(NEW YORK) -- Across two weeks of testimony in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex-trafficking and racketeering trial, federal prosecutors called 16 witnesses, attempting to prove the rap mogul embraced violence and threats to coerce women into sex and protect his music empire.
In addition to hearing four days of testimony from star witness Cassie Ventura – who alleged that Combs subjected her to a decade of abuse – the jury has heard from five witnesses who testified they saw Combs be violent toward Ventura, two of Combs' employees who allegedly helped him commit crimes, two escorts who said they were paid by Combs and two federal agents who conducted searches of Combs' property.
Prosecutors called multiple witnesses who, they argue, corroborate Ventura's testimony, including a makeup artist and male escort who both testified about witnessing Combs' violence. Ventura's mother said she took out a home equity loan after Combs allegedly blackmailed her daughter, rapper Kid Cudi testified that Combs broke into his home -- and said he suspected that Combs coordinated the firebombing of his car in retaliation for his relationship with Ventura -- and Kerry Morgan told jurors that she pleaded with her former best friend to leave what she said was a toxic and abusive relationship with Combs.
Combs has pleaded not guilty and denies sexually assaulting or trafficking anyone. Combs' lawyers have argued that the rap mogul's domestic violence was driven by jealousy and drug addiction, and that his voyeuristic sexual activities, while not mainstream, are his private business and do not amount to sex trafficking.
When court resumes on Tuesday, federal prosecutors plan to call Combs' former assistant Capricorn Clark and representatives from Los Angeles fire and police departments.
Here are the federal witnesses who have been called so far:
Israel Florez, hotel security guard
Prosecutors began their case by calling a witness whose testimony allowed them to show the jury multiple videos of Combs assaulting Ventura on March 5, 2016, in a Los Angeles hotel.
After receiving a report of a woman in distress, security guard Israel Florez testified that he found Combs and Ventura in the elevator vestibule on the sixth floor of the InterContinental Hotel Century City in Los Angeles.
"The best way I can describe it is like a devilish stare. He was just looking at me," Florez said about first encountering Combs, adding that he noticed Ventura had a "purple eye."
After escorting Ventura out of the hotel, Florez said Combs attempted to offer him a bribe, which he rejected.
"He was pretty much holding like a stack of money," he said. "He was pretty much telling me, like, 'Hey, take care of this, don't tell nobody,' pretty much."
During Florez's testimony, prosecutors entered into evidence multiple videos of the alleged assault, showing Combs grabbing Ventura, throwing her to the ground and dragging her. Defense attorneys argued that the video – which they acknowledged depicted domestic violence – would be unfairly prejudicial to the jury, but the judge allowed the jury to see the videos.
Defense attorneys also noted that his comments about a "devilish stare" were not in written reports about the incident.
Daniel Phillip, male escort
For their second witness, prosecutors called Daniel Phillip to testify about witnessing Combs being violent toward Ventura.
Phillip – who said he was paid as much as $6000 each time he had sex with Ventura while Combs sat in the corner masturbating – testified that he saw Combs throw a bottle at Ventura then drag her across the floor after she did not immediately follow his instructions.
"Mr. Combs came out of the room, and I just saw a bottle fly past her and hit the wall," he said. "He grabbed her by her hair, and started dragging her by her hair into her bedroom."
"I could hear Cassie yelling, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' and then I could hear again what sounded like she was being slapped or someone was being slapped around and slammed around the room," he testified.
Phillip told jurors that he did not feel comfortable intervening because of the power dynamic between him and Combs.
"My thoughts was that this was someone with unlimited power, and chances are that even if I did go to the police, that I might still end up losing my life," he said.
On cross-examination, Combs' lawyers tried to highlight an alleged inconsistency in his account – whether Combs asked him to leave after the alleged violence or resume having sex with Ventura – but Phillip stood by his original testimony.
Cassie Ventura, musician and Combs' ex-girlfriend
Combs' former girlfriend and musician Cassie Ventura testified for four days during the first week of the trial, as prosecutors attempted to lay the foundation of their criminal case against Combs. Prosecutors called her as one of their first witnesses in part because she was eight months-pregnant at the time of her testimony.
After Combs signed Ventura to Bad Boy Records, she testified that they began an on-and-off relationship that lasted for more than a decade. While Ventura said their relationship had a loving and positive start, Combs allegedly became increasingly violent with her, threatened her if she ever disobeyed him and required her to participate in drug-fueled sex parties called "freak offs."
"Every freak-off was directed by Sean. Like, he knew specifically where he wanted everyone to be, the lighting and such," Ventura said.
Ventura also testified about multiple violent episodes where Combs allegedly abused her, including the 2016 incident that jurors watched on video.
"When I chose to leave, I grabbed what I could and I got out and Sean followed me into the hallway before the elevators and grabbed me up, threw me on the ground, kicked me, tried to drag me back to the room," she said.
Ventura testified that the threats and incessant sexual demands from Combs -- as well as a pattern of coerced sex with strangers -- drove her into addiction, exposed her to regular spates of violence and led her to contemplate suicide.
The couple broke up in 2018, and in 2023 Ventura sued Combs over what she alleged was a "cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking." While the lawsuit was quickly settled – according to Ventura for $20 million – with no admission of wrongdoing from Combs, the allegations in her lawsuit prompted federal investigators to begin looking into Combs.
Ventura told the jury that she decided to testify in the case because it was the "right thing" to do.
"I can't carry this anymore. I can't carry the same, the guilt, the way I was guided to treat people like they were disposable. What's right is right, what's wrong is wrong. I'm here to do the right thing," she said.
During cross-examination, defense lawyers attempted to use years of text messages between Combs and Ventura to suggest that she was a willing participant in the sex parties and that their relationship was driven by mutual jealousy and infidelity. Defense lawyers have argued that Combs' violence was influenced by his drug use and fundamentally driven by jealousy, not as a desire to coerce others into sex, as prosecutors have alleged.
Yasmin Binda, federal agent
Yasmin Binda, a federal agent with Homeland Security Investigations, testified about the search conducted on Combs' hotel room shortly after he was arrested in September 2024.
According to Binda, investigators found $9,000 in cash, substances that tested positive for MDMA and ketamine, and supplies like lubricant and baby oil that other witnesses have said were commonly used during freak-offs. Jurors were shown photos of the inside of Comb's Park Hyatt hotel room during Binda's testimony.
Dawn Richard, former member of Danity Kane
Dawn Richard, a former member of the Combs' pop group Danity Kane, told jurors that she personally witnessed Combs assaulting Ventura on multiple occasions, including a 2009 outburst in Los Angeles while Ventura tried to cook breakfast.
"He came downstairs angry and was saying where the f--- was his eggs – excuse my language – and he was telling Cassie that she never gets anything right, where the f--- is his food, and he proceeded to come over to her and took the skillet with the eggs in it and tried to hit her over the head with it and she fell to the ground," she testified.
Richard also told jurors that she witnessed Combs punch his then-girlfriend Ventura in the face with a "closed fist" in 2009 before a music festival in Central Park. After Ventura put on sunglasses and makeup to hide the injury, Richard said she put on sunglasses "in solidarity" with Ventura. The jury then saw a photo of Richard, Ventura and another member of Danity Kane wearing sunglasses at the festival.
Richard also told the jury that the alleged violence extended to other public settings, testifying that Combs punched Ventura in the stomach during a group dinner attended by Usher, Ne-Yo and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine. Richard mentioned that allegation in her civil lawsuit against Combs, but defense lawyers highlighted that Richard's prior discussion of the dinner did not mention the high-profile guests.
Richard in 2024 sued Combs for assault, copyright infringement and false imprisonment, alleging -- among other things -- that he groped her on numerous occasions and forced her to endure inhumane work conditions. Combs denied all of the allegations and his attorneys in May filed a motion to dismiss the case.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland said Richard's account of an alleged assault has changed several times and suggested Richard agreed to testify against Combs because he ruined her music career by dismantling the music groups she had once been a part of.
Kerry Morgan, Ventura's former best friend
Ventura's former best friend Kerry Morgan testified about two instances when she said she personally saw Combs assault Ventura. She said she saw Combs hit Ventura in a home Combs rented in Hollywood Hills, and she testified about a second instance when Comb assaulted Ventura during a trip to Jamaica.
"I heard her screaming and I went to the hallway. The hallway was extremely long. And they were coming out of the master bedroom and he was dragging her by her hair on the floor," she testified about the incident.
Prosecutors also asked Morgan about the aftermath of a 2016 incident when Combs is accused of assaulting Ventura. Morgan's account matched what Ventura told jurors last week, saying the police arrived after the incident but Ventura refused to cooperate.
Morgan said her relationship with Ventura ended in 2018 after she says Combs tried to choke Morgan and hit her with a wooden coat hanger. Morgan testified that Combs demanded she tell him "who Cassie was cheating on him with" while Ventura locked herself in a bathroom. Morgan said she later accepted a $30,000 payment from Combs after she threatened to sue. She agreed to a confidentiality deal in return for the money, she testified. She testified her friendship with Ventura ended at that point.
David James, Combs' former personal assistant
David James, Combs' former personal assistant, testified about his tenure working as Combs' personal assistant, offering jurors an anecdote about his first time entering the headquarters of Bad Boy Entertainment for a job interview.
"This is Mr. Combs' kingdom. We're all here to serve in it," James said an employee told him after pointing to a photo of Combs.
James told jurors about the wide range of tasks he completed for the rap mogul: from stocking hotel rooms and allegedly buying drugs to being the driver when Combs – allegedly armed with multiple guns – wanted to confront rival record executive Marion "Suge" Knight.
Jurors first heard about the alleged interaction between Combs and Knight during Ventura's testimony, and James said the interaction prompted him to eventually leave his job working for Combs.
"I was really struck by it. I realized for the first time being Mr. Combs' assistant that my life was in danger," James testified.
Regina Ventura, Cassie Ventura's mother
Regina Ventura, the mother of star witness Cassie Ventura, told the jury that she took out a home equity loan to pay Combs in order to prevent him from following through on an alleged threat to release a sex tape of her daughter.
"The threats that have been made towards me by Sean 'Puffy' Combs are that … he is going to release 2 explicit sex tapes of me," Ventura wrote in an email to her mother and Combs' assistant Capricorn Clark on Dec. 23, 2011. Jurors saw the email when Cassie Ventura testified.
"I was physically sick. I did not understand a lot of it. The sex tapes threw me. I did not know [Combs] but I knew that he was going to try to hurt my daughter," she told jurors.
Regina Ventura testified that she and her husband decided to take out a loan so they could send Combs the $20,000 he demanded, though he ultimately returned the money. She also testified that she took photographs of the injuries her daughter allegedly suffered from Combs so that they would have a record of the alleged abuse.
Approximately 15 years after she documented the injuries, prosecutors last week showed the photos to the jury to underscore Cassie Ventura's testimony about the violence she suffered at Combs' hands.
Sharay Hayes, male escort
Known professionally as The Punisher – a nickname based on his style of playing basketball – male escort Sharay Hayes told the jury that he was hired about a dozen times by Combs and Ventura.
He said he first met Combs and Cassie Ventura in 2012, when he was hired to help create a "sexy erotic scene" for what, Ventura said, was Combs' birthday. He testified that Ventura instructed him to come to Trump International Hotel & Tower on Central Park West in Manhattan to perform a strip act. When he arrived, Ventura asked him to cover her in baby oil while Combs watched, Hayes said.
"I was specifically told to ... try not to look at him, no communication or anything between me and him," he said. "The room was very dimly lit. … All of the furniture was covered in sheets and there was an area pretty much set up for me to sit and her to sit across from me, and there were little bowls in the area with baby oil in them."
Hayes told jurors that Combs was nude for the encounter and wore a veil, occasionally masturbating during the interaction and offering "subtle directions" to Ventura.
After their first interaction, Hayes said he worked for the couple up to 12 more times, receiving $1,200 to $2,000 on each occasion.
Cross-examined by Combs' lawyers, Hayes testified that he believed Ventura sometimes flinched during some of Combs' directives but otherwise appeared comfortable during the exchanges, potentially undercutting the argument she was coerced to participate. The question of whether Ventura was forced or participated voluntarily is one of the most critical issues in the case against Combs.
Gerald Gannon, federal agent
Gerald Gannon, a special agent from United States Homeland Security Investigations, walked the jury through some of the evidence that he said was recovered from the rap star's home on the exclusive Miami Beach enclave of Star Island.
Gannon testified that federal agents recovered the parts of two AR-15 assault-style rifles with defaced serial numbers only feet from where Combs allegedly stored materials for freak-offs -- including baby oil, lingerie, platform heels and sex toys. Prosecutors have argued that the threat of violence allowed Combs to coerce his alleged victims to participate in freak-offs.
Holding parts of the weapons in court for the jury to see, Gannon testified that investigators recovered a fully-loaded handgun in a piece of luggage found in Combs' residence.
Jurors also saw the trove of drugs allegedly found in Combs' residence, including a variety of pills, marijuana, powders and other drugs that prosecutors have alleged were used to make women compliant during freak-offs and would allow them to perform long past the point of exhaustion.
Dawn Hughes, expert witness
Psychologist Dawn Hughes was called by prosecutors to explain to the jury that many people opt to stay in abusive relationships because they feel trapped or form an "intense psychological bond" that draws them to their abuser.
"It's hard for us to break up with someone under the best of circumstances," Hughes said. "When you have all this violence and abuse, you're just trying to live day to day in this very micro way." She explained that oftentimes victims' emotional strength becomes devoted to avoiding beatings instead of plotting a way out of an abusive relationship.
While Hughes as an expert witness was not allowed to directly analyze Combs' relationship with Ventura, she offered indirect context for some of the topics Ventura touched on during her testimony. If victims are able to escape an abusive relationship, Hughes told the jury, they often return, as Ventura testified that she did repeatedly with Combs.
Hughes also said that victims often adopt passive self-defense mechanisms that don't provoke their abusers, such as "curling up in a ball." Earlier witnesses Dawn Richard and Kerry Morgan both testified that they saw Ventura drop into a fetal position during beatings they said they witnessed Combs inflicting.
George Kaplan, former personal assistant
Testifying under an immunity deal so that he cannot be prosecuted for anything he admits to, Combs' former assistant George Kaplan told jurors he quit his job after 15 months because he could no longer continue "fixing" problems for Combs after the mogul's repeated acts of violence.
Kaplan testified that he saw Combs become violent on three occasions, including one episode when he was summoned to Combs' bedroom only to find Ventura crying and bruised in bed. He also testified seeing Combs holding a whisky glass over Ventura's head during a flight to Las Vegas and another instance in 2015 when a "very angry" Combs threw apples at another one of his girlfriends.
"In my heart of hearts I knew what was happening and I felt an element of guilt that I didn't do anything to stop it," he told jurors about why he stopped working for Combs.
Kaplan also told jurors about the process of setting up and cleaning hotel rooms for the rap mogul. He testified that he often was given only a few hours' notice to set up a room and came prepared with a "hotel bag" filled with what were essentials for Combs: candles, baby oil, Astroglide lubricant, an audio speaker and extra clothing. He also said that he would be tasked with cleaning the rooms after Combs was done because he was concerned that if hotel staff had cleaned the rooms immediately after Combs left, they might try to sell videos of images of the aftermath of a freak-off.
Scott Mescudi, musician and actor
Kid Cudi – whose legal name is Scott Mescudi – told jurors that his brief relationship with Cassie Ventura was marked by violent threats from Combs that prompted him and Ventura to stop seeing one another. He told jurors that he suspected Combs allegedly broke into his home and coordinated the firebombing of his high-end sports car.
After starting a romance with the singer and model who was involved with Combs on and off for years, Mescudi said he received an abrupt phone call from Ventura to warn that Combs had learned they were seeing each other. He said he picked up Ventura and soon received a call from Combs' assistant informing him that Combs had broken into his home.
"I said, 'M—----, you in my house?' And he said, 'What's up?' 'Are you in my house? I just want to talk to you. I'm on my way over right now,'" he testified.
Mescudi said he quickly drove to his home but did not find Combs, though there were traces of his alleged visit. He said the Christmas gifts he bought for his family had been opened and his dog was locked in the bathroom. He also testified that he reported the incident to police.
Mescudi said he and Ventura eventually broke up because "things were getting out of hand" and he felt concerned for their safety.
During her testimony, Ventura said that Combs threatened to hurt her and Mescudi if their relationship continued and vowed to blow up the car of the rival rapper. Mescudi testified that he suspected Combs followed through with the threat in early 2012, telling jurors that someone had cut the soft top of his Porsche open and placed a lit Molotov cocktail inside. Jurors were shown the results of that episode when prosecutors entered into evidence multiple photos of the charred vehicle.
Defense lawyers have denied that Combs had any role in the firebombing of the vehicle.
Mylah Morales, makeup artist
Prosecutors called makeup artist Mylah Morales to testify about a 2010 incident when Combs allegedly assaulted Ventura in their hotel suite. According to Morales, Combs stormed into the room they rented at the Beverly Hills Hotel after a night out.
"Where the f--- is she?" Combs allegedly shouted before he walked into the bedroom where Ventura was and closed the door, according to Morales' testimony.
Morales said she heard "yelling and screaming" before Combs exited the hotel room. She said Ventura had a swollen eye, busted lip and "knots on her head" after the incident.
According to Morales, Ventura stayed with her for a few days to recover after the incident. Morales testified that a friend who was a doctor checked on Ventura to see if she had a concussion and suggested she visit an emergency room, according to her testimony, but Ventura allegedly said it was "her wish not to go to the ER."
On cross-examination, Combs' lawyers highlighted that Morales did not directly witness the alleged assault because she was outside the bedroom.
Frederick Zemmour, hotel manager
The general manager of the L'Ermitage Beverly Hills, Frederick Zemmour, said Combs frequently stayed at the hotel, and his guest profile noted some characteristics that other witnesses said were features of the drug-fueled sex parties called "freak offs" that Combs would host.
"Always spills candle wax on everything and uses excessive amounts of oil, place rooms out of order upon departure for deep cleaning," Zemmour said, citing notes the hotel kept on Combs.
When Ventura testified last week, she said Combs often booked rooms at L'Ermitage Beverly Hills to host freak-offs. She recounted one instance when Combs allegedly requested she get into a blowup pool that was filled with "lube and oil."
Joshua Croft, special agent
Joshua Croft, a special agent from Homeland Security Investigations, briefly testified about the process for examining some of the electronic devices recovered during the investigation into Combs.
He told the jury that he conducted computer extractions from three laptops that belonged to Cassie Ventura. One of the laptops included a user profile for Frank Black, an alias used by Sean Combs, he said.
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