NEW YORK (TNND) — Rapper and actor Kid Cudi took the witness stand on Thursday in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial to tell the jury about his brief relationship with Cassie Ventura, Combs’ ex-girlfriend, 14 years ago.
Ventura testified last week that the relationship with Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, grew when Combs arranged for her to meet Cudi several times in 2011 to work on music.
She added that she got a burner phone so the two could communicate without Combs learning about it.
Ventura said she and Combs had broken up at the time, although they still engaged in “freak-offs” that involved sexual performances with male escorts that Combs watched and sometimes participated in. It was during one of those “freak-offs” that Combs picked up her regular phone and noticed communications that revealed Ventura was seeing Cudi, Cassie said.
Ventura testified last week that Combs left a large bruise on her back where he kicked her as she left his Los Angeles home for the last time that year, CNN reported. Regina Ventura, Cassie’s mother, helped her take photos of the bruises to keep as evidence.
Regina told the jury on Tuesday that she received an email in December 2011 from her daughter saying that Combs was so angry about the relationship with Cudi that he planned to release sexually explicit videos of her and send someone to hurt them.
She then said she received a demand from Combs for $20,000 “to recoup money he had spent on [Ventura] because he was unhappy she was in a relationship with Kid Cudi,” according to CNN.
“He was angry that he had spent money on her and she went with another person,” she told the jury.
Regina said she used a home equity loan to make the payment because “I was scared for my daughter’s safety.” Days later, she said, the money was wired back to her, and before long, her daughter was dating Combs again. CNN reports that the government had bank records that showed both transactions.
Prosecutors have contended in court filings that Combs was so upset about the relationship that he arranged to have Cudi’s convertible firebombed.
Combs’ one-time personal assistant, George Kaplan, will continue testifying Thursday after telling the jury Wednesday that he was in charge of cleaning up hotel rooms after the hip-hop mogul’s sex marathons — tossing out empty alcohol bottles, baby oil and drugs, tidying pillows and making it look as if nothing had happened.
An implied part of the job was that “protecting him and protecting his public image were important to him,” Kaplan told jurors during the trial, according to CNN. “That’s what I was keen on doing.”
The former assistant said he would sometimes work 80 to 100 hours a week and was paid around $125,000.
Kaplan, 34, was granted immunity to testify after initially telling the Manhattan court that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Prosecutors contend Combs leaned on employees and used his music and fashion empire to facilitate and cover up his behavior, sometimes making threats to keep them in line and his misconduct hush-hush.
Combs, 55, 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.
He 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.
