Cassie Testifies in Diddy Trial, Alleging Years of Abuse, Coercion

On the third day of Sean “Diddy” Combs’s federal trial, singer Casandra Ventura—known professionally as Cassie and the rapper’s former partner—delivered emotional testimony describing years of physical abuse, threats, and coercion at the hands of the music mogul, as per Al Jazeera.

Speaking in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, Ventura detailed a tumultuous decade-long relationship with Combs, who is facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, and related offenses.

“He would grab me up, push me down, hit me in the side of the head, kick me,” Ventura told jurors. She described efforts to resist Combs’s violence as only escalating his aggression. “It would just make him more violent, make him stronger, make him want to push me harder.”

Prosecutors allege that Combs used his wealth and position atop a sprawling entertainment empire to manipulate and control women, luring them into drug-fueled sex parties—referred to as “freak-offs”—and then using footage of these encounters as blackmail.

Ventura testified that she became addicted to opioids in an effort to cope with the trauma and described the parties as emotionally and physically draining. “It started to feel like a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” she said.

At one point in 2013, she sent Combs photos of bruises after he allegedly threw her into a bed frame. His response, she recalled, was chilling:

“You don’t know when to stop. You pushed it too far and continued to push. Sad.”

“He said that it would ruin everything that I had worked for, that it would make me look like a slut, that I would be shamed,” Ventura added, referring to Combs’s alleged threats to release explicit videos if she left him or spoke out.

Combs’s defense team acknowledged that the rapper has exhibited aggressive behavior in the past, including physical altercations, but argued that the current charges mischaracterize his lifestyle.

They described Combs’s relationships and sexual encounters as consensual and pushed back against the prosecution’s portrayal of a criminal enterprise.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges, which include racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transporting individuals for prostitution. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.