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Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Cassie Ventura breaks down as testimony concludes

PHOTO: Casandra "Cassie" Ventura is cross examined by Lawyer Anna Estevao during Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial in New York City, May 16, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.
22:39
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Diddy Trial Day 5: Cassie Ventura breaks down on the witness stand
By Aaron Katersky, Mason Leib
Last Updated: May 19, 2025, 2:00 PM

This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.

Friday is day five in the trial of Sean Combs after the jury was seated.

Key Headlines

  • Dawn Richard testifies about seeing Cassie 'attacked' by 'screaming, belligerent' Combs
  • Special agent's testimony concludes as prosecution calls Danity Kane's Dawn Richard to the stand
  • Special agent testifies to drugs, baby oil in Combs' hotel room at time of arrest
  • Cassie Ventura, Alex Fine share statement through attorney after 4-day testimony
  • Cassie Ventura concludes her testimony after 4 days
Here's how the news is developing.

Pinned
May 19, 2025 12:53 PM

Sean Combs trial underway

The highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is underway. Combs has been accused of sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy as part of a blockbuster federal indictment originally filed in September 2024. He later faced two additional superseding indictments. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Combs is accused of being the ringleader of an alleged enterprise that "abused, threatened and coerced women" into prolonged, drug-fueled sexual orgies with male prostitutes, which he called "freak offs," and then threatened them into silence. Combs has said that all of the sex was consensual and that while his relationships sometimes involved domestic violence, he wasn't engaged in trafficking.

Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Combs was simply part of the swinger lifestyle and that he "vehemently denies the accusations made by the SDNY" and "looks forward to his day in court."


Pinned
May 13, 2025 5:23 PM

Cassie Ventura says Combs controlled her life, their relationship

Ventura told the jury Combs controlled a lot of her life, from her career to the way she dressed. “And it just didn’t feel like I had much say in it being super young, naïve, people-pleaser. I didn’t know if he would be upset enough to be violent or if he would write me off and not want to be with me at all,” Ventura testified.

If she refused Combs, Ventura said “it was always in the back of my mind that I would somehow be hurt.” Over time, she said “there were blackmail materials.”

PHOTO: Sean "Diddy" Combs' watches as his former girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura is sworn in as a prosecution witness at his sex trafficking trial in New York City, May 13, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Sean "Diddy" Combs' watches as his former girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura is sworn in as a prosecution witness at his sex trafficking trial in New York City, May 13, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

“I think I was just really confused at the time, and young, new artist, just didn’t know the lay of the land when it came to things like that. In my confusion just kind of cried and ran off,” Ventura testified. “I just wasn’t familiar with having an executive or anybody pay attention to me or be that forward at that point. Pretty naïve, I would say.”

Though 17 years younger than Combs, Ventura said she "wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time. He’s just this exciting and entertaining fun guy that just also happened to have my career in his hands.”

She testified that Combs introduced her to oral sex in a New York hotel room. “He basically taught me how,” she said.

“How did he introduce you to oral sex? “Johnson asked.

“He gave me oral sex,” Ventura responded.

The two first had intercourse on a boat Combs had rented on a trip to Miami, Ventura testified.

“I became one of his girlfriends,” Ventura said.

Combs listened passively to Ventura's testimony as he sat the defense table with his hands in his lap. Combs’ family listened in the second row.

Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, is also in the courtroom.


May 19, 2025 2:00 PM

Dawn Richard testifies about seeing Cassie 'attacked' by 'screaming, belligerent' Combs

Dawn Richard, a member of music groups Diddy Dirty Money and Danity Kane, testified to the jury she "observed Cassie being attacked" by Sean Combs in his Los Angeles hotel in 2009.

"She was attacked by Sean Combs," Richard testified. "He came downstairs screaming, belligerent, asking where his phone was, and proceeded to hit her in the head and beat her on the ground."

Richard testified she was in the residence recording at the time.

"He said 'where the f--- is his eggs,'" Richard testified. "He took the skillet with the eggs" and took a swing at Ventura, Richard alleged.

She testified that Ventura dropped to the ground, "literally trying to hide her face or her head."

Richard has made similar allegations in a civil lawsuit filed against Combs in 2024. Combs has broadly denied the allegations contained in the lawsuit.

The defense objected to many of the questions put to Richard by the prosecution so the judge adjourned the court and instructed the jury to return 8:30 a.m. ET Monday.

Court is scheduled to adjourn each day next week at 3 p.m. ET


May 16, 2025 9:12 PM

Special agent's testimony concludes as prosecution calls Danity Kane's Dawn Richard to the stand

Federal agents seized a small black fanny pack from Combs’ hotel room containing $9000 cash, Binda testified.

Binda used scissors to cut open an evidence bag, extracted the cash and fanned it for the jury to see.

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo has previously said Combs had come to New York in September 2024 to negotiate a surrender prior to his arrest.

At the time, Binda testified, Combs was staying in a Midtown hotel room containing $9,000 cash, illegal drugs, baby oil, lubricant and a device that the federal agent testified could be used for “mood lighting.”

Binda's testimony has concluded as the prosecution calls former member of the pop and R&B group Danity Kane, Dawn Richard.


May 16, 2025 8:52 PM

Special agent testifies to drugs, baby oil in Combs' hotel room at time of arrest

The night Sean Combs was arrested in New York he was in possession of illegal drugs kept under an alias, a federal agent testified Friday.

Combs was arrested at the Park Hyatt hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Sept. 16, 2024.

Special Agent Yasin Binda of Homeland Security Investigations, the prosecutions next witness, walked the jury through what she testified was the search of the room at the Park Hyatt, which she said turned up a pill bottle containing clonazepam under the name Frank Black, an alias Cassie Ventura testified Combs used.

There were also glassine bags containing pink powder that tested positive for ketamine and MDMA, the agent testified. The jury was allowed to examine the exhibit.

“This shows five bottles of baby oil that were found in the bathtub,” Binda said, showing the jurors an image of the baby oil.

The jury was shown another photo of a Ziploc bag containing bottles of baby oil, and a photo of lubricant she said was found in a nightstand.

Jurors were also shown a photo of a device that Binda testified could be set up for “mood lighting,” which Ventura testified were the kind of supplies Combs had in hotel rooms for "freak offs."



May 16, 2025 8:45 PM

Cassie Ventura, Alex Fine share statement through attorney after 4-day testimony

Cassie Ventura, through a statement read by her attorney Douglas Wigdor outside court, thanked her supporters for their kindness and vowed to never forget what she says Sean Combs did to her.

"I hope that my testimony has given strength and a voice to other survivors and can help others who have suffered to speak up and also heal from abuse and fear. For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember, and the more I can remember, the more I will never forget," she said in a statement.

Her husband Alex Fine, in a statement read by Wigdor, commended Ventura for her bravery testifying for four days in front of "a person who tried to break her."

"So to him and all of those who helped him along the way, please know this: You did not break her spirit nor her smile that lights up every room. You did not break the souls of her mother, who gives the best hugs and plays the silliest games with our little girls," Fine said in the statement, calling Combs a "demon."

He also rejected the notion that he was the one who helped Ventura escape Combs, saying such a suggestion is an "insult to the years of painful work my wife has done to save herself."

"Cassie saved Cassie. She alone broke free from abuse, coercion, violence and threats. She did the work of fighting the demons that only a demon himself could have done to her. All I have done is love her as she has loved me. Her life is now surrounded by love, laughter and our family. This horrific chapter is forever put behind us," he said.

-- ABC News' Peter Charalambous


May 13, 2025 5:23 PM

Cassie Ventura says Combs controlled her life, their relationship

Ventura told the jury Combs controlled a lot of her life, from her career to the way she dressed. “And it just didn’t feel like I had much say in it being super young, naïve, people-pleaser. I didn’t know if he would be upset enough to be violent or if he would write me off and not want to be with me at all,” Ventura testified.

If she refused Combs, Ventura said “it was always in the back of my mind that I would somehow be hurt.” Over time, she said “there were blackmail materials.”

PHOTO: Sean "Diddy" Combs' watches as his former girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura is sworn in as a prosecution witness at his sex trafficking trial in New York City, May 13, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Sean "Diddy" Combs' watches as his former girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura is sworn in as a prosecution witness at his sex trafficking trial in New York City, May 13, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

“I think I was just really confused at the time, and young, new artist, just didn’t know the lay of the land when it came to things like that. In my confusion just kind of cried and ran off,” Ventura testified. “I just wasn’t familiar with having an executive or anybody pay attention to me or be that forward at that point. Pretty naïve, I would say.”

Though 17 years younger than Combs, Ventura said she "wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time. He’s just this exciting and entertaining fun guy that just also happened to have my career in his hands.”

She testified that Combs introduced her to oral sex in a New York hotel room. “He basically taught me how,” she said.

“How did he introduce you to oral sex? “Johnson asked.

“He gave me oral sex,” Ventura responded.

The two first had intercourse on a boat Combs had rented on a trip to Miami, Ventura testified.

“I became one of his girlfriends,” Ventura said.

Combs listened passively to Ventura's testimony as he sat the defense table with his hands in his lap. Combs’ family listened in the second row.

Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, is also in the courtroom.


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