On Monday, the sex-trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs began with a bang in New York City. Hordes of spectators camped overnight hoping for a place in the 100-person courtroom and overflow rooms, fiery opening statements were exchanged, and two key witnesses testified. But today, one of the most critical testimonies was given by none other than Combs’ ex-partner of over a decade, Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura.
This is the first time Ventura—who is currently eight and a half months pregnant—has ever spoken publicly about Combs’ abuse. While Ventura’s referred to in court documents as Victim #1, she testified under her own name.
On the stand, Ventura began at the start of her relationship with Combs—she, the 19-year-old aspiring singer and performer, and he, the older (by 17 years), infinitely more powerful superstar who signed her to his record label. Combs’ control, she told the court, was a constant in the relationship from the beginning; from how she looked to her music. Still, according to Ventura, she was “enamored” by him and their working relationship eventually became romantic.
“I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time,” she
testified. “He was just this exciting, entertaining, fun guy that also happened to have, you know, my career in his hands.” Within the first year of their relationship, Combs introduced the concept of “Freak off,” which Ventura described to the court as “voyeurism.”
“It basically entails the hiring of an escort and setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean,” Ventura explained. Combs, she said, liked “being able to watch me with the other person and actually direct us on what we were doing.” When asked how she felt about doing what Combs wanted, she recalled her “stomach falling.”
“I think I was 22 at the time, I didn’t have a concept to how that would be a turn-on, but I also felt a sense of responsibility, him sharing that with me,” Ventura testified. “I wanted to make him happy.” Ventura added that she “also loved him very much” and ultimately, went along with what Combs said he liked until the “Freak offs” were so frequent that it “became a job” and so long (sometimes spanning 36 or 48 hours, but as long as four days) that they would require breaks due to dehydration and drug and alcohol use. They also involved “blackmail materials” (read: recordings) that Ventura feared would be posted on the internet.
“Pretty quickly over time, I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to be doing, especially how frequently. But I was in love and wanting to make him happy,” Ventura said. “I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, didn’t really know what ‘no’ could turn into.”
What “no turned into” was physical violence, coercion, and constant threats. When asked by the defense what Combs would do to her, Ventura answered, “bash on my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me.” And when she was asked how often the physical abuse occurred, she replied, “Too frequently.” Further, Ventura said she was kept under a close watch—not just from Combs, but his team. If ever there was an occasion in which Combs couldn’t find her, he would deploy security guards or personal assistants to call her “incessantly” and locate her.
Ventura filed her lawsuit against Combs in November 2023, claiming he raped her in 2018 and physically abused her throughout their relationship. Combs denied Ventura’s allegations, but notably settled out of court just one day after she filed the suit. Then, in May 2024, a gut-wrenching video of Combs brutalizing Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016 was published by CNN. Two days later, Combs posted an apology video on Instagram that has since been deleted. The hotel surveillance footage, Ventura testified, captured the aftermath of a “Freak off.”
In opening statements on Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson painted a bleak portrait of Ventura’s relationship with Combs. While she called their dynamic “complicated” and “unfaithful, jealous, and at times angry,” she emphasized that Combs took full advantage of their imbalanced power dynamic at every opportunity. He also wielded the threat of ruining her career by filming her with male escorts and forcing her to participate in sex acts—one of which allegedly involved a male escort urinating into her mouth.
“Half of every week Cassie was in a dark hotel room high and awake for days performing sex acts she did not want to do on male escorts,” Johnson said, noting that in one “Freak off,” Ventura “still had an open wound on her face from the defendant’s most recent assault.” She also said that there is ample evidence of Combs’ criminal activity—from videos of the “Freak offs” themselves to dozens of text messages to bills, and damages to hotel rooms.
“There are videos,” Johnson said on Tuesday, promising jurors that they would view them and hear for themselves that Combs directed Ventura and other victims. Multiple new outlets are currently trying to get said videos unsealed. Meanwhile, Combs’ attorney, Teny Geragos, claimed all activity during the “Freak offs” was consensual.
“Being a willing participant in your own sex life is not sex trafficking,” Geragos said. She also implied that Ventura only left Combs because she was jealous—citing Combs’ assertion that Kim Porter was his “soulmate” at her funeral service.
Two witnesses also testified on Monday: Israel Florez, a Los Angeles police officer and witness to the aftermath of Ventura’s 2016 assault, and Daniel Phillip, who was working as a manager of a male review show when Ventura and Combs hired him for what he thought was a bachelorette party. Florez said Combs allegedly told Venture she wasn’t allowed to leave the hotel and offered him a “wad of cash,” which he interpreted to be a bribe and declined. Phillip said he was tricked into entering a hotel room with Combs and Ventura and was paid to have sex with Ventura on multiple occasions, in which Combs not only watched and masturbated, but recorded them on both a phone and a camcorder.
Philip was hired by Combs throughout 2012 and 2013. In another instance, Philip said he witnessed Combs “slapping” Ventura when she didn’t respond to one of his requests quickly enough. According to Philip, she was on her computer trying to obtain personal information when Combs told her to come to him in her bedroom. When she didn’t run fast enough, Philip said, Combs “came out of the room” and “a bottle” flew past Ventura and hit the wall. Then, Philip described hearing “slapping” and Ventura’s screams and apologies.
“This was someone with unlimited power. And chances are that even if I did go to the police that I still might be losing my life,” Phillip said when asked why he didn’t go to the authorities after witnessing the alleged abuse.
Combs’ control manifested professionally, too. In 2006, he signed Ventura to a 10-album contract under his label, Bad Boy Records. Over the course of the deal, she testified that she recorded “hundreds of songs,” yet very few were released officially, while some were leaked on the internet, and others simply never saw “the light of day.” Because of Combs, only one album was released during this time.
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