Live Updates: In Early Testimony, Cassie Says Combs ‘Controlled a Lot of My Life’

During this trial, you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes. But he didn’t do it alone. He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and helped him cover them up. Kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction; these are just some of the crimes that the defendant and his inner circle committed again and again. You are going to hear about all of them during this trial.

Let’s start now with just one night. The defendant was on the hunt for his girlfriend, a woman named Cassie. For years, the defendant physically abused Cassie. He also sexually exploited her, forcing her to have sex with male escorts while he watched and recorded it. But that night, the defendant learned he had lost control of Cassie. He found out Cassie was seeing another man. Furious, he set out to find Cassie and that other man. But he couldn’t do it by himself. So he took his gun and he took his bodyguard, one of his most loyal lieutenants, to wake up one of the defendant’s employees in the middle of the night.

The defendant yelled that he was going to kill the man Cassie was with. He demanded that his employee take him to that man’s home. The defendant forced the employee out of her apartment and into an SUV. They drove to the house. The defendant and his bodyguard broke in, but no one was there. The defendant didn’t give up. He kept looking for Cassie. When he finally found her, he did what he had done countless times before. He beat her brutally, kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll.

All of that violence wasn’t enough though. The defendant had to make sure he had control over Cassie once again. So he threatened her. The defendant told Cassie that if she defied him again, he would publicly release the videos of her having sex with male escorts that he kept as blackmail. Souvenirs of the most humiliating nights of her life.

This was just one night in the defendant’s two decades of crime. In one night, he and his lieutenant kidnapped an employee, broke into a man’s house, and the defendant beat and blackmailed his girlfriend. And as you will learn, this was just the tip of the iceberg. These are not the only crimes the defendant committed. That’s not the only time he kidnapped someone, and Cassie is not the only woman he beat or sexually exploited.

For 20 years, the defendant, with the help of his trusted inner circle, committed crime after crime. That’s why we are here today. That’s what this case is about.

Twenty years of crime is a lot to cover. So, first, I’m going to walk you through what the evidence in this case will show. Then, I will explain a little bit about the charges, and then I will tell you how the government will prove that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. So what will the evidence show?

You’ll learn that the defendant was a musician who created an empire. He had a record label, Bad Boy Records, and other businesses that he ran or controlled. Those businesses made the defendant rich, and he used money and resources from those companies to build his reputation and to feed his every desire. To do that, he relied on an inner circle of people closest to him, like his bodyguards, chiefs of staff, and other high-ranking employees who ran all aspects of his life.

Together, the group worked to promote the defendant’s power. They carefully cultivated and guarded his reputation. And they worked to get the defendant everything he wanted. He sometimes called himself the king, and he expected to be treated like one. He expected his inner circle to cater to his every desire, including his sexual desires.

For years, the defendant used his inner circle and his company’s resources to sexually exploit multiple women, including women he forced and manipulated into having sex with male escorts, meaning men who the defendant paid to have sex with women while he watched.

No matter what, the defendant and his inner circle made sure he got everything he wanted. Many times, that involved committing crimes together and then covering up those crimes.

Those crimes included violent acts, like when the defendant bought his bodyguard and his gun to kidnap the employee I mentioned earlier. But you’ll hear about other violence, too, like when the defendant’s bodyguards kidnapped the same employee another time, forcing her to sit through days of lie detector tests, or when the defendant had a man’s car set on fire, or when the defendant dangled a woman over a balcony. You’ll see and hear evidence of all of this.

The defendant had impossible demands. When his employees failed to meet those demands, the defendant threw things at them, threatened them, hit them, or pressured them to take drugs. He even sexually assaulted one of them.

You’ll also hear how the defendant used his employees to get and distribute drugs. They delivered those drugs whenever the defendant asked, including so he could give those same drugs to the women he was forcing to have sex with male escorts. He transported those women and those escorts across state lines and even out of the country for those sex acts. And he used his inner circle and the vast resources of his business empire to help to arrange those trips and make the women available to him.

Let me be very clear on this next point. This case is not about a celebrity’s private sexual preferences. The evidence will show that the sexual conduct at issue in this case was coercive and criminal, because the defendant made women have sex when they did not want to, because he threatened them, he drugged help, he lied to them, and he even used violence to make them do it.

A lot of this trial will focus on just two of those women. Cassie, who I talked about earlier, and Jane. Some of the details of what happened to Cassie and Jane may be hard to hear, but this is what the evidence will show happened.

The defendant used lies, drugs, threats, and violence to force and coerce, first, Cassie, and later Jane, to have sex with him in front of male escorts. The defendant insisted that the sex occur in a very specific, highly orchestrated way. These sexual performances lasted multiple days and they involved multiple escorts.

The defendant called these encounters by different names over the years. First, freak-offs. Later, wild king nights or hotel nights. Week after week, the defendant directed freak-offs in hotels across the country and sometimes out of the country. At times, the defendant had escorts and the women travel from out of state so the defendant’s staff sometimes organized flights, cars, and hotels. The defendant’s businesses paid those expenses.

The defendant had particular demands for freak-offs. At his direction, the defendant’s staff set up the room in advance with supplies, like his preferred lighting, extra linens, and lubricant. His staff remained on call to refresh anything the defendant needed, like cash to pay the escorts or drugs for the women and the defendant.

The hotel rooms were dark. The defendant instructed Cassie and Jane how to look, to dress in lingerie, wear tall platform high heels, and have manicured white nails. The defendant selected drugs for Cassie and Jane to take. Usually MDMA, also known as Molly or ecstasy. Sometimes those drugs made Cassie and Jane sick, but they also made the women more uninhibited and sexually aroused.

The defendant fed Cassie and Jane drugs throughout the freak-offs so they could stay awake and perform for him for hours and days at a time. Once an escort arrived, the defendant dictated every step of the sexual activity that followed, sexual activity that followed the same pattern. And he expected the women to enjoy themselves, to appear to, while they did it. The defendant masturbated throughout the freak-offs and often video recorded part of them.

Now, I want to tell you more about Cassie and about Jane. Cassie was a 19 year-old model, an aspiring singer with a hit song when she met the defendant in 2006. The defendant was 17 years older than her and the head of a record label.

Soon, Cassie was signed to a ten album deal with that label. The defendant pursued Cassie, and within a year, they were dating. They stayed together on and off until about 2018. During that time, Cassie tried to work on her music and in modeling and acting, but the defendant made her turn down many opportunities. Instead, he paid for Cassie’s cars, her apartments, and some of her day-to-day expenses. Although Cassie recorded music constantly, the defendant, the head of her record label, had the final say on the music that she released. It was never another album.

The defendant started abusing Cassie early on. Initially, Cassie fought back. But time and again, the defendant hit Cassie in the head, threw her to the ground and kicked her, and dragged her by the hair. In 2009, the defendant threw Cassie to the floor of an SUV and stomped repeatedly on her face.

To hide her injuries, the defendant forced Cassie to stay in a hotel for the next week. He refused to let her leave and he had a staff check on her to make sure she stayed put. The defendant also introduced Cassie to freak-offs early on. Soon, the defendant made it Cassie’s job to find and book escorts for freak-offs. Freak-offs that were happening as often as once a week for days at a time. Meaning that for almost half of every week, Cassie was in a dark hotel room, high and awake for days, performing sex acts that she did not want to do on male escorts.

Cassie will tell you how she felt like she was choking when the defendant made an escort urinate in her mouth, and how she overdosed at a freak-off when she still had an open wound on her face from the defendant’s most recent assault.

The defendant’s physical attacks on Cassie happened at freak-offs too. As you will see on video during this trial, the defendant hit and kicked Cassie in the hallway of an LA hotel, trying to drag her back to the room where they had been with an escort. We’ll talk more about that video later.

Cassie tried the first freak-off because she loved the defendant and wanted to make him happy. After that, she knew it was not something she wanted to do. But because of the defendant, it became almost everything she did. Because if Cassie didn’t do what the defendant wanted, the consequences were severe. Physically, the defendant beat her viciously, exploding over even the tiniest slight and beating her to show who was in charge.

He beat her when she didn’t answer the phone when he called. He beat her when she left a freak-off without his permission. He beat her when he thought she took too long in the bathroom. The defendant taught Cassie that defying him could and often would end in violence. And when she tried to run away, he always found her. Often with the help of his inner circle.

And Cassie’s career and livelihood were also in the defendant’s hands, something the defendant made clear to Cassie. He told her he could destroy her career by releasing the videos that he recorded of her performing sex acts on dozens and dozens of male escorts. So Cassie knew that failing to please the defendant, refusing his demands, had more than just physical consequences. It had the power to ruin her life.

The defendant’s control, the defendant’s violence, and the defendant’s threats, that is how the defendant ensured Cassie could not say no to him.

So time and again, when the defendant suggested to Cassie that they have a freak-off, she knew she had no choice but to agree and went to work setting one up. She texted the escorts, arranged for them to come to hotels, and put on the performance the defendant wanted. Her livelihood and her safety depended on keeping him happy.

Cassie’s relationship with the defendant was complicated. You will hear during this trial that both Cassie and the defendant were unfaithful, jealous, and at times angry. But only one of them had power. Only one had control. And that was the defendant. And with that power, and with that control, he made Cassie do his bidding in those dark hotel rooms.

You’ll learn, though, that Cassie was not the only woman the defendant did this to. This was part of a pattern. Now, I want to tell you about Jane. Jane was a single mom who started spending time with the defendant in 2020. The defendant pursued and romanced Jane, who fell in love with him quickly. Jane was not seeing other men, but the defendant was seeing other women at the time, so his relationship with Jane was not at all public.

For the first few months, their sex life was just the two of them and Jane was happy. That was until the defendant introduced Jane to freak-offs. One night, when they had already taken drugs and been having sex for hours, the defendant told Jane about freak-offs. Jane agreed to try one to make the defendant happy. To her surprise, the defendant said he would make it happen immediately, that very same night. He took her to a hotel where a room was already set up and an escort was on the way. Jane was nervous and the defendant directed her step by step.

Jane thought the first freak-off was a one-time, wild night. Jane was wrong. The defendant continued asking Jane to have freak-offs and promising that if she did, they would spend quality time together, they would go on dates together, they would go on trips. That was what Jane wanted more than anything, a real relationship. So she agreed. She helped plan freak-offs and reach out to escorts. But even though the defendant promised her quality time and trips, he never delivered. Those were just lies he told her to get more nights in dark hotel rooms with escorts.

Jane will tell you about those nights in detail, how she wanted the escorts to wear condoms, but many times the defendant did not let them. And Jane will tell you how he had her take drugs to stay awake and aroused for days. Jane tried twice to make it through these nights without drugs. The first time, she broke down and had took ecstasy to finish performing for the defendant. The second time, Jane vomited after having sex with one escort. How did the defendant respond? He told her to hurry up and get back into the room where another escort was waiting.

Early on, Jane told the defendant that she didn’t like freak-offs and she just wanted to be alone with him. She loved him desperately and wanted a real relationship with him. The defendant did not listen. Feeling stuck and sick of the strangers the defendant kept bringing to these hotel rooms, Jane tried to assert herself in small ways. She found two men, men who performed in pornography, and she invited them to join the freak-offs. That way, Jane could at least choose the other man she was forced to be intimate with.

Like he did with Cassie, the defendant eventually took steps to control Jane financially. The defendant wanted Jane available to meet with him at a moment’s notice and he discouraged her from working. Jane’s income plummeted. The defendant gave Jane money and later started paying the rent for the house that she lived with her child. That way, when Jane resisted the freak-offs and told him over and over that she wanted to stop, he had the power to coerce her back into the hotel rooms. And just as he had with Cassie, the defendant threatened Jane with the videos he recorded of her engaging in sex acts with the escorts.

But the lies, and the drugs, and the threats, were not the end of it. Not even a year ago today, Jane had the worst day of her life. The defendant came to Jane’s house for an at-home date night. She and the defendant argued about another woman that the defendant had been seeing. Jane was upset and jealous. She had now spent years in hotel rooms for forced sex while the defendant took his other girlfriends for dates and trips.

Jane hit the defendant and threw things at him. The defendant became enraged. So Jane tried to get away from him and hide. She ran to her bedroom and locked the door. He kicked it open. She ran to her bathroom and locked the door. He kicked it open. She ran to her closet and locked the door. He kicked it open. She ran to the guest bedroom and locked the door. He kicked it open. She tried to run out the front door, but he grabbed her, in a chokehold, lifted her off the ground by her neck, and kicked her to the ground.

Later that night, they fought again. And just as he had with Cassie, the defendant viciously attacked Jane. He punched her in the face, kicked her while she was curled up in a ball on the ground, dragged her by her hair and her arm, and slapped Jane’s face so hard she fell over. When all of this was over, the defendant still did not let Jane be. Instead, he told Jane you’re not going to fuck up my night. The defendant instructed her to put on an outfit and call up an escort for a freak-off. He made Jane cover her black eye and bruising, take an ecstasy pill, and perform for the defendant with that escort.

Jane followed his instructions. Like with Cassie, the defendant’s violence had gotten him what he wanted.

The defendant’s sexual violence did not stop at freak-offs though. Cassie will tell you about the time when the defendant forced himself on her, having sex with her as she cried and repeatedly told him no.

And Mia, an employee who the defendant worked to the bone for years will tell you about the times that the defendant forced himself on her sexually, putting his hand up her dress, unzipping his pants and forcing her to perform oral sex, and sneaking into her bed to penetrate her against her will.

As I said before, the defendant had the power and the control, endless resources and a loyal inner circle who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Amidst all this violence, the defendant and his inner circle had to make sure that nothing put the defendant’s public image and his power at risk. So as tirelessly as the defendant’s inner circle worked to meet the defendant’s every need, they also worked to cover up his crimes.

Remember the video at the LA hotel of the defendant attacking Cassie during a freak-off? You will hear just how far the defendant, his bodyguards, and his chief of staff went to get what they thought was the only copy of that video.

The defendant first tried to pay off a hotel security guard with a wad of cash in exchange for his silence. Then, the defendant and his chief of staff reached out to a different hotel security guard to broker a deal. In exchange for the video from the hotel, the defendant gave the security guard a brown paper bag full of $100,000 in cash, while the defendant’s bodyguard and his chief of staff stood by. This is far from the only time that the defendant’s inner circle tried to close ranks and do damage control.

You’ll hear how the inner circle covered up the defendant’s brutal beatings by keeping Cassie in hiding for days. You’ll hear about the inner circle contacting witnesses of the defendant’s abuse to feed them lies, including even after he knew about the investigation in this case. Again and again the defendant and his inner circle tried to keep the defendant’s crimes out of public view, to protect his reputation, and to protect his power. That is what the evidence in the case will show.

For all of this, the defendant is charged with multiple federal crimes. You’ll hear a lot more on the charges at the end of the trial when the judge instructs you on the law, and his instructions control. But for now, there are just a few points I want to highlight so you have context for what you’ll hear during this case.

First, the defendant is charged with racketeering conspiracy based on his agreement to commit crimes as part of an enterprise. I expect the judge will tell you that an enterprise is a group of people who work together for a common purpose of engaging in a conduct, a course of conduct, over a time.

Here, you will learn that that enterprise is the inner circle I talked about, the bodyguards and high-ranking employees, like chiefs of staff. Some of these people came and went over 20 years. But I expect the evidence will show that the defendant was a through line. He remained at the top, running that group, and he always had trusted bodyguards and advisors helping him.

Together, they agreed to commit different crimes, including kidnapping and arson, distributing drugs to other people, exploiting employees for labor, and in Mia’s case, sex, bribery and obstruction, sex trafficking, and transporting people for prostitution. That’s all covered by the racketeering conspiracy charge.

The defendant is also charged separately for sex trafficking Cassie and Jane through force, fraud, or coercion. Again, the judge’s instructions control, but I expect you’ll learn that fraud includes a lie about a material fact. Coercion includes threats, and force includes violence.

The defendant is charged with using all three tactics to make Cassie and Jane participate in day’s long, drug fueled, recorded sexual encounters with male escorts against their will.

Finally, he is charged with transporting Cassie, Jane, and male escorts across state lines for these sexual encounters.

How will the government prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of these crimes? You’ll hear from witnesses, including Cassie and Jane, two of the defendant’s victims. They will tell you how the defendant tried to control their lives, from their homes, to their careers, how the defendant used his control over them, his lies, his drugs, his threats, and his violence to force and coerce them into having sex with male escorts.

Cassie and Jane will describe freak-offs for you in painstaking detail. They will tell you some of the most personal and painful experiences of their lives. The days they spent awake in hotel rooms, high on drugs, dressed as characters to perform the defendant’s fantasy, just as he directed them to do. You’ll also hear from some of the defendant’s employees.

You’ll hear from Mia, who worked as the defendant’s personal assistant for years, the employee he sexually assaulted. Mia is just beginning to grapple with the times the defendant forced himself on her sexually. Mia will tell you how she could not talk about what happened to her until recently, how she wanted to take the secret of what the defendant did to her to her grave.

You will hear from the employee who the defendant forced into that SUV with a gun from one of the defendant’s chefs and from other personal assistants. They will tell you they worked punishing hours and days for the defendant, at times without any sleep. They will tell you how the defendant ordered them to buy drugs for him, how they used all the resources at their disposal to make sure the defendant always had everything he desired, how they were expected to keep quiet about what they saw and what they heard in the defendant’s homes.

You will learn that some of these witnesses and victims, including Cassie, have already received financial settlements from the defendant, or have filed lawsuits against the defendant. But these witnesses will tell you that they’d trade any money from the defendant for not having been abused.

You will also hear from some of the escorts who participated in freak-offs with Cassie and Jane. They will tell you how the defendant directed the sexual activity between the escorts and Cassie or Jane, down to the details of how they touched each other, the specific sex acts they performed, all while the defendant filmed it. You will even hear from an escort who saw the defendant assault Cassie and drag her by her hair during a freak-off.

In addition to these witnesses, you will see documents that prove the defendant’s crimes. You’ll see records from hotels, car services, and airlines, showing the dates and locations when the escorts and women traveled to meet the defendant for freak-offs. You will see records of the physical damage the defendant in his freak-offs caused the hotel rooms where he stayed. You will see dozens and dozens of text messages about freak-offs, including messages from the defendant to his staff asking for more cash to pay escorts. Messages where the defendant tells Cassie what drugs to take and when before a freak-off. And messages from Jane to the defendant telling him over and over again that she did not want to do freak-offs. And you will see videos of some of the freak-offs, the videos the defendant used to blackmail Cassie and to blackmail Jane. Those videos capture just small parts of these day’s long performances. In them, you can hear the defendant providing direction to Cassie and Jane, and you will see Cassie and Jane do exactly what the defendant tells them to do.

You will see them put on a performance, high on ecstasy, where they pretend to enjoy themselves because that’s what the defendant said he wanted. You will see for yourselves the defendant’s violence in its aftermath. You will see a video capturing the defendant brutally beating Cassie during a freak-off at an LA hotel. You will see photos of Cassie and her injuries from the defendant’s assaults. You will hear from witnesses who saw the defendant assault Cassie or saw injuries he inflicted on her. You will see photos of the damage the defendant did when he kicked in four doors at Jane’s home. And you will see videos of Jane, with bruising still on her face, days after the defendant attacked her and forced her to do a freak-off, not even a year ago.

You will see for yourself what the defendant had in his homes in March 2024 when they were searched. Guns, the defendant’s so-called med bag full of illegal drugs, and freak-off supplies like lubricant and platform high heels. Finally, you will see and hear evidence of how the defendant and his inner circle worked to keep his reputation and his power intact for all these years. You will see the agreement signed by the hotel security guard barring him from speaking about the $100,000 that the defendant paid him for that hotel security video.

You will hear recordings of phone calls when the defendant called Jane after Cassie had filed a lawsuit. You will hear him — you will hear him try to manipulate Jane into saying she wanted to have freak-offs. You will hear him interrupt Jane when she pushes back. You will hear the defendant’s thinly veiled references to continuing to pay for Jane’s home in exchange for her silence, and you will see the text messages the defendant sent to his chief of staff right after talking to Jane to make sure that Jane’s rent would still be paid on time. The evidence will come in piece by piece and it won’t always come in chronological order. But by the end of this trial, when you’ve seen and heard all of the evidence, you will see how it all fits together. You will see how it proves that the defendant led and controlled an enterprise that enabled him and others working for him to commit many crimes. How it proves that he forced and coerced Cassie and Jane into sex with male escorts, including by having them travel to other states and countries so those sex acts could happen. And you will see how all of these crimes and the empire the defendant controlled were designed to fulfill his sexual desires, to protect his representation, and to keep his power.

At the end of this trial, we will have the opportunity to speak with you again. But between now and then, I would ask that you do three things.

First, please pay close attention to the evidence.

Second, please follow the judge’s instructions on the law.

And, third, please use and trust your common sense.

If you do all that, you will reach the only verdict that is consistent with the law and the evidence in this case. That the defendant, Sean Combs, is guilty.