Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy on Trial: Freak-Offs, Abuse Claims, and Emotional Testimony

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Defendant Sean “Diddy” Combs, family members in the gallery to support him, and countless members of the media heard testimony from Casandra “Cassie” Ventura on Tuesday as part of the disgraced rapper’s racketeering and sex trafficking trial. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber got the inside scoop on what the witnesses had to say from Law&Crime correspondent Elizabeth Millner from the federal courthouse.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Disgusting sex acts, a wild scene, and extreme violence. Day two of Sean Combs' criminal trial saw the beginning of the long-awaited testimony of Cassandra Ventura, the star witness of this case. We bring on law and crime reporter Elizabeth Milner, who is once again in the courtroom, to give us a sense of what exactly happened today in court. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. Hey, everybody, this is another law and crime legal alert. If you receive Depro-Provera birth control shots and were later diagnosed with a brain or spinal tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible for a lawsuit. Morgan and Morgan is investigating claims that patients weren't properly warned about this risk. It's free to check, takes just a few minutes,

and you don't pay unless they win. So scan the QR code on screen, click the link below, or head over to 4thepeople.com slash LC Depot to see if you qualify. Well, the second day of Sean Diddy Combs' blockbuster sex trafficking trial unfolded with definitely gripping and often harrowing testimony from his former girlfriend Cassandra Ventura, who took the stand as the prosecution star witness. For nearly six hours, she testified.

And I'm going to tell you right now, what she testified to based on what we were reading in that courtroom, it was something. It wasn't just alleged psychological torment, physical abuse, sexual exploitation at the hands of Sean Combs. Now, remember, she is coming in there, what, eight and a half months pregnant, coming in after the testimony of two other witnesses. There is a lot to get into. We're going to give you a comprehensive breakdown of every major moment from today's proceedings,

because as you know, there are no cameras in that courtroom. There is no audio of what happened. But we got the next best thing. We got Long Crimes reporter Elizabeth Milner, who was inside that courtroom, witnessing firsthand everything that happened today. Elizabeth, thank you so much for coming on. I know this has already been an exhausting day, particularly about what you heard in that courtroom. We will get to that before we even get into the testimony real quick.

Is it just insane out there again? Are we seeing tons of people, reporters, spectators? Just tell us what the scene looks like right now. The scene honestly kind of mirrored day one, which was opening statements. You know, day two was really no different. A lot of people trying to get inside that courthouse. A lot of people trying to get inside that courtroom, especially for the big testimony that we were all expecting today.

Of course, that being Cassie Ventura, taking the stand. And so it was a lot of people just trying to kind of weasel their way in through. I was able to get inside that courtroom, really just with a lucky. in a prayer and also a little connections, which always helps in this case, but really it's just madness over here at the courthouse. I mean, there's media campouts just extending across the block. A lot of public interest in this case as well, too, from people who just either want to get a glimpse of either Diddy, his family, just be inside that courtroom, just be inside the courthouse, even if they're in the overflow room and able to kind of watch the proceedings that way. But there's definitely a lot of interest in the case, and I don't expect that to die down, even throughout the this week no and this was expected with cassandra ventura taking the stand now before we get to her testimony the day actually started with finishing up the testimony the cross-examination of daniel philip that is that male escort uh male performer i should say who began his testimony yesterday i talked about how did he allegedly paid him to have sex with cassandra ventura

all while did he was not only watching but recording and this happened to have you know apparently happened several times again combs is charged with racketeering conspiracy sex trafficking transportation to engage in prostitution so we're talking about coerced sexual performances key witness here elizabeth what came out of cross-examination today of this witness well the cross-examination was continued by xavier donaldson and it was interesting to kind of see him in action even yesterday as well as today because he's a little feisty When it came to this particular witness, he was essentially questioning him on, you know, returning to the Gramercy Park Hotel. Why was Did he sitting in the corner?

Why did he notice that specifically? He was asked about what was going on while he and Cassie were having sex. Donaldson asked, did Cassie take the lead? He says he being Daniel Phillips said they both did their thing. He was asked, was Cassie drunk? Daniel Philip responded, no. Was Cassie hide? Daniel Philip responded, no.

Did Cassie pay him or pay for a hotel? Daniel Philip responded saying he just didn't know. You know, they were talking about the alleged assault that had happened at Cassie's apartment, something that Cassie herself had even testified about as well, too, you know. And so essentially a lot of these questions back and forth were just pretty much to kind of get clarity. There were some points in the cross-examination. I was kind of like, where is this going? But maybe from the defense's perspective, they were essentially trying to make that argument

that Cassie was. she was coherent. She wasn't under the influence of any type of drugs or alcohol when these freakoffs were occurring or when these encounters were occurring, I should say. What was interesting about Daniel Philip when he had actually walked into the courtroom, something that a lot of us in the press kind of notices, he walked inside with his sunglasses on, which, you know, for the most part, we haven't seen many witnesses do that. I mean, only three have taken the stand so far. But it was definitely an interesting moment. I mean, you know, earlier this morning, it wasn't raining just yet, but you know, it wasn't exactly sunny too. So we were kind of like, why is he wearing

sunglasses? And even when he got off the witness stand, he put the sunglasses right back on and just walked out of the courtroom. But another interesting point, Jesse, that they were kind of talking about today was talking about an incident or not even an incident per se, but talking about a moment in December of 2023. And this is when Xavier Donaldson brought up Daniel's friend named Malia. And essentially they were questioned, or Daniel, Daniel, Philip was questioned about when he saw Cassie outside of the Dream Hotel here in downtown New York City. Apparently, Daniel Philip had told this friend Malia about his relationship, and I put that in quotations even here in my notes, about his relationship with Cassie, said that Cassie asked to call him

later on to meet her. The defense says it was for another experience, and Philip said, no, that wasn't necessarily the case. The defense said, so Cassie called for a one-on-one after she wasn't with Diddy any longer. And so then another interesting point that was brought up was just that Daniel Philip had met with federal prosecutors in March of just this year. So just a couple months back. And they were talking about essentially kind of what one thing I kind of remember from Daniel Phillips' testimony is just kind of the way he would talk about Cassie per se. Like for example, yesterday he had said that Cassie was one of the most beautiful women that he had ever seen. He had also said had Cassie given him a chance that he would absolutely date her. So it seems like he kind of had more on his

end, more of a platonic feeling towards Cassie, especially kind of in that need to kind of protect her. So Philip said that, Daniel Philip, excuse me, said that he wasn't necessarily jealous seeing did he have sex with Cassie, but he had allegedly told federal prosecutors that he was in October 7th of 2024. And this is where a sidebar had happened. And so after the sidebar, was over, they were, Daniel Philip was questioned again, would he feel jealous because he had liked Cassie romantically. And so Daniel Phillips said he didn't recall saying that to prosecutors. And so when the redirect happened, you know, Maureen Comey just really kind of had to redirect all of the cross-examination, all of the back and forth, kind of back to a focus. So she asked, you know,

about did he directing and why that wasn't brought up necessarily? Asked, um, said that Diddy had directed Cassie to give him, you know, oral, rub baby oil on him. They were asked, Daniel Philip was asked about money, given more money for sex, $3,800 more than he would be if he were to come over to dance or for time, I should say. He said he was paid anywhere between $700 to $5,000, $6,000 just for sex. And then essentially he's paid $0 and zero cents if he didn't have sex with Cassie or in the room with Diddy. And so, you know, during the redirect, Daniel Phillips said Cassie normally didn't respond to his text messages. But then there was a point that, you know, after Diddy had beat Cassie, that Diddy was actually trying to get Cassie to continue to perform sexually with Daniel Philip and said that Daniel couldn't get an erection after kind of hearing the slaps going on in a nearby room. He said he essentially just wanted to hug her because he could tell that she was shaking and that she was afraid.

and that pretty much reaffirmed that did he beat Cassie, essentially, and even called her the B word. And so then they were talking under the recross. He was asked again about, you know, text messages that he said he didn't receive responses to. And then some of the exhibits were shown showing that, you know, Cassie had responded very casually to some of those messages. So some of those were pretty much the big takeaways from Daniels Phillips, recross, redirect. re-cross. And so, and then that essentially wrapped him up as a witness. He was off the stand probably with an hour of when court had began and he put on his shades and just walked out of the courtroom. It seemed like Diddy was kind of, you know, obviously he was listening at every single

witness who would take in the stand thus far in this case. But definitely, Diddy had his eyes on. Daniel Phillip was paying very close attention to what he said. Again, participating very much so in his defense by jotting notes down, handing them off to his attorney, to Xavier Donaldson do the cross-examination and even the recross as well too. And so definitely Diddy's eyes were very laser focused on this witness and the following witness to who we all know to be Cassie Ventura. Yeah, it seems to me the defense was really trying to hone in the fact, well, who paid you, what, $700,000, $6,000 an episode. Well, it was Cassandra Ventura. She was the one in control. She was the one who was enjoying this. She was a partner in what

was going on and not a victim. That there was this text message, I think, that was sent to that you told them both that you love them. So it wasn't anything nefarious that was going on, that she was being forced into this criminal sexual arrangement, but she was a willing participant. And it just might be a kinky sexy episode, but not a crime. So I kind of understand where the defense was going by ultimately cross-examining him. But now we got to talk about Cassandra Ventura. So before we even get into the substance of what she had, had to say and there is a lot to get there she walks in okay tell us what the environment was like with her walking in and how did she appear and did she ever look at sean combs either when she got

on the stand during her testimony did he ever look at her paint the picture of what that was like before we even get into the substance of what she had what she had to say yeah it was definitely a moment a lot of us were kind of expecting. We were all thinking it was going to be like a pin drop moment, but really it kind of happened within the blink of an eye of her coming in to the courtroom. So essentially she walks inside the courtroom. She's wearing a long brown dress. She is very, very visibly pregnant to a point where I thought, oh my goodness, just stand by everyone. It was, you know, that was very apparent. That was very obvious. So she kind of walked in. It's not like she was smiling necessarily or looking at familiar faces that she may have known in her.

past, i.e. Diddy's family and waving at them, that was not the case at all. She kept laser focused. She walked just straight to the witness stand. You know, she had kind of escorts take her over there. But she didn't like look in Diddy's direction from what I could see. I didn't see her once kind of look over or give him an eye or a look or anything like that. She just walked immediately to the witness stand. She raised her right hand. She swore the oath to testify. And even for the duration of the trial, or she knew the duration of her testimony today, for the most part, I didn't even catch her glimpsing at the defense table. For the most part, she kept laser focused on Emily Johnson as Emily Johnson was asking her questions, probably the only people outside of Emily Johnson and possibly even her husband that she was eyeing in the courtroom was probably little moments at the jury, you know, when they had came in back from, you know, their breaks or a quick bathroom break and that type of sort. And it was just a very kind of like faint smile. And so for the most part, from what I could see of her, it didn't seem like she kind of paid Diddy any type of mind. But you can only under or you can only guess how she's feeling being inside that courtroom.

Us as reporters were all jotting down these notes. Diddy's families inside that courtroom listening to all of this kind of all of this testimony. The news have Cassie side of the family who's inside that courtroom as well. That even including her husband, Alex, as well as her brother. I believe her mother was inside that courtroom as well, too, as well as Cassie's attorney, Doug Woodder. So for the most part, I didn't see her, even when she had exited the courtroom, even looking at the defenses side or anything like that. And so she was there to do what she had needed to do, and that was to testify. To me, I wasn't catching that she was there really for a reunion or any type of sorts.

But it's interesting because, you know, according to the defense, the last time Diddy and Cassie were in a room together, in the same vicinity as each other was Kim Porter's memorial back in 2018. That's what the defense said in their opening statement yesterday. And so, you know, this was a moment that I'm sure she had waited for a long time. Probably didn't want to be very close to giving birth or anything like that while she's taking the stand. But, you know, it's been a long time since Ditty and Cassie were in the same room with each other, let alone the same vicinity as each other. Right. So when she started testifying, she, my understand,

explaining, explain that when she first met Sean Combs and began a romantic relationship with him, it was good at first, right? I mean, talk to us about the beginning of the relationship and how she described him, because I think that's important in order to understand the context, and also maybe a potential, potentially to be used by the prosecution and potential win for the defense. Yeah, so, you know, The questioning was done by Emily Johnson. One of the first few questions that Emily Johnson had asked Cassie was, how old are you?

So Cassie is now 38 years old. So I say that just in the context of when she met Diddy. She met Diddy around 2005. That was 20 years ago. The prosecution and even the defense had said that she was just 19 years old when she had met Diddy. She had said she had signed with Bad Boy in 2006 and she had signed actually a 10 album deal. She said she knew Diddy and remembered him. Well, I say Diddy, but she referred to him.

as Sean throughout her entire testimony, but she knew who she calls Sean as somebody who was larger than life, but didn't necessarily know too much about him personally. So, you know, the prosecution was asking, you know, when did she release her album? That was in August of 2006, but then surprisingly, no more albums came after that. Remember, she signed a 10-album deal, yet it was only one album that was released as well as a mixtape, too. But she said, you know, After she had signed with Bad Boy, their relationship was pretty platonic, and this is when we, I'm in the gallery as well as the jurors, too. You know, we're shown photos of her and Sean together. Another photo from the 2006 BET Awards with Cassie, Kim Porter, Sean Combs, and then another friend, all just kind of posing together on what looked like to be a red carpet.

She was asked about Kim Porter specifically because at this time, Kim Porter and Diddy were still technically in a relationship. They were obviously co-parenting together because they had kids together. together at this point. And so when asked about Kim Porter, Cassie referred to her as Diddy's or Sean Combs' ex as well as the mother of his children. She said, you know, even after signing with Bad Boy and stuff like that, that she had seen Sean a number of time or a few times at the clubs. They were shown in the jury was shown another photo of a potential witness that being Carrie Morgan, who was Cassie's best friend around that time frame, Diddy, Cassie and then another friend on the couch. And this was pretty important. This was from her 21st birthday. And so this was

something that was definitely talked about while the prosecution was kind of establishing the foundation between Sean Combs and Cassie. And so during this birthday trip, this weekend, that Diddy had actually kissed her in the bathroom. And that's pretty important because at the time they weren't romantically involved. At this time, Diddy essentially just was an executive at the record label that she had worked at, obviously that being the one he had founded, being bad boy records. And so she said after he had kissed her, it was actually kind of confusing. She said she was pretty young because, again, at that time, she was just 21 years old. She said she was a new artist who didn't really know the lay of the land. And she said that

she was pretty naive around that time. And she said even after the kiss that she had ran out of the bathroom. And so after the two had kissed on her 21st birthday, they had seen each other a couple of times afterwards. And then even went to visit Sean Combs at the Trump Hotel. After she was invited by him specifically, she said that, you know, for the most part, Diddy called all the shots of her music career. So when she went over to the hotel, she really thought she was going to be talking about music, talking about, you know, her recordings and that sort. So she said she was nervous to visit Diddy at the hotels, but just was essentially excited to talk about her career and where everything was going. But then, you know, that's not what happened in this hotel visit. She said essentially that she was introduced to the of oral sex while at this hotel. She said that, you know, Sean Combs had given her oral and that it made her, that he kind of made her feel crazy for not reciprocating that. And so she didn't do that because she said she was in a relationship at the time with somebody else. She said she felt sneaky, but she essentially just wanted to be around him because

he was exciting. He was entertaining. And she said that, you know, it made her feel kind of special because not everybody was getting that time with Sean Combs and even just think about that time frame. This was puffy. This was Puff Daddy. This was Diddy. This was Ditty. You know, this was somebody who was a big name. And so from her perspective, I can kind of see a little bit why she was a little excited to kind of go over there again under the guise that she was going to be talking about music. And that's not essentially what had happened. And then the prosecution talked about this trip to Miami. And this trip was also pretty important because this was a trip that they had taken. Carrie Morgan, Cassie's best friend at the time was there. Dallas Austin, who was a music

producer, was there as well, too. And she referred to Dallas Austin as a friend. You'll remember Dallas Austin because he was on that people and places list that the jurors were given during jury selection process. And so she thought initially that she was going to Miami for work. And a flyer was even made about her doing kind of a club appearance, a booking appearance down there, but instead she was having sexual intercourse with Sean Combs on a boat. She said even later that night, that's when she started, she took a drug and that was what they called a blue dolphin pill was essentially ecstasy. She said she was given the ecstasy actually by Sean Combs in that she had never taken a drug intentionally before. And she said intentionally because

she said she unintentionally accidentally drank a drug from somebody else some other time, but that was the first time she intentionally did it. And again, that was kind of her first introduction to it. She said ecstasy kind of made her feel euphoric. And then us in the gallery as well as the jurors, we saw photos of Diddy and Cassie on that boat together. And that's the boat where the two first had engaged in sexual intercourse for the first time. And then even after that trip, that's kind of where everything changed. She said essentially that they spent a lot of time together and that she became one of Diddy's girlfriends.

Now, at the time, she initially really just thought the two were monogamous because they spent so much time together. And she said even afterwards, you know, they didn't go public for years after that because publicly he was still dating Kim Porter. Even after this trip, she broke ties with her old management. And she said post-Miamy trip, that's when she started falling in love with Sean Combs. She said she called her or she referred to herself as his shadow because that's how often the two were together. But she said that Sean Combs was her first. adult relationship. We were later shown in an exhibit. It was the photo of the two of them at a strip club in New York City together in Halloween of 2007. And we were shown photos of

Sean Combs and Cassie in the back of a car together at their relationship. So you could really kind of see from her perspective, from what I saw from the exhibit, her just kind of smiling, her being what I perceived to be excited to be there. Again, she looks the same, right? But She was a little younger back then. So after this trip, she said she was still enamored by Sean Combs, you know, at first. But she said over time, that's when she started to kind of experience a different side of him. And for one example, that she had used, it was like the physical abuse and even the controlling nature of Diddy, the ways that she had looked, who she was speaking to and talking to, essentially that Diddy would call her every single day, all day, every day. It was either through text, calls, and then later on, FaceTime, because back then.

And, you know, we didn't necessarily have FaceTime because you have to remember just in the context of everything that this, you know, their relationship was a little bit a while ago. Nearly almost 20 years ago, the start of it, I should say. And so, you know, if there were times that she didn't answer the phone call, he would call her repeatedly. If she didn't answer the phone call, his staff would call her. And the staff included the assistance, the security said the staff would even go so far as to locate her in person. if she didn't answer her phone. And she said that Sean Combs' or Diddy's moods impact her very greatly. She said she would, she said when she would be abused, it wasn't really about her.

She said there was physical and psychological abuse. She said even if she didn't smile the right way that he had wanted her to, he would say things along the lines of watch your face, watch your mouth. And essentially, Diddy would tell her kind of who to be. And then that's how we kind of slowly started getting into more just of the relationship between Cassie and even Diddy staff members, including his security team, who was around 24-7. You know, Cassie named off names like D-Rock, Uncle Polly, Bounds, Malik. When the assistants were named, it was famous or it was important names like Christina Cora, David James, Neil Dominic. And so that's when we started to kind of get a glimpse a little bit into just her relationship with Diddy staff too. And a lot of things to break down there, right?

I'm actually going to do a sidebar episode where I'm going to take Ventura's testimony and say how it actually matches up to the elements of the crimes that did he's charge with. But, you know, talking about staff members, that definitely goes to racketeering, right? This common enterprise, allegedly using staff members and associates and chiefs of staff to further his criminal activity to keep tabs on Cassandra Ventura. talk about controlling the way she looks and what she does control power dynamics that goes to the overall theme of force fraud coercion of sex trafficking very very important again i'm going to do a sidebar on that tomorrow we have to talk now about the freakoffs okay because that

was a central theme of her testimony all right so the freakoffs make up the racketeering charge the freakoffs make up the sex trafficking charge i read about it i think that this was incredibly graphic but important testimony so if we're saying that she was doing things against her will and that she was being forced to do it elizabeth i'm going to turn it over to you what did she say about the freakoffs what did she say about these sexual episodes Yeah, it was definitely a lot of graphic details, details that were a lot to kind of handle when I was sitting in that courtroom. There were just moments where I was just like, oh my goodness, can we go for a break, something like that. But again, I kind of have to commend Cassie for, you know, being so calm, cool, and collected.

There were emotional moments that she kind of teared up a little bit, and I'll get into that in just a sec. But as far as, you know, these freak off, she said there was even prep time or she had to prep for these, essentially. She said that, you know, Sean Combs would make her get her nails done, and they had to be a certain way, and that included white nails or French tips for the freak-offs. She had said that there was even discussion possibly about, you know, breast implants as well, too, that he had made comments about her physical shape, her working out, keeping up appearances. She had to get tanned. She had to get wax. So there was a lot of physical preparation when it came to just how she would appear, because according to her, Diddy control every aspect of. of it from the way she looked, the way she talked, how she even performed within these sessions

or freakoffs because there's even a difference right there where a session was just inside the freakoff where it was just like one moment that, you know, this encounter would happen, then they would take a break, go on to another moment. And that might not even be the entire freakoff. She said sometimes they would do three or four sessions just in one freak off. And so the imagery is just, it was really just a lot. And so essentially, you know, she described it at first as, you know, that Diddy, just wanted this to kind of be a fantasy. He wanted it. He wanted to watch and that Diddy introduced her

to this concept of swinging. And so there was a point where, you know, they were talking about it initially as just kind of voyeurism where Diddy kind of would just watch. She said she was pretty shocked that he was kind of interested in this, but she said she essentially just didn't want to upset him. She said as far as the freakoffs go, that she was introduced to them in the first six months to a year of their relationship that they were doing this together. together. The other person would normally be a stranger, that being an escort or a male dancer. She was just 22 years old when she was first introduced to it, so very, very young. She said she agreed to even do it because she just wanted to make him happy. She asked why she agreed,

she was asked why would she agree to do it? And Cassie at that moment said, great question. And so the first freakoff, she said, happened at his L.A. home in the bedroom. She said they kind of referred to this person as the first escort because she didn't remember his name, thought that he was a stripper from Vegas, knew that the escort was paid to have intercourse with her. She said during her first freak off, you know, she took ecstasy, she drank alcohol even before it had started, something that she had even talked about in her civil claim against Combs that was later settled. You know, they showed a photo to the gallery just of this particular first escort because we didn't even know his name, but it was a black man. He had dreads. He had an earring in his left ear. It looked kind of like a driver's license photo, but even throughout the course of her testimony today, he was just referred to as the first escort. She said that Sean Combs would tell her to wear masks, and she wore heels during this. That Diddy kind of directed everything, including the lighting, putting the oil on the escort and vice versa. So essentially, Cassie and this escort would rub baby oil on each other. And so, you know,

I was talking before about kind of the difference between the sessions and the freak off. So again, those sessions were just kind of a portion of the freakoffs. But these escorts were paid thousands of dollars to do this. She said that she had to, in order to kind of do these freak off, she would essentially have to get high just so that way she didn't feel much. But she said that it made her feel dirty. She said that right after her first one, Diddy soon proposed another freak off. And she felt like she couldn't say no because she didn't want.

want to make him upset, said that he would get angry and his moods would change if she told him no. And then after the first freakoff that she had did, they started to become more frequent. And by frequent, she said that they would occur pretty much weekly. And those went on for years. She said her final freak off wasn't until 2017, 2018, which is still relatively close to this time period, kind of right now. She said, for the most part, she didn't get much sleep during these freakoffs, but drugs kept help her stay awake, such as cocaine, such as Molly, MDMA, or ecstasy as well, too, all that were given by Sean Combs. She said Sean Combs would decide he would be the one to decide when these freakoffs would end. And she said that it was impossible, essentially, to remember the amount of freakoffs that she even did because she was pretty much doing a whole bunch of drugs, and they were so frequent for the most part.

And she said that she felt, you know, humiliated and that she was all that this was all that she was good for. And this was an important part in the testimony because this was the moment that she started tearing up. She pretty much had testified that she was being objectified during this, that Diddy would get so mad that if she didn't want to participate in this, that his eyes would go black. That's how mad he would get. And she said, the only part that she actually liked about the freak off was just the time that she had spent. with Sean Combs, and this being this one-on-one time that the two had had had with each other, she said that she had wanted Sean to know that the FOs made her, or the freak-offs had made her feel worthless, but essentially that Diddy dismissed her feelings, Diddy called her

predictable, there was this one exhibit, an email exhibit that was shown where Cassie, her nickname under this email chain was B-G, B-G standing for a baby girl, and Diddy was referred to as Pop Pop, which is kind of disturbing in itself because he was named Pop Pop after her grandfather, and she thought it was weird and disrespectful, but from Ditty's point of view, this was something that he had allegedly wanted. And so the subject of this email was, I really need to F. And this message from Pop Pop to Baby Girl said, so who are you going to F want to call someone?

And so this email from was around 2010. And so the response was that she wanted to F him and said, are you crazy? Because essentially when Diddy was receiving these messages, he just essentially assumed it was going to be for a freakoff. That means other people were going to be involved. Whereas from Cassie's point of view, she was kind of making the argument that she just wanted to spend time with her partner at the time, her boyfriend at the time. And so there was kind of a back and forth just about that Cassie had wanted to talk to Diddy about. something and that Diddy had called her predictable because that she didn't want to assuming that she didn't want to participate in these freakoffs and essentially that

she said that from her standpoint she didn't want Diddy to think that she didn't want to do it anymore even though she didn't want to do it anymore but essentially did it to make it make her make him happy but even throughout these freakoffs they were talking about disguised identity that Diddy would wear a hat he'd cover covered his face. He wore a mask. Cassie would even wear a mask, kind of one of those masquerade mask. She would wear a wig. She would wear see-through nets. She would wear very tall heels. She kind of even made the comparison to them being kind of like stripper heels. And essentially, those were the disguise portion. The only time that they had kind of taken off the mask, taken off

the disguises, was when they felt comfortable enough to do it with an escort. Because you have to remember around this time, they were a little worried that one of these escorts could possibly be a cop. One of these escorts could possibly be somebody who would go and tell the entire world that they had done something with, you know, Sean Combs and Cassie Ventura at the time. And so she was talking about how these freakoffs happen a lot of different places, including all of Diddy's homes, except his home at Maple. Freakoffs happened in her home, except her studio city home. They had freakoffs in New York, in Miami, in Los Angeles, in Atlanta, and Turks and Caicos in Vegas. And she named the hotels that she could remember

doing these freak off staff because it wasn't just at Diddy's homes. It wasn't just at Cassie's homes. They were in hotels as well too and just how the staff would kind of help provide things that they had needed for these freak off such as condoms such as Johnson and Johnson's baby oil, such as candles, such as lube, such as Astroglide. And that essentially all the participants use baby oil. This seems like a very big preference that Diddy had kind of had. I know a lot of people kind of make jokes about it, but, you know, for the most part, it does seem like a prevalent thing that was, that was very prominent in these freakoffs and that a lot of bottles of baby oil were used to the point. She said 10 bottles were using probably one freakoff, which is a lot of

baby oil, if you really think about it. She said, you know, the astro guide was used as lubeas freak off, something that she had even talked about in her civil suit against Combs. She said when they had run out of these types of supplies that the staff would get more, the staff being the assistants would get more, or they would ask the bell desk for more at Diddy's direction. The candles were always lit. There were about six to ten candles inside these rooms. There was even a point that she had mentioned that candle wax would be poured on to her.

It would be poured on to Diddy. She said studio lights were later used in these free costs and that they were red and purple and blue. we were shown a photo with Diddy, it looked like he was kind of laying on something, according to Cassie had a handful of cash in his hand that we couldn't see through this exhibit photo, but he was kind of laying in a red room. And so she said the freak-off rooms were particularly warm, according to her. And then this was kind of one of the more, you know, disturbing points that were talked about

through her testimony about them using extra linen not to soil the sheets in these hotel rooms. Why? Because there were points where blood and urine were going to be soiled into these fabrics, essentially. She said that she was even expected to have freakoffs while she was on her menstrual cycle, that Diddy and an escort would urinate on her and that she didn't want to be urinated on. She said it was a turn-on for combs, but for herself, she felt humiliated going through this, that it was overwhelming. She said at one point she began even choking on. the urine. And again, these are just very, very hard things to kind of listen to. And me even repeating them, I'm just kind of a little just unwill just because it's really a lot, Jesse. I'm not going to even lie to you. And, you know, she was saying I didn't want anyone to urinate on me

and said, she said, this didn't really necessarily happen often, but it was often enough for her. And, you know, these were just very humiliating things. And you could tell that she was very soft spoken throughout her testimony. So I was probably very uncomfortable for her to kind of talk about this one in an open courtroom, one in front of Diddy, as well as even her husband and her brother and her mother who were all inside that courtroom. And just she was very soft spoken throughout this, but essentially that the staff would clean up the aftermath of these events. They would be charged thousands of dollars just for the damage that were done to it. She said half the time she was, or excuse me, she said she was high on drugs during these, um,

while she was being urinated on, she said she didn't say no because she thought it was obvious that she didn't want to even do this. So it was a lot of graphic details, a lot of things. And surprisingly, I didn't see much of the jury kind of shake when this kind of testimony was going on. They were very much so kind of looking at Cassie, very intently, very much listening to her. I would think that, you know, maybe somebody would get emotional or anything like that. From what I could see, because my view was also very limited, I will also say that. But from what I could see, the jury didn't really flinch to this very disturbing testimony, this very hard testimony to listen to.

But it seemed like they were just, you know, kind of absorbing everything that was being testified to. But from their perspective, I didn't see much of any reaction to this. But from us in the gallery, I know a lot of people were just kind of like, whew, this is a lot today. And the urination might not even be. the most disgusting point. I'll tell everybody, we're not going to repeat it here. Something that was reported about Sean Combs' nipples. You want to check it out? Go check it out on your own. It's pretty disgusting, to say the least. Yeah, I was going to ask you about the jury,

you know, not grimacing, not wincing, not looking like they wanted to throw up from half these details. But look, from a legal point of view, it does become a question, right? How on earth could someone consent to all this? You know, 36, 48, 72 hours of the these sex capades, right, where, you know, the urination and the astroglyde and the baby oil, then it also becomes the question for the defense. And I'm sure when they have an opportunity to cross-examine her, why didn't you leave? Did you speak up loud enough? Why would you allow this to happen?

Why didn't you go to the police? These are going to be questions that I'm sure are going to come up. But I do have to ask you now also, I think it was towards the end of the testimony. she was asked about the infamous 2016 videotape right of her purportedly being beat up by Sean Combs it was the first piece of evidence the jury heard or saw yesterday right because we know a security guard testified to it authenticated it what did she say about that incident in particular so the government obviously had talked about this intercontinental hotel video one in their opening statement to with the first witness on the stand and Cassie herself when she got on the stand

today confirmed that she was leaving a freak off when this violent encounter had happened at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. She said this happened while she was trying to leave a freak off. We were shown a text from that day just kind of earlier. It was between Diddy and Cassie. Did he had asked her so what are you going to do so I can plan the rest of my night? Cassie had responded, baby, I want to FO so bad, but I don't want to F myself up. What am I to do? And essentially, she had talked about this because she didn't want to mess up her body by partying, as she kind of sometimes referred to these freakoffs as. She said that she didn't want to ruin a movie premiere that she was going to later on because she never had an opportunity to kind of enjoy things

that she had worked hard for and didn't want to kind of mess herself up by being, you know, because she had pointed to that she would be on a lot of drugs when she would be doing these freak-offs, but she said from her standpoint that she wanted to kind of have a clear mind when she were to go to this movie premiere. But essentially, she did participate in this. And she said that even before she kind of exited that room that Sean had given her a black eye. And this was in between one of the freak-off session. So again, that's that portion of the freak-offs, not the entire thing or anything like that. And she said at a point where Diddy was distracted, she just left. And then she said everything just happened so quickly.

Next thing she knew, she was thrown on the ground. So even from our perspective, we thought, you know, the first punch was taken from outside of the hotel room. According to her perspective, that first punch was happening inside that hotel room. And so she ran out of the door from what we had previously seen. She said from her standpoint, the next thing she knew, she was thrown out of, thrown to the ground. The prosecution asked, you know, why did she run out without some shoes? Because when we had first seen the video, even from the CNN portion, which was sped. up. We had seen her kind of putting on her shoes. She was just in her socks from what it looked

like, but she was putting on her shoes inside that elevator kind of hallway. She said she doesn't remember what Shauna told her exactly while he was hitting her. The government then played the video for her, and I was surprised at how she kept her composure just kind of while on the stand. But from her standpoint, this was just one of many physical violent encounters that she had had with Diddy while the two were together. So she confirmed that it was she and, Diddy inside in that video said that Diddy had thrown her to the ground multiple times before. She said she stayed on the ground because we all remember kind of after that first hit that she had just kind of stayed there, just laid there on the ground, you know, just the image in my

head right now. Again, it's a lot of heavy stuff today. She said she stayed on the ground because it was the safest place to be. She said that she didn't fight back when Diddy had hit her. she said she picked up a hotel phone while Diddy had held her purse and over her nightbag. So essentially she had said that she didn't bite back when Diddy had hit her, that kind of the last few moments of this testimony from today, that she had picked up a hotel phone while Diddy had held her purse and overnight bag. And that was kind of the stopping point when it came to the government kind of showing her this video. So I expect when they return tomorrow, this will definitely be something that.

that will be asked about again and probably going into more depth about it again because Emily Johnson said that she expects for Cassie Ventura to stay on the stand for pretty much half of the next day as well too. So that's halfway through Wednesday and then they expect her cross to last up until Thursday at the minimum. And so Cassie Ventura still has a long, still a long amount of time to still be on the stand, still definitely hours worth. But, you know, from her perspective, it was definitely just kind of hard to, kind of listen to her testimony, mainly because, you know, I said this yesterday, Jesse, that from the most part, we had heard these allegations, you know, through attorney statements, through court filings and that sort, but to hear it from it, hear these things from her, herself, to see her on the witness standing, see her keep her composure. But, you know, even still at some points, kind of had to, you know, just break emotionally because it's a lot of things and a lot of hard things to recall. It's a lot of hard things for us to listen to. And so, you know, from her perspective, I can only imagine kind of what she's going through

on top of being very down the line in her third trimester. And there were even points, you know, she was kind of rubbing her belly. You know, maybe that was something that kind of helped calm her down or just gave her some type of comfort. But, you know, today was a very hard day just to kind of listen to this testimony. And yet we still have more hours to go with it as well, too. Yeah. And look, that cross-examination will take quite some time to get through.

I imagine tomorrow it's going to be discussion of the videotapes, these purported videotapes of sexual encounters, freakoffs, will the gallery actually see them or not? We shall see. Probably if I had to guess, it's going to be a situation where only the jury will be able to see and hear that, as well as the witness, and they'll be very careful in how they question her about this, because I think the risk of this getting out and being published is pretty high. and I think that they want to minimize that risk as much as possible. This is a difficult day, Elizabeth. I know it's not easy to hear this, but really, really appreciate you, spending the time in the courtroom, capturing everything as possible, relaying to our audience in as much detail as possible,

because unfortunately there are no cameras, there is no audio. We have the transcripts, but it's not the same. And to hear you describe her testimony, the first time that Kassi, Sandra Ventura made a substantial response to everything that has been going on. To me, it read almost verbatim her complaint that she filed against Sean Combs in November of 2023 and to hear her talk about the infamous CNN video. This is a pivotal day in this case in what is an eight-week trial. And thank you so much for relaying to us all those details. Elizabeth Milner, great as always. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Jesse. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.