Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Cassie Ventura breaks down as testimony concludes

After the defense pointed to what they argued were benefits Cassie Ventura received during her relationship with Combs, Ventura said under re-direct examination her music career suffered.

“I had to give him all of my attention and made the choice to listen to him because he was the person that was running everything,” Ventura testified. “When I wasn’t working I was his girlfriend.”

Prosecutors suggested she did not have the kind of agency the defense argued.

Ventura said she could not work on herself because she had another job.

“What was that job?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked. “Basically a sex worker,” Ventura responded, prompting a sustained objection from the defense.

After the defense tried to depict Ventura as a willing participant in so-called "freak offs," Ventura suggested she did not want to have sex with male prostitutes.

“Throughout your entire 11-year relationship with Sean, who did you want to have sex with?” Johnson asked. “I wanted to have sex just with him,” Ventura said.

The cross-examination of Cassie Ventura concluded with a 2012 text exchange in which Sean Combs asked Ventura if she wanted to "have a 'freak off' one last time."

Her response said she wanted to "'freak off" for "the first time for the rest of our lives"

Prosecutor Emily Johnson immediately showed the exchange on re-direct examination as part of a longer thread in which Ventura expressed different feelings about "freak offs."

The defense again attempted to portray Ventura as a willing, even eager, participant in the kind of sexual lifestyle Combs wanted.

The defense also asked Ventura about her Instagram post after CNN first aired the 2016 hotel surveillance video depicting Combs attacking her near an elevator.

"Domestic violence is the issue and it's an important issue," Ventura posted in part on May 23, 2024. "My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time. It takes a lot of heart to tell the truth out of a situation that you were powerless in," the post continued.

"That's what you focused on in your Instagram post?" defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. "There was more to it but yeah," Ventura replied.

The defense has argued that Ventura may have been a victim of domestic violence, but she was not a victim of sex trafficking.

The defense has also argued Ventura is motivated by money and pointed out she canceled an Australian and New Zealand tour after settling her 2023 civil lawsuit.

"You saw you would get $20 million and you canceled," Estevao said. "That wasn't the reason why," Ventura testified.

Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, who has been in the courtroom each day of her testimony, left during the portion of questioning about the alleged rape. Defense attorneys had suggested at the outset they may call him as a witness.

The jury’s interest appeared piqued by the discussion about the alleged rape and the defense attempts to cast doubt on Ventura’s account. During testimony on the recording of the conversation between Ventura and Sugit about a sex tape, jurors seemed interested. On the tape, Ventura spoke loudly or with anger. Based on her reaction, she seemed to be amused by her tone on the recording.

The cross-examination is set to resume momentarily following the lunch break.

The jury is seeing messages and hearing testimony about the prolonged breakup of Sean Combs and Cassie Ventura in late 2018, which the defense appears to be using to try and raise further doubt about her rape allegation.

"You don't say anything to the effect of, 'the last time we saw each other you raped me,'" Estevao noted about Ventura's communications with Combs.

According to Ventura's testimony, the last she and Combs had sex was Sept. 27, 2018, when Ventura testified she received a FaceTime call from her now-husband Alex Fine.

"Did you answer that call?" defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. "No," Ventura responded.

"Was it in the middle of sexual intercourse that you received this call?" Estevao asked. "We were together. I don't know," Ventura responded.

"Your husband learned about your evening with Mr. Combs, right?" Estevao asked. "You told your now-husband that Mr. Combs raped you."

"That wasn't the evening I was raped," Ventura testified. When Fine eventually found out about the alleged rape, Ventura testified that he punched a wall.

Earlier, the defense showed Ventura transcripts of her interviews with law enforcement agents, pointing out that she told them that the night of the alleged rape Combs was acting "nice but strangely." The defense also tried to point out how Ventura wondered whether the alleged attack occurred because of Combs potentially having bipolar disorder, the first time such a condition was mentioned at trial.

Combs discussed his mental health struggles in a 2009 Playboy Magazine article.

"I think therapy is good. I've been called bipolar - I'm not; I just have very drastic mood swings," he said in the interview.

The jurors are in a lunch break.