Chloe Malas
Appearances
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
He's not joking around here, according to her. No, she said that he was completely serious, straight-faced, and she took it as a real threat to her life, but that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for Diddy, and she just tried to maintain the peace.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Yes. I mean, she had all sorts of different roles. At one point, she was the director of marketing for Sean John Women's. Then she went on to become the global brand director for several years for Sean Combs. So, I mean, she held some massive titles within the company.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Basically, Cassie was cheating on Diddy with Kid Cudi. Diddy found out because Cassie had a burner phone. She had a separate phone that she was using to communicate with And we heard this not only in Cassie's testimony, but we also heard this in Kid Cudi's testimony last week.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
But today is really the first time that I had learned that Capricorn Clark is the one that actually took Cassie to Best Buy to buy her this burner phone so that she could essentially live this double life. Or another way to look at it is to get out from the clutches of Diddy and live her authentic life. with someone that she was falling in love with, which was Kid Cudi.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Not only did she know about it, she actually thought that Cassie was putting their lives in danger. She actually said she thought that they were going to get killed because Cassie was being just kind of so nonchalant and not really hiding the relationship because she was texting about Kid Cudi and to Kid Cudi on a phone that was paid for by Diddy.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
But it wasn't long, Andrea, before Diddy found out about that burner phone because Cassie spent the night with Diddy in a hotel room and he found the phone. And this is, of course, according to Capricorn's testimony.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Diddy, at like 5 in the morning, goes to Capricorn's apartment and starts banging on her door with a gun and is like, let's go, get dressed, we're going to go kill Kid Cuddy.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
She says that she got dressed and she didn't want to go, but that she went. She was worried. He had a gun. He was furious. And she jumped into this black Escalade that was waiting in her parking garage. And they started the 20-minute drive to Kid Cudi's house. She actually on the stand characterized it as a kidnapping. Is that correct? Yes, she did.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
But it's not like she was bound her feet in her hands and like thrown into the trunk of a car. Like someone might think that's what a kidnapping looks like. But he had a gun. and she felt like she was being forced against her will. Have we heard Combs' side to the kidnapping allegation? Does he deny it?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Not only does he deny it, Mark Agnifilo, one of Combs' defense attorneys, said on cross-examination today, he said to Capricorn, didn't you willingly go with him because you wanted to make sure he didn't do something stupid? So see, there are two sides to every story.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
She says that she called Cassie on her burner phone and was like, you need to know what is going on right now. I'm in front of Kid Cuddy's house. And Kid Cuddy was in the background and could hear this conversation and was like, what do you mean he's inside my house? And that's when Kid Cuddy jumped in his Porsche to confront Diddy. Meanwhile, she changes Cassie's name in her phone
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
to a friend of hers because she was so worried that Diddy was going to find out that she called her. And lo and behold, when he got back into the Escalade, what did he do? He said, who were you on the phone with? I mean, it's like he's omnipresent. How did he know? And then he finds out that Kid Cudi is on the way. And now a twist, a plot twist.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Kid Cudi had said that he went to his house, didn't find Combs, got in his car to look for Combs, and never found him. But today, Capricorn Clark says Kid Cudi actually rolled up on them in his car, made eye contact with them, and then he sped off, and then they actually chased him. And there was a car chase for several minutes, and then Kid Cudi, I guess in his Porsche, he outran the Escalade.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And then all of a sudden they saw these sirens because remember Kid Cudi testified last week that he had called 911 because he was worried about what Combs could do. And so when Diddy saw the sirens, that's when he got really calm, according to Capricorn, and they left.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So they're not calling it a kidnapping. They're also saying that this didn't happen. They're also not calling it a break-in. They're calling it a trespassing because there's no signs of forced entry. But they're also saying there's no proof. There's nothing on Kid Cudi's surveillance cameras.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Correct. Lots of new information today when Capricorn started to talk. So the next...
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Yeah, so she tells Cassie, look, he's not going to let me leave unless you meet up with him. And so Cassie agrees, and Capricorn actually gets into a staff car of Diddy's and goes to pick up Cassie.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Diddy is wearing a bathrobe and underwear and he's livid. And right as they make their way into the entry of this mansion of his, Diddy allegedly starts just kicking her violently and just kicking her over and over. And she falls into this fetal position and he somehow kicks her all the way from the front of the house to the street. And
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And that Capricorn Clark is just begging Diddy to stop, starts calling members of his security team, telling them to call Diddy and get him to stop. And he won't stop. And nobody is calling Diddy's phone that she can see. So then she actually... ends up leaving the premises because Diddy's like, get out of here.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And so as she's leaving, she calls Cassie's mom, Regina Ventura, and is like, your daughter is being beaten within an inch of her life. You need to call 911.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
She says that she told Harv Pierre, the president of Bad Boy, in March of 2012. And she says that he just said to her, that's crazy, but it's all going to be okay.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So she is somebody who was friends with Diddy before she actually started to work for him. They met around 2002. She says it might have been 2001. But in 2004, she officially joined Bad Boy, and her first role was being Diddy's personal assistant.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So this is shortly after she starts working for Diddy. They were on their way to Miami when a bunch of jewelry from Jacob Bejeweler. If you know Jacob Bejeweler, he is a big-time celebrity jeweler. He's known for his, like, big flashy diamond pieces, these very expensive items that were on loan. Yeah. went missing, and she was the last person to have them.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And when they couldn't find the jewelry, that's when she was taken to this building that was under renovation, and they take her to the sixth floor of this building. They lock the door, she claims, to the front of the building behind her.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And when she goes inside, there's this, like, huge man sitting at a table that he's so large that he doesn't even stand up, and that he's chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking black coffee. It was such a great visual description, Andrea. And that he... proceeds to give her a lie detector test for five days.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So she does go home in the evening, but that she is subjected to just repeatedly answering questions about the jewelry and that it was inconclusive like every single time. What does she say about the jewelry? Does she deny that she took the jewelry?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Yeah, I mean, she repeatedly denies that she had anything to do with it, but she actually said that this heavyset man, whose name she doesn't know, said to her, if you fail this test, they, meaning Combs, is going to throw you into the East River, meaning that she could lose her life. Wow.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
I feel like the prosecution is laying the groundwork for these individuals to, to take the stand. And I feel like one or some of them have flipped and that they have gotten immunity because they have been mentioned and their photos have been shown so many times. But again, Diddy denies all of this. Chloe, the way you're describing it, it sounds like a mob movie. It sounds like Goodfellas. Yeah.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Well, I think a lot of it comes down to money, right? And access. When you're working for someone like Diddy, I mean, everyone who has worked for him so far says that they learned so much from him. And on the other hand, she also says that she tried to get other jobs and she couldn't.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So she kept coming back to work for Diddy because she just couldn't find a job that either paid as well or really gave her the opportunities that Diddy did. And also after the Kid Cudi incident, she was fired for allegedly putting in vacation days wrong. She says that she lost everything. She was really crying while she talked about this, losing her 401k, her credit card, losing her car.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And Diddy was even actually like paying for her home. So everything was tied. to Diddy in working at Bad Boy. And Capricorn did go back to work for Bad Boy in 2016 as Cassie's creative director. She says she needed the money, she couldn't get another job, that Diddy had actually blacklisted her from getting other jobs in 2012.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So she went back and she worked as Cassie's creative director and was really trying to turn her into this star that she wanted to be.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
As recently as last year, she approached Diddy's legal team and asked to be his chief of staff amid this criminal investigation.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Yeah, so she says that on the first day of working for him, that Diddy actually took her on a walk through Central Park with a member of his security team, and he threatened her because she was close with Suge Knight, who we've talked about before and is a major rival of his, and that he said to her, if something happens, I'm going to have to kill you.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I'm just looking at my notes right now. He says, how is it that at all these events, these weddings, these birthday parties, these trips that she went on with family and friends, that there are no emails from you to them about what you claim happened while you worked for Diddy? And she just says that she was never really outside of his grip.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
and that she never would have repeated these things because she had this confidentiality agreement with him.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
As recently as July 2022, she reaches out about the Bad Boy documentary that she had taken part in. And she says, you know, wow, this is top 10 on Netflix right now. And he writes back, love, love, love. And she writes back, and I love, love, love you.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
She actually said that you'll have to ask a psychologist or a therapist to figure all this out because these text messages show her proactively reaching out to Diddy over the years. It's not the other way around. And the defense said she waited months to tell federal prosecutors about the sexual assault? So she met with prosecutors over 25 times.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And Brian Steele pointed out that during the months of March and April and May, she never told prosecutors until June about these assaults. And she says, well, I was waiting until I had hired a lawyer to represent me during this criminal trial. But then Steele said, but you did have an attorney. by the time you had your second meeting with prosecutors.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And she really just kept saying over and over, Andrea, that she just didn't remember. I also want to point out she made no eye contact. She had her head completely down. I mean, it must hurt her neck. I mean, she literally just stares at the floor the entire time. Her hair is covering her eyes. It's very sad to watch.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
But at the same time, though, there are a lot of questions today through this cross-examination.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I mean, she seems nervous, but she does seem strong at the same time. She's not crying. She has a strong tone. At times, she almost kind of, like, laughed out of sarcasm when she was reading some of these text messages.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
So when asked why she just did not speak out, whether it was to Cassie, who she called a sister, or to her own family and friends... She said, because I was terrified and brainwashed. She also said, it's been a long process. I'm still untangling these things. I'm in therapy. There's a lot of support I'm given that I didn't have or knew what to do with before. So again, Steele went after her.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
hammering her over and over you didn't tell anybody you didn't warn cassie you were posting all of these loving things on social media you're emailing him you're talking to him years after you left this monster and you're able to now live a free life and you're messaging him as recently as 2023 Like weeks before Cassie filed her civil lawsuit. So it's sort of like, what's changed?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Is this revisionist history? Or is this a trauma victim who's just figuring out what really happened to her?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
It's in moments like that that I'm thinking, I need to write this down for the podcast, right? And then Maureen Comey, who's one of the lead New York prosecutors, she's the daughter of James Comey.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
At one point when the jury wasn't in the room and she said Steele was yelling at Mia, that he was harassing her, and she was worried because all eyes all over the world are watching this case right now, that this will keep other victims from coming forward to tell their truth. She's worried that Steele's being too aggressive.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And then you have Brian Steele, who's coming off the heels of this major win with Young Thug out of Atlanta. And you can see he's frustrated.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I mean, he was actually quite deferential to Steele. He told Maureen Comey, I don't see what you're saying. I don't see him yelling. I mean, I can agree that the tone is on the line. And Steele, you need to be mindful of that. But there was no, like, sanctioning him or anything like that. But, you know, Comey wanted to put this on the record because she feels... strongly in her position.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Well, let me tell you, there is one juror and she, like I said, no poker face. She's furrowing her brow. She's looking at Mia in what seems to be in a skeptical way. All the reporters are talking about it. And pretty much everybody else is just taking notes and has a really straight face. It's really just this one juror.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I'll be in the courtroom tomorrow in the morning, and we could see a verdict in Weinstein as early as tomorrow afternoon.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Absolutely. You don't see any protesters or people standing in solidarity with these women coming forward like you did in the throes of the Me Too movement when Harvey's trial was starting and I was there covering that trial in 2020. I mean, the silence has really been deafening. And I'm not quite sure why.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Right. And perhaps there are people that want to, but they're reserving that until a verdict.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Yeah, I mean, he was saying, you say that the Me Too movement had a major bearing on you realizing that you were a victim of abuse, but that was 2017. And you didn't come out with these allegations of sexual assault until June of 2024, long after Cassie filed her civil suit in November 2023, even more than two months after you were already meeting with prosecutors. How does that all add up?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Yeah, so Steele asked Mia if she was planning to sue Diddy in the wake of this trial. So she said no on the record, and nothing's going to prevent her from suing him later. Neither means that she's not trustworthy, right, or that her story isn't true. But they are saying that a lot of this is motivated by money. That got an objection from the prosecution, that Me Too money grab line? Oh, it did.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And it was one of many things that they objected on today.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
One of the prosecutors said, what did you worry about if you told that he sexually assaulted you? And she said that I wouldn't be believed. I would be fired. I would be labeled a crazy person that was making everything up. Then she was asked, why did you try to keep the person that abused you happy? And she said, because when he was happy, I was safe.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
But that does not answer the question that Steele brought up multiple times as to why did you continue to reach out to him as recently as 2023?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
There's a generational divide with these jurors. So several of them are over the age of 60. And there are several that look to be, you know, under 35. So how are they going to view social media? How are they going to view this correspondence? You know, what are they going to think of the way Brian Steele is handling his cross-examination? I think it's still a little too soon to tell.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I think we're really going to see this either all come together or completely fall apart for Diddy's team when they put on their defense. What can we expect tomorrow? Potentially a hotel custodian who might be talking about cleaning up or seeing the aftermath of those freak-offs.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And later this week, we could actually hear from another Jane Doe testifying under a pseudonym who claims that she was subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
The crux is he's saying you continue to reach out to this man years after you no longer worked for him and you said that you loved him. So how could you say that if this was your rapist? Why would you choose to stay in contact with him? And why didn't you tell anyone?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
He didn't say you're a liar, but he did say you're lying about being sexually assaulted, aren't you?
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
And charged with racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution that could lead up to life behind bars.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
You know, I've been talking to a lot of different criminal defense attorneys and they all told me ahead of this trial to go watch Goodfellas if you really want to understand what RICO is.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
New York prosecutors claim that Sean Combs, who had bad boy records and he had all of these different businesses, that he was actually using this organization to partake in illegal activity and that he conspired with others who worked for him to to carry out that illegal activity. Something that got just a lot of attention were these freak-offs.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Yeah, alleged drug-fueled sex parties that he supposedly filmed. He had people who worked for him go and procure sex workers for these parties and potentially flew them across state lines to meet him and had employees of his allegedly fill his home with what's now gone viral, you know, Tons of baby oil.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Because we don't have their names yet, right? We don't, other than victim one. We know it's Cassie Ventura. We know it's Cassie because the indictment so closely mirrors what she had in her civil suit that she filed against Combs in 2023. She says that he forced her to participate in freak-offs, that he subjected her to years of physical and emotional abuse, and it's incredibly graphic.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
We know... From a source familiar with the case that she is going to be testifying within the first few days of this trial. She is the government's star witness. I mean, this is going to be explosive next week when she takes the stand.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
So she was 19 and he was 37 years old when they first met. And she had signed a 10 album record deal with him and they started to date. But she very quickly became known as Mrs. Combs, essentially. They weren't married, but she was like the first lady of hip hop. They were on every single red carpet together. From the outside, they looked like they were in a perfect relationship.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
But she really pulled back the curtain with this civil suit. And I can imagine that we're going to hear a lot more when she takes a stand. And I'm sure very emotional. Also, I just want to point out, she's actually very pregnant. I think she's about eight months pregnant. Tell us a little bit about the people in the courtroom. These prosecutors... They're all women.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
And then you have Combs with almost like two tables of attorneys because he's hired so many at this point. So you may have heard of celebrity attorney Mark Garagos. He famously represented Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, the Menendez brothers right now. He has actually been in the courtroom. And his daughter, Tenny Garagos, is one of the lead attorneys on this case.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
You also have Mark Agnifilo, who's also currently representing Luigi Mangione. And you also have a man by the name of Brian Steele. Brian Steele, he represented Young Thug in his state RICO case and was successful. What are the defense's arguments so far? Combs' defense is saying everything was consensual, that all the charges against him
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
deal with women who were in consensual relationships with him. And something that they said at one point was, this was a lifestyle. Call it swingers or whatever you want. This was Combs' life.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Right. So what we've heard about these freak-offs is that there were a lot of drugs. And so you're going to potentially hear from people who say that they can't even remember some of the things that happened because they were on some sort of mind-altering substance. And also, if Diddy took any of these substances, does that make him responsible for the acts committed?
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Some of the questions are really simple. What are your views on domestic abuse? What do you know about Sean Diddy Combs? What have you heard about the trial? They were given a list called People and Places. It has dozens of names, and some of them are celebrities. And so some of the jurors, we've heard them say, I know who Kanye West is. I know who Michael B. Jordan is. I know who Mike Myers is.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
And some of those names obviously have been really shocking for the public to hear. They haven't been accused of any wrongdoing. Nobody knows the context why these people are being brought up. Are we seeing any reaction from Sean Combs? Yeah, so on day one of jury selection, early in the morning, he actually asked the judge for a bathroom break because he said, I'm a little nervous right now.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
But he is in the fight of his life, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted on all counts.
Dateline NBC
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Chloe, you will be there from opening statements until the end? I will. Eight weeks, maybe more. I think it's going to be the biggest trial of 2025. We do too, Chloe.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
He testified about alleged emotional and also physical violence that he witnessed between Cassie and Diddy. He said that Diddy called Cassie all sorts of terrible names, called her a slut, called her a bitch, called her a hoe.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
that he threatened to beat her up, that he told her that he was going to release explicit sex videos from freak-offs, not only to the public, but also to her parents' jobs to try to get them fired. And it just was incredibly heart-wrenching to listen to his testimony because it was clear he really cares about Cassie and that they're still friends and that he witnessed a lot of abuse.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Absolutely. I mean, we've heard about Cassie being signed to Bad Boy early on in her career to this 10-album deal, but she never put out any albums. And it's been this big question. And during Cassie's testimony, we heard her talk about how
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Combs would control her by saying, I'm not going to release your music unless you do X, Y, and Z. And today, listening to Deontay talk about the fact that he would actually hear Combs on speakerphone say things like, I'm not going to put out your little mixtape or, you know, I'm not going to put out your music unless you do this, really goes to illustrate this control.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
He talked about an incident that took place at a Vanity Fair Oscars party and that Cassie looked so beautiful and they had styled her hair down. And he actually said she looked bomb to one point where everybody kind of laughed.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
She is beautiful. And it was this kind of light moment as he was talking about very sobering things during his testimony. But he said that when they showed up, that Diddy came over and said, I told you I wanted her hair up. And he actually grabbed Deontay by his jacket and lifted him up in the air.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
And then Deontay said he went and grabbed his bobby pins and they ran to the bathroom and they started to pin her hair up. And then Diddy came over and he was like, oh, you were right. Her hair looks better down.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Yeah, we're hearing some of the same names over and over, one of which is D-Rock. Deontay talked about a time in which he witnessed Diddy kick and hit Cassie, and this is the incident that we heard Cassie testify about where he allegedly threw her into the side of a bed frame, and she got this terrible gash, almost like a hole. Mm-hmm. on the side of her forehead.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
I mean, the pictures are just gruesome.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
And instead of taking her to the hospital, he just said his head of security, D-Rock, would take her to a plastic surgeon.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Officer Ignacio with the LAPD, he testified that early one morning in December 2011, he got a call from dispatch to go to this home in the Hollywood Hills and that there was an active break-in. And then when he pulled up in his cop car to this house, not realizing it belonged to musician Kid Cudi. He saw a black Escalade start pulling away.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
And he testified that he actually memorized the license plate number, Andrea, because he thought to himself, that car might have something to do with why we were just called to this house. Oh, interesting. And so he runs the plate? He does. And when he runs the plate, he sees that it's registered to Bad Boy Productions. The defense cross-examined this officer. How did they pick apart his story?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
When Combs' defense attorney got up there to cross-examine him, they said, okay, so you guys pull up to the house, you go inside, and how did you get inside? The officer testified, well, we opened the front door. He's like, OK, so when you got inside, you saw no signs of forced entry. Did you see the house torn apart? The officer says no.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
He's like, did you see, you know, anything that would make you think that somebody broke in? No, I didn't really see anything. He didn't see anybody there with a gun. No, you weren't called to the home because there was a kidnapping. No.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Basically, they're poking holes in this idea from Combs' personal assistant that testified yesterday at Capricorn that she was kidnapped, forced to the home of Kid Cudi to break in, that Diddy had a gun. And they're saying, look, you're a police officer. You went to go investigate this. And you basically found a house with the door unlocked and maybe some Christmas presents unwrapped.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
But that's all you saw. That's not... kidnapping. There's no forced entry.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Right. So about Two weeks after this alleged trespassing, Kid Cudi's Porsche is parked in his driveway and there's an explosion inside the car. Someone cut the roof of his convertible and dropped something called a Molotov cocktail inside, which we've talked about before.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
So the reason today we heard from someone from the Los Angeles Fire Department is this person investigates fires and he found the Molotov cocktail and he sent that off to be tested for DNA and fingerprints.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Yes, Andrea, you're right. There were these fingerprints that were taken at Kid Cudi's home in December. This firefighter, who's also an arson expert, he wanted to look at those fingerprints, but those fingerprints that were sealed into evidence... They were gone. According to this investigator, they were destroyed.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
And so the prosecutors start asking him, did you order the destruction of that evidence? He said no. And then they said, well, have you ever in your long career had someone destroy evidence that wasn't at your directive? And he said, absolutely not. And that's where Combs' team swooped in. Objection. And this is huge because the defense... moved for a mistrial. This was such an explosive moment.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
My head was like a ping-pong ball watching Diddy's legal team get into this massive argument with New York prosecutors. They sent the jury out of the room, and Combs' team was like, we're moving for a mistrial. This is outrageous prejudice to the jury because you're insinuating that Diddy, because he's so powerful and he has connections...
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
to potentially the LAPD or the LAFD that somebody at his directive went in there and destroyed it. And even if you strike this from the record, the jury still heard it and they can never unhear it. And it was this back and forth.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Prosecutors said that they weren't doing anything improper with their line of questioning with the firefighter and arson expert, that they were actually just trying to get ahead of what they expected Diddy's legal team's cross-examination of this guy to be. and assuming that they were going to be talking about the fact that these fingerprints were gone.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
But the judge, he was very calm, but he was stern, and he said, look, I'm denying the motion for a mistrial. Basically, there's no turning this massive 18-wheeler around here. But he did say, but I will tell the jurors when they come back in the room that they need to disregard this particular part of the testimony.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
That's right. So she has given birth to her third child, a baby boy, in New York yesterday. We don't know the name or any other details, but it sounds like mom and baby are healthy and all is okay.
Dateline NBC
Cases to watch in 2025: Sean "Diddy" Combs and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, safety tips for AI scams.
I'm anxious to get to trial. And I'm ready to get this one heck of a fight.
Dateline NBC
Cases to watch in 2025: Sean "Diddy" Combs and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, safety tips for AI scams.
These parties that Combs used to have over the decades were filled with celebrities and politicians, and the most powerful people have been silent. What's interesting is that Tony Busby, a litigator out of Houston, Texas, he has named not just Jay-Z, but he named a celebrity B, a woman who was allegedly there watching a 13-year-old girl be sexually assaulted in the year 2000 after the MTV VMAs.
Dateline NBC
Cases to watch in 2025: Sean "Diddy" Combs and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, safety tips for AI scams.
I think it's going to be interesting what happens with the criminal trial and to see who shows up in that courtroom to support him, if anybody.
Dateline NBC
Cases to watch in 2025: Sean "Diddy" Combs and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, safety tips for AI scams.
Jay-Z's legal team is saying that they did not do the proper vetting, that they brought this frivolous lawsuit, and that if they had done a simple search on some of the things that she said, that they would have seen that this wasn't strong enough.
Dateline NBC
Cases to watch in 2025: Sean "Diddy" Combs and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, safety tips for AI scams.
the Jane Joe at Tony Busby's offices in Houston, Texas recently. I stumbled upon Diddy's driver who told me that I was exactly what Diddy was looking for. What did you think when he said that to you? I thought it meant that I was just pretty. She talked about having driven from Rochester, New York to Radio City Music Hall. That would have been a five-hour drive.
Dateline NBC
Cases to watch in 2025: Sean "Diddy" Combs and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, safety tips for AI scams.
And she says after the assault, her father picked her up from a gas station that she had ran to to seek help. And at times, she seemed very credible. But on the other hand, when our investigative team really dug into her claims, she said a lot of things that just didn't add up. Her father said he could not verify the claims. Quote, I felt like I would remember that. And I don't.
Dateline NBC
Cases to watch in 2025: Sean "Diddy" Combs and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, safety tips for AI scams.
I have a lot going on, but I mean, that's something that would definitely stick in my mind. Tony Busby has said that he's going to polygraph his client, that she has already signed two affidavits.
Dateline NBC
Cases to watch in 2025: Sean "Diddy" Combs and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, safety tips for AI scams.
I mean, in terms of what's next, we know that the government is building their case. And we are expecting that Cassie Ventura will take the stand and testify. There's a lot of rumors swirling that maybe Kid Cudi will take the stand as well. There was something in the indictment about his car being allegedly blown up by combs.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And don't ever speak to me again. You have two minutes. This is in reference to her being in South Africa with Cassie, and he was trying to get a hold of Cassie. And according to Mia, when he says, I'm going to tell everything, he means exposing their sexual relationship. And she says those were sexual assaults.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Absolutely. I mean, I think one of the things that we're really seeing now is that he was relentless in terms of the work environment for his employees, and especially for Mia, who was his personal assistant for all of these years, that he would call her. dozens of times in succession and write the same text over and over again.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
It would say something like, call me now, call me now, call me now, please. In one instance, she wakes up to, I think, like 48 missed calls while she's in South Africa. And she's like... I just woke up. And you can see her worry about her job. You can see her trying to defend herself. And she writes back, I was exhausted. There's a time change where I am right now. I would never avoid you.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I would never not answer your calls. I mean, I think that when you're talking about panic, we definitely see it when she messages Christina Karam, who was Diddy's chief of staff. She says, I'm having night terrors about Diddy.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I mean, it's totally abnormal. Imagine your boss calling you 48 times. But she also said that she felt like Diddy was under the influence. He was slurring his words. You know, so we don't know Diddy's state of mind at the time of these actions.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Well, she actually said that she had tried to quit before, and she talked about an incident on the island of St. Barts where she was on a yacht off the coast with Kim Porter, who was the mother of some of his children, and some of Combs' friends. Diddy was screaming at her while she was counting some money of his.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And he kept telling her that she was counting it wrong and then threatening her and threatening her job. And so she actually went to go hide from him and was begging the captain to get her a tender, which is a little boat to take her to shore. And finally, they get her on that little boat and it takes her to shore.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And she realized that she doesn't have her passport, that she had left it with the head of security back on the yacht. So she said that she's tried to escape, but she was never successful in doing so.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, she says that he would have destroyed my reputation. I was scared of him.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, so she said that she was so upset, actually, that Diddy was not the one to deliver this news to her, that she felt like it was a real betrayal. But at this point, she's out of a job. She doesn't think she can get a job with anybody else. And so she hires an employment attorney who... tries to help her get the money that she feels like she's deserved. And so this goes on for nine months.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And eventually there's some mediation. She actually asks for $10 million, but in the end, she only got $400,000 and $200,000 went to her attorneys.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, so she says that she did bring up the fact that she had been emotionally and physically abused to her employment attorneys, but she did not say that she had been sexually assaulted. She reiterated that that was something that she just planned to take with her to her grave. And so this $10 million number was arbitrary. It was something she said that her attorneys came up with.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Ultimately, she was paid for bonuses owed and all of the overtime that she was owed.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Right. And so her nickname is KK. And she appears to be across a lot of the communication between Mia and Diddy. And Mia at times would forward emails or things that she had written to Diddy for her line of sight. So it could be interesting to see. Will she testify at some point?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
This was fascinating. Mia has this exchange with D-Rock, who reaches out to her right after Cassie filed her civil lawsuit against in November of 2023. And on November 30th, D-Rock reaches out to her and is like, hey, how have you been? But they haven't talked in two years.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
So she says he was trying to tell her that Cassie and Diddy's relationship, although toxic at times, that this was just like a normal couple, that their fights were normal. And he said that other people actually agreed with him in their inner circle. She said that a big red flag went off for her and that she just stayed silent on that call.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I think it was pretty clear to anybody who read Cassie's civil lawsuit that law enforcement... was probably going to look into this and do some sort of investigation into her claims, especially once CNN released that really shocking security footage of her being beaten in that hotel hallway in 2016. And so...
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
If there was any evidence to back them up or people who'd corroborate that, he'd be in jeopardy, right?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, I mean, she felt as though Diddy was reaching out to her to try to silence her. And DRock actually offers to send her some money, which she declines. But he doesn't say that the money is for her... to not participate in any sort of investigation. He just says he wants to help her out. She's like, it's okay. I do have trouble paying my bills right now, but I don't want your help.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
It's all good. So she never accepts any money. She never gets on the phone with Diddy. After a couple phone calls and a few text messages, they left her alone, it seems.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I don't know if that's what they're saying with these particular messages. Obstruction of justice is one of the RICO crimes that prosecutors explicitly named in their indictment. And witness tampering is one of the allegations. that the government leveled trying to get Diddy's bail applications denied.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Today, she was still looking down, not making eye contact with the jury, with Diddy. Her voice still would sometimes seem like it was trembling, and she was sort of whispering at times. But overall, she was pretty strong and stoic. And especially during cross-examination, there were times where she was really talking back to Brian Steele and holding her own.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Prosecutors have said multiple times that he was obstructing justice from behind bars at his prison in Brooklyn, that he was trying to get to witnesses. So I don't know if these messages really illustrate obstruction, but it definitely shows that he was trying to reach out to people.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
So when the jurors came in for Brian Steele's cross-examination, there were these binders on each of their chairs. And in them were all these different social media posts of Mia's. So this whole afternoon of cross-examination, Steele just attacked Mia's credibility by talking about all these things that she had posted on Instagram during her eight years working for him.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, I mean, this was really fascinating. Brian Steele spent the entire cross-examination showing Mia all of these different things that she had posted on Instagram, wishing Diddy a happy birthday, telling him that she loved him, saying, you're my mentor. You know, you're such a great guy. I'll always be there for you. Thank you for all the things that you've ever done for me.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And so Steele's like... how can you call the person who assaulted you your mentor? So, I mean, things got really heated, but she stood firm and she said that social media is not a true depiction of what was really going on in her life.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I mean, it's really complicated, right? She says the highs were high and the lows were low. She keeps saying that exact quote. And she says, yeah, I mean, I was traveling, but this was part of my job. I was drinking wine in this photo, but, you know, Diddy wasn't with us in this moment. And
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Steele says, well, how do you have a good moment when you're terrified because you're saying this is your abuser who has repeatedly sexually assaulted you, who's ruining your life? And she says it's easy because the dynamic would shift when things were good. I felt really safe. You almost forget about those things.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I mean, there were multiple times where Steele's voice was raised and he was like, you weren't sexually assaulted, were you? You weren't raped, really, were you? And she's like, I stand by my testimony. You know, these things did happen to me. And he said, you know, how... Do you forget about waking up with a man on top of you? She says it's too horrible to think about. You want it to go away.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
So when she would post pictures on trips or wish him a happy birthday, she's basically saying that behind the scenes it was awful, but publicly she's cherry-picking the best parts.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And that is something that the jury is going to have to figure out, right? I mean, she's far more engaged today. She's kind of talking back to Brian Steele and she's being confident and she's saying, yep. I mean, literally she'll say, yep, I posted that. And she's like, I am dealing with this in therapy right now. I'm still unpacking everything that happened to me. I suffer from major PTSD.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And at one point she's like, you weren't sexually assaulted. She says that to Brian's deal.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
So some of these jurors do not have a good poker face. And I was talking to some people who came out of the courtroom this afternoon while I was outside doing some TV segments, and they said that some of the jurors were actually kind of laughing and smirking during Brian Steele's, yep, really aggressive cross-examination of her, that there are a few that appear to be pro-Diddy.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
These are text messages that date back to the time of the allegations that she's talking about. And it's both Mia and also Diddy's text messages. Some of the texts are threatening. He's telling her that her job's at stake. He's angry. He's going to fire her. He wants nothing to do with her. In one instance, he writes to her saying, If you don't call me now, I'm going to tell everything.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I mean, in the wake of the Chrisleys being part in Andrea, this was a perfectly expected question for him to be asked. And he said, nobody's talked to me about it yet. Nobody's asked. But he said he would certainly look at the facts. He said that he hasn't seen or spoken to Diddy in years and that he wasn't following the trial closely. But he was open to looking into it.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I can't tell you the color of her hair, what she looked like. I mean, we have to be really, really careful in abiding by these rules.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
So she had briefly worked as a personal assistant for the actor Mike Myers. You might remember him from movies like Austin Powers. And she said that job was like a 10 to 6 job. And that if she ever worked on the weekends for Mike Myers, that she would only be like watching his dog. So then she got this job interview to work for Sean Diddy Combs.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And she thought that this was the opportunity of a lifetime. And she was told that she would only be working about 40 hours a week. And she said that very quickly, even on her first day, she realized that this was not the case. She actually said, Andrea, that on her first day, she didn't get to go home until 1 p.m. the next day.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
So right off the bat, she said that things were toxic and that there would be high highs and incredibly low lows.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so she was a personal assistant for most of that time, but her dream was film and television. And ultimately, he made her an executive at his company, and she was able to help him with film and TV projects.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah. And as she's talking about all of these things, she's shaking. She's crying. She's looking down. Her voice is trembling. And she says that Diddy threw things at her, threw her against a wall, threw her into a pool, that he threw an ice bucket at her, that he threw a laptop that narrowly missed her head one time.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Absolutely. She testified about one time staying up for five days straight in Las Vegas and that her body started to have a physical breakdown, that she had temporary hearing and vision loss, and that finally Diddy was like, okay, now you can go to bed. She also said that she has ADHD, so she had a prescription for Adderall and that she took that, and that's what also helped her stay awake. Hmm.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
She wasn't allowed to lock her door because Combs said that this is my house, but that other employees of his could, and that she wasn't allowed to leave, not even so much as to run errands for herself or to see any of her friends, that she was always on the clock, and that one time she left his house, she snuck out around 2 a.m. after he had fallen asleep.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Because she was desperate to see some friends and that he sent security to go find her. So, yeah, she felt like she couldn't leave. I mean, she talked about things that were so extreme, like she couldn't even change her tampon because he wouldn't let her out of his sight. These are just insane stories to hear, if true.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I mean, look, I worked for someone pretty tough in my 20s as well, and I worked crazy hours, and I worked on the weekends, and I remember crying a lot. I would get screamed at. And sometimes in certain industries, you feel like that's a rite of passage. But what Mia is describing just... moves the goalpost even further.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I mean, she says that at one time she would be doing metaphorically 17,000 things, everything from doing his taxes, reading movie scripts, anticipating his moods, checking the weather if it's going to be raining, making sure to grab an umbrella, making sure that she was there at his house before he woke up and staying with him until he went to bed, which we know could be like 4 a.m.,
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And she even had to like crack his knuckles. I mean, the whole thing is just it's just a wild litany of things that she claimed she had to do.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Not a crime. She said that she was constantly humiliated, that he would question her intelligence, he would threaten her job, that she would be suspended without pay for the most random of things that would upset him.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And she also said that it wasn't just her as the personal assistant, that there were other PAs that worked for him, but she felt like she would get the brunt of everything and that if somebody messed up, that ultimately somehow it would be her fault.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
She said that she begged him for years to stop being a personal assistant and to pursue her true passion, which was film. And that ultimately he allowed her to do that, helping procure films that he could star in or films that they could invest in. She said, even though I had this insane assistant situation, the joy that she would get out of doing TV and film was overwhelmingly awesome.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And, you know, I think that the defense tomorrow is going to say, okay, we've agreed he was a jerk and he was violent. They said that in their opening statement. But that these employees agreed to this arrangement, that these were like trade-offs, and perhaps they might have text messages and emails that paint a very different picture.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
That's right. I mean, she said that she interacted with Cassie a lot and that she would be sent over to Cassie's apartment and sort of monitor her, almost babysit her. And there's this story of this party at Prince's house in which they actually snuck out. And Combs was so upset that they had snuck out and gone to this party in L.A.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
that he showed up and ended up chasing Cassie down and started to physically beat her until Prince's security intervened. And that after that, Diddy actually suspended Mia's pay.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so she said that she saw Diddy beat Cassie up multiple times.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
It's similar to what we heard from Don Richard, who was in the girl group Danity Kane, who testified about being around Cassie and Diddy and also hearing things happen in different rooms. We also previously heard from a male escort who said that he saw Combs once drag Cassie by her hair into another room and he heard slapping sounds.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
She said that they were in Turks and Caicos and that Cassie came into her room and was terrified and started putting furniture against the door and just kept saying, he's going to kill me.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And they were, I believe, on the first floor and they had doors that exited to the beach and they ran out on the beach and Combs was chasing them and they were running towards the ocean and then they got on some paddle boards and they started just paddling out as far as they could into the ocean to try to get away from him.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And as they turned around, you know, he got smaller and smaller as they were getting further away. And then they actually started to see bad weather coming in and storm clouds. And they were worried, like, do we stay out here and risk our lives in the ocean? Or do we go back to shore and risk our lives there? And ultimately, they decided to go back to shore.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
That's what she says, but that is the exact opposite of what we heard in opening statement from Sean Combs' criminal defense attorney, Tenny Garagos, who has maintained that there was violence on both sides of the relationship.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yes, and she's not the first person who has testified about having to clean up these hotel rooms. She actually described it as a nightmare. Candle wax that you just couldn't get out of the carpet. There would be broken glass, even blood that Diddy supposedly told her was period blood. Oil on the walls, wet towels, water on the floor.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I mean, you can just imagine the sort of damage that was done to the room.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I mean, she said that she felt a loyalty to him, that part of the deal was to protect his reputation. I mean, it's similar in testimony to what we've heard from Cassie as to why didn't she ever fully sever ties during this decade-long on-and-off relationship. Yeah.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so she was crying, and she said that after... Diddy's 40th birthday. She was in his apartment and he had everybody leave. I believe they were in the kitchen. And that's when he had her take a couple of shots of vodka and she hadn't eaten or had anything to drink that day. And so she said it hit her really hard.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And then she said that all of a sudden he had kind of pushed her up against a wall and he put his hand up her dress. And then she talked about another instance at his home in L.A. It was around 2009, 2010. So she doesn't exactly remember when it allegedly happened, but she was sleeping in a room in his house. She was in a bunk bed. And like I told you before, she wasn't allowed to lock up.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
her door and she said that she woke up to Diddy on top of her and she starts to really cry at this point on the stand and she said that he penetrated her and that she just froze.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
We know based on a letter that prosecutors sent the judge in April, Andrea, that she is just so fearful as to her identity getting out there that it could hurt her with her job professionally. It would just cause irreparable damage. We were mandated by the judge not to even describe her appearance. So I can't even tell you what she was wearing.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so she said that she was desperate, terrified and trapped that this was her fault. And she actually said that she never planned to ever tell anybody about this. She said, quote, I was going to die with this. I didn't want anyone to know ever. She will be back on the stand tomorrow, Chloe, Mia?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so we're expecting her to be back on the stand in the morning for prosecutors to continue their direct questioning. And then things could get pretty heated in the afternoon when cross-examination begins with Diddy's criminal defense attorneys.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
That's really unclear, Andrea, because he didn't really incriminate himself in any way that I could see. He did talk about an incident that took place on an airplane in which he saw Combs get violent with Cassie Ventura. Yeah. in which he heard glasses smashing. And when he went back to look, he saw Cassie crouched on the ground and Combs holding a glass in one of his hands up in the air.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
And he said that it was those things that made him really second-guess why he was working for Combs, and he ultimately quit.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
He said, you know, this is a person that was larger than life. He had the world at his fingertips and that he learned a lot and that this executive team that he worked for was really the best of the best in the industry and that he still has respect for Combs.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
He said that he told a woman named Christina Karam, and she is Combs' chief of staff, or was up until recently, and that he told her about what happened on the airplane and that she was the first person that he told that he was going to be quitting. And he said that, you know, he didn't really get any sort of visible reaction back from her that he can remember.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Do you think that we will see the chief of staff, Christina, get called to the stand? It's very unclear. Her name has been mentioned multiple times. You would think that if the government wants to hear from her, they will. Has Christina, the chief of staff, has she released any kind of statement? She has talked about this. She released a statement to Rolling Stone, and I'll read part of it.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
She said, For months, horrific accusations have been made about me regarding my former boss, meaning Sean Combs. She goes on to say these false allegations of my involvement are causing irreparable and incalculable damage to my reputation and the emotional well-being of myself and my family. And then she calls it all disturbing and unthinkable.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Right. So what we're seeing is when the defense has the opportunity to cross-examine these witnesses, they are pointing out that Diddy really was running these massive global businesses and that this was a happy environment, that people were learning a lot, and that although these were grueling hours, that that's pretty standard in the industry.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
So the defense has admitted that Diddy had a temper. I mean, remember, his nickname is Puffy. And how did he get that nickname? Because as a kid, he would huff and he would puff, right? So it's no secret. And at one point, Mark Agnifilo said, you know, from your perspective, his temper, from what you saw, it didn't help his business. And he said, no, it didn't.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
And Agnifilo says it hurt his business, right? And he goes, yes, it did. And so what they're trying to say is that his anger wasn't keeping people working for him out of fear, but actually it elicited people to leave.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
So this idea that he was coercive and forcing people to stay in his company and carry out illegal activity, the defense team is like, well, wait, they're trying to say that people had free will.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Kid Cudi says that in December of 2011, he got a phone call from Cassie, and it was at 5.30, 6 a.m., and she was freaking out. She was completely stressed, and she said, Diddy knows about us. He knows that we're dating. And Kid Cudi said he was totally confused because why would that be a big deal?
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
He and Cassie had been together for about a year, and he had no idea that she was still romantically involved with Combs or that it would even be an issue. And so he gets in his car, races to pick up Cassie, and takes her to a hotel. And then that's when they got a call from one of her friends whose name is Capricorn. And Capricorn said, Cuddy, I'm in front of your house.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Diddy forced me to get in the car and go to your house. And he's inside with somebody else. So Kid Cuddy says that he is furious. He's so mad to think that Combs has broken into his house. He calls 911. and he's worried that he might be walking into a violent situation. So he gets to his house. There's no signs of forced entry.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
He goes into his kitchen to see some of his Christmas presents for his family unwrapped, but Diddy's nowhere to be found.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Yeah, I mean, it's such a wild story. Shortly after Christmas, he and Cassie decide that they're not going to date anymore because Combs' presence is just looming over the relationship now. One morning in early January 2012, he gets a phone call from his dog sitter who says, "'Your car is on fire in the driveway.'" And the top of his convertible looks like somebody had slashed it.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
And a Molotov cocktail was found in the driver's seat. And for anybody that doesn't know what that is, it's a bottle with flammable liquid inside and a rag. Basically like a homemade bomb. Combs has denied being involved in this incident. He's absolutely denied being involved in this incident.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
So after this incident with the car, Kid Cudi testified that he was like, enough is enough. I want to go meet up with Combs in person. And, you know, Combs had actually been reaching out to him wanting to meet up. So they agreed to meet at Soho House, which is this very famous, exclusive members-only club.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
And this is actually a moment that got a lot of laughs in the courtroom today, believe it or not, despite the sobering testimony. Yeah. Kid Cudi walks into this conference room and Diddy is staring out the window with his hands behind his back, his back to the door. And Kid Cudi said that he looked like a Marvel supervillain. But he says that he and Combs spoke and that he was very calm.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
There were no threats. They both talked about how they didn't realize that the other one was dating Cassie. And they shook hands. And he said, what are you going to do about my car? And looked him straight in the eyes. And Diddy looked back at him and said, what are you talking about? The prosecutor asked Kid Cudi about this exchange.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
And they said, what was your understanding when Sean Combs said, I don't know what you're talking about? And Kid Cudi said that he was lying. So a couple of years later, Kid Cudi actually ran into Combs again at Soho House, and he said that Combs approached him and said, man, I just want to apologize for all that bullshit.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
We know that the authorities led an investigation and they collected DNA evidence, fingerprints, and we heard Brian Steele saying, you know, what proof do you have that Combs left this Molotov cocktail in your car or told somebody to do it or that he had even been in your house? Where's the surveillance footage? Were there any eyewitnesses? And, you know, Kid Cudi couldn't demonstrate any of that.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Absolutely. They have to. prove the prosecutors that Cassie was in a violent relationship that she couldn't leave and she didn't leave. But this year dating Kid Cudi shows that maybe she was able to date who she wanted when she wanted and that she was able to freely... be in and out of the relationship.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
So we're expecting on Tuesday Capricorn Clark. So the jury is going to have a long weekend. And the judge said, I'm ordering you not to talk. If you see something on TV, change the channel, go for a walk, go on a bike ride. He said, watch the Knicks.
Dateline NBC
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Yeah, this is not the first time that we've seen this. And one of the things that he said was, you know, quote, I desperately did not want to be here. A hundred percent would rather not be.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
He's not joking around here, according to her. No, she said that he was completely serious, straight-faced, and she took it as a real threat to her life, but that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for Diddy, and she just tried to maintain the peace.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Yes. I mean, she had all sorts of different roles. At one point, she was the director of marketing for Sean John Women's. Then she went on to become the global brand director for several years for Sean Combs. So, I mean, she held some massive titles within the company.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Basically, Cassie was cheating on Diddy with Kid Cudi. Diddy found out because Cassie had a burner phone. She had a separate phone that she was using to communicate with And we heard this not only in Cassie's testimony, but we also heard this in Kid Cudi's testimony last week.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
But today is really the first time that I had learned that Capricorn Clark is the one that actually took Cassie to Best Buy to buy her this burner phone so that she could essentially live this double life. Or another way to look at it is to get out from the clutches of Diddy and live her authentic life. with someone that she was falling in love with, which was Kid Cudi.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Not only did she know about it, she actually thought that Cassie was putting their lives in danger. She actually said she thought that they were going to get killed because Cassie was being just kind of so nonchalant and not really hiding the relationship because she was texting about Kid Cudi and to Kid Cudi on a phone that was paid for by Diddy.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
But it wasn't long, Andrea, before Diddy found out about that burner phone because Cassie spent the night with Diddy in a hotel room and he found the phone. And this is, of course, according to Capricorn's testimony.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Diddy, at like 5 in the morning, goes to Capricorn's apartment and starts banging on her door with a gun and is like, let's go, get dressed, we're going to go kill Kid Cuddy.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
She says that she got dressed and she didn't want to go, but that she went. She was worried. He had a gun. He was furious. And she jumped into this black Escalade that was waiting in her parking garage. And they started the 20-minute drive to Kid Cudi's house. She actually on the stand characterized it as a kidnapping. Is that correct? Yes, she did.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
But it's not like she was bound her feet in her hands and like thrown into the trunk of a car. Like someone might think that's what a kidnapping looks like. But he had a gun. and she felt like she was being forced against her will. Have we heard Combs' side to the kidnapping allegation? Does he deny it?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Not only does he deny it, Mark Agnifilo, one of Combs' defense attorneys, said on cross-examination today, he said to Capricorn, didn't you willingly go with him because you wanted to make sure he didn't do something stupid? So see, there are two sides to every story.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
She says that she called Cassie on her burner phone and was like, you need to know what is going on right now. I'm in front of Kid Cuddy's house. And Kid Cuddy was in the background and could hear this conversation and was like, what do you mean he's inside my house? And that's when Kid Cuddy jumped in his Porsche to confront Diddy. Meanwhile, she changes Cassie's name in her phone
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
to a friend of hers because she was so worried that Diddy was going to find out that she called her. And lo and behold, when he got back into the Escalade, what did he do? He said, who were you on the phone with? I mean, it's like he's omnipresent. How did he know? And then he finds out that Kid Cudi is on the way. And now a twist, a plot twist.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Kid Cudi had said that he went to his house, didn't find Combs, got in his car to look for Combs, and never found him. But today, Capricorn Clark says Kid Cudi actually rolled up on them in his car, made eye contact with them, and then he sped off, and then they actually chased him. And there was a car chase for several minutes, and then Kid Cudi, I guess in his Porsche, he outran the Escalade.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And then all of a sudden they saw these sirens because remember Kid Cudi testified last week that he had called 911 because he was worried about what Combs could do. And so when Diddy saw the sirens, that's when he got really calm, according to Capricorn, and they left.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So they're not calling it a kidnapping. They're also saying that this didn't happen. They're also not calling it a break-in. They're calling it a trespassing because there's no signs of forced entry. But they're also saying there's no proof. There's nothing on Kid Cudi's surveillance cameras.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Correct. Lots of new information today when Capricorn started to talk. So the next...
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Yeah, so she tells Cassie, look, he's not going to let me leave unless you meet up with him. And so Cassie agrees, and Capricorn actually gets into a staff car of Diddy's and goes to pick up Cassie.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Diddy is wearing a bathrobe and underwear and he's livid. And right as they make their way into the entry of this mansion of his, Diddy allegedly starts just kicking her violently and just kicking her over and over. And she falls into this fetal position and he somehow kicks her all the way from the front of the house to the street. And
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And that Capricorn Clark is just begging Diddy to stop, starts calling members of his security team, telling them to call Diddy and get him to stop. And he won't stop. And nobody is calling Diddy's phone that she can see. So then she actually... ends up leaving the premises because Diddy's like, get out of here.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And so as she's leaving, she calls Cassie's mom, Regina Ventura, and is like, your daughter is being beaten within an inch of her life. You need to call 911.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
She says that she told Harv Pierre, the president of Bad Boy, in March of 2012. And she says that he just said to her, that's crazy, but it's all going to be okay.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So she is somebody who was friends with Diddy before she actually started to work for him. They met around 2002. She says it might have been 2001. But in 2004, she officially joined Bad Boy, and her first role was being Diddy's personal assistant.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So this is shortly after she starts working for Diddy. They were on their way to Miami when a bunch of jewelry from Jacob Bejeweler. If you know Jacob Bejeweler, he is a big-time celebrity jeweler. He's known for his, like, big flashy diamond pieces, these very expensive items that were on loan. Yeah. went missing, and she was the last person to have them.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And when they couldn't find the jewelry, that's when she was taken to this building that was under renovation, and they take her to the sixth floor of this building. They lock the door, she claims, to the front of the building behind her.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And when she goes inside, there's this, like, huge man sitting at a table that he's so large that he doesn't even stand up, and that he's chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking black coffee. It was such a great visual description, Andrea. And that he... proceeds to give her a lie detector test for five days.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So she does go home in the evening, but that she is subjected to just repeatedly answering questions about the jewelry and that it was inconclusive like every single time. What does she say about the jewelry? Does she deny that she took the jewelry?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Yeah, I mean, she repeatedly denies that she had anything to do with it, but she actually said that this heavyset man, whose name she doesn't know, said to her, if you fail this test, they, meaning Combs, is going to throw you into the East River, meaning that she could lose her life. Wow.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
I feel like the prosecution is laying the groundwork for these individuals to, to take the stand. And I feel like one or some of them have flipped and that they have gotten immunity because they have been mentioned and their photos have been shown so many times. But again, Diddy denies all of this. Chloe, the way you're describing it, it sounds like a mob movie. It sounds like Goodfellas. Yeah.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Well, I think a lot of it comes down to money, right? And access. When you're working for someone like Diddy, I mean, everyone who has worked for him so far says that they learned so much from him. And on the other hand, she also says that she tried to get other jobs and she couldn't.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So she kept coming back to work for Diddy because she just couldn't find a job that either paid as well or really gave her the opportunities that Diddy did. And also after the Kid Cudi incident, she was fired for allegedly putting in vacation days wrong. She says that she lost everything. She was really crying while she talked about this, losing her 401k, her credit card, losing her car.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
And Diddy was even actually like paying for her home. So everything was tied. to Diddy in working at Bad Boy. And Capricorn did go back to work for Bad Boy in 2016 as Cassie's creative director. She says she needed the money, she couldn't get another job, that Diddy had actually blacklisted her from getting other jobs in 2012.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
So she went back and she worked as Cassie's creative director and was really trying to turn her into this star that she wanted to be.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
As recently as last year, she approached Diddy's legal team and asked to be his chief of staff amid this criminal investigation.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.
Yeah, so she says that on the first day of working for him, that Diddy actually took her on a walk through Central Park with a member of his security team, and he threatened her because she was close with Suge Knight, who we've talked about before and is a major rival of his, and that he said to her, if something happens, I'm going to have to kill you.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
He made quips. He elicited laughs. I actually even saw him make diddy laugh at one point when talking about having done ecstasy at a New Year's Eve party and that the ecstasy made him dance and do something called diddy bopping.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
He said that he got Combs' ecstasy, that he would be an intermediary between one of Combs' drug dealers. He talked about everything, like running to Duane Reade, which is a pharmacy here in New York, and getting him snacks and, you know, getting all of his facial products that he needed and that he used just for men. He would go to these hotel rooms and set everything up before Combs got there.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
One of the things that Combs always wanted with him was Heinz ketchup, especially when he traveled, because it turns out that ketchup is not the same everywhere you go, and that he always wanted Combs to feel comfortable in whatever city that he was in.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Yeah, he said security would often kind of joke and say, you know what rhymes with tired? Fired. And that this was part of the job and that if you wanted to keep the job, that you did what was asked of you.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Well, he said that on two different occasions, he was, I guess, considered a suspect when there were some things stolen. One time, a watch of Combs they couldn't find. And another time, money was gone. And so we don't know if other people were questioned, but I'm assuming that they were. And that the way that Combs would deal with something like this is not only have...
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
security go to wherever he was and search his things, but also subject him to a lie detector test.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
He talked about a time in 2008 when he was in Los Angeles and he went to a very famous diner called Mel's Diner with somebody who had worked on Combs' security team. That guy's name is D-Rock. That it was well after midnight and that when they pulled up, that's when the head of security saw a very, very famous rap executive named Suge Knight.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
If you know about the East Coast-West Coast Rap War, you also know that it's not a secret that he and Combs didn't like each other. He goes on to say that he and D-Rock left Mel's Diner, went back to Combs' home. That's where he found Combs arguing with Cassie and that Combs told David James...
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
to get into this black Escalade, and that Combs then had three handguns sitting on his lap, and that he was told to just drive and go back to the diner and find Suge Knight, and that they never found Suge Knight, but that he was under the impression that they were going to try to kill Suge Knight. And again, these are David James' claims.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
So Combs' team has pointed out that his story has not stayed straight when he's talked to prosecutors before his testimony today. And Combs' team really pushed him on the details, which he does seem to be foggy on. But then again, it was 2008. We're in 2025 now.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Exactly. And this morning before the jury came in, the prosecution, they made the argument to the judge that this incident shows that Combs' criminal enterprise, it existed. And an inside look into how it actually works.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Yes, and we expect to hear from the chef herself about this, but David James claims that on one occasion he returned to Combs' home and that Combs said to him, I need you to go down to the police station, file a police report, and say that... Jordana put her hands on me. And... This is the chef? This is the chef.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
And so he believed the implication was that Combs wanted him to file a police report to say that, listen, she was the aggressor, not me, because he was worried that it might leak out to the media. But again... The dots were not connected for us. David James wasn't there to witness what happened between the two, so how would he know?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Exactly. So the implication is that he was aware that Combs had hit this chef first and that he knew that by filing this police report that he would be filing a false one. And so he didn't want to commit something illegal, although we've heard him knowingly commit other illegal activity today, but he didn't want to do this.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
And we're going to hear more from the chef we expect to find out her version of these events.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Yeah, I was really surprised by that. But after talking to several different defense attorneys, they all said that they weren't surprised. What would she say? You know, I didn't call the police because I was afraid for my daughter's life. What was interesting is she talked about Cassie having come home to Connecticut in 2011 over the holidays and that she was shocked.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
to learn that her daughter was in a physically abusive relationship and that she saw bruises all over Cassie's body. And that's when she took out her Kodak digital camera and started taking photos. And we have those photos now. We see bruises on her arms and her legs and on the top of her buttocks. And it's really jarring.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Yeah, it was right before her mother took these photos. She got an email that we saw today with the subject line videos from Cassie. And she said, Sean is going to release these videos of me, two explicit videos. And he's upset that I'm dating Scott Mascuti, a.k.a. Kid Cudi. And these videos might be dropping. And the mom said that when she got that email, she was, quote, physically sick.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Super unclear. This is something that a lot of people are talking about today. Cassie's mom claims that Diddy demanded that she and her husband pay $20,000 to him. So they took $20,000 out of their home equity line of credit. They wired it over to someone at Bad Boy Entertainment and that it was because Diddy felt he had spent all of this money on Cassie and that he wanted to be repaid for it.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
But something that's really important to point out is that she says, OK, she paid this $20,000, but that within four to five days, the money was back in her account. So bizarre.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
He's an exotic dancer, Sheree Hayes, and he says he was a stripper. Not an escort, but that he was hired to set up a sexy scene for a husband and a wife. And that on the first occasion of what we now call freak-offs, that he didn't know that it was Cassie and Diddy, but that later he saw Diddy's face. Because remember, they wore costumes and wigs and all sorts of things to hide their appearances.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
And that... Diddy would sit in the corner and masturbate, which was what we heard before, while he told them to cover themselves in baby oil and that he would watch.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
I think it just went to his fetish. He wanted people glittering and shimmering, and that's why, you know, during these Homeland Security raids on his homes, they found about 1,000 bottles of baby oil. Even in New York, when he moved here to turn himself in, essentially, to the feds amid this investigation, they found more baby oils.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Even though he'd already seen these criminal indictments, he clearly loves baby oil and brings it everywhere.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
I mean, if there's something that's very clear at this point, Andrea, it's that Combs... paid people for sex, and these individuals at times would cross state lines. So how is he going to get out of that? I mean, we heard in the openings his legal team saying that he was paying for people's time, not their sex. Will the jury believe that?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Yeah, he also says that Cassie always had a general awareness that Combs was in the room. But I mean, obviously, he's telling them what to do. And he's also in there masturbating. But I guess he's saying, although it appeared to be consensual, she would like look over to him before he would perform oral sex or actually have sex with her sort of to get his approval. But it was a glance.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
It wasn't necessarily like a verbal cue.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Today, he was not crying on the stand. He was in what appeared to be the exact same outfit, but maybe he's just a simple guy. So he said he's from Flint, Michigan, and that he's just a guy who's a hard worker, and that when he signed up to be Combs' assistant, that he knew that it was going to be rigorous. He... Talked back a lot to Mark Agnifilo, who's one of Combs' defense attorneys.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
He said no.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Yes, it does. And also he says that he never saw Cassie take drugs or appear to be really under the influence of anything. And he said that he didn't take drugs. And I think the most he said that he saw there was weed and alcohol.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Yeah, and actually with some humor. I mean, some of the testimony is just so outrageous, and the way that these witnesses are handling it with their own self-deprecation. I mean, it's honestly, if there were cameras in the courtroom, everyone would have a field day with all of this. Okay.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: A personal assistant and The Punisher take the stand.
Yes, Kid Cudi. Remember, he is the musician who says that Combs blew up his car because he was jealous that he was dating Cassie for a brief period of time. So this is going to be interesting. I mean, it's the first major celebrity besides Cassie that we've seen testify. Big day tomorrow, Chloe.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I'm just looking at my notes right now. He says, how is it that at all these events, these weddings, these birthday parties, these trips that she went on with family and friends, that there are no emails from you to them about what you claim happened while you worked for Diddy? And she just says that she was never really outside of his grip.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
and that she never would have repeated these things because she had this confidentiality agreement with him.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
As recently as July 2022, she reaches out about the Bad Boy documentary that she had taken part in. And she says, you know, wow, this is top 10 on Netflix right now. And he writes back, love, love, love. And she writes back, and I love, love, love you.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
She actually said that you'll have to ask a psychologist or a therapist to figure all this out because these text messages show her proactively reaching out to Diddy over the years. It's not the other way around. And the defense said she waited months to tell federal prosecutors about the sexual assault? So she met with prosecutors over 25 times.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And Brian Steele pointed out that during the months of March and April and May, she never told prosecutors until June about these assaults. And she says, well, I was waiting until I had hired a lawyer to represent me during this criminal trial. But then Steele said, but you did have an attorney. by the time you had your second meeting with prosecutors.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And she really just kept saying over and over, Andrea, that she just didn't remember. I also want to point out she made no eye contact. She had her head completely down. I mean, it must hurt her neck. I mean, she literally just stares at the floor the entire time. Her hair is covering her eyes. It's very sad to watch.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
But at the same time, though, there are a lot of questions today through this cross-examination.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I mean, she seems nervous, but she does seem strong at the same time. She's not crying. She has a strong tone. At times, she almost kind of, like, laughed out of sarcasm when she was reading some of these text messages.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
So when asked why she just did not speak out, whether it was to Cassie, who she called a sister, or to her own family and friends... She said, because I was terrified and brainwashed. She also said, it's been a long process. I'm still untangling these things. I'm in therapy. There's a lot of support I'm given that I didn't have or knew what to do with before. So again, Steele went after her.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
hammering her over and over you didn't tell anybody you didn't warn cassie you were posting all of these loving things on social media you're emailing him you're talking to him years after you left this monster and you're able to now live a free life and you're messaging him as recently as 2023 Like weeks before Cassie filed her civil lawsuit. So it's sort of like, what's changed?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Is this revisionist history? Or is this a trauma victim who's just figuring out what really happened to her?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
It's in moments like that that I'm thinking, I need to write this down for the podcast, right? And then Maureen Comey, who's one of the lead New York prosecutors, she's the daughter of James Comey.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
At one point when the jury wasn't in the room and she said Steele was yelling at Mia, that he was harassing her, and she was worried because all eyes all over the world are watching this case right now, that this will keep other victims from coming forward to tell their truth. She's worried that Steele's being too aggressive.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And then you have Brian Steele, who's coming off the heels of this major win with Young Thug out of Atlanta. And you can see he's frustrated.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I mean, he was actually quite deferential to Steele. He told Maureen Comey, I don't see what you're saying. I don't see him yelling. I mean, I can agree that the tone is on the line. And Steele, you need to be mindful of that. But there was no, like, sanctioning him or anything like that. But, you know, Comey wanted to put this on the record because she feels... strongly in her position.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
It was a very fiery moment.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Well, let me tell you, there is one juror and she, like I said, no poker face. She's furrowing her brow. She's looking at Mia in what seems to be in a skeptical way. All the reporters are talking about it. And pretty much everybody else is just taking notes and has a really straight face. It's really just this one juror.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I'll be in the courtroom tomorrow in the morning, and we could see a verdict in Weinstein as early as tomorrow afternoon.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Absolutely. You don't see any protesters or people standing in solidarity with these women coming forward like you did in the throes of the Me Too movement when Harvey's trial was starting and I was there covering that trial in 2020. I mean, the silence has really been deafening. And I'm not quite sure why.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Right. And perhaps there are people that want to, but they're reserving that until a verdict.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Yeah, I mean, he was saying, you say that the Me Too movement had a major bearing on you realizing that you were a victim of abuse, but that was 2017. And you didn't come out with these allegations of sexual assault until June of 2024, long after Cassie filed her civil suit in November 2023, even more than two months after you were already meeting with prosecutors. How does that all add up?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
Yeah, so Steele asked Mia if she was planning to sue Diddy in the wake of this trial. So she said no on the record, and nothing's going to prevent her from suing him later. Neither means that she's not trustworthy, right, or that her story isn't true. But they are saying that a lot of this is motivated by money. That got an objection from the prosecution, that Me Too money grab line? Oh, it did.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And it was one of many things that they objected on today.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
One of the prosecutors said, what did you worry about if you told that he sexually assaulted you? And she said that I wouldn't be believed. I would be fired. I would be labeled a crazy person that was making everything up. Then she was asked, why did you try to keep the person that abused you happy? And she said, because when he was happy, I was safe.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
But that does not answer the question that Steele brought up multiple times as to why did you continue to reach out to him as recently as 2023?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
There's a generational divide with these jurors. So several of them are over the age of 60. And there are several that look to be, you know, under 35. So how are they going to view social media? How are they going to view this correspondence? You know, what are they going to think of the way Brian Steele is handling his cross-examination? I think it's still a little too soon to tell.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
I think we're really going to see this either all come together or completely fall apart for Diddy's team when they put on their defense. What can we expect tomorrow? Potentially a hotel custodian who might be talking about cleaning up or seeing the aftermath of those freak-offs.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
And later this week, we could actually hear from another Jane Doe testifying under a pseudonym who claims that she was subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
The crux is he's saying you continue to reach out to this man years after you no longer worked for him and you said that you loved him. So how could you say that if this was your rapist? Why would you choose to stay in contact with him? And why didn't you tell anyone?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: "You joined the #MeToo money grab."
He didn't say you're a liar, but he did say you're lying about being sexually assaulted, aren't you?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
It is such a good question and something that journalists, we've all been talking about behind the scenes. And when you're seeing rape and you're seeing domestic violence cases, that's usually brought by the state. That's not a rule. It's not hard and fast. And look, a sex crime can be federal in some circumstances.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
For instance, if it happened on federal property like a national park or it happened, let's say, in a plane in the air or if it's involving the Internet. Now, sex trafficking, it's different. This is a federal offense because it's the act of interstate commerce and moving people across state lines or even internationally.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
Something called a statute of limitations has come into play. So, for instance, the brutal beating of Cassie Ventura from 2016 that CNN originally published. The L.A. County District Attorney's Office released a statement on Facebook saying the statute of limitations had passed, so they wouldn't be investigating that or prosecuting it.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
It absolutely can be prosecuted in California. The Los Angeles DA, they haven't said anything publicly. We have no idea if they're investigating this, if now Cassie is talking to them. But it's complicated, right? I mean, she technically talked to authorities when they showed up to her house, but she never named Combs at the time. And she never went to the hospital. There's no rape kit.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
But you're right, Andrea, that is something that could come into play at a later date.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
She was on a show that Combs created on MTV called Making the Band. And it's from the mid-2000s. And she was chosen by Combs to be in a girl group called Danity Kane. And they had several hits. And then she ended up being in another band with Diddy. called Diddy Dirty Money. So she hasn't worked with Combs since 2011, and she's continued to release music, but not at that level.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
So Cassie files her civil suit in November of 2023, blowing the lid off all of this and coming public with all of these different allegations. And then you saw Dawn Richard file her own civil suit in September of 2024. And she says that she witnessed violence, that Combs attacked Cassie on more than one occasion when she was there, punching her in the stomach.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
And then this egg skillet incident that Combs attempted to hit Ventura over the head when he wasn't happy with how she was cooling off his eggs one morning. Ouch. At the time that Rashard filed her civil suit, Combs' team had said that she, quote, manufactured her claims to get a payday, and that her suit was timed to coincide with an album release.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
Well, Combs' attorney, Nicole Westmoreland, she came in there and it was tense. This is not like what we saw last week when Cassie was cross-examined. Today, they brought the receipts. They said you met with government prosecutors eight times and you told a very different story than what you told them just a few weeks ago. And it's also different from your civil suit.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
You've said that you heard a banging sound and that you think he threw the skillet against the wall. You've also said that you saw him pick up the skillet, throw eggs at her, and then put the skillet back down.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
Then they also said, all right, now you're saying that the day after this incident that Combs locked you in a recording studio and basically threatened your life, this was something that you never brought up to prosecutors over the many months of questioning. Why are you saying it now? Quite convenient, isn't it?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
But Dawn Richard maintains that she's telling the truth, that these are memories that she has tried to erase, and that the more she talks about it, the more she remembers.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
She says that she was worried not only for her career that Combs could ruin it, but that she was afraid that Combs could kill her. But again, Combs' attorney really went in hard on that accusation and said, well, if you were so scared, why did you continue to reach out to him?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
And why did you reach out to him as recently as 2021 and 2022, asking for him to either sign you as a solo artist or get the band back together? And Combs' legal team, they ended it with this kind of mic drop moment saying, this is all about money, isn't it? And she said, no, this is about justice. And they said, right, but justice means money for you.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
Exactly. I mean, this is a woman that was best friends with Cassie, and she says that Combs assaulted her. And choked her, left bruising marks on her neck, and also attacked her with a clothes hanger. And that Combs actually paid her $30,000 and that she signed an NDA. And since that day, she hasn't seen Cassie and she hasn't seen Combs.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
She said that, first of all, Combs bankrolled Cassie's entire life. He paid for her car. He paid for her apartment. And he had this monetary hold over her. And that's what Cassie testified to last week, that she just felt like there was no way out.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
Something that really stood out to me is that almost immediately when he took the stand, he was crying. And I'm sure that this is just really overwhelming for him to not only face Combs, but to be on such a large stage, even though there aren't cameras in the courtroom to now have his name out there publicly. And he talked about what it was like to be an assistant for Combs.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
And that's probably going to be fascinating. to people that he had to wake up before Diddy was awake. And, you know, he was with him till 3, 4 a.m.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
And don't forget that in this indictment, they talk about forced labor. They talk about the hours and the toxic workplace and having employees carry out illegal activity, which is something that we haven't gotten to yet with him, if at all.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
Before court even started today, Andrea, there was a heated back and forth between Combs' defense team and New York prosecutors over hearsay. How much can these assistants and employees testify to? The prosecutors are trying to get them to talk about all sorts of different things that happened.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
And Combs' lead attorney, Mark Agnifilo, said, I'm just worried that this is going to turn into a free-for-all of bad acts. And at one point, the judge case based on gossip. Who can we expect tomorrow? Is it more of David James, Chloe? Exactly. We'll see David James back on the stand. We could see Cassie's own mother testify.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
I mean, unless Cassie's giving birth and she's at the hospital and they move her testimony. Okay.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
When it comes to federal courtrooms, this has been a rule since the 1940s. Judges are really worried about there being this circus-like atmosphere, and they're also concerned that the flashes and the cameras and all of this could intimidate witnesses.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Singer Dawn Richard and Cassie's ex-best friend testify.
Correct. And a lot of my mom friends, they've pointed to Johnny Depp or they've pointed to O.J. Simpson. Those are state cases. This is federal. Totally different. And I understand the interest here, but it's just not something that the judge would allow to happen.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
And charged with racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution that could lead up to life behind bars.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
You know, I've been talking to a lot of different criminal defense attorneys and they all told me ahead of this trial to go watch Goodfellas if you really want to understand what RICO is.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
New York prosecutors claim that Sean Combs, who had bad boy records and he had all of these different businesses, that he was actually using this organization to partake in illegal activity and that he conspired with others who worked for him to to carry out that illegal activity. Something that got just a lot of attention were these freak-offs.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Yeah, alleged drug-fueled sex parties that he supposedly filmed. He had people who worked for him go and procure sex workers for these parties and potentially flew them across state lines to meet him and had employees of his allegedly fill his home with what's now gone viral, you know, Tons of baby oil.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Because we don't have their names yet, right? We don't, other than victim one. We know it's Cassie Ventura. We know it's Cassie because the indictment so closely mirrors what she had in her civil suit that she filed against Combs in 2023. She says that he forced her to participate in freak-offs, that he subjected her to years of physical and emotional abuse, and it's incredibly graphic.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
We know... From a source familiar with the case that she is going to be testifying within the first few days of this trial. She is the government's star witness. I mean, this is going to be explosive next week when she takes the stand.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
So she was 19 and he was 37 years old when they first met. And she had signed a 10 album record deal with him and they started to date. But she very quickly became known as Mrs. Combs, essentially. They weren't married, but she was like the first lady of hip hop. They were on every single red carpet together. From the outside, they looked like they were in a perfect relationship.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
But she really pulled back the curtain with this civil suit. And I can imagine that we're going to hear a lot more when she takes a stand. And I'm sure very emotional. Also, I just want to point out, she's actually very pregnant. I think she's about eight months pregnant. Tell us a little bit about the people in the courtroom. These prosecutors... They're all women.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
And then you have Combs with almost like two tables of attorneys because he's hired so many at this point. So you may have heard of celebrity attorney Mark Garagos. He famously represented Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, the Menendez brothers right now. He has actually been in the courtroom. And his daughter, Tenny Garagos, is one of the lead attorneys on this case.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
You also have Mark Agnifilo, who's also currently representing Luigi Mangione. And you also have a man by the name of Brian Steele. Brian Steele, he represented Young Thug in his state RICO case and was successful. What are the defense's arguments so far? Combs' defense is saying everything was consensual, that all the charges against him
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
deal with women who were in consensual relationships with him. And something that they said at one point was, this was a lifestyle. Call it swingers or whatever you want. This was Combs' life.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Right. So what we've heard about these freak-offs is that there were a lot of drugs. And so you're going to potentially hear from people who say that they can't even remember some of the things that happened because they were on some sort of mind-altering substance. And also, if Diddy took any of these substances, does that make him responsible for the acts committed?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Some of the questions are really simple. What are your views on domestic abuse? What do you know about Sean Diddy Combs? What have you heard about the trial? They were given a list called People and Places. It has dozens of names, and some of them are celebrities. And so some of the jurors, we've heard them say, I know who Kanye West is. I know who Michael B. Jordan is. I know who Mike Myers is.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
And some of those names obviously have been really shocking for the public to hear. They haven't been accused of any wrongdoing. Nobody knows the context why these people are being brought up. Are we seeing any reaction from Sean Combs? Yeah, so on day one of jury selection, early in the morning, he actually asked the judge for a bathroom break because he said, I'm a little nervous right now.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
But he is in the fight of his life, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted on all counts.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
The Idaho student murders: new details. Karen Read's voicemails. And Sean Combs's trial begins.
Chloe, you will be there from opening statements until the end? I will. Eight weeks, maybe more. I think it's going to be the biggest trial of 2025. We do too, Chloe.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
He testified about alleged emotional and also physical violence that he witnessed between Cassie and Diddy. He said that Diddy called Cassie all sorts of terrible names, called her a slut, called her a bitch, called her a hoe.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
that he threatened to beat her up, that he told her that he was going to release explicit sex videos from freak-offs, not only to the public, but also to her parents' jobs to try to get them fired. And it just was incredibly heart-wrenching to listen to his testimony because it was clear he really cares about Cassie and that they're still friends and that he witnessed a lot of abuse.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Absolutely. I mean, we've heard about Cassie being signed to Bad Boy early on in her career to this 10-album deal, but she never put out any albums. And it's been this big question. And during Cassie's testimony, we heard her talk about how
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Combs would control her by saying, I'm not going to release your music unless you do X, Y, and Z. And today, listening to Deontay talk about the fact that he would actually hear Combs on speakerphone say things like, I'm not going to put out your little mixtape or, you know, I'm not going to put out your music unless you do this, really goes to illustrate this control.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
He talked about an incident that took place at a Vanity Fair Oscars party and that Cassie looked so beautiful and they had styled her hair down. And he actually said she looked bomb to one point where everybody kind of laughed.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
She is beautiful. And it was this kind of light moment as he was talking about very sobering things during his testimony. But he said that when they showed up, that Diddy came over and said, I told you I wanted her hair up. And he actually grabbed Deontay by his jacket and lifted him up in the air.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
And then Deontay said he went and grabbed his bobby pins and they ran to the bathroom and they started to pin her hair up. And then Diddy came over and he was like, oh, you were right. Her hair looks better down.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Yeah, we're hearing some of the same names over and over, one of which is D-Rock. Deontay talked about a time in which he witnessed Diddy kick and hit Cassie, and this is the incident that we heard Cassie testify about where he allegedly threw her into the side of a bed frame, and she got this terrible gash, almost like a hole. Mm-hmm. on the side of her forehead.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
I mean, the pictures are just gruesome.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
And instead of taking her to the hospital, he just said his head of security, D-Rock, would take her to a plastic surgeon.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Officer Ignacio with the LAPD, he testified that early one morning in December 2011, he got a call from dispatch to go to this home in the Hollywood Hills and that there was an active break-in. And then when he pulled up in his cop car to this house, not realizing it belonged to musician Kid Cudi. He saw a black Escalade start pulling away.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
And he testified that he actually memorized the license plate number, Andrea, because he thought to himself, that car might have something to do with why we were just called to this house. Oh, interesting. And so he runs the plate? He does. And when he runs the plate, he sees that it's registered to Bad Boy Productions. The defense cross-examined this officer. How did they pick apart his story?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
When Combs' defense attorney got up there to cross-examine him, they said, okay, so you guys pull up to the house, you go inside, and how did you get inside? The officer testified, well, we opened the front door. He's like, OK, so when you got inside, you saw no signs of forced entry. Did you see the house torn apart? The officer says no.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
He's like, did you see, you know, anything that would make you think that somebody broke in? No, I didn't really see anything. He didn't see anybody there with a gun. No, you weren't called to the home because there was a kidnapping. No.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Basically, they're poking holes in this idea from Combs' personal assistant that testified yesterday at Capricorn that she was kidnapped, forced to the home of Kid Cudi to break in, that Diddy had a gun. And they're saying, look, you're a police officer. You went to go investigate this. And you basically found a house with the door unlocked and maybe some Christmas presents unwrapped.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
But that's all you saw. That's not... kidnapping. There's no forced entry.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Right. So about Two weeks after this alleged trespassing, Kid Cudi's Porsche is parked in his driveway and there's an explosion inside the car. Someone cut the roof of his convertible and dropped something called a Molotov cocktail inside, which we've talked about before.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
So the reason today we heard from someone from the Los Angeles Fire Department is this person investigates fires and he found the Molotov cocktail and he sent that off to be tested for DNA and fingerprints.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Yes, Andrea, you're right. There were these fingerprints that were taken at Kid Cudi's home in December. This firefighter, who's also an arson expert, he wanted to look at those fingerprints, but those fingerprints that were sealed into evidence... They were gone. According to this investigator, they were destroyed.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
And so the prosecutors start asking him, did you order the destruction of that evidence? He said no. And then they said, well, have you ever in your long career had someone destroy evidence that wasn't at your directive? And he said, absolutely not. And that's where Combs' team swooped in. Objection. And this is huge because the defense... moved for a mistrial. This was such an explosive moment.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
My head was like a ping-pong ball watching Diddy's legal team get into this massive argument with New York prosecutors. They sent the jury out of the room, and Combs' team was like, we're moving for a mistrial. This is outrageous prejudice to the jury because you're insinuating that Diddy, because he's so powerful and he has connections...
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
to potentially the LAPD or the LAFD that somebody at his directive went in there and destroyed it. And even if you strike this from the record, the jury still heard it and they can never unhear it. And it was this back and forth.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
Prosecutors said that they weren't doing anything improper with their line of questioning with the firefighter and arson expert, that they were actually just trying to get ahead of what they expected Diddy's legal team's cross-examination of this guy to be. and assuming that they were going to be talking about the fact that these fingerprints were gone.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
But the judge, he was very calm, but he was stern, and he said, look, I'm denying the motion for a mistrial. Basically, there's no turning this massive 18-wheeler around here. But he did say, but I will tell the jurors when they come back in the room that they need to disregard this particular part of the testimony.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Defense motion for mistrial denied.
That's right. So she has given birth to her third child, a baby boy, in New York yesterday. We don't know the name or any other details, but it sounds like mom and baby are healthy and all is okay.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
of course, let her take the stand, the expert, but he did have some conditions.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
All right, so she doesn't know Sean Combs. She doesn't know Cassie Ventura. So how does Dr. Hughes help the prosecution?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Yeah, she used the phrase trauma bond.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
This is On Trial, a special series from Dateline True Crime Weekly, bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs racketeering trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Andrea Canning, and it's Wednesday, May 21st. Just a heads up, in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Dr. Hughes described a range of behavior victims adopt to cope with abuse. It could be substance abuse or disassociation. She talked about something called delayed disclosure.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Today, the prosecution's big witness was not, as promised yesterday, a pop star. Kid Cudi has been rescheduled for another day. Instead, their big witness was a forensic psychologist. We'll be right back. Dr. Hughes has never met Sean Combs or Cassie Ventura, but the prosecutor hoped she'd give jurors a crash course on what she considers to be typical behavior of abuse victims.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
And the defense made the point that Dr. Hughes doesn't know not only Sean or Cassie, but any of the other alleged victims. And she doesn't know anything about this case beyond what she's told.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Chloe, we talked at the top about all the high-profile cases that Dr. Hughes has testified in, and the defense set out to characterize her really as a professional witness.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
There was a blow to the defense during their redirect of Dr. Hughes. What happened?
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Chloe, are these lawyers, all nine of them, in the courtroom at the same time? Yes, they are.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Shows what can happen when you have a lot of money. I guess so. When we come back, we've got a special guest, NBC News legal analyst and defense attorney Danny Savalos. He'll tell us what he sees when he looks at Sean Combs' crowded defense table that we just talked about. Welcome to the podcast, Danny.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
All right. So before we get to the makeup of Sean Combs' defense team, straighten something out for us, if you would. We spent most of the day hearing from Dr. Hughes about the hallmarks of an abusive relationship. The prosecution says that's what Cassie's relationship was with Combs.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
But an abusive relationship on its own isn't enough for the prosecution to get a conviction on the charges that Combs is facing. They need to prove a lot more than that to get him on the RICO and sex trafficking charges, correct?
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
And while it's technically not on trial, Sean Combs' character is certainly on trial.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Right. One of the things I'm curious about is all these lawyers, there's so many of them. What do you think the jurors make of that?
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Yeah, I mean, I was thinking, like, could the law of diminishing returns apply here where the jurors are sort of like, OK, now there's like too many people involved in this. What is going on? Just the optics. You know, I'm just wondering if it could be a turnoff for the average Joe sitting on that jury panel.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Why they might stay in abusive relationships or send loving messages to their abusers and why they might take a while to share their experience with other people. NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas is outside the federal courthouse to tell us how Dr. Hughes did on the stand. Plus, we'll have a special guest to talk about Combs' ever-expanding defense team. Chloe, hello again. Hey, Andrea.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
And he really does have some brilliant minds on that team.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Is it good or bad that Combs is so engaged? We've noticed that Sean Combs has been passing a lot of Post-it notes to his attorneys recently.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
And do the jurors think anything? Do you think when they're seeing the defendant so involved?
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
So this new lawyer that just came on board and immediately cross-examined Dr. Hughes, is that normal for someone to just kind of appear like that while we're into this trial?
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
All right. Best guess on Kid Cudi tomorrow. Do we believe that he'll be taking the stand?
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
All right. Well, we will have the answer soon enough. Danny, thank you for giving us some new insight to this trial. We love having you on. And Chloe, we will see you tomorrow. Absolutely. Thanks for listening. We'll be back with a new episode tomorrow night. And if you want to read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter, Diddy on Trial.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Let's get right to it. Before Dr. Hughes even took the stand, this big-time witness, there was already some drama.
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Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
Go to NBCNews.com slash Diddy to find that. On Trial is produced by Frannie Kelly with help from the Dateline True Crime Weekly team. Our senior producers are Allison Orr and Liz Brown-Korloff. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
Emily Johnson, one of the prosecutors, is saying on occasion, may I approach the witness? And she's walking up to Cassie, and she's handing her USB drives. She's handing her different disks. And this is data that they extracted from devices that she handed over to investigators. And what we're all seeing, media, public, and the jurors are text exchanges.
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Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
We saw some photos of some of the male escorts that engaged in these freak-offs that Cassie would be the one to normally hire. Why is the prosecution showing these images from the freak-offs, and how do they fit into their strategy? Because it's one thing to talk about the freak-offs, it's another thing to actually visualize it.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
She described an incident on an airplane in which videos that she thought were deleted, Combs was actually showing off videos. explicit video from a freak-off to his friends. And she said that it was horrifying for her and that she felt trapped.
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Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
She also talked about another shocking moment where she was doing an appearance at a nightclub in Atlantic City and that someone came up to her, a DJ, and said that he had seen her in a freak-off video. And that's when she called Combs and he claimed that he didn't know how the videos got out. Yeah.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
And that's the thing. Some of the well-known journalists in the courthouse today turned around at a recess and several said, why is this not around the corner? Meaning, why is this not playing out in state court, right, where you would see claims of domestic abuse? But here you have racketeering.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
We don't know what the defense is going to lay out, but we do know, based on Tenny Garagos' opening statements for Sean Combs, that they are going to say that there was violence on both sides.
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Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
You're so right. I mean, it's really deja vu for me because— Just last week, I was right around the corner in state court sitting in the Harvey Weinstein criminal retrial, and it's the same thing.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
And in this case, it was a Father's Day text message that Cassie had sent to Combs calling him a, quote, extraordinary man and thanking him for always showing me love and happiness the way it's supposed to be.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
So we're not sure if they are going to show videos of the freak-offs. That actually could happen. Perhaps they're just laying the groundwork. The jurors have seen seven still images from those freak-offs, but they're going to great lengths to protect these images. They have these privacy screens on all of the jurors' monitors. Wow. So that no one can see.
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Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
But this is something that journalists are fighting for so that we can all accurately report what's going on. Because right now, I mean, there's a lot that we're not seeing. But what I will say as to why the public and why the media isn't able to see it is because they're worried that these images, that these videos of these escorts and victims could wind up on social media.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
I have to tell you, there was a really explosive moment this morning before Cassie took the stand. Prosecutors saying that they had not received all of the defense's exhibits. They said that they had only received four exhibits and that the deadline was in April and that they wanted the rest of it this morning.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
Combs' team saying, well, technically, under the law, we don't have to give you any of this because if we do, you might use this to prepare Cassie's answers. And so the judge said, look, why was this not brought up before today? Why are we talking about this as Cassie's about to take the stand for the second day and the jury is about to walk into this room?
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Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
And although maybe the prosecutors did have a strong argument, they were denied. And so Combs' team did not have to produce any of their exhibits this morning. But when cross-examination happens, they're going to have to. Chloe, do we know who the next witness might be? We don't, but it might be this very famous musician who once dated Cassie. His name is Kid Cudi.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
You might know one of his hit songs, Day and Night. He might take the stand very soon to testify about something that Cassie was talking about today, which is, did Sean Combs blow up his car because he was furious that Cassie was dating him?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
The prosecutors are going to wrap up today. They said they have about an hour left. So cross-examination has not yet begun, but we expect it to begin tomorrow. I also just want to say that moments ago, Cassie said on the stand that Combs raped her. Now, remember, he has not been charged with rape. He has not been charged with sexual assault.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
But that is something that we read about in the indictment. And I'm sure this is something that we're going to learn more about under cross-examination.
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Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura returns to the stand.
You know, Andrea, the prosecution is really laying out this off and on dynamic, this control that he had over her to keep her in the relationship.
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Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And don't ever speak to me again. You have two minutes. This is in reference to her being in South Africa with Cassie, and he was trying to get a hold of Cassie. And according to Mia, when he says, I'm going to tell everything, he means exposing their sexual relationship. And she says those were sexual assaults.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Absolutely. I mean, I think one of the things that we're really seeing now is that he was relentless in terms of the work environment for his employees, and especially for Mia, who was his personal assistant for all of these years, that he would call her. dozens of times in succession and write the same text over and over again.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
It would say something like, call me now, call me now, call me now, please. In one instance, she wakes up to, I think, like 48 missed calls while she's in South Africa. And she's like... I just woke up. And you can see her worry about her job. You can see her trying to defend herself. And she writes back, I was exhausted. There's a time change where I am right now. I would never avoid you.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I would never not answer your calls. I mean, I think that when you're talking about panic, we definitely see it when she messages Christina Karam, who was Diddy's chief of staff. She says, I'm having night terrors about Diddy.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I mean, it's totally abnormal. Imagine your boss calling you 48 times. But she also said that she felt like Diddy was under the influence. He was slurring his words. You know, so we don't know Diddy's state of mind at the time of these actions.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Well, she actually said that she had tried to quit before, and she talked about an incident on the island of St. Barts where she was on a yacht off the coast with Kim Porter, who was the mother of some of his children, and some of Combs' friends. Diddy was screaming at her while she was counting some money of his.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And he kept telling her that she was counting it wrong and then threatening her and threatening her job. And so she actually went to go hide from him and was begging the captain to get her a tender, which is a little boat to take her to shore. And finally, they get her on that little boat and it takes her to shore.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And she realized that she doesn't have her passport, that she had left it with the head of security back on the yacht. So she said that she's tried to escape, but she was never successful in doing so.
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Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, she says that he would have destroyed my reputation. I was scared of him.
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Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, so she said that she was so upset, actually, that Diddy was not the one to deliver this news to her, that she felt like it was a real betrayal. But at this point, she's out of a job. She doesn't think she can get a job with anybody else. And so she hires an employment attorney who... tries to help her get the money that she feels like she's deserved. And so this goes on for nine months.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And eventually there's some mediation. She actually asks for $10 million, but in the end, she only got $400,000 and $200,000 went to her attorneys.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, so she says that she did bring up the fact that she had been emotionally and physically abused to her employment attorneys, but she did not say that she had been sexually assaulted. She reiterated that that was something that she just planned to take with her to her grave. And so this $10 million number was arbitrary. It was something she said that her attorneys came up with.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Ultimately, she was paid for bonuses owed and all of the overtime that she was owed.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Right. And so her nickname is KK. And she appears to be across a lot of the communication between Mia and Diddy. And Mia at times would forward emails or things that she had written to Diddy for her line of sight. So it could be interesting to see. Will she testify at some point?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
This was fascinating. Mia has this exchange with D-Rock, who reaches out to her right after Cassie filed her civil lawsuit against in November of 2023. And on November 30th, D-Rock reaches out to her and is like, hey, how have you been? But they haven't talked in two years.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
So she says he was trying to tell her that Cassie and Diddy's relationship, although toxic at times, that this was just like a normal couple, that their fights were normal. And he said that other people actually agreed with him in their inner circle. She said that a big red flag went off for her and that she just stayed silent on that call.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I think it was pretty clear to anybody who read Cassie's civil lawsuit that law enforcement... was probably going to look into this and do some sort of investigation into her claims, especially once CNN released that really shocking security footage of her being beaten in that hotel hallway in 2016. And so...
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
If there was any evidence to back them up or people who'd corroborate that, he'd be in jeopardy, right?
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Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, I mean, she felt as though Diddy was reaching out to her to try to silence her. And DRock actually offers to send her some money, which she declines. But he doesn't say that the money is for her... to not participate in any sort of investigation. He just says he wants to help her out. She's like, it's okay. I do have trouble paying my bills right now, but I don't want your help.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
It's all good. So she never accepts any money. She never gets on the phone with Diddy. After a couple phone calls and a few text messages, they left her alone, it seems.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I don't know if that's what they're saying with these particular messages. Obstruction of justice is one of the RICO crimes that prosecutors explicitly named in their indictment. And witness tampering is one of the allegations. that the government leveled trying to get Diddy's bail applications denied.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Today, she was still looking down, not making eye contact with the jury, with Diddy. Her voice still would sometimes seem like it was trembling, and she was sort of whispering at times. But overall, she was pretty strong and stoic. And especially during cross-examination, there were times where she was really talking back to Brian Steele and holding her own.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Prosecutors have said multiple times that he was obstructing justice from behind bars at his prison in Brooklyn, that he was trying to get to witnesses. So I don't know if these messages really illustrate obstruction, but it definitely shows that he was trying to reach out to people.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
So when the jurors came in for Brian Steele's cross-examination, there were these binders on each of their chairs. And in them were all these different social media posts of Mia's. So this whole afternoon of cross-examination, Steele just attacked Mia's credibility by talking about all these things that she had posted on Instagram during her eight years working for him.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Yeah, I mean, this was really fascinating. Brian Steele spent the entire cross-examination showing Mia all of these different things that she had posted on Instagram, wishing Diddy a happy birthday, telling him that she loved him, saying, you're my mentor. You know, you're such a great guy. I'll always be there for you. Thank you for all the things that you've ever done for me.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And so Steele's like... how can you call the person who assaulted you your mentor? So, I mean, things got really heated, but she stood firm and she said that social media is not a true depiction of what was really going on in her life.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I mean, it's really complicated, right? She says the highs were high and the lows were low. She keeps saying that exact quote. And she says, yeah, I mean, I was traveling, but this was part of my job. I was drinking wine in this photo, but, you know, Diddy wasn't with us in this moment. And
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
Steele says, well, how do you have a good moment when you're terrified because you're saying this is your abuser who has repeatedly sexually assaulted you, who's ruining your life? And she says it's easy because the dynamic would shift when things were good. I felt really safe. You almost forget about those things.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I mean, there were multiple times where Steele's voice was raised and he was like, you weren't sexually assaulted, were you? You weren't raped, really, were you? And she's like, I stand by my testimony. You know, these things did happen to me. And he said, you know, how... Do you forget about waking up with a man on top of you? She says it's too horrible to think about. You want it to go away.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
So when she would post pictures on trips or wish him a happy birthday, she's basically saying that behind the scenes it was awful, but publicly she's cherry-picking the best parts.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And that is something that the jury is going to have to figure out, right? I mean, she's far more engaged today. She's kind of talking back to Brian Steele and she's being confident and she's saying, yep. I mean, literally she'll say, yep, I posted that. And she's like, I am dealing with this in therapy right now. I'm still unpacking everything that happened to me. I suffer from major PTSD.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
And at one point she's like, you weren't sexually assaulted. She says that to Brian's deal.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
So some of these jurors do not have a good poker face. And I was talking to some people who came out of the courtroom this afternoon while I was outside doing some TV segments, and they said that some of the jurors were actually kind of laughing and smirking during Brian Steele's, yep, really aggressive cross-examination of her, that there are a few that appear to be pro-Diddy.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
But again, that could be a facade.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
These are text messages that date back to the time of the allegations that she's talking about. And it's both Mia and also Diddy's text messages. Some of the texts are threatening. He's telling her that her job's at stake. He's angry. He's going to fire her. He wants nothing to do with her. In one instance, he writes to her saying, If you don't call me now, I'm going to tell everything.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: The defense cross-examines "Mia."
I mean, in the wake of the Chrisleys being part in Andrea, this was a perfectly expected question for him to be asked. And he said, nobody's talked to me about it yet. Nobody's asked. But he said he would certainly look at the facts. He said that he hasn't seen or spoken to Diddy in years and that he wasn't following the trial closely. But he was open to looking into it.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura's cross-examination wraps up.
It's a dynamic I think that will be explained further. In this case, perhaps through the expert witness, I think we all know and can appreciate that there are many women, as I'm speaking here today, who are abused by people who they love. They had a 10-year relationship. I think she readily admitted that there were some good times in that relationship.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cassie Ventura's cross-examination wraps up.
That does not, obviously, permit someone to do the things that she testified to
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Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I can't tell you the color of her hair, what she looked like. I mean, we have to be really, really careful in abiding by these rules.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
So she had briefly worked as a personal assistant for the actor Mike Myers. You might remember him from movies like Austin Powers. And she said that job was like a 10 to 6 job. And that if she ever worked on the weekends for Mike Myers, that she would only be like watching his dog. So then she got this job interview to work for Sean Diddy Combs.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And she thought that this was the opportunity of a lifetime. And she was told that she would only be working about 40 hours a week. And she said that very quickly, even on her first day, she realized that this was not the case. She actually said, Andrea, that on her first day, she didn't get to go home until 1 p.m. the next day.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
So right off the bat, she said that things were toxic and that there would be high highs and incredibly low lows.
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Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so she was a personal assistant for most of that time, but her dream was film and television. And ultimately, he made her an executive at his company, and she was able to help him with film and TV projects.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah. And as she's talking about all of these things, she's shaking. She's crying. She's looking down. Her voice is trembling. And she says that Diddy threw things at her, threw her against a wall, threw her into a pool, that he threw an ice bucket at her, that he threw a laptop that narrowly missed her head one time.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Absolutely. She testified about one time staying up for five days straight in Las Vegas and that her body started to have a physical breakdown, that she had temporary hearing and vision loss, and that finally Diddy was like, okay, now you can go to bed. She also said that she has ADHD, so she had a prescription for Adderall and that she took that, and that's what also helped her stay awake. Hmm.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
She wasn't allowed to lock her door because Combs said that this is my house, but that other employees of his could, and that she wasn't allowed to leave, not even so much as to run errands for herself or to see any of her friends, that she was always on the clock, and that one time she left his house, she snuck out around 2 a.m. after he had fallen asleep.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Because she was desperate to see some friends and that he sent security to go find her. So, yeah, she felt like she couldn't leave. I mean, she talked about things that were so extreme, like she couldn't even change her tampon because he wouldn't let her out of his sight. These are just insane stories to hear, if true.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I mean, look, I worked for someone pretty tough in my 20s as well, and I worked crazy hours, and I worked on the weekends, and I remember crying a lot. I would get screamed at. And sometimes in certain industries, you feel like that's a rite of passage. But what Mia is describing just... moves the goalpost even further.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I mean, she says that at one time she would be doing metaphorically 17,000 things, everything from doing his taxes, reading movie scripts, anticipating his moods, checking the weather if it's going to be raining, making sure to grab an umbrella, making sure that she was there at his house before he woke up and staying with him until he went to bed, which we know could be like 4 a.m.,
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And she even had to like crack his knuckles. I mean, the whole thing is just it's just a wild litany of things that she claimed she had to do.
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Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Not a crime. She said that she was constantly humiliated, that he would question her intelligence, he would threaten her job, that she would be suspended without pay for the most random of things that would upset him.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And she also said that it wasn't just her as the personal assistant, that there were other PAs that worked for him, but she felt like she would get the brunt of everything and that if somebody messed up, that ultimately somehow it would be her fault.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
She said that she begged him for years to stop being a personal assistant and to pursue her true passion, which was film. And that ultimately he allowed her to do that, helping procure films that he could star in or films that they could invest in. She said, even though I had this insane assistant situation, the joy that she would get out of doing TV and film was overwhelmingly awesome.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And, you know, I think that the defense tomorrow is going to say, okay, we've agreed he was a jerk and he was violent. They said that in their opening statement. But that these employees agreed to this arrangement, that these were like trade-offs, and perhaps they might have text messages and emails that paint a very different picture.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
That's right. I mean, she said that she interacted with Cassie a lot and that she would be sent over to Cassie's apartment and sort of monitor her, almost babysit her. And there's this story of this party at Prince's house in which they actually snuck out. And Combs was so upset that they had snuck out and gone to this party in L.A.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
that he showed up and ended up chasing Cassie down and started to physically beat her until Prince's security intervened. And that after that, Diddy actually suspended Mia's pay.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so she said that she saw Diddy beat Cassie up multiple times.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
It's similar to what we heard from Don Richard, who was in the girl group Danity Kane, who testified about being around Cassie and Diddy and also hearing things happen in different rooms. We also previously heard from a male escort who said that he saw Combs once drag Cassie by her hair into another room and he heard slapping sounds.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
She said that they were in Turks and Caicos and that Cassie came into her room and was terrified and started putting furniture against the door and just kept saying, he's going to kill me.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And they were, I believe, on the first floor and they had doors that exited to the beach and they ran out on the beach and Combs was chasing them and they were running towards the ocean and then they got on some paddle boards and they started just paddling out as far as they could into the ocean to try to get away from him.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And as they turned around, you know, he got smaller and smaller as they were getting further away. And then they actually started to see bad weather coming in and storm clouds. And they were worried, like, do we stay out here and risk our lives in the ocean? Or do we go back to shore and risk our lives there? And ultimately, they decided to go back to shore.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
That's what she says, but that is the exact opposite of what we heard in opening statement from Sean Combs' criminal defense attorney, Tenny Garagos, who has maintained that there was violence on both sides of the relationship.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yes, and she's not the first person who has testified about having to clean up these hotel rooms. She actually described it as a nightmare. Candle wax that you just couldn't get out of the carpet. There would be broken glass, even blood that Diddy supposedly told her was period blood. Oil on the walls, wet towels, water on the floor.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I mean, you can just imagine the sort of damage that was done to the room.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
I mean, she said that she felt a loyalty to him, that part of the deal was to protect his reputation. I mean, it's similar in testimony to what we've heard from Cassie as to why didn't she ever fully sever ties during this decade-long on-and-off relationship. Yeah.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so she was crying, and she said that after... Diddy's 40th birthday. She was in his apartment and he had everybody leave. I believe they were in the kitchen. And that's when he had her take a couple of shots of vodka and she hadn't eaten or had anything to drink that day. And so she said it hit her really hard.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
And then she said that all of a sudden he had kind of pushed her up against a wall and he put his hand up her dress. And then she talked about another instance at his home in L.A. It was around 2009, 2010. So she doesn't exactly remember when it allegedly happened, but she was sleeping in a room in his house. She was in a bunk bed. And like I told you before, she wasn't allowed to lock up.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
her door and she said that she woke up to Diddy on top of her and she starts to really cry at this point on the stand and she said that he penetrated her and that she just froze.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
We know based on a letter that prosecutors sent the judge in April, Andrea, that she is just so fearful as to her identity getting out there that it could hurt her with her job professionally. It would just cause irreparable damage. We were mandated by the judge not to even describe her appearance. So I can't even tell you what she was wearing.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so she said that she was desperate, terrified and trapped that this was her fault. And she actually said that she never planned to ever tell anybody about this. She said, quote, I was going to die with this. I didn't want anyone to know ever. She will be back on the stand tomorrow, Chloe, Mia?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Victim-4 takes the stand.
Yeah, so we're expecting her to be back on the stand in the morning for prosecutors to continue their direct questioning. And then things could get pretty heated in the afternoon when cross-examination begins with Diddy's criminal defense attorneys.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
This is On Trial, a special series from Dateline True Crime Weekly, bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs racketeering trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Andrea Canning, and it's Thursday, May 22nd. Just a heads up, in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
But he also said how much he admired Combs, the businessman.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
These violent episodes that he says he witnessed, did he tell anybody about that at the time? No.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
So George Kaplan was Combs' executive assistant. And then we had on the personal assistant who took the stand earlier this week, two different roles. But the defense is saying that these roles all add up to a legitimate business that Combs was running.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Today in court, two witnesses offered the jury two very different versions of Sean Combs. A man who worked for him 10 years ago said being Combs' employee and learning about the entertainment business from him was like going to Harvard. But musician and actor Scott Muscutty, a.k.a.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
All right. So the defense team seemed to land a punch when they got the executive assistant to talk about Combs' anger in the context of his business.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
When we come back, we'll talk about a multi-platinum artist and one-time romantic rival of Sean Combs, who finally takes the stand. Welcome back. Okay, Chloe, Scott Muscutty, aka Kid Cutty, took the stand to tell the story of what happened between him and Sean Combs over a two-month period in late 2011, early 2012. Tell us what he said today.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Kid Cutty, compares Combs to a Marvel villain and described a couple of incidents that sound like something out of The Godfather. NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas is outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan and is here to tell us what she heard. Hey, Chloe. Hey, Andrea. All right, let's start with Combs' employee. We're talking about an executive assistant by the name of George Kaplan.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Kid Cudi claims that Diddy was threatening him, and then he finds out his car was Has had a Molotov cocktail thrown into it?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
OK, so, Chloe, it's interesting because arson is actually one of the crimes listed in the indictment against Combs. Do we know if this is the incident that they're talking about? We are pretty certain. Cuddy says on the stand that he ends up meeting with Sean Combs because he's suspicious about what happened with his car. How does that go?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
The apology Kid Cudi took as an apology for the car and everything else, but it sounds like there's really no proof other than his word. Right. How did the defense approach that on cross?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Chloe, it seems like the defense was also, through Kid Cudi, trying to maybe discredit Cassie. You know, she's living these two lives. They say she's playing two men. Even though she's not on the stand at this moment, she kind of is, in a way.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
He's another reluctant witness, right? He had to be subpoenaed and offered immunity.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
be in and out of the relationship yeah well there was as you said a lot going on chloe uh court is closed tomorrow and on monday for memorial day what do we expect for next week who do you think is going to take the stand chloe so we're expecting on tuesday capricorn clark so the jury is going to have a long weekend and the judge said i'm ordering you not to talk and
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
Oh, that's a good one. Chloe, thank you. And enjoy your weekend. Thank you, everyone, for listening. We'll be back with a new episode, as promised, Tuesday. Have a good weekend. And if you want to read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter, Diddy on Trial. Go to NBCNews.com slash Diddy to find that.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
On Trial is produced by Frannie Kelly with the help of the Dateline True Crime Weekly team. Our senior producers are Allison Orr and Liz Brown-Koroloff. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Kid Cudi takes the stand.
What do we know about his testimony that's so incriminating that he could have been in legal danger if he hadn't have gotten this immunity?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
There are a lot of characters down here. There are all sorts of people, some that support Ventura, some that support Combs, and others who just have something to say that might not even have to do with the trial, as you just heard a moment ago. It's something that happens all day.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
They're showing emails and text messages from the course of their 11 year relationship, and they're trying to show that it wasn't all bad, that this was somebody who was in love with Combs. and who made it known that she even wanted to have his child, that she wanted to marry him.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
And so they're trying to establish that Ventura was not forced to be in this relationship with Combs and that she freely came and went during this on-and-off relationship.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
In 2009, Sean Combs wrote, to Cassie that he cannot wait in reference to a freak-off. And she responds, I can't wait either. The defense confronted her with another text message, this one from 2017, which said, I love our FOs. And Cassie says that those were just words. But again, those words are being used against her. Interesting to see if it will sway the jury at all.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
So Cassie has pushed back, saying that she took part in the freak-offs because she wanted to make Combs happy. She was afraid of him. And because these freak-offs were most of the time filmed, that he actually used them as blackmail, right, forcing her to stay in this relationship.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
So Cassie dated Michael B. Jordan during a brief breakup between she and Combs. But remember, I mean, this appears to have been an open relationship. Combs was with Kim Porter, the mother of several of his children. He had other girlfriends.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
Well, they're trying to say that Cassie was so jealous that she at times initiated violence in the relationship. They're trying to poke holes in this idea that she was forced into this relationship, forced into these freak offs. How are you trapped and can't get out if you're actually publicly dating other well-known celebrities?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
Yeah. So at one point she was dating Kid Cudi and Combs allegedly was so upset over this that he actually blew up Kid Cudi's car. Cassie actually said that Combs kicked her in the back at his house after finding out that she was cheating on him.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
No, there hasn't been anything yet. But Kid Cudi did speak out to The New York Times after Cassie filed her explosive 2023 civil suit in which she talked about a car exploding in a driveway of someone she was dating. And Kid Cudi said, yep, that was me.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
His legal team has said that that didn't happen. But again, we're expecting Kid Cudi to potentially testify and that to play out over the next several weeks.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
At one point, the attorney says, did you realize after you filed this suit that it ruined his career? And she said, I could see that. But we've also learned how much she was paid as part of that settlement, which was a secret up until yesterday afternoon. She was paid $20 million.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
I hate to ruin it for everybody, but it's not like the movies. There are sidebars. There are objections. And Ventura is asking for breaks. And I don't know if it's because she needs to sort of reorganize her thoughts. Perhaps she has to pee because she's about to give birth. I've had two kids. I know what that's like. It is moving slowly.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
And you actually can see some of the jurors at times falling asleep. But that's not to say, though, that there haven't been these explosive moments. It ebbs and it flows.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
Yes, it did. So according to the prosecution, they got the list of defense exhibits late last night, about 400 exhibits around 3 a.m. And they claim that it was messy, inefficient, putting them behind the eight ball.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
There's a lot of questions as to what sorts of text messages or email exchanges between Cassie and Diddy is admissible. And the judge is having to rule in the moment. And so although they only have a day and a half to get this done, there's a lot of stopping and starting. I mean, this is cutthroat. They are really not agreeing on anything.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
So Cassie actually met Alex Fine through Diddy because he used to be Diddy's personal trainer. Then he actually ended up training Cassie. And so they fell in love. And it actually appears that there is some overlap between... Her relationship with Alex Fine and the end of her relationship with Diddy.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
Oh, I mean, the paparazzi are all camped out here waiting for Cassie, her husband, to come in and out of this courthouse. So we haven't seen Cassie. I think she goes in through a private entrance for people who are testifying. But every time Alex comes in and out of this courthouse, the cameras are swarming him
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
So, you know, he is somebody that prosecutors want in there because he's emotional support for Cassie, but the defense does not want him in there, especially when they're talking about the more recent years of Diddy and Cassie's relationship, because Alex Fine allegedly sent threatening text messages to Combs at one point, and the defense team might want to put forth those text messages as exhibits, and they could even call him as a witness.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
Still going, and it's going to finish at noon tomorrow, or so we think. The judge was very adamant that they wrap things up within a day and a half. Now, Mark Agnifilo, one of the lead attorneys for Diddy, said, listen, that is just not possible. We have every right to defend our client. His freedom is on the line. He faces up to life in prison, and one extra day shouldn't be an issue.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
And so this could be something that maybe we don't see play out during this trial. But if he is convicted of anything, you could see that on an appeal. And again, what happens if she goes into labor tonight? Is there a mistrial? Who knows?
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
Chloe, it's been quite a day. It has. And one of the reasons, Andrea, is because Ventura is about to give birth and they want cross-examination to wrap up as soon as possible because they think that she could go into labor this weekend.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: Cross-examination of Cassie Ventura begins.
It has not. She is reserved. We haven't seen her crying like the days before. She's been very soft-spoken, sometimes giving one-word answers, but she's being cooperative. And I have to say that Combs' defense attorney, who is leading the cross-examination, is being very respectful, even at one point calling her charming and beautiful.