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Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Combs' ex-assistant 'Mia' to continue testimony next week

The hip-hop mogul is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 4:25 PM EDT

This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.

This is week three of testimony in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Jul 2, 2025, 10:50 am

Sean Combs trial reaches an end with mixed verdict

The highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs has reached an end.

The jury found Sean Combs not guilty of racketeering conspiracy, the most serious charge.

The jury found Combs guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution (in connection with his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura) and guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution (in connection with his ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym "Jane").

He was found not guilty of both charges of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion in connection with Ventura and "Jane."

Combs was accused of being the ringleader of an alleged enterprise that "abused, threatened and coerced women" into prolonged, drug-fueled sexual orgies with male prostitutes, which he called "freak-offs," and then threatened them into silence. Combs has said that all of the sex was consensual and that while his relationships sometimes involved domestic violence, he wasn't engaged in trafficking.

Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Combs was simply part of the swinger lifestyle and that he "vehemently denies the accusations made by the SDNY."

May 30, 2025, 1:12 PM EDT

Defense focuses questioning on 'Mia's' positive posts with Combs: 'The good kind of crazy'

On Nov. 4, 2014, five years after "Mia" alleged Sean Combs first sexually assaulted her, as defense attorney Brian Steel pointed out, "Mia" posted a birthday wish to Combs.

"Thank you for being the good kind of crazy," the message read. "Thank you for being a friend and bringing friends into my life."

"At this point you have taken in so much trauma from him, that's what you told the jury, right?" Steel asked. "Yes I have but again it was, when the highs were high the good was good," "Mia" testified.

"Sean Combs' conduct toward you, sexual abuse toward you, has made you broken, right?" Steel asked. "The sexual abuse was part of the ways that he ruined me, yes. There are many other ways," "Mia" told the court.

"On the fifth anniversary of the initial sexual abuse you are saying on your social media for everyone to see, 'Thank you for being the good kind of crazy,'" Steel noted.

"I want to highlight the highs. I don't think people wrote bad stuff on Instagram back then," "Mia" testified.

"Why would you promote the person who has stolen your happiness in life?" Steel asked.

"Those were the only people I was around so that was my life. You had to promote it," "Mia" testified. "It was a very confusing cycle of ups and downs."

"Mia" told the court she did not get to see or talk to her friends or family. "There was absolutely no time. Also, I had to get permission to do anything," "Mia" testified.

The defense showed "Mia" several posts from Burning Man, where she previously testified Combs forced her to take ketamine.

One post, from 2015, said, "Watching the man burn with the man who introduced me to it all…We love you."

Steel questioned "Mia," "Mr. Combs, you tell the jurors, forced you take drugs against your will, remember that?" "Mia" testified, "I do."

Steel followed up, "And you're thanking Mr. Combs and others for giving you another incredible experience?" Mia testified, "Yes."

When "Mia" testified that she tried to forget the trauma she accused Combs of inflicting, Steel repeated her account of Combs allegedly "slamming" Cassie Ventura's head into a bed frame and asked, "How do you forget that?"

"You don't forget that. You're punished for reacting to it. You're terrified to bring it up again," "Mia" testified.

May 30, 2025, 12:20 PM EDT

Defense questions 'Mia' on social media posts featuring Combs

On cross-examination, defense attorney Brian Steel confronted "Mia" with a series of her social media posts to question whether Sean Combs really traumatized her the way she described on direct examination.

One post, from October 2013, showed a picture of Combs in a coffee shop with the caption "Just #1 guy on the Forbes list getting me a vanilla latte. No big deal." Steel noted the post came "about four years after you say Sean Combs has traumatized your life, right?" "Mia" testified, "Yup."

On Nov. 4, 2013 "Mia" posted a photo of herself in a hospital gown as if giving birth with Combs posed nearby playing the doctor with a caption that read, in part, "Thank you for always letting me give birth to my dreams."

Steel asked, "You chose this image?" "Mia" testified, "Mm hm."

Steel followed up, "And it's the image of Mr. Combs being a doctor and delivering a child, true?"

"Mia" testified, "The character yeah. It's a funny video that Andy Samberg directed. I was proud I was in a funny video."

Steel said it was four years to the day after "Mia" said Combs first sexually assaulted her at the Plaza Hotel.

Another social media post showed "Mia" wearing a tutu standing next to Combs. "It looks like he's holding his private part in his hand," Steel said. "If that's what you see I guess so," "Mia" said.

"And this is the image you picked out?" Steel asked. "Uh, yeah," "Mia" testified. "I didn't want my family and friends to know the misery I was in."

On Nov. 10, 2013 "Mia" reposted an image of a group of people in Combs' backyard pool with the caption, "The reason I never made it out last night."

Steel asked, "All of this is done voluntarily by you?" "Mia" testified, "Yes."

May 30, 2025, 11:42 AM EDT

'Mia' testifies about messages from Combs after Ventura's 2023 lawsuit

In November 2023, after Cassie Ventura filed her explosive civil lawsuit against Sean Combs, "Mia" heard from Combs' bodyguard known as D Roc, according to messages read in court.

"DROC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hi, hi, hi. How are you. I miss you SO F------ MUCH. Ahhhh!!!" "Mia" wrote in the text messages read for the jury after she said D Roc reached out.

"I'm about to call you," he messaged back.

In the phone call, "Mia" testified that "D Roc first started catching me up on his life, what was going on. It sounded like a normal conversation and then he changed it to, it's crazy what's going on."

In her testimony, "Mia" quoted D Roc saying, "Because, you know, Puff and Cass would just fight like a normal couple."

"Mia" told the court the tone made her skeptical. "That's not how D Roc talks and D Roc was around that a lot," Mia testified. "He had witnessed the violence."

Prosecutor Madison Smyser asked, "Would you say the fights were normal?"

"Absolutely not," "Mia" told the court.

"Mia" testified that D Roc persisted and eventually said Combs was going to call her, which "Mia" testified he did.

"I threw my phone as far as it would go and I ran outside," "Mia" told the court. "It was just so triggering."

Then came a follow-up message from D Roc: "Your boy said to call you. He doesn't want or need you to do anything," the message said.

"Mia" testified she remembered thinking, "Oh my gosh it's not going to stop."

Prosecutor Madison Smyser questions witness "Mia" as she testifies in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial in New York City, May 30, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

More messages from D Roc followed in February 2024, including one that said "Let me send you something," which "Mia" testified she understood to mean money.

On Feb. 4, 2024 "Mia" received a message from Combs. "Hey 'Mia.' It's Puff. Please let me know when you get 10 min. to talk."

She did not respond, she told the court. "I was terrified," she testified.

Another message followed three days later.

"Hey. I don't want to be blowing up your phone. Just needed to talk to you for 10 minutes. Just need my memory jogged on some things. You were my right hand for years so I just need to speak to you to remember who was even around me. And it would be good to hear your voice," the message read.

"Mia" testified she ignored that message too. Smyser asked why she did not respond when it seemed Combs was being nice. "I knew it was a front," "Mia" testified.

"Mia's" direct testimony ended by her explaining to the jury that she has been unable to hold a job since leaving Combs.

"I haven't been able to do it because I suffer from complex, severe PTSD," she testified. "I would be trigged by really normal situations with like an overwhelming sense of fear of being in trouble."

Smyser asked, "Who was the person who caused these feelings?"

"Mia" testified, "Puff."

Court is in a brief break prior to "Mia's" cross-examination.

May 30, 2025, 11:08 AM EDT

'Mia' details several 'violent' encounters as Combs' assistant in testimony

"Mia" tried to run away from her job on New Year's Eve 2010, according to her testimony.

Combs' former assistant testified that she was with Combs, Kim Porter and their children on a yacht he chartered in St. Barth's when she alleged Combs called her into his cabin and asked her to count money.

"He got really angry with me and started yelling that I was counting too slow," "Mia" testified.

"He got really irate with me. I was trying to count the money. Because that wasn't my job, I wanted to make sure it was right." She then told the court that Combs said to her, "'You better learn to walk on water like Jesus, b----,' and chased me out of the room."

The yacht crew took her to shore but then received a call on a walkie-talkie saying she had to come back, "Mia" testified.

"Did you want to go back to the boat?" prosecutor Madison Smyser asked. "No," "Mia" told the court. "I just wanted to run and hide and figure out a way out of St. Barth's. I just wanted to get away from him."

Instead, she testified that she returned to the boat. "I felt I had to," "Mia" testified. "I obeyed Puff's orders."

Later she told the court she was informed she would be suspended. She testified it was one of several times that happened.

"There would be some sort of violent situations where I would be chased and be hiding somewhere," "Mia" testified of occasions when she would be suspended. "It was pretty much when I reacted."

"Who was violent in these situations?" Smyser asked. "Puff," "Mia" testified.

She told the court about one suspension in March 2011 after Combs entered his Los Angeles home and asked "Mia" to pull some workout clothes for him.

"He didn't notice that I had laid all the options out on the closet floor and had laid some out on the dresser in the entryway," "Mia" testified. "He began cursing me out, going on a rant about the lack of options and how he hated certain things and as he's yelling I tried to point to the other options and also say 'And if you don't like any of these I can help you find something.'"

She testified "something violent happened" after that but she did not recall what.

In a subsequent email, James Cruz, who worked for Bad Boy as talent manager, asked her, "Who's handling tix for Kids Choice awards?" "Mia" emailed back, "I'd totally help…but he's firing me at the moment."

That same day, "Mia" received an email from one of Combs' bodyguards, known as D Roc, who asked her, "What happened?"

"Mia" said in an email, "He's so psycho d…he's so mean. He just went bat---- crazy on me because he didn't see all of his workout options folded-organized" and asked D Roc, "Give me a warning before you guys come back."

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