Cassie Ventura testifies in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial

Cassie Ventura recalled on the stand when Sean “Diddy” Combs first proposed “Freak offs” to her. She said she remembers the feeling of her stomach falling.

“I also felt a sense of responsibility. It was him sharing something like that with me. I was confused, nervous but also loved him very much and wanted to make him happy so,” she said.

Ventura said she didn’t know how to refuse “Freak Offs.”

“It got to a point where I just didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, didn’t really know what ‘no’ could be or what ‘no’ could turn into,” she said.

She said Combs controlled “a lot” of her life, from her career to the way she dressed.

“And I just didn’t feel like I had much say in it at that time, being really super young, naive, total people pleaser,” Ventura said. “I didn’t know if he would be upset enough to be violent or if he would write me off and just not want to be with me at all.”

Prosecutor Emily Johnson pulled up a still image of the well-known hotel surveillance footage from the InterContinental in 2016.

Cassie Ventura said the image showed her leaving after “an encounter that we called a ‘Freak Off.’”

Ventura was asked how she and her former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs started doing “Freak Offs.”

“Within the first year of our relationship, he proposed this idea, this sexual encounter that he called voyeurism where he would watch me be in intercourse with a third party, specifically with another man,” she testified.

Ventura went on to say that a “Freak Off” would entail “hiring an escort and setting up this experience, so that I could perform for Sean.”

She said she couldn’t remember where the name “Freak Off” came from, but she said that Combs introduced it to her.

“Eventually it became a job for me, pretty much, so I knew if it was something he wanted me to do, I had the contacts to set it up and get a hotel room and all of that, but in the beginning, Sean set it up. He was in charge,” Ventura testified.

Cassie Ventura said some of their arguments would be violent and result in “some sort of physical abuse.”

“He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down,” Ventura said of her relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Johnson asked, “How frequently was shear physical with you during your relationship?”

“Too frequently,” Ventura said.

Ventura said she suffered injuries from the abuse, including knots on her forehead, busted lips, and “bruises all over my body.”

Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with intimate partner violence, there are resources available, including the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Prosecutor Emily Johnson showed Cassie Ventura a photo of Sean “Diddy” Combs and asked her to identify him.

When asked how she knew Combs, Ventura said, “We were in a relationship for a little over 10 years.”

Cassie Ventura poses for photos in 2016.

Cassie Ventura, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former girlfriend, has now taken the stand in the government’s sex-trafficking case against the music mogul.

Ventura walked passed the jury box on her way to the witness stand. Prosecutor Emily Johnson will question her.

Earlier today, Ventura’s attorney Douglas Wigdor said she was “very ready” to take the stand, and told reporters she is “confident.”

Alex Fine arrives at the courthouse in Manhattan on Tuesday.

Cassie Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, just walked into the courtroom and sat next to Doug Wigdor, Ventura’s attorney.

Fine is staring at Combs, who just re-entered the courtroom and sat down at the defense table. Court is still on a short break, and testimony is expected to resume soon.

Cassie Ventura's husband Alex Fine walks outside the courthouse in Manhattan on Monday.

Cassie Ventura’s husband will be allowed to sit in the courtroom to support her for a portion of her testimony.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ attorney Teny Geragos said the defense may need to call Alex Fine to testify about allegations that Combs raped Ventura in the summer or fall of 2018. Ventura’s husband can remain in court for her testimony until the 2018 allegations come up in her testimony, the judge ruled.

Ventura’s husband was not on Comb’s witness list. Judge Arun Subramanian says going forward, the defense must give the government more notice if they intend to make applications like this.

Assistant US attorney Emily Johnson said those allegations may not come up in her direct examination until tomorrow.

Alex Fine walks outside the courthouse in Manhattan on Monday.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos is making an application that Cassie Ventura’s husband be barred from the courtroom for her testimony.

Geragos says that Ventura’s husband may be called in Combs’ defense case if certain testimony comes up when Ventura takes the stand.

Geragos says the defense will not make an application to bar any other family members of Ventura from the courtroom for her testimony.

She said Ventura’s brother and mother are expected to be in the courtroom to support her.

Judge Arun Subramanian just dismissed the jury for a 10-minute break.

The parties are at side bar, the next witness hasn’t been called yet.

Daniel Phillip, the male revue manager, has wrapped up his testimony.

On redirect examination, Prosecutor Maurene Comey asked Phillip to recount his recollection of the moments after he watched Sean “Diddy” Combs drag Cassie Ventura into a bedroom and then heard what he believed to be Combs beating Ventura. He said he experienced erectile dysfunction because he was shook by the altercation.

“I was completely shocked and messed up in my head, there was nothing I could do,” he said. “She was afraid I could see she was afraid.”

Defense attorney Xavier Donaldson is done cross-examining Daniel Phillip.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey is now questioning Phillip on redirect examination.

Comey asked Phillip in quick succession to confirm who would direct him and Cassie Ventura to rub baby oil on each other, who would direct him to have sex and who would direct Ventura to give Phillip oral sex.

Each time he answered “Sean Combs.”

Defense attorney Xavier Donaldson is now reviewing parts of Daniel Phillip’s testimony from yesterday, when prosecutors questioned him.

We’re not hearing any new information, as Donaldson is asking Phillip to confirm details he already said on the stand yesterday.

Defense attorney Xavier Donaldson asked Daniel Phillip again about the time he saw Sean “Diddy” Combs assault Cassie Ventura at her home.

Phillip confirmed that he went to Ventura’s apartment after she sent him her address, and they had sex before the assault. He confirmed that she did not appear to be under the influence at the time.

Phillip said Monday that after the assault Combs pushed Phillip and Ventura to continue having sex. Donaldson challenged Phillip’s trial testimony with a report from a previous law enforcement interview he gave in 2023, when he told investigators that Combs told him, “Yo man, I’m going to need to deal with this, you need to get the f**k out.”

On the stand, Phillip said he didn’t recall telling investigators that.

Defense attorney Xavier Donaldson asked Daniel Phillip again about the first day he had sex with Cassie Ventura in front of Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Not long after he left the hotel room following their first sexual encounter, Ventura called him to ask if he’d come back that same day, Phillip testified.

Phillip said he agreed to return to their hotel room at the Gramercy Park Hotel, where he and Ventura again had sex “for a few hours.” When asked, Phillip testified that Combs did not direct him and Ventura as to how they should have sex that day.

Ventura also appeared sober, Phillip testified. He said he didn’t see her drink alcohol or take drugs while he was with the couple. When Donaldson asked if Ventura seemed “in complete control of everything she was doing” during that encounter, Phillip testified, “I cannot say that.”

Daniel Phillip, the male revue manager who testified yesterday that he was paid to have sex with Cassie Ventura on several occasions, is back on the stand. Defense Attorney Xavier Donaldson will continue questioning Phillip soon.

The jury is now entering the courtroom.

Defense attorney Anna Estevao told the court they intend to bring up messages between Sean “Diddy” Combs and Cassie Ventura when she was out of state and he was concerned she was cheating on him, and she told him she hadn’t responded because she had gotten into a bar fight.

Estevao said the incident demonstrates that Ventura had substance abuse issues independently of her relationship with Combs.

Judge Arun Subramanian overruled prosecutors’ objections and allowed the incident to come into the trial.

Cassie Ventura and Sean Combs attend the Met Gala in 2017.

Cassie Ventura, the former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs, could take the stand today as day two of the trial against the embattled music mogul gets underway.

Ventura, who is also one of Combs’ accusers, is expected to testify as a central witness for the prosecution about her years-long relationship with Combs, and her testimony could “really be the key” to the government’s case, according to CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rogers.

Rogers said other witnesses will serve the purpose of corroborating and adding to Ventura’s story for the prosecution.

Ventura is referred to as “Victim 1” in the indictment but has chosen to testify under her real name. Prosecutors claim Combs coerced her into having sex with male prostitutes during sexual performances called “Freak Offs,” according to the indictment.

Combs’ attorneys have said all sex was consensual.

Judge Arun Subramanian said he’s inclined to grant the media’s motion for public access to sexually explicit footage and images that are expected to be submitted as evidence, but he said he hasn’t made a decision yet.

Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs and the prosecutors want sexually explicit videos and images sealed so that only the jury and the parties will view the material at trial.

An attorney representing a media coalition advocating for public access to the exhibits spoke in court to object to the sealing of any evidence.

The judge said he’d wait to rule until the parties file written responses to the coalition’s motion on the docket.

Two of the lead lawyers in the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial have recognizable last names, but they stand on their own.

Teny Geragos, Diddy’s attorney who delivered his opening statement, is the daughter of celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, who has been in the courtroom over the past week. He told CNN he was a “helicopter dad” there to support his daughter (he is also a friend of Combs). Teny Geragos has spent most of her career as a defense lawyer and represented Keith Raniere, the founder of Nxivm who was convicted of sex trafficking.

Across the aisle is Maurene Comey, a senior prosecutor on the all-female trial team. Comey is the daughter of Jim Comey, the former FBI director who also served as US attorney for the Southern District of New York (the same office that investigated Combs).

Maurene Comey was a lead member of the team that successfully prosecutor Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking.