The Most Shocking Moments from Diddy’s Trial

For more than two decades, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ (aka P. Diddy) unruly behavior went mostly unchecked. Scandals disappeared, criminal charges were dropped or led to acquittal and reports of physical abuse didn’t move beyond the accusation phase. However, that seemed to be changing when he was arrested on September 16, 2024. Charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, Combs was found guilty on two counts of the latter charge in July 2025. 

The rapper’s case proved so unsettling that attorney Anthony Ricco, who represented Osama bin Laden, withdrew from the defense team. Still, Marc Agnifilo, who defended NXIVM leader Keith Raniere and Martin Shkreli, Teny Geragos, daughter of celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, and Young Thug’s lawyer Brian Steel remained on the case. Court attendees included the mogul’s mother and sons; His daughters walked out of the courtroom soon after the trial began.

The prosecution called 34 witnesses, who recalled temper tantrums, sexual depravity and physical abuse. The defense chose not to call any witnesses. Here are some of the more outrageous discoveries made during the trial.

Casandra Ventura, who goes by Cassie, testified that Combs’ promises to promote her as a hip-hop artist came up mostly empty. She recorded 10 albums, but only one was released. Instead, Diddy treated her like a sex object and punching doll when he was upset. Ventura claimed that, within the first year of her relationship with Combs, he proposed the idea of “this sexual encounter that he called voyeurism, where he'd watch me in sexual activity with a third party, specifically another man.”

Ventura spoke of the beating she sustained at the InterContinental Hotel in 2016 when she was trying to escape one of the rapper’s notorious freak-offs. He dragged her back to the room by the hair and kicked her repeatedly. In an attempt to contain the damage, Combs paid hotel security $100,000 for what he believed to be the only copy of the CCTV camera footage, one of the hotel’s security guards testified. 

After more than 10 years of abuse, Ventura reached a breaking point. By 2023—the year she sued Combs for alleged abuse and settled for $20 million—she wanted to commit suicide. “I went home and it was super super late, my kids were asleep and I remember telling him,‘You can do this without me. You don't need me anymore,” she testified, referring to her husband Alex Fine. “I couldn't take the pain I was in anymore, and so I tried to walk out the front door into traffic and my husband would not let me.”

Combs and Ventura had an on-again, off-again relationship between 2007 and 2018. During the off-again period in 2011, Ventura dated Kid Cudi. When Combs found out, he reportedly went into a rage. Diddy’s former assistant Capricorn Clark testified that Combs kidnapped her at gunpoint, telling her to get dressed. “We’re going to kill Cudi,” she said Combs asserted. Combs broke into Kid Cudi’s home, but the “Day ‘N’ Nite” rapper was not there. Kid Cudi testified that he came home to find his dog locked in a bathroom, which was not where he left the canine.

A few weeks later, Kid Cudi’s six-figure Porsche 911 Cabriolet was firebombed with a molotov cocktail. There was a sign that the perpetrator may be a rich thug: The fuel-soaked rag in the Old English bottle was a silk handkerchief. Officer Christopher Ignacio arrived on the scene to take a report. He noticed a black Cadillac Escalade parked outside the house. The SUV left as he pulled up, but returned about 20 minutes later. Ignacio ran the plates and learned that the car’s registration was linked to Bad Boy Productions, Combs’ company. Kid Cudi confronted Combs, who denied involvement, though he later apologized “for everything.” 

When federal agents raided the Combs mansion in L.A., they found weapons without serial numbers, bags of the drug ketamine and more than 1,000 bottles of lubricants such as baby oil and Astroglide, a key ingredient at the freak-off parties. Hired escort Daniel Philip testified that, at one gathering in New York’s Gramercy Park Hotel, Combs complained, “Y’all need to rub more baby oil on each other. You don’t have enough on.”

Ventura testified that she became addicted to opiates, using them to dissociate from her disgust over participating in the freak-offs.

Combs discovered that his assistant Clark previously worked for Death Row Records, which was owned by rival Suge Knight. “He told me that he didn’t know that I had anything to do with Suge Knight and that if anything happened, he would have to kill me,” she testified.

When some jewelry went missing, Combs’ bodyguard Paul Offord took Clark to an empty office where she was subjected to five days of polygraph testing. The man testing her allegedly said, “If you fail this test, they’re going to throw you in the East River,” Clark told the jury. David James, who worked for Combs from 2007 to 2009, also testified about undergoing polygraph testing multiple times when Combs’ jewelry or money went missing.

In 2016, fashion designer Bryana Bongolan was enjoying the view from a 17-story balcony when Combs approached her from behind. “He lifted me up and then put me on top of the rail,” Bongolan said. He then yelled at her, “Do you know what the f— you did?” She didn’t. “I was trying not to slip and pushing back on him because I was scared to fall,” she said.

A former girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” also spoke about being pushed to participate in freak-offs. She remembered one instance in which Combs ordered her to have sex with a male escort and dragged her inside the house by her hair. On June 18, 2024, Jane confronted Combs over a trip with a woman 25 years younger than him. The argument escalated into a physical brawl. He put her in a chokehold before she managed to escape.

Another anonymous witness went by “Mia.” She was a live-in assistant who wasn’t allowed to lock her bedroom door. “This is my house. No one locks their doors,” she recalled Combs saying. In one instance, she woke up to find Combs on top of her in bed. He then proceeded to rape her, Mia claimed, stating that hip-hop mogul sexually assaulted her "sporadically" throughout her time working for him. In 2015, Combs threatened to kill her if she didn’t answer his calls while on a trip to South Africa with Ventura.