NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs allegedly threatened to release explicit sex tapes of former girlfriend Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura online and send copies to her parents’ workplace in an attempt to have them fired, according to dramatic testimony from a friend of the singer in federal court Wednesday.
Deonte Nash, a celebrity stylist and close friend of Ventura, told jurors that Combs repeatedly used video recordings of “freak-offs”—sexually charged encounters with other men that Ventura said she participated in unwillingly—as leverage over her. Nash testified that Ventura confided she did “not want to” engage in those sexual acts and feared the consequences if Combs made good on his threats.
“He said he would post them online,” Nash told the court. “And he said he’d send them to her parents’ jobs to get them fired.”
Nash also recalled seeing visible bruises on Ventura’s body “quite often,” painting a picture of a controlling and allegedly abusive relationship that the prosecution claims is part of a broader pattern of coercion and exploitation by the 55-year-old music mogul.
The day in court began with chaos as Combs’ defense team sought a mistrial, accusing the prosecution of misconduct. The dispute arose during testimony from Lance Jimenez, an arson investigator who handled the 2011 firebombing of rapper Kid Cudi’s car, a case allegedly linked to Combs.
Jimenez stated that fingerprint evidence recovered from a Molotov cocktail at the scene had been destroyed by the Los Angeles Police Department without his knowledge in 2012. Prosecutors suggested Combs could have been involved in the evidence’s disappearance, prompting an immediate objection from defense attorney Marc Agnifilo.
Agnifilo argued that the prosecution’s line of questioning unfairly implied someone in the courtroom—potentially his client—was responsible for the destroyed evidence, calling the assertion “outrageous.”
Judge Arun Subramanian denied the mistrial motion but agreed to strike the fingerprint-related testimony from the record. Jurors were instructed to disregard the exchange entirely, with the judge emphasizing its irrelevance to the current charges.
The prosecution is expected to shift focus Thursday as they call Victim #4, a former Combs employee identified only as “Mia,” to the stand. Prosecutors allege Mia was coerced into sex with Combs after years of abuse in the workplace, including forced oral sex and unwanted advances during overnight stays.
During opening arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson described Mia as a former personal assistant whom Combs “worked to the bone for years” before eventually forcing himself on her sexually.
Mia’s testimony is expected to span two full days, with prosecutors anticipating she will remain on the stand through the end of Friday’s session.
Earlier in the week, Capricorn Clark, who worked for Combs intermittently between 2004 and 2018, testified about what she described as a hostile and exhausting environment. She recounted how Combs’ relentless demands and verbal abuse caused her to develop stress-induced alopecia, a medical condition that led to significant hair loss.
These allegations form part of the prosecution’s broader case portraying Combs as the ringleader of a criminal enterprise characterized by sexual misconduct, workplace abuse, and efforts to intimidate or silence victims and witnesses.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to all federal charges and continues to maintain that all sexual encounters were consensual. His legal team has accused prosecutors of pursuing a “sensationalized” case without substantive evidence.
The trial, which began last week, is expected to last up to eight weeks. Prosecutors plan to call additional former employees and alleged victims in the coming days as they build a case aimed at dismantling what they describe as a pattern of intimidation, manipulation, and abuse spanning more than a decade.
