Diddy’s Former Personal Assistant Testifies in Trial: Daily Updates

The trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs began in New York City on May 5 following his September 2024 arrest on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The process began with jury selection, which was finalized on May 12 before opening arguments started that same day. Diddy, 55, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied the allegations against him.

The music mogul appeared in court as jury selection started, wearing a sweater over a white collared shirt with gray pants, per the Associated Press. (Judge Arun Subramanian previously said that Diddy could wear casual clothing for the duration of the trial rather than his jail uniform.)

Before voir dire (preliminary juror examinations) began, Diddy turned down a plea deal, which might have shortened his potential prison sentence if he agreed to plead guilty. When the judge asked him on May 1 if he rejected the prosecution’s offer, Diddy replied, “Yes, I do.”

Diddy was arrested last year after numerous accusers came forward with allegations of sexual assault. In November 2023, his ex-girlfriend Cassie filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that he sexually and physically abused her during their relationship, which lasted off and on from 2007 to 2018. Diddy denied her claims, and the duo settled out of court one day later.

Cassie Asks Judge to Stop Diddy’s Subpoena Against Her Before Trial

In May 2024, CNN published a surveillance video from 2016 that showed Diddy kicking and grabbing Cassie, now 38, in a hotel. The rapper later apologized in an Instagram video, saying, “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. “I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now. … I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry.”

In April, prosecutors filed a motion saying that the person mentioned in the indictment under the alias “Victim-1” would be testifying under her own name. Multiple outlets reported at the time that “Victim-1” is Cassie, but she has not publicly confirmed her involvement in the trial.

Keep scrolling for daily updates from inside the courtroom:

May 5

As jury selection began, the judge opened with a joke about Diddy’s numerous nicknames and quipped that the list of potential jurors is as long as the famously extensive Lord of the Rings novels.

Us Weekly can confirm several potential jurors said they had seen news reports about the CNN video that showed Diddy hitting Cassie in 2016 while they were still dating. One woman described a still image from the video as “damning evidence” and was removed from consideration.

Prosecutors Deny Leaking Diddy and Cassie Assault Video in New Court Docs

At one point, Diddy also requested a bathroom break, per the AP, telling the judge, “I’m sorry, your honor, I’m a little nervous today.”

Multiple celebrities were named as people who might be mentioned during the trial, and potential jurors were asked to say whether they were familiar with them. Some of the names mentioned were Michael B. Jordan, Mike Myers, Kanye West, Kid Cudi and Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams, though it was not specified how they could be relevant to the proceedings.

May 6

As jury selection continued, the judge revised his line of questioning about celebrities, asking potential jurors whether they “personally know” them rather than if they’re just “familiar” with their names.

Throughout the day, the judge expressed “frustration” over receiving multiple prospective jurors with “clear issues,” leading to the dismissal of various people for a variety of reasons that included Crohn’s disease, hearing problems and one woman who described herself as a “very sensitive person” who once fainted at a teacher bringing up the topic of oral sex.

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May 7

During jury selection, one potential juror explained the concept of doom-scrolling to the judge, who replied, “I don’t really use social media.”

May 9

Agnifilo said in court that the defense team plans to say Cassie was abusive toward Diddy during their relationship. “I think we’re probably going to refer to that as domestic violence,” he told the court. The judge then indicated that he would decide on May 12 whether allegations of domestic violence will be admissible during the trial.

Cassie’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

May 12

After the jury was finalized, both sides delivered their opening statements, which revealed that allegations by Cassie and an unnamed Jane Doe will be the focus of the case. “This is Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson began. “But there is another side to him. A side that ran a criminal enterprise … but he didn’t do it alone.”

The prosecution alleged that Diddy once “brutally” beat Cassie after allegedly finding out she’d been seeing another man and threatened her with videos of her having sex with other men. “That’s not the only time he kidnapped someone,” Johnson continued. “That’s not the first girlfriend he sexually assaulted.”

Johnson went on to claim that Diddy’s bodyguards and chief of staff “committed crimes together, and they covered up those crimes,” adding, “This case is not about a celebrity’s private sexual choices.”

She later addressed Diddy’s now-infamous freak offs, claiming they happened as often as once a week “and took place over multiple days at a time.” According to Johnson, Cassie once overdosed at a freak off where a sex worker urinated in her mouth. “She tried the first freak off because she loved the defendant and wanted to make him happy,” the lawyer continued. Jane Doe, meanwhile, allegedly believed the freak off she attended was a “one-time wild night.”

Cassie Will Be Focus of Diddy Trial, Government Says in Opening Statement

After Johnson’s statement, Diddy’s attorney Teny Geragos presented the defense’s opening argument, saying, “Sean Combs is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case.”

Geragos claimed no witness will be able to back up the government’s racketeering charges because there was no racketeering conspiracy, but she admitted that her client has a history of violence.

“Sean Combs had a temper, and when he took drugs, he would get violent. My client is not proud of that,” she said. “We take full responsibility that there is domestic violence in this case. Domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”

She added that the jury will hear about Diddy’s “love of baby oil” before saying, “But is that a federal crime? No.”

Geragos also addressed Cassie and Jane Doe’s allegations, claiming, “Every witness in this case had free choice to make the choices they made.”

After opening statements, two different witnesses testified. The first, Israel Florez, a former security guard at the InterContinental Hotel in L.A., claimed he is the person who responded to a call about the alleged incident between Cassie and Diddy that was captured on surveillance video in 2016 and published by CNN in 2024. Florez testified that he found Diddy in a “devilish state,” while Cassie allegedly looked “scared.”

The second witness, Daniel Phillip, claimed he was hired to have sex with Cassie on multiple occasions while Diddy watched. Phillip claimed that he was paid anywhere from $700 to $5,000 or $6,000 to be intimate with Cassie while Diddy was present and “always sitting in a corner masturbating.”

Phillip also claimed that Diddy recorded these alleged sexual encounters on his phone “once or twice” and took a photo of Phillip’s driver’s license. “It’s just for insurance, just in case,” Phillip alleged Diddy told him, adding, “I understood it to [mean] that he was threatening me.”

Cassie Claims Escorts Were Paid Less If They Ejaculated Before Diddy Wanted

May 13

The day began with details of the alleged and infamous freak off parties, with the prosecution claiming there would be approximately 10 bottles of baby oil used per party and the use of “strong-smelling” candles. Phillip continued his testimony before Cassie took the stand. The singer began by describing her relationship with Diddy, claiming that it was marked by violence. She alleged that the rapper controlled “a lot” of her life, would videotape her during sexual encounters for “blackmail” and more.

She discussed in detail the alleged freak offs, which she began attending at age 22, sharing that she would take drugs like weed, mushrooms, GHB, ketamine and ecstasy to stay “disconnected” from the experience. She claimed she was expected to “have freak offs on [my] period,” noting that these parties would make her feel “dirty” but she was glad to make Diddy — who she claimed was in control and “directed” the encounters — happy. She recalled that she “choked” while being urinated on by two male escorts who were allegedly found on Craigslist.

Cassie also detailed her music career, claiming that she often felt “stifled” by Diddy’s control over her work.

Inside the Courtroom Dynamic Between Diddy, Cassie and Her Husband Alex Fine

May 14

The third day of the trial was entirely spent on testimony given by Cassie, who was questioned by the prosecution on everything from her relationship with Kid Cudi to the defense’s claims that she physically abused Diddy too. While she admitted that she sometimes initiated physical fights with Diddy, she claimed that he was not injured during these incidents, whereas his alleged abuse left visible bruises on her. Throughout her testimony, she also discussed the hotel surveillance footage from 2016 and alleged that Diddy raped her near the end of their relationship.

Near the end of the day, Cassie broke down while discussing the aftermath of her split from Diddy, saying she decided to attend trauma therapy and rehab for opiate addiction in 2023 because she “didn’t want to be alive anymore at that point.” While filming a music video, she recalled having horrible flashbacks and suicidal ideation when she returned home to husband Alex Fine, whom she wed in 2019. “You can do this without me,” she recalled telling her husband, through tears. “You don’t need me anymore.” She then tried to walk out the door into traffic, but Fine managed to stop her.

Cassie also addressed her 2023 settlement with Diddy, saying she was paid $20 million to settle her lawsuit. Before court ended for the day, she estimated she participated in “hundreds” of freak offs during her relationship with Diddy.

“I can’t carry this anymore,” Cassie told the court. “The shame, the guilt. I was guided to treat people like they were disposable. What’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong. This is right.”

Diddy Judge Chastises Defense for Moving Too Slowly on Cassie Questioning

May 15

The defense began cross-examining Cassie on her third straight day of testimony, asking her questions about her relationship with Diddy as well as their drug use. Attorney Anna Estevao’s line of questioning seemingly attempted to support the defense’s claims that Diddy’s alleged freak offs were part of his “swinger” lifestyle. Estevao also asked Cassie about texts she sent Diddy where she expressed her love for him as well as an apparent enjoyment of freak offs. Asked about a message where she said she liked the parties, Cassie replied, “I would say that loving [freak offs] were just words at that point.”

Later on in the day, Cassie mentioned her relationship with Cudi as well as a period when she took a break from Diddy in 2015 and began dating Michael B. Jordan. She went on to confirm that she continued to participate in freak offs with Diddy while dating Cudi, saying, “It was a job.” After prompting from Estevao, Cassie also refuted an online rumor that the baby oil used in the freak offs was laced with date-rape drugs.

May 16

After Cassie finished her testimony, the prosecution called two additional witnesses to the stand. The first, Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Yasin Binda, was one of the officers who participated in a raid on Diddy’s hotel room at the Park Hyatt in Manhattan ahead of his September 2024 arrest. Binda said agents found five bottles of baby oil in the bathroom as well as lubricant stored in the bathtub, plus two bottles of lubricant in the nightstand. They also found a Louis Vuitton bag containing ketamine, MDMA and a bottle of medication prescribed to “Frank Black.”

With less than half an hour left before court was set to adjourn for the day, former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard took the stand and testified about an alleged 2009 incident where she witnessed Diddy assault Cassie at his Los Angeles home. “He came downstairs angry and was saying, ‘Where the f*** was his eggs’ and he was telling Cassie she never gets anything right and where the f*** was his food,” Richard alleged. “And he came over to the skillet with the eggs in it and tried to hit her over the head, and she fell to the ground.”

Following Richard’s testimony, the defense asked the judge to strike her statements from the record, arguing that it does not support the charge of sex trafficking and was also not mentioned by Cassie herself. The prosecution, meanwhile, argued that Diddy’s alleged abuse created a culture that allowed him to carry out more serious crimes.

May 19

Richard continued her testimony with further details about the skillet incident, which the judge tentatively ruled was permissible. She claimed she “frequently” saw Diddy physically abuse Cassie, including on one occasion in 2010 where other celebrities were present and did not intervene.

Following Richard’s testimony, Cassie’s former friend Kerry Morgan was called to the stand. Cassie previously mentioned Morgan in her own testimony, revealing that the two stopped speaking after Diddy allegedly hit Morgan with a wooden hanger in 2018. Morgan claimed that Diddy hit her after flying into a rage over Cassie dating another man, alleging that he hit her so hard she vomited and had a concussion. After the incident, Diddy and Cassie allegedly offered Morgan $30,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement. She agreed and said she never spoke to Cassie again.

The final witness of the day was David James, who worked as a personal assistant for Diddy from May 2007 to May 2009. James described an alleged interaction he had with a human resources rep while interviewing at Bad Boy, claiming the woman pointed at a photo of Diddy on the wall and said, “This is Mr. Combs’ kingdom. We’re all here to serve in it.” James testified that he worked six to seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a salary of $70,000 per year plus overtime.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.