The prosecution showed texts sent by "Mia" -- a former personal assistant of Combs testifying under a pseudonym -- where she told his chief of staff that she was having "night terrors" about him. But the defense left binders of printed out Instagram posts on the jurors' chairs. In most of them "Mia" praised her boss and showed off a party-heavy, globe-trotting lifestyle. Combs's attorney Brian Steel also pushed back on her claims that Combs sexually assaulted her.If you want to read NBC's coverage of the trial, check out our newsletter, “Diddy On Trial”: NBCNews.com/Diddy
Chapter 1: What is the focus of the Sean Combs trial?
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 Friday, May 30th. Just a heads up, in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter.
Chapter 2: Who is Mia and what is her role in the trial?
This morning, the prosecution witness using the pseudonym Mia was back on the stand. Then, after a couple of hours, the defense began its cross-examination of her. As it was starting, attorney Brian Steele asked the jurors to open binders that had been left on their chairs. NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas is going to tell us what was in those binders and more.
She has just come out of the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Hey, Chloe. Hey, Andrea. So yesterday, Mia was, as you told us, she was very emotional. throughout the day. How was she today?
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.
Today, the prosecutor pulled out texts between Mia and Combs, Mia and others who worked at Combs' company. What was that all about?
Chapter 3: What evidence did the prosecution present regarding Mia's texts?
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.
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.
There is one text the prosecutor showed the jury, which Mia sent Combs and his chief of staff. You can really... see the panic or hear the panic in her words, even though it's in a text message.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, because this is what she's waking up to, right?
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.
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Chapter 4: How did Mia describe her work environment with Diddy?
Yesterday, we were talking about how some of Mia's testimony echoes Cassie Ventura's. They both stuck around for years after they alleged Sean Combs began abusing them. How did Mia explain that when the prosecutor asked her, you know, why she stayed?
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.
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.
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.
And there was a Q&A where the prosecutor asked her, you know, could you get other jobs? And, you know, her response was no, right? Yeah.
Yeah, she says that he would have destroyed my reputation. I was scared of him.
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Chapter 5: Why did Mia stay in her role for so long despite the abuse?
Mia testified that she was eventually laid off in 2017 from the company and that she had to fight for back pay.
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.
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.
What was with the $10 million then? Is this for sort of damages? Why so much?
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.
Ultimately, she was paid for bonuses owed and all of the overtime that she was owed.
Chloe, Mia also testified about other people who worked for Combs, and you mentioned already one of them, his chief of staff, a woman named Christina Karam. Yes.
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?
And Mia brought up another name you've mentioned quite a few times now during this trial, D-Rock, and that is Combs' head of security. How did he come into play in Mia's testimony today?
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Chapter 6: What was Mia's experience after being laid off?
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.
Combs settled the lawsuit with no admission of wrongdoing, and we learned a couple of weeks ago that as a part of the settlement, he paid Cassie $20 million. How does Mia fit into this, if at all?
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...
If there was any evidence to back them up or people who'd corroborate that, he'd be in jeopardy, right?
So Mia is testifying that her interpretation of that phone call is that Combs wants to make sure she's not a threat. Is that accurate?
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.
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.
Is the government alleging here then that Combs was obstructing justice?
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.
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Chapter 7: What significant details did Mia share about D-Rock?
And these posts were, she put them up pretty close in time to some of the incidents she testified about.
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.
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.
Steele also pointed out that this wasn't all bad for Mia. There were times where she was enjoying herself, where she liked her job.
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
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.
Steele really pushed back on Mia's rape claims.
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.
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.
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