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

After "Mia" testified that working for Sean Combs caused her "complex, severe PTSD," the defense on cross-examination tried to offer to the jury a different look at her tenure through her social media posts.

The posts, full of emphatic praise and multiple exclamation points, showed "Mia" posing with Combs, calling him a legend and thanking him for being her friend, all in the years after she alleged he repeatedly sexually assaulted her.

"That's the person who has traumatized you?" defense attorney Brian Steel asked. "Yes," Mia testified. "Physically?" he asked. "Yes," she testified. "Sexually?" Steel continued. "Yes," Mia testified. "That's the legend?" Steel concluded his sequence. "Yes," "Mia" told the court.

A post from Nov. 4, 2015, Combs' birthday, Steel called "the anniversary of when he sexually assaulted you."

"Mia" testified, "I didn't recognize that date as a celebration."

"How is that not a significant date in your mind?" Steel asked. "It was Puff's birthday. That was what the date was and I tried to forget that, shoved it down," "Mia" testified.

In the post, "Mia" called Combs "Legend, King, Bad Boy for life" and said, "Thank you for showing me the path to Pluto and beyond."

"You just put aside, you're telling this jury, that you were sexually assaulted?" Steel asked. "Yes, absolutely," "Mia" testified.

"You put aside that Mr. Combs made you go sleepless for five days when you got physically ill?"

"Yes."

"You put aside that Mr. Combs went into your bedroom, gets on top of you and does the unthinkable?"

"Yes."

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.

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."

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."

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.