Prosecutors rest their case against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs after calling 34 witnesses

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday rested their case in the sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs.

“At this time, subject to confirming all of the government records are accurate in the record, the government rests,” prosecutor Emily Johnson said.

Calling 34 witnesses over the last 28 days of testimony and introducing hundreds of pieces of evidence, prosecutors are trying to prove the onetime titan of hip-hop used his wealth and clout to coerce and manipulate women into unwanted and unconventional sex for his personal gratification.

In a sweeping racketeering case that threatens to send Combs to prison for life if he’s convicted, the rap mogul is charged with using his business empire and personal fortune, once valued at nearly $1 billion, to secretly run a criminal organization devoted to protecting his reputation and funding years of criminal conduct.

Firebombing a Porsche, kidnapping one of his employees, breaking into a rival’s mansion, and paying a security guard a $100,000 bribe are just a few of the eye-popping allegations prosecutors presented to the jury to try to prove their contention that Combs is a criminal. They argue Combs forced women to have sex with male prostitutes as he watched and masturbated during drug-fueled sex sessions that could last days. To keep his alleged victims silent, prosecutors say, Combs used violence, coercion, and threats that they would be embarrassed or face financial ruin.

“To the public, he was Puff Daddy, or Diddy, a cultural icon, a businessman, larger than life. But there was another side to him, a side that ran a criminal enterprise,” prosecutor Emily Johnson said in her opening statement. “For 20 years, the defendant, with the help of his trusted inner circle, committed crime after crime.”

‘A complicated man’

A grand jury indicted Combs in September 2024 on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. After declining to take a plea deal from prosecutors, Combs went to trial last month and could go to prison for the rest of his life if convicted on all counts.

He has pleaded not guilty and insists that any sex acts — no matter how far outside the mainstream they might be — were voluntary and remain the private business of consenting adults. Attorneys for Combs have acknowledged that the superstar is “complex” and has committed acts of violence and abused illicit drugs, but they argue that he never engaged in sex trafficking or ran a criminal enterprise as prosecutors allege.

“Sean Combs is a complicated man but this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” defense attorney Teny Geragos told jurors in her opening statement. “This case is about voluntary, adult choices made by capable adults and consensual relationships. This case is about those real-life relationships, and the government is trying to turn those relationships into a racketeering case, a prostitution case, and a sex trafficking case. It will not work.”

Over the last two months, prosecutors pulled back the curtain on Combs’ carefully curated and heavily guarded public image. Two of his former girlfriends offered raw and emotional testimony about how he allegedly forced them to participate in seemingly endless orgies — called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights” — and blackmailed them into silence.

Six of Combs’ former assistants took to the witness stand, some under immunity deals, to testify about the way they catered to the rap mogul, including purchasing his drugs, cleaning his hotel rooms after sex parties, and allegedly driving a heavily-armed Combs to confront a rival record executive. Four federal agents walked the jury through the steps authorities took before Combs was charged and arrested last year, including raids on his properties that they say uncovered unregistered firearms, illegal drugs, and bulk amounts of baby oil.

The defense said it plans to rest its case without calling any witnesses, only submitting some evidence. The judge will hold a charging conference Wednesday followed by summations on Thursday.

‘A cycle of abuse’

The case against Combs began before the grand jury started considering evidence. On Nov. 16, 2023, the singer Cassie Ventura, Combs’ ex-girlfriend, filed a civil suit against the music mogul, alleging she was “trapped by Mr. Combs in a cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking.” Within hours, the case was settled for an undisclosed amount with no admission of wrongdoing from Combs.

Federal authorities, though, saw the accusations and began to probe.

Eventually, prosecutors anchored their case in the stories of three women who allege Combs forced them into sex, with the three women spending a total of 13 days on the witness stand.

Ventura, then on the verge of giving birth, told jurors how Combs allegedly forced her into a decade of freak-offs by using violence and blackmail as leverage against her and her family. She testified that she became addicted to drugs as she tried to make it through the incessant orgies, that she lost work opportunities as a musician, and considered suicide during the depths of her relationship with Combs.

“I can’t carry this anymore. I can’t carry the shame, the guilt, the way I was guided to treat people like they were disposable. What’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong. I’m here to do the right thing,” she told jurors about why she decided to testify against Combs.

During her lengthy testimony, Ventura also revealed for the first time publicly that Combs paid her $20 million to settle her lawsuit.

Beyond Ventura’s testimony, jurors saw dozens of pieces of evidence that prosecutors argue supported her claims, including security footage from 2016 that shows Combs brutally assaulting Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel. The video was aired on CNN last year and led to a crush of headlines and coverage that prompted Combs at the time to issue a video apology. When it was first broadcast, the public did not know what happened before or after the events captured by the closed-circuit surveillance system at Los Angeles’ InterContinental Hotel.

On the stand, Ventura explained how she had been trying to to escape a freak-off before Combs confronted her in the hotel hallway, and jurors heard directly from the security guard who responded and tried to de-escalate the situation, and who was allegedly offered a bribe by Combs which he declined to take. Jurors learned that Combs paid another security guard $100,000 to ensure the video would not see the light of day but the video was eventually leaked, intensifying public scrutiny on the rap mogul.

“My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video,” Combs said in his apology video. His lawyers tried to attribute his conduct to his drug addiction and romantic jealousy, and not a desire to coerce Ventura into sex.

Ventura’s claims were also bolstered by the testimony of at least six other witnesses, who corroborated her claims of violence. Makeup artist Mylah Morales, musician Dawn Richard, celebrity stylist Deonte Nash, longtime friend Bryana Bongolan, and two of Combs’ personal assistants testified that they witnessed bouts of rage and violence by Combs.

Prosecutors called another one of Combs’ ex-girlfriends, a single mother who testified under the pseudonym “Jane.” She told the jury how her relationship with Combs became consumed by his demands to engage in “hotel nights,” where he would choreograph and direct the sex acts occurring between Jane and male escorts. With Combs allegedly using her rent payments and video recordings of the sexual encounters as leverage, Jane testified that Combs coerced her into participating in the orgies until as late as August 2024, one month before he was arrested by federal law enforcement.

Jane told a rapt jury that she had a personal revelation when she read the details in Ventura’s lawsuit.

“I just couldn’t sleep. I was just reading these pages and going through a nightmare,” Jane told jurors of her reaction. “I can’t believe I am reading my own story.”

Prosecutors also called one of Combs’ former personal assistants, who testified about the grueling hours and violence she said she endured while working for the mogul. During that time, the assistant who testified under the pseudonym “Mia” said that Combs raped her once and sexually assaulted her on at least two other occasions.

“It was very quick but felt like forever,” she testified, saying the alleged rape left her feeling “terrified and confused and ashamed and scared.”

‘He would have to kill me’

With prosecutors alleging that Combs’ business empire doubled as a criminal enterprise, they turned to some of Combs’ own employees to make their case against the rap mogul.

Six of Combs’ own personal assistants, some of whom testified under immunity deals, told jurors about the extreme demands placed on them by Combs, who prosecutors say relied on his employees to commit his crimes. From purchasing drugs and freak-off supplies to cleaning up wrecked hotel rooms to prevent hotel staff from seeing their condition and going public, the assistants’ testimony offered an inside view into Combs’ business empire.

Capricorn Clark, one of Combs’ longest-serving assistants, told jurors about the extreme lengths Combs was willing to go to enforce loyalty. She testified that Combs forced her to take lie-detector tests for a week after some of his jewelry went missing. If she failed a test, she said she was told by one of Combs’ bodyguards that she’d be “thrown into the East River.” On the first day she worked for Combs, Clark testified, she was marked as being a potential threat because she had previously worked for Combs’ archrival, record executive Marion “Suge” Knight.

“He told me he didn’t know that I had anything to do with Suge Knight and if anything happened, he would have to kill me,” Clark testified.

Jurors also heard from Derek Ferguson, a former chief financial officer of Combs Enterprises, who walked the court through the inner workings of the business, which was intertwined in key ways with his personal life.

While Combs is the only person in the alleged criminal scheme to have been charged with crimes, prosecutors said the rapper relied on others to get away with it. Jurors were told names of prominent employees — like his chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, and bodyguard Damion Butler — who were repeatedly mentioned as individuals who allegedly assisted Combs in his exploits.

“For 20 years, the defendant, with the help of his trusted inner circle, committed crime after crime. That’s why we are here today,” prosecutor Emily Johnson said.

In a statement responding to civil lawsuits in which she was named, Khorram denied ever condoning or assisting Combs in coercing women into having sex, saying in part “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.” Neither Khorram nor Butler has been called to testify in the trial.

‘My life was in danger’

In an industry dominated in the 1990s by the bitter rivalry between the East and West Coast rappers and their record labels, Combs’ willingness to use alleged violence and shows of force against his competitors was a key plotline prosecutors explored for the jury.

Both Ventura and Combs’ former personal assistant, David James, testified about an incident in 2009 or 2010 in which a heavily-armed Combs allegedly rushed to confront rival Knight after he was spotted at a local diner near Hollywood Boulevard.

“I was crying. I was screaming, like, please don’t do anything stupid,” Ventura testified about her reaction to Combs’ learning that Knight was nearby that night.

James testified that Combs forced him to drive him to a potential confrontation though by the time Combs arrived at local Mel’s Diner, Knight had apparently left the late-night restaurant.

“I was really struck by it. I realized for the first time being Mr. Combs’ assistant that my life was in danger,” James testified about the incident.

Speaking to ABC News from prison, Knight could not recount that specific evening but suggested that Combs was trying to “show power” by confronting him.

“Anybody that know me — from 2 o’clock in the morning or 3 o’clock in the morning, to almost 6 o’clock in the morning, I’m always at Mel’s,” Knight said.

Jurors also heard directly from musician and actor Scott Mescudi, aka rapper Kid Cudi, about an 2012 incident in which Combs allegedly orchestrated the firebombing of Mescudi’s Porsche. Mescudi told jurors that he suspected Combs was behind the incident because of his violent reaction to learning Mescudi was dating Ventura at the time. Ventura also testified about the incident.

Combs has long denied his involvement in the incident, including when Mescudi confronted him about it in person.

“I made sure to ask him right when our hands were clasped together, where he couldn’t run away and I could look at him square in his eyes, and he looked right back at me, very cold stare, and said ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,'” Mescudi told the jury about the confrontation.

The defense said it plans to rest without calling any witnesses, only submitting some evidence. The judge will hold a charging conference Wednesday followed by summations on Thursday.