NEW YORK (TNND) — After being on the stand for about nine hours between Tuesday and Wednesday, Cassie Ventura is facing cross-examination from Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense team on Thursday.
Ventura, 38, considered to be the key witness in the sex-trafficking trial, spent the past two days describing in detail to prosecutors the disturbing acts Combs allegedly had her commit during “freak offs” and provided background on the hotel surveillance video made public by CNN showing Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment and faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on all charges. He is facing charges of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, transportation for purposes of prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy.
PHOTOS: Outside the sex-trafficking trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
The National News Desk’s Geoff Harris was outside the courtroom in Manhattan on Monday and Tuesday to cover the beginning of what is expected to be a two-month long trial.
The Associated Press reported from inside the courtroom Thursday that defense attorney Anna Estevao began questioning Ventura in a gentle tone of voice compared to cross examinations beginning with efforts to unsettle or agitate a witness.
“You and Sean Combs were in love for 11 years. You loved him and believed that he loved you as well,” Estevao said. The attorney said Cassie’s love explained, “Why it hurt so badly when he lied. … When he cheated on you.” Cassie responded “Yes” to both.
Estevao went on to show the jury messages from the early part of Combs and Ventura’s relationship that exhibited kindness and love.
In April 2010, Cassie told Combs: “Going to sleep now so it can be tomorrow faster and you can be home. Love you!!!” Combs replied: “Love my baby.”
On Wednesday, Ventura confirmed for the first time, that she settled a civil suit with Combs for $20 million in 2023, CNN, who was permitted to be in the courtroom, reported. Ventura said she wrote a book in 2023 about the pain she was in from what she experienced with him and that she sent the book through a lawyer to Combs, offering him the rights to the book for $30 million.
I wanted to be compensated for the time, the pain, the many many years of having to fix my life.
As further proof of the alleged abuse, jurors were shown photos from prosecutors of the “freak off” videos, which Ventura claimed Combs would regularly threaten to publicize. She said she felt trapped and didn’t want to make him angry.
When asked by a prosecutor if she would ever try to fight back against Combs, Ventura said she tried to earlier in the relationship but she learned that “it could escalate the fight more, make it worse for myself.”
Combs’s attorneys argued Monday he could be violent but never participated in sex trafficking and racketeering, telling jurors that the sexual acts were consensual.
PHOTOS DAY 2: Family enters Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial ahead of Cassie testimony
Ventura testified that Combs would threaten to release the recordings of the “freak offs,” saying that she was always worried that he would get mad enough to release to them to the public.
“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.
Ventura told prosecutors she developed an opioid addiction after using them following the “freak offs” as a coping mechanism and at one point wanted to commit suicide.
“I couldn’t take the pain that I was in anymore, and so I just tried to walk out the front door into traffic, and my husband would not let me,” she testified.
In 2018, after going to dinner for a “closure conversation” to end the relationship, Ventura told the jury Combs raped her in her living room, according to CNN.
PHOTOS DAY 3: Scenes from Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial as Cassie returns to testify
Ventura said she 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 platonically before the alleged abuse began.
Combs was arrested in September 2024, about roughly six months after federal authorities raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami. He has been jailed in Brooklyn since his arrest.
If you or someone you know is struggling with abuse, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help.
