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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, accused of sex trafficking, racketeering, and other serious sexual assault charges, is now heading into the third week of his trial in New York’s federal court. In the first two weeks, jurors heard from the rapper’s ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura, a federal prosecutor, rapper Kid Cudi, and some of Diddy’s former staff, including sex workers he allegedly hired for “freak-off” parties. So far, the court has recorded testimonies covering Combs’ 20 years in the music industry, including allegations of abusing women, and using his influence to commit illegal activities.
However, Diddy’s legal team, led by Marc Agnifilo, maintains that their client is not guilty. The case has brought up claims of Diddy holding onto “kompromat” (compromising videos he used to control people) and demanding $20,000 from Cassie’s mother. Kid Cudi was also cross-examined on Diddy’s alleged involvement in the bombing of his Porsche in 2012.
After Cassie detailed her brief romance with Kid Cudi, the rapper was subpoenaed in the case, where he confirmed his dating timeline, which clashed with singer’s relationship with Combs. Cudi insisted that at the time, he knew Cassie had broken up with Diddy due to problems in their relationship. However, shortly after, he revealed that the Bad Boy Record producer showed up at his home with his men and tried messing with his dogs in his absence.
Days later, the rapper said his luxury Porsche was set on fire. Though he didn’t know who was behind it, he recalled a heated confrontation with Diddy, which led him to believe that Diddy was responsible for this. The police investigated, but Cudi said he never received any updates. During cross-examination, Diddy’s lawyer surprised Cudi by saying the police found female DNA on the Porsche, but Cudi claimed that he never heard about any DNA evidence.
In another big moment, Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, was ordered to take the stand to detail her daughter’s relationship with the disgraced music mogul. According to her, Diddy was furious when he found out about Cassie’s affair with rapper Kid Cudi and demanded $20,000 from her as payment for the money he had spent on Cassie’s music career through his record label, Bad Boy Records. Ventura said she had to take out a loan for her daughter’s safety. However, a few days later, Diddy returned the money with no explanation. Interestingly, Diddy’s lawyers didn’t ask Regina any questions during cross-examination, which was unusual since the defence grilled other witnesses for hours.
Apart from that, Diddy’s former assistant, David James, detailed one incident where, after a party, Diddy was watching video recordings from the event and said he wanted to keep these videos safely in case he needed to use them later. The singer has been accused by federal prosecutors of possessing multiple compromising videos. Earlier, Cassie said Diddy threatened to release private videos of her, which could ruin her career. The same claim was repeated by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who was Diddy’s videographer and lived with him for years.
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