Cassie testifies in Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial

NEW YORK — The R&B singer Cassie testified Wednesday that her ex-boyfriend Sean "Diddy" Combs kept her in a cycle of abuse and exploitation by threatening to release videos of her engaging in "freak-off" encounters with male sex workers that he orchestrated. Addressing the court for a second day in Combs' federal sex trafficking trial in Manhattan, Cassie said she couldn't reject Combs' demands and continued participating in the encounters despite being disgusted and humiliated by having sex with strangers. She said she was scared that Combs would ruin her life and make her "look like a slut" by releasing the videos. "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," said Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura. The jury is expected to watch some of the videos during the trial, possibly later Wednesday. They will not be visible to the public, and jurors will wear headphones in the courtroom so no one else can hear the audio. Prosecutors have accused Combs of exploiting his status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women to take part in the drugged-up sex parties. Combs is charged with five counts, including sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. He denies all of the allegations. Combs' attorneys have acknowledged that he could be violent, but they say the sex he engaged in was consensual and that nothing he did amounted to sex trafficking or racketeering. Combs' lawyers were expected to begin cross-examining Cassie later Wednesday, when they would get the chance to challenge her credibility or poke holes in her account of what happened. Also Wednesday, prosecutors showed Cassie a binder of photos and she identified 13 as male sex workers she said she recruited at Combs' behest for freak-offs in Las Vegas, Miami and Los Angeles. She said she had sex with all of them, though she couldn't remember all of their names. She identified a half-dozen other escorts in court on Tuesday. The day's testimony began with Cassie continuing to describe a vicious beating Combs gave her that was caught on surveillance video at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. The video showed Combs hitting, kicking and attempting to drag Cassie back to their room. She said it happened as she was leaving a freak-off. After the footage was leaked last year, Combs apologized. Cassie said the assault left her with a black eye, swollen lip and other bruises. After she left the hotel, she said her friend called police but when they arrived she declined to reveal who had injured her and the officers left. "In that moment, I didn't want to hurt him that way," she said. "I wasn't ready." During her first day of testimony, she spent hours recounting grotesque and humiliating details of her life with Combs, including the many freak-offs that were held over a decade until about 2017 or 2018. She also said Combs beat her numerous times. The freak-offs took place in private, often in dark hotel rooms, unlike Combs' very public white parties in the Hamptons that attracted A-list celebrities. On Wednesday, Cassie testified that she would try to recover from freak-offs by taking IV fluids, getting massages and having a chef cook meals. She said she developed an opioid addiction from using them after freak-offs as a coping mechanism. She said after the encounters, she felt emotionally "just really empty and I felt just gross." She said she also "felt like I did my job." Cassie met Combs in 2005, when she was 19 and just at the start of a career as a singer, model and actor. She had a hit song, "Me & U," in 2006 off an album released by Combs' Bad Boy Records. Combs, who was 37 when they met, nurtured her career early on and also became her boyfriend for a decade. Cassie left Combs' record label in 2019 and then sued him in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. The suit was settled within hours but dozens of similar legal claims followed, sparking the criminal investigation against him. Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted. The trial is expected to last about two months.