Sean Diddy'Combs, far left, and attorney Marc Agnifilo, right, sit at the defense table during witness testimony in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — The R&B singer Cassie returned to the witness stand Wednesday after a day spent recounting humiliating details of life with her ex-boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Prosecutors allege Combs used his fame and fortune to orchestrate an empire of exploitation, coercing women into abusive sex parties. His lawyers argue that, although he could be violent, he never veered into sex trafficking and racketeering. They contend all sexual acts were consensual.

Here's the latest:

Cassie says Combs lunged at her with a corkscrew

Prior to the Christmas trip home, Cassie said, Combs had lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her in the back when he learned that she had started dating rapper Kid Cudi during a low point in her relationship with Combs.

The photos shown to jurors were taken at her family home in Connecticut after she flew cross-country from Los Angeles.

Cassie testifies she hid extent of violence from loved ones

She said that when she went home for Christmas in 2011 with bruises from an altercation with the hip-hop mogul, she lied and told her mother it was the first time he’d hit her.

“I couldn’t hurt her like that,” Cassie testified. “And it was terrifying. It’s not normal, constantly being bruised up by the person you love — who says they love you.”

Jurors saw photos showing a large, dark bruise on Cassie’s lower back and other bruises on her shoulder and thigh that she said she sustained in the altercation.

Prosecutor elicits testimony on notable violent events

A defense complaint that testimony about violence was not specific enough prompted a prosecutor to elicit from Cassie a history of notable events of violence she said she suffered at the hands of Combs.

The first, she testified, came early in their relationship in 2007. Cassie said she was at a dinner with “Sean and friends” when she spotted Combs flirting with somebody.

She said she shrugged her shoulders when somebody else who saw it looked at her. But then, she said, Combs attacked her in a car after they left the venue.

“He knocked me around and was just hitting me,” she said.

Cassie testified that she fell to the floor of the car after Combs hit her on the side of the head. “I was just shocked,” she said. “I didn’t necessarily understand what happened and why he was so angry.”

Feed of images restricted to the jury and the witness stand

The images were shown only on monitors in the jury box and witness stand. The feed was cut to the public gallery and overflow rooms because of their sensitive nature.

Prosecutors provided binders with printed copies to the judge and defense counsel.

At one point, Combs asked his lawyer Mark Agnifilo for the binder. Combs discretely thumbed through the images, keeping them out of view of the public in the gallery behind him. After a few moments, Combs closed the book and handed it back to Agnifilo.

Jury is shown images from sex party videos

Prosecutors showed five still images taken from videos recovered from electronic devices that Cassie provided to investigators.

One juror’s eyes widened as the first image — of Cassie and a male sex worker she identified as Jules — appeared on a screen in front of him. Another juror shook his head from side to side as the image was shown.

Many took notes as Cassie described what was happening in the images.

Jurors return after break

The jury is returning for the afternoon session.

Prosecutor won’t present videos during Cassie questioning

The prosecutor says videos of Cassie involved in sexual experiences will not be shown during direct examination, but it’s unknown whether the defense will show some.

Cassie said she told Combs: ‘You treat me like Ike’

Cassie testified in the morning session that she complained to Combs once about the sexual things he made her do and the abuse that came with it by telling him: “You treat me like Ike.”

The comment was a reference to Ike Turner, who was described in singer Tina Turner’s autobiography and a film adapted off of it as an abusive lover.

How much longer will Cassie’s questioning by prosecutors last?

Prosecutor Emily Johnson told the judge she expects to finish her questioning of Cassie before the end of the day, leaving some time for defense lawyers to begin their cross examination.

Teny Geragos, a lawyer for Combs, told Judge Arun Subramanian the prosecution’s questioning of Cassie had “gone differently than we expected.” She didn’t elaborate except to say the defense will have to adjust their defense strategy as a result.

Previously, the defense has indicated it plans to show the sexual interactions were consensual behavior between adults who engaged in the swingers lifestyle.

Throughout her testimony, Cassie has insisted she never wanted to have sexual experiences with other people but did it to please the man she loved and out of fear of him.

During the break, lawyers for accusers who plan to testify emphasized how nervous their clients are

The lawyers spoke to the judge to ensure they’d continue to be able to communicate with their clients during breaks in the trial, in part, to calm their nerves.

Judge Arun Subramanian told them they could still talk to their clients but were disallowed from advising them about things they should or shouldn’t say or otherwise affect their testimony.

One lawyer said her client, who will testify as “Jane,” has had “very serious breakdown moments in preparation for this trial.”

Another lawyer, Michael Ferrara, said his client, who will testify under the name “Mia,” will tell about the worst things ever to happen to her. Those things, he said, she otherwise would have taken “to her grave.” He said she will want emotional support during her testimony.

“Candidly, her nerves are through the roof,” he said. “I don’t know how to support her if we can’t discuss the pain she’s going to experience from having to tell the world about her worst experiences.”

A slight delay in the afternoon session

Court will instead resume around 1:45 p.m. ET.

Before the break, there was additional testimony about threats to release ‘freak off’ recordings

After their trip to the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, Combs began playing a recording of a “freak off” on his laptop computer as he and Cassie sat together on a commercial flight to New York.

Cassie said Combs told her he was “going to embarrass me and release them.”

The prosecutor posing the questions, Emily Johnson, asked if there were “people around you” when Combs was playing the videos on the phone. Cassie said there were.

After landing in New York, she testified, they went to dinner and then had another “freak off” right afterward.

The court is taking a lunch break

It will gavel back in around 1:15 p.m. ET.

Cassie’s testimony exposes the underbelly of their years-long relationship

Attending the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, Cassie beamed as she posed for photographers. But, after getting into a fight with Combs away from the glitz and glamour, she said she didn’t have a place to stay.

Cassie testified Combs accused her of taking drugs from him and kicked her off of the yacht where they were staying. Cassie said she left the boat without shoes. Her passport and other belongings were also left behind, she said.

Cassie said she ended up crashing at a hotel where Combs’ employees were staying. On the way back to the U.S., she said, Combs threatened to release videos of her having sex during “freak offs.” Cassie told jurors she “felt trapped” by the hip-hop mogul.

In 2016, two days after Combs beat and kicked Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel, they were photographed attending the premiere of the film “The Perfect Match.” Cassie said she used makeup to cover her bruises and sneaked into a popcorn closet at the movie theater to switch dresses for an after-party so bruises on her legs wouldn’t be visible.

After a scuffle, Combs said ‘You don’t know when to stop,’ Cassie testified

On one occasion in 2013, while she was packing to go to Drake’s music festival in Canada, Cassie said Combs scuffled with her friends and threw her into a bed frame.

She said she suffered a “pretty significant gash” above her left eye. Combs’ security personnel brought her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills to get the wound stitched up.

Afterward, she texted Combs a photo of her injured face and wrote: “So you can remember.”

Combs replied: “You don’t know when to stop. You pushed it too far. And continued to push. Sad.”

Cassie: Combs would sometimes convince her to go to sex clubs or swinger clubs in Las Vegas or LA

At least once, she said, one of the escorts who participated in “freak offs” came along with his girlfriend. She said she had sex with the escort at the sex club.

At times, Cassie testified, she told Combs it made her uncomfortable to go to sex clubs.

“I’m not into seeing the person you’re in love with with somebody else,” she said.

Cassie said he responded by continuing to push for it, saying it would “be a fun thing to do and we wouldn’t go for long.”

‘Opioids make me feel numb, which is why I relied on them so heavily’

Cassie said she would try to recover from “freak offs” by taking IV fluids, getting massages and having a chef cook meals.

She said she developed an opioid addiction from using them after “freak offs” as a coping mechanism. “Opioids make me feel numb, which is why I relied on them so heavily.”

She said she developed urinary tract infections frequently from the sexual experiences. After “freak offs,” she said, she felt emotionally “just really empty and I felt just gross.”

She said she also “felt like I did my job.”

Cassie is calm and poised in her second day of testimony

After looking through a binder of photos provided by prosecutors, Cassie identified 13 male sex workers she said she recruited at Combs’ behest for “freak offs” in Las Vegas, Miami and Los Angeles.

She said she had sex with all of them, though she couldn’t remember all of their names. Some she knew only by their first names. Some were flown in for the occasions. On Tuesday, Cassie had identified a half dozen other escorts. One of them, she said, was advertised as “The Punisher.”

Prosecutor asked Cassie if she ever tried to fight back when Combs picked a fight with her

She said she did try earlier in their relationship but she learned “it could escalate the fight more, make it worse for myself.”

Combs in the courtroom

Combs is in a creme-colored knit sweater over a button down white shirt with gray pants. He occasionally dons thick, black-rimmed glasses when exhibits are shown.

He stood and hunched over a laptop with two of his lawyers as his other lawyers conferred with prosecutors and the judge at the bench about logistics for the playing of “freak off” videos.

Cassie testified Combs threatened several times to release recordings of ‘freak offs’

And she said it could ruin everything she’d worked for and “make me look like a slut.”

She said she always worried he’d get mad enough to release them.

“I feared for my career. I feared for my family. It’s just embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone,” she said.

Combs kept texting Cassie after she left the LA hotel following attack, she testifies

She said he claimed police were about to arrest him. And when she refused to accept his phone calls, Combs told her that if she didn’t pick up the phone, she’d “never hear my voice again,” Cassie said.

Jurors were then shown pictures of Cassie and Combs at a movie premier soon after the March 2016 hotel attack. Cassie described bruises on her body that were visible in the photographs and said she was unable to cover up all the damage with makeup. She wore dark sunglasses to cover her black eye.

Jurors shown photos of Cassie’s swollen lip as she testified about hotel attack from Combs

She said she took the selfies on her Uber ride away from the Los Angeles hotel. She said she wore sunglasses because she had a black eye.

Once home, she said a friend of hers saw her injuries and was “super upset” because she’d “seen me with black eyes and busted lips before.”

Cassie said her friend called police, but she declined to reveal who had injured her once police arrived so they left.

“In that moment, I didn’t want to hurt him that way,” she testified. “I wasn’t ready.”

Cassie testifies Combs threw a vase of flowers at her during 2016 hotel attack

“I just remember it coming towards me. I remember it hitting a wall,” she said.

Earlier in the trial, a hotel security guard said he saw the damage when he arrived upstairs and told Combs he would have to pay for it. Cassie said she left the hotel in an Uber and went to her apartment, which was nearby.

Cassie has returned to the witness stand

Testimony resumed shortly before 10 a.m. on Wednesday at Combs’ sex trafficking trial with Cassie answering questions posed by prosecutor Emily Johnson for a second day.

Cassie was in a relationship with Combs for a decade. Johnson picked up where she left off Tuesday, asking Cassie about video images of Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

‘Freak offs’ became a ‘job’

During her testimony Tuesday, Cassie said eventually she was doing “freak offs” weekly. They went on for a decade, with the final one in 2017 or 2018, she said. Each time, she said, she had to recuperate from lack of sleep, alcohol, drugs and “having sex with a stranger for days.”

She described the situation as: “‘Freak offs’ became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again.”

During her opening statement, prosecutor Emily Johnson told the jury Cassie was not the only woman Combs beat and sexually exploited.

Combs was among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades, working with artists including Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige and Usher. He also created the fashion clothing line Sean John and produced the reality show “Making the Band.”

A prosecutor’s change in tone

Prosecutor Emily Johnson, who delivered an opening statement Monday, has softened her tone considerably in questioning the government’s star witness, Cassie, about the 10 years she spent with Combs.

While she repeatedly referred to Combs as “the defendant” in her opening, Johnson often calls him “Sean” as she delicately questions Cassie, who’s in the third trimester of pregnancy with her third child.

Cassie felt she couldn’t refuse Combs’ demands

Cassie said her first “freak off” occurred in Combs’ Los Angeles home with a male stripper from Las Vegas. She told jurors she felt dirty and confused afterward, but also relieved that Combs was happy.

Still, she said she felt obligated to go along with future “freak offs.”

“I just didn’t want to make him upset,” she said. “I just didn’t want to make him angry and regret telling me about this experience that was so personal.”

Cassie began crying when asked if she liked any aspect of the “freak offs.” She said she enjoyed “time spent with him.”

She said she used drugs at every “freak off” to numb herself during “emotionless sex with a stranger that I didn’t really want to have sex with.”

The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has done.

The Combs connection

In her 2023 civil lawsuit, Cassie alleges Combs trapped her in a “cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking” for more than a decade, including raping her and forcing her to engage in sex acts with male sex workers. Combs settled the lawsuit the next day.

In May 2024, CNN aired video that showed Combs attacking Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016. The video closely mirrored an assault described in her lawsuit, which said Combs had already punched her that night, and she was trying to leave the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles when he woke and came after her. In the footage, a man who appears to be Diddy, wearing only a towel, punches Cassie, kicks her, and throws her on to the floor. The lawsuit alleges Combs paid $50,000 to bury the video at the time.

Among other things, Cassie alleges Combs raped her when she tried to leave him and often punched, kicked and beat her, causing injuries including bruises, burst lips, black eyes and bleeding.

What to expect from Cassie’s testimony on Wednesday

Prosecutor Emily Johnson says she’ll be questioning Cassie about her 10-year relationship with Combs for about half the day today before defense lawyers begin their cross examination.

She finished Tuesday by questioning Cassie as prosecutors once again displayed recorded footage of Combs’ attack on Cassie at a bank of elevators in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. He kicked her and dragged her and later apologized after CNN first aired video of the attack last year.

Cassie testifies about violence and abuse

Cassie told jurors she was “sexually inexperienced” when she met Combs and that he introduced her to various sex acts before asking her to engage in her first “freak off” when she was barely 22. Cassie said she was “confused, nervous, but also loved him very much” and “wanted to make him happy.”

Cassie, now 38, said her relationship with Combs ran the gamut from good times to arguments and physical altercations. She said the abuse happened “too frequently” and sometimes came after the smallest perceived slights.

Cassie said Combs ordered her to recruit male sex workers for “freak offs” and that he would pay them thousands of dollars to have sex with her. The encounters, fueled by ecstasy and other drugs, would go on for 36 or 48 hours, and she said the longest lasted four days. They took place in private, often in dark hotel rooms, unlike Combs’ very public White Parties in the Hamptons that attracted A-list celebrities.

? Read more about Cassie’s first day of testimony

A closer look at the jurors

A jury of 12 New Yorkers, plus a half-dozen alternates, is hearing testimony at the trial.

The group tilts male and middle-aged or older. Only three jurors are under 40. Five are over 60. Classical music listeners outnumber people who identified as hip-hop fans.

Their identities are known to the judge and lawyers but won’t be made public. The jurors revealed a little about themselves as they were selected for the trial.

Here’s what we know about the regular jurors:

Eight men

1. Investment analyst, age 31

2. Social worker, 39

3. Communications clerk at a prison system facility, 41

4. Scientist, 51

5. Retired worker in finance, 68

6. Retired telecommunications company field technician, 68

7. Logistics analyst for a bank, 67

8. Massage therapist and actor, 69

1. Investment analyst, age 31

2. Social worker, 39

3. Communications clerk at a prison system facility, 41

4. Scientist, 51

5. Retired worker in finance, 68

6. Retired telecommunications company field technician, 68

7. Logistics analyst for a bank, 67

8. Massage therapist and actor, 69

Four women

9. Deli clerk, 30

10. Nursing home dietary aide, 42

11. Physician assistant, 43

12. Former treatment coordinator at a charity for blind people, 74

9. Deli clerk, 30

10. Nursing home dietary aide, 42

11. Physician assistant, 43

12. Former treatment coordinator at a charity for blind people, 74

? Read more about the jury

What to know about Cassie

Cassie sued Combs in 2023 alleging years of rape and abuse. The suit was settled within hours, but was followed by dozens of similar legal claims and touched off a criminal investigation.

A singer, actor, dancer and model, Cassie’s professional ambitions began in adolescence, when she signed to the top-tier talent and modeling agency Wilhelmina. Her music career launched shortly thereafter, when she left her home state of Connecticut for New York, where she signed with manager Tony Mottola and first met Combs.

Cassie met Combs in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37. He signed her to his Bad Boy Records label and, within a few years, they started dating.

? Read more about Cassie

Cassie is due back for a second day of testimony

Cassie returns to the witness stand Wednesday after a day spent recounting humiliating details of life with her ex-boyfriend.

During her first day of testimony, Cassie described being pressured into degrading sexual encounters with paid sex workers. She also recounted being beaten numerous times by Combs when she did things that displeased him — like smiling at him the wrong way.

“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she said.

Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, accused Combs of gaining her submission by threatening to publicly release videos of her with male sex workers.

Combs’ attorneys have acknowledged Combs could be violent but maintain that the sexual acts were consensual. They say nothing he did amounted to sex trafficking or racketeering — the charges that he faces.

Lawyers for Combs have yet to cross-examine Cassie, a type of questioning that will give them an opportunity to challenge her credibility or poke holes in her accounts of what happened.

? Read more about Cassie’s testimony

News from © The Associated Press, 2025