, but I can send my sister a gift."
Obstruction of justice
Cassie Ventura's mother, Regina, testified that her family paid Combs $20,000 in 2011 to prevent him from releasing sexually explicit videos of Cassie after Combs learned that she had begun dating Mescudi. (She testified that Combs paid her back days later.) Her testimony was supported by that of former Combs Enterprises chief financial officer Derek Ferguson, who confirmed that he had seen a payment of $20,000 from the Ventura family to Combs.
A former stylist for both Combs and Ventura named Deonte Nash also buttressed Regina Ventura's testimony. Nash testified that along with witnessing Combs physically attacking Cassie Ventura, he also witnessed Combs threatening to release sex tapes of her, including sending them to the places her parents worked in order to get them fired.
During the course of the trial so far, the jury has heard many other allegations against Combs — including many episodes of physical abuse perpetrated against girlfriends and employees and rampant drug use. The defense has maintained that while Combs may be an abuser and involved in "toxic" and "jealous" relationships, and while the jury may not agree with his lifestyle, none of those accusations are charges against him in this federal trial.
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