Music mogul and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives at the Billboard Music Awards, May 15, 2022, in Las Vegas.
Jordan Strauss/Invision via AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Jordan Strauss/Invision via AP
This report contains descriptions of physical and sexual violence.
During cross-examination Thursday, Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura detailed in the federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial against hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs their group sexual encounters, the extent of their drug use and her own feelings toward Combs.
Thursday marked the fourth day of the New York trial against Combs. Ventura continued her testimony in which she has alleged a pattern of of sexual coercion, drugging and physical abuse.
Combs faces three main charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation for prostitution. Combs’ defense denies he committed these crimes.
Defense highlighted texts of Ventura helping plan ‘freak-offs’
One of Combs’ defense attorneys, Anna Estevao, tried to establish that there was a loving relationship between the pair, and that Ventura anticipated and planned some of the “freak-offs.” Ventura has described these events as ones in which Combs instructed Ventura to take various drugs and hired male prostitutes for her to have sex with while he watched.
The defense relied on text messages between the pair of Ventura saying she “can’t wait either” for the “freak-off,” she’s “always ready to FO” and that she enjoys them when “we both want it.” The texts also reference Ventura picking rooms, supplies and escorts.
Ventura said the texts were “just words.”
She said earlier in her testimony that she did sometimes initiate the acts out of fear, and would do her best to do “damage control” so she would know when they were happening. She also said she loved him and tried to make him happy. Ventura said most of her time was spent having a “freak-off” or recovering from one. If she refused, Combs would become violent, Ventura has said.
She said Thursday the “freak-offs” were like a job and she hated them, especially when Combs recorded them.
Combs’ attorney referenced Combs having withdrawal symptoms from opiates
The defense questioned Ventura about Combs’ state of mind during some of his violent episodes, but did not explicitly link the two.
In opening statements, Combs’ attorneys admitted Combs’ wrongdoing in a 2016 video released last year by CNN. Combs is shown following Ventura down the hallway of a hotel, throwing her to the ground, kicking, dragging and hitting her.
On Thursday, Ventura said the two used drugs extensively throughout their relationship, and Combs tried to get them to stop at several points, but never through a rehabilitation facility.
She added he would often go through withdrawal symptoms, such as irritability, but did not know whether he was inebriated during the incident shown on the hotel video.
Defense asked Ventura about feeling jealous during her relationship with Combs
In opening statements earlier this week, defense attorney Teny Geragos called this a case of “jealousy and infidelity.”
On Thursday, Estevao said Combs was often seeing various women and Ventura often complained about not being the “main girlfriend.”
Ventura said it bothered her that she and Combs were not public the first few years of their relationship, and that Combs was also still involved with Kim Porter, the mother to several of Combs’ children.
Estevao added that Ventura wanted the relationship to be more about just sex. In a 2009 text, Ventura said Combs treated her like she was just a person to “get your fantasies off with and that’s it.”
In 11 years together, Ventura said she never felt fully part of a family with Combs and his seven children.
She also said it was often expected for her to be monogamous to Combs, but not the other way around. Ventura said she started dating rapper Kid Cudi when she and Combs were broken up, but that she ended it in less than a month when Combs began threatening him. In 2023, Cudi told The New York Times his car exploded in his driveway around the time he was seeing Ventura.
NPR’s Isabella Gomez Sarmiento contributed to this report.
