Cassie Ventura says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs used blackmail threats, violence to control her

Government’s star witness against the hip-hop mogul testifies he lunged at her with a wine-bottle opener and threatened to release videos of her participating in sex parties for dating another rapper.

Cassie Ventura on the stand in a courtroom sketch of the sex-trafficking trial of hip-hop entrepreneur Sean Combs. Photo: jane rosenberg/Reuters

Cassie Ventura, the government’s star witness in its sex-trafficking case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, testified Wednesday that he lunged at her with a wine-bottle opener and threatened to release videos of her at sex parties when he learned she was dating rapper Kid Cudi.

Ventura, who was on the witness stand in New York federal court for a second day, provided gripping details of Combs repeatedly attacking her and blackmailing her with videos of her participating in sex parties, referred to as “Freak Offs,” to control her.

She and Kid Cudi began dating in 2011 while she was on a break with Combs, Ventura told the jury, but she ended the new relationship quickly. Combs threatened to release the videos, have people hurt them both and blow up Kid Cudi’s car in retaliation, she said.

Ventura and Kid Cudi began dating in 2011. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

“It was just too much,” Ventura said. “Too much danger. Too much uncertainty of what could happen if we continued to see each other.” Prosecutors say Combs ran a criminal enterprise relying on an inner circle of security guards and personal assistants to threaten and coerce his former girlfriends into participating in the “Freak Offs.” Combs would watch and film his victims having sex with male escorts, then use the videos as leverage over them, according to prosecutors. He is charged with five criminal counts, including a racketeering conspiracy, sex-trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The court was shown an image of a shattered vase following Combs’ attack on then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura during the infamous caught-on-video 2016 hotel beating. Picture: U.S. Attorneys SDNY

Combs has denied any wrongdoing. His lawyers have told the jury that while he mistreated and abused his former girlfriends, he didn’t commit sex trafficking. The alleged victims were strong, capable women who freely chose to participate in the sex, according to his lawyers.

The trial kicked off Monday and is expected to last about eight weeks. Ventura, a singer who was once signed to Combs’s music label Bad Boy Records, has told jurors how she was forced into weekly “Freak Offs” over the course of her decadelong relationship with Combs. She previously filed a lawsuit against Combs, which she said was settled for $20 million. She told jurors she was compelled to testify to do the right thing.

Disarray in the aftermath of the attack. Picture: U.S. Attorneys SDNY

       

“I can’t carry this anymore. I can’t carry the shame, the guilt,” said Ventura, who is pregnant.

She was initially ashamed to talk about the abuse, Ventura said, but showed her mother the bruises she suffered from the altercation over Kid Cudi in 2011. At the time, Ventura had flown to Connecticut to celebrate Christmas with her family, but she didn’t reveal all the attacks or the forced “Freak Offs.” “I wasn’t ready,” she said. “I was terrified.” Jurors on Wednesday were shown still images of the videos of the sex parties, with Ventura identifying the people, including herself, in the images. Combs controlled her by threatening to release videos of the sex parties, she said.

Ventura was forced into weekly ‘Freak Offs’ over the course of her decadelong relationship with Combs. Picture: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

Ventura recounted sitting next to an irate Combs on a commercial flight back to the U.S. from the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. Combs played some of the sex videos on his laptop in view of other passengers to embarrass her, Ventura said. “I just felt trapped,” she said. “Like how do you get out of this situation?” The alleged abuse continued throughout her relationship with Combs, Ventura said. In 2013, Combs came over to her apartment and attacked her because she was sleeping rather than packing for a flight to a Toronto music festival, Ventura told jurors.

Two of her friends jumped on Combs’s back to stop him from hitting her, she said. The incident ended with Ventura striking her head on a bed post after Combs threw her to the ground, Ventura recalled.

Combs’s security guards took her to a plastic surgeon to close a gash on her eyebrow, Ventura said. She later sent him a photo of her face with the wound, she said.

“I didn’t want him to forget what he did,” Ventura said.

Lawyers for Combs are set to begin their cross-examination of Ventura on Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal