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Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: 'Jane' testifies on 'hotel nights' with Combs: 'Lonely and sad'
The hip-hop mogul is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.
This is week four of testimony in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Latest headlines:
- 'Jane' testifies Combs still pays her rent as court adjourns
- 'Jane' tells the court about having unexpected 'hotel night' while on vacation with Combs
- Jury sees 'Jane' arguing with Combs in text messages and notes on her phone
- Attorney for 'Jane' says social media posts 'threaten her safety'
- 'Jane' tells court 'hotel nights' left her with back pain and near-weekly UTIs
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."
Defense attempts to discredit Bongolan's testimony of alleged violent Combs incidents
On cross-examination, a defense attorney sought to cast doubt on Bryana Bongolan’s account of Sean Combs allegedly bursting into ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura’s home and throwing a knife at her.
Bongolan testified during cross-examination that she didn't know how it happened, but she testified, “I just saw what I saw.”
In answer to defense questions, Bongolan couldn't explain where Combs allegedly found the knife and when he picked it up, nor where exactly in the apartment the alleged incident occurred.
“So you really don’t remember this incident, true?” defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland said.
“I just saw the knife get thrown and the knife get thrown back,” Bongolan testified.
“You didn’t call the police?” Westmoreland asked.
“Nope,” Bongolan testified.
“You didn’t leave the house?” Westmoreland asked.
“He left," Bongolan told the court, referring to Combs.
“You testified that Mr. Combs would just come over and he would get in the house, but you don’t know how?” the defense attorney asked.
“Yeah,” Bongolan testified.
In her relentless cross, Westmoreland also pointed out what she contended were inconsistencies in the way Bongolan testified about the balcony incident, the way she spoke about it to federal prosecutors in advance of trial, and the way it’s portrayed in her civil lawsuit.
“Today you testified that you were sleeping and that Combs came over?” Westmoreland asked.
“Yes,” Bongolan testified.
“Isn’t it true that in your first interview you told the government this was a party, not that you were sleeping?” Westmoreland asked.
“I don’t remember,” Bongolan told the court.
Asked to recall where she was on the balcony, Bongolan testified, “I was looking at the view.”
Westmoreland asked, “Do you recall telling the government in your first interview that you were looking at him and saw Mr. Combs charging across the room?” Bongolan testified that she didn't remember.
Bongolan's civil lawsuit accuses Combs of groping her breast. “You didn’t tell the government Mr. Combs tried to grope you?” Westmoreland asked.
“I don’t remember,” Bongolan testified.
“Isn’t it true that just two days ago you just don’t recall the details of the balcony allegation?” Westmoreland asked.
“I don’t remember,” Bongolan again testified.
“What drugs were you on that night?” Westmoreland asked.
“I don’t remember,” Bongolan told the court in response.
At one point, as the clock ticked well past 3 p.m., the usual time court has adjourned, Judge Subramanian intervened, asking, “Ms. Westmoreland, how much do you have left?”
She responded, “It’s going to be a while.”
Court is now adjourned for the day. Bana will be back for more cross-examination Thursday when court convenes at 11 a.m.
Defense implies Bongolan coordinated with Ventura before testimony
A month before she filed her civil lawsuit against Sean Combs, according to Bryana Bongolan's testimony, she received a FaceTime call from music producer Rob Holladay from what she told the jury “looked like Puff’s backyard.”
She testified that Holladay, whom she considered a friend, told her he was calling on behalf of Combs. “He was trying to talk about settling with me,” Bongolan told the court.
“When was the next time you spoke to Rob Holladay?” prosecutor Madison Smyser said.
“We never talked again,” Bongolan testified in response.
Bongolan filed a civil complaint against Combs about the alleged incident in November 2024, seeking $10 million in damages. “I wanted to seek justice for what happened to me,” she testified. Combs has denied the incident occurred.
On cross-examination, Bongolan testified that she and Cassie Ventura had a drug problem.
Under questioning from defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland, Bongolan testified that she and Ventura would use marijuana, edibles, cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy, molly, GHB, acid, Vicodin and "coco puffs." “It’s when you take a blunt, open it, put weed in there, sprinkle cocaine in there," Bongolan explained of the latter.
Bongolan told the court that she would also sell drugs to Ventura while the two of them worked on a t-shirt line and other clothing. The clothing lines launched but, Bongolan testified, they did not work out.
“They didn’t work out because you and Cassie were competing against people like Beyoncé?” Westmoreland asked.
“Yeah,” Bongolan testified.
“And you were competing against people like Rihanna?” Westmoreland asked.
“Yes,” Bongolan testified.
Westmoreland also asked several questions that appeared to imply Bongolan and Ventura coordinated their accounts of the alleged balcony incident.
“You and Cassie discussed locations where this happened, true?” Westmoreland asked.
“Yes,” Bongolan told the court.
“You and Cassie were discussing potential dates?” Westmoreland asked.
“Yes,” Bongolan testified.
Ventura told the jury that she did not see Bongolan being dangled from the balcony but did see Combs allegedly pull her back from the rail and throw her into furniture.
Cassie Ventura friend remembers alleged balcony incident in testimony
Bryana Bongolan was sleeping on the couch with her ex-girlfriend at Cassie Ventura’s 17th floor apartment in September 2016 when, she testified, she awoke to the sound of Sean Combs banging loudly on the door.
She testified that she immediately hid the girlfriend in a bathroom, shut the door and ran onto the balcony to “act casual.”
Asked why she hid the girlfriend, Bongolan told the court “I didn’t want to expose her to the things that I’d seen.”
On the balcony, “I either lit a blunt or was about to light it” when Combs came up behind her, Bongolan testified. “He lifted me and then had me on top of the rail.”
She’s 5 feet, 1 inch tall and, at the time, between 100-115 pounds, Bongolan testified, adding that Sean Combs is “a lot bigger.”
Bongolan told the court that her feet were on the balcony rail and she remembered thinking that she was scared to fall.
“For a split second I was thinking I was going to fall but for the most part he was yelling at me, so I was trying to answer him,” Bongolan testified, referring to Combs. “He kept repeating ‘You know what the f--- you did.’”
“Sitting here today, do you have any idea what he was talking about?” prosecutor Madison Smyser asked.
“Still have no idea,” testified Bongolan.
Bongolan told the court that Combs then threw her onto balcony furniture. “It definitely hurt but I think all the adrenaline, I just got up,” she testified.
Combs has denied that the incident occurred.
Later, Bongolan testified, she noticed a large purple bruise on her leg with a small puncture wound in the middle of it. The jury was shown a photo of the injury.
The jury also saw other photos of Bongolan's back, which was covered with large bandages. She’s also wearing a neck brace in the photo.
Bongolan testified that when a chiropractor asked, “Who did this to you?” she did not answer. She also told the court that she never reported anything about the incident to police because, she told the court, she was “too scared” of Combs.
“Did you ever talk to Mr. Combs about this incident? Smyser asked.
“Yes,” Bongolan testified. “Him or someone on his team FaceTimed me a day or two later.” She told the jury that the person allegedly said during the call “I don’t want any problems from you.”
Years later, on New Year’s Eve 2017, Bongolan testified, she, Ventura and Combs were together at the 1 Hotel in Miami and “did eight hours of ketamine.”
She left the two of them thinking, “I can’t do this anymore,” Bongolan told the court.
Bongolan also testified that she has a tattoo of the date Jan. 7, 2018, which she said is the day she decided to quit drugs and get sober.
Friend of Ventura testifies Combs threatened her: 'I’m the devil and I could kill you'
Bryana Bongolan testified on Wednesday pursuant to a subpoena and an immunity deal with federal prosecutors.
She spoke in a soft voice, at times nearly a whisper, telling the jury Combs allegedly provided her with drugs, including ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine and GHB, also known as Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid. She told the court she had never done “G” before Combs provided it to her.
Bongolan also testified that “a few” times she saw Combs do drugs, including marijuana, ketamine and cocaine.
She and Cassie Ventura tried to stop doing drugs at various points but, she told the court, “It’s hard to get sober if there’s a lot of drugs around.”
The jury saw a 2016 photo Bongolan took of Ventura and a photographer known as Bad Boi in Malibu. At that photo shoot Bongolan testified that Combs threatened her.
“He came up to me and said some stuff,” she testified. “He came up really close to my face and said something like, ‘I’m the devil, and I could kill you.’”
Prosecutor Madison Smyser asked, “How did you react to this threat?”
“I was terrified,” Bongolan testified. “Because of the cocaine I had a lot of confidence and that just brushed it off.”
Court is taking its lunch break.