• Luigi Mangione last month accused NY prosecutors of fraudulently acquiring his Aetna health history.
• On Friday, prosecutors blamed Aetna, saying they over-responded to a lawful, limited DA subpoena.
• "Mistakes do occur," including on the part of the defense, the prosecutor wrote.

Luigi Mangione's confidential, 120-page medical history was accidentally emailed to his New York prosecutors not once, but twice — first by Aetna and then by his own defense lawyers, according to a new court filing.

Prosecutors took "appropriate measures" both times, forwarding the confidential health records to the judge and deleting their own copy, the lead assistant district attorney, Joel Seidemann, wrote in revealing what he described as a double-snafu on Friday.

"Mistakes do occur," Seidemann wrote in his three-page filing — meaning on the part of defense lawyers and Aetna, but not himself.

"Aetna erroneously sent us materials," he wrote. "Like Aetna, the defense then erred, compounding Aetna's mistake," he wrote. "Defense counsel sent the People an email attaching the entire Aetna file she now complains about."

"Once again, we complied with our ethical obligations by asking counsel if she intended to send us the file," Seidemann wrote.

"When she indicated that she did not and asked that we delete it, we complied with her request and did not take advantage of her error."

Aetna, meanwhile, defended its own role in the records relay, saying through a spokesman that they got a subpoena, and they answered it.

"Our response is the same as before," wrote Phil Blando, executive director for communications for Aetna's parent company, CVS Health. "Aetna received a subpoena for certain medical records, and we provided them appropriately."

It's the latest round of finger-pointing in a month-long battle between state-level prosecutors and defense attorneys over the confidential medical records of Mangione, the 27-year-old Maryland native accused in the December shooting murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The records included "different diagnoses as well as specific medical complaints made by Mr. Mangione," his lawyers complained in their own filing last month.

Both prosecutors and the defense agree that Seidemann's May 14 subpoena asked Aetna for very limited data, just Mangione's health insurance account number and the period of time he was covered.

Beyond that small patch of common ground, the sides diverge widely.

The defense, led by attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, wrote last month that Seidemann should never have asked directly for Mangione's health insurance account number, arguing that it is protected under HIPAA, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

"The requested information does not appear to be protected by HIPAA, since it did not relate to a condition, treatment, or payment for health care," Seidemann countered in Friday's filing.

The sides also differ on what happened once Aetna attached Mangione's entire healthcare history, in four files, to its June 12, supboeana-response email to Seidemann.

Seidemann wrote in Friday's filing that his subpoena "was lawful and properly drafted," and that, as required, it directed Aetna to return the requested materials to the judge.

The defense accuses Seidemann of sitting on the sensitive records for 12 days before forwarding them to the judge. They additionally want to know how Aetna wound up sending the records directly to the prosecutor.

They've asked the judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro, to order "a full evidentiary hearing" to determine possible penalties, including kicking Seidemann off the case. They've asked that the hearing include sworn testimony and the surrender of correspondence between prosecutors and Aetna.

By late Friday afternoon, the judge had not issued a decision on calling such a hearing. A defense spokesperson declined to comment on Friday's filing.

In addition to the state case, Mangione is charged with murder in a federal indictment that seeks the death penalty. In another, more behind-the-scenes battle, prosecutors in both venues, state and federal, have said they intend to bring Mangione to trial first.

The order of trials has yet to be worked out.

State court has an advantage, in that Mangione's case is proceeding more quickly there, given the lack of complicated capital-punishment issues.

The feds, too, have an advantage, in that Mangione is in federal custody, and they have physical control of where he goes. Judges in both venues have said they hope to bring him to trial in 2026.

• A judge ordered Blake Lively to turn over 3 years of her business income records to Justin Baldoni.
• But in a victory for the actress, the judge blocked Baldoni's demand for details of her net worth.
• Thursday's decision is the latest in the ongoing litigation between the "It Ends With Us" costars.

The judge in Blake Lively's ongoing lawsuit against "It Ends With Us" costar Justin Baldoni ordered her to turn over three years of business income records to his lawyers, but blocked his demand for her total net worth.

Thursday's mixed decision — awarding Baldoni some, but not all, of the financial records he has demanded — is the latest development in Lively's December 2024 lawsuit.

Lively alleges Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set and then tried to destroy her reputation through a "sophisticated" press and online attack campaign when she complained.

She is seeking an unspecified cash judgment for lost wages and mental and emotional distress. In June, a judge dismissed Baldoni's $400 million countersuit against Lively.

The judge's most recent decision requires Lively to turn over all of her business income and expense records from January 1, 2022 to present. She must do so by July 25, the judge ruled.

These records are needed for "establishing whether such income and expenses have changed since the events described" in her lawsuit, the judge wrote.

Lively has alleged in court papers that Baldoni's attacks on her reputation depressed the retail sales of her hair care line, Blake Brown, by "56% —78%." She also has a sparkling mixer brand, Betty Buzz.

"Lively must have some basis for stating that she has suffered economic damages," the judge wrote in ordering her to turn over her income records.

The judge spared Lively from having to turn over her last three years of net worth records.

Lively's side had complained that this demand was overbroad and that the records, which could have included details of property values, savings, and investments, would be irrelevant to proving her businesses' lost income.

The judge agreed, writing, "Lively cannot be compelled to produce documents regarding her personal assets and liabilities with no relationship to any alleged loss in income or opportunities resulting from defendants' actions."

Barring some kind of settlement, the case is not scheduled to wrap anytime soon. She is due to be deposed in private by Baldoni's lawyers on July 31. Lawyers for both sides are due in court on October 21 for their next status conference, and a 2026 trial date has yet to be set.

Business Insider's Senior Legal Correspondent Laura Italiano breaks down what it's been like reporting on both Diddy trials.

• Prosecutors and defense have rested their case against Sean "Diddy" Combs.
• Over the last six-and-a-half weeks, prosecutors have called 34 witnesses, including Cassie Ventura.
• The defense rested without calling a single witness.

Manhattan federal prosecutors rested their sex-trafficking and racketeering case against Sean "Diddy" Combs on Tuesday following six-and-a-half weeks of trial testimony.

The defense, too, rested — its entire case lasting only 30 minutes.

The hip-hop mogul's lawyers did not call any witnesses to testify on Combs' behalf. Instead, his lawyers read a small selection of texts and a half dozen stipulations into the record.

Stipulations are agreements between lawyers on both sides to enter documents or other facts into evidence.

A defense decision not to call witnesses is not uncommon in criminal trials and suggests that Combs' team believes the prosecution does not have a slam-dunk case, lawyers who are not involved in the trial told Business Insider.

Opting for no witnesses reflects a show of confidence and may prove to be a wise strategy, said attorney Michael Bachner, who was on the defense team in 2001 when Combs was acquitted in Manhattan of state-level gun and bribery charges after the rapper took the stand.

In Combs' case, Bachner, a former prosecutor who, as an attorney, won an acquittal for Combs co-defendant Anthony Jones, said the defense has likely concluded that they've already raised reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury through their cross-examinations of some of the 34 prosecution witnesses and by turning the prosecution's own evidence against them.

Combs' eight-man, four-woman jury has seen hundreds of texts and emails between the music tycoon and his two sex-trafficking accusers — R&B singer Cassie Ventura and a later girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym "Jane."

During their testimony, both women recounted the anguish and fear they said they suffered from participating in years of "freak offs," described as dayslong, drug-fueled sex performances with male escorts that Combs would record and masturbate to.

But in their cross-examinations, defense lawyers repeatedly underscored that both women also at times expressed enthusiasm for these sex encounters at the center of the case. (The women testified that they were just telling Combs what they knew he wanted to hear.)

"Unless you have something that's a critical witness, like an alibi witness, it's sometimes just safer to sit on your laurels and hope you've raised reasonable doubt," Bachner said.

"I think they believe that with what they have now, they have a good chance of getting at least one hung juror," he added. "And if there's a hung jury, you may not be re-tried."

Combs had one final chance to change his mind and take the stand before his lawyers rested their case. Outside the presence of the jury, the judge asked Combs if he was voluntarily waiving his right to testify on his own behalf. Combs stood at the defense table and said he was.

"It's my decision," he told the judge, of choosing not to testify.

Combs also slipped the judge a compliment, telling him, "I want to tell you I think you are doing an excellent job."

Combs has denied the criminal charges against him, and his attorneys have argued that the sexual interactions cited in the case were consensual. They also argue that Combs' business was not a criminal racket.

"The defense has a narrative that has come across very clearly through the defense opening statement and all the cross-examinations. They've made a decision that the defense witnesses will not be necessary to that narrative," said former Manhattan federal prosecutor Sarah Krissoff.

Spencer Kuvin, an attorney who has represented multiple accusers of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said, "By only reading stipulations and not calling a single witness, Diddy's attorneys are positioning to argue that the government has failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt."

"The government must prove Diddy's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and if they do not, Diddy is not guilty," Kuvin said.

In opening statements on May 12, prosecutor Emily Johnson told the jury Combs used "lies, drugs, threats, and violence to force and coerce" Ventura, his ex-girlfriend of more than 10 years, and later Jane, into the freak offs.

Combs, a onetime near billionaire, is accused of running a racketeering conspiracy that committed numerous crimes, including sex trafficking, arson, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering, forced labor, and drug distribution.

"For 20 years, the defendant, with the help of his trusted inner circle, committed crime after crime," Johnson said.

Combs' defense attorney, Teny Geragos, countered in her opening statement that Combs is a "complicated" and "flawed" man with a violent side, but said the evidence does not show that he's a sex trafficker or racketeer.

"This case is about voluntary, adult choices made by capable adults and consensual relationships," Geragos said. "This case is about those real-life relationships, and the government is trying to turn those relationships into a racketeering case, a prostitution case, and a sex trafficking case. It will not work."

Jurors heard nearly two weeks of what was at times emotional testimony from Ventura and Jane. Both said they felt compelled by Combs to have sex with male prostitutes while he watched and recorded them. These elaborate, drug-fueled performances would go on for days, typically in luxury hotels, the women said.

They participated out of fear of Combs' violence and because of his emotional and financial control over them, they testified. Prosecutors used photographs of bruises, eyewitness testimony, and years of text and email messages to corroborate the women's accounts.

Jurors also viewed graphic freak off video footage that the public and media were not permitted to see.

This story was updated when the defense rested its case.

• Ye appeared at Manhattan court to support Sean "Diddy" Combs at his sex-trafficking trial.
• But the rapper was not allowed in the main courtroom where Combs is on trial.
• Combs' trial is in its fifth week, with the prosecution expected to rest next week.

Ye, the embattled rapper formerly known as Kanye West, showed up Friday at Manhattan federal court to support Sean "Diddy" Combs at his criminal sex-trafficking trial.

Ye made the surprise appearance at the courthouse shortly after 11 a.m. on Friday. The "Jesus Walks" rapper, though, never actually made it into the 26th-floor courtroom where Combs' trial is unfolding.

He instead sat in the front row of an overflow room on the courthouse's 23rd floor after he was denied entry into the main courtroom where the trial is taking place, courthouse sources told Business Insider.

One source told BI that Ye was not on Combs' list of approved family members or friends.

"He did not wait in line like everybody else from the public," the court source said. "No one gets special treatment."

Courthouse staff opened an overflow room where Ye and Christian Combs, one of Combs' children, were able to watch the proceedings on a screen, a court source said. Ye's bodyguard and another Combs supporter also sat with them, according to the source.

Ye, who wore an outfit of all-white denim, listened to about half an hour of testimony before he left. At the time, Jonathan Perez, a former personal assistant for Combs, was on the witness stand.

Milo Yiannopoulos, who has been a spokesman for Ye, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Combs' sex-trafficking and racketeering trial is now in its fifth week.

The prosecution is expected to rest its case next week before Combs' defense will present its side to the eight-man, four-woman jury.

During jury selection, potential jurors were quizzed about their knowledge of other celebrities who may have had some connection to the case.

The list included Ye. During the trial, he's only been mentioned once, in passing, by another one of Combs' assistants.

Kid Cudi, another celebrity listed on the juror questionnaire, testified earlier in the trial about a dispute with Combs involving Cassie Ventura.

Ventura, a singer who was signed to Combs' record label and dated him for around a decade, testified at the start of the trial that Combs abused her and coerced her into participating in elaborate sex performances called "freak offs."

On Thursday, another accuser in the case, who used the pseudonym Jane, testified that she attended a sex performance hosted by another rapper.

The rapper wasn't named in the case, but Combs' lawyer described him as "an icon in the music industry" and as someone who was "very close with Combs" and had collaborated with him professionally.

Jane testified that she attended the sex performance as part of a trip to Las Vegas in January 2024 to celebrate the unnamed rapper's girlfriend's birthday.

According to Jane, that rapper flirted with her while they watched another man and woman have sex in a hotel room.

"He said something along the lines of that he thought I was beautiful, and he always wanted to blank me," Jane said Thursday, censoring herself in the courtroom.

• Sean "Diddy" Combs drew a rebuke from the judge at his Manhattan sex-trafficking trial on Thursday.
• The judge told Combs' attorneys that he'd noticed Combs repeatedly "nodding vigorously" at the jury.
• Combs could be barred from the courtroom if it happened again, the judge warned.

The trial could soon be missing him.

The judge overseeing Sean "Diddy" Combs' Manhattan sex-trafficking trial threatened to kick the rapper out of the courtroom after seeing him "nodding vigorously" during a witness's testimony on Thursday.

US District Judge Arun Subramanian said he personally saw Combs appearing to send signals to the jury while one of his lawyers grilled a prosecution witness about her interactions with Combs.

If it happened again, Subramanian warned the defense team, the judge would consider talking to jurors about what Combs was doing — and it could result in "the exclusion of your client from the courtroom."

"I really meant it," the judge said. "There should be no efforts whatsoever to have any interactions with the jury."

Prosecutors allege Combs sex-trafficked women by forcing them to engage in "freak offs" — dayslong, drug-fueled sexual performances involving male sex workers.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and his attorneys say all his relationships were consensual. The blockbuster trial, playing out in a lower Manhattan courtroom, is expected to conclude within a month.

The apparent head-nods came up during Thursday's cross-examination of Bryana "Bana" Bongolan, a friend of R&B artist Cassie Ventura, the prosecution's star witness.

Bongolan had told the jury on Wednesday that Combs physically attacked Ventura and herself.

Bongolan testified she once watched Combs throw a knife at Ventura, and Ventura throw it back.

Bongolan also said Combs once leaned into her face and announced, "I'm the devil and I could kill you," and said that in September, 2016, he hoisted her into the air and dangled her over Ventura's 17th-story balcony.

During the cross-examination that Combs reacted to, defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland highlighted apparent inconsistencies between what Bongolan has alleged in a civil lawsuit, her interviews with prosecutors, and her testimony.

Westmoreland pursued a familiar theme pushed by Combs' legal team: That his accusers have financial motives to accuse him of wrongdoing.

In one example, Bongolan's ongoing lawsuit accuses Combs of violent sexual assault, an allegation not made in her June 4 testimony, though Bongolan did tell jurors that Combs' hands cupped her breasts before he hoisted her up from under her arms.

The jury heard earlier in the trial that Combs settled a civil lawsuit from Ventura for $20 million. Ventura also testified that a hotel where Combs beat her agreed to a $10 million settlement.

Bongolan's civil lawsuit against Combs asked for $10 million in damages.

"It means a lot for you to become a ten-millionaire soon, doesn't it?" Westmoreland asked Bongolan.

"I care about justice," Bongolan answered.

• Sean "Diddy" Combs' prosecutors are beginning to wrap up their Manhattan sex-trafficking case.
• "Jane," their third and last sexual-assault witness, is taking the stand on Thursday.
• Prosecutors say Combs sex-trafficked her from 2021-2024. She is also key to a racketeering charge.

A final sexual assault witness testified on Thursday that agreeing to have sex with male escorts while Sean "Diddy" Combs watched and directed their actions opened up a "Pandora's box" she could not close.

"It was just a door I was unable to shut," said the witness, testifying under the pseudonym "Jane."

"It was so much of it," she said of the drug-fueled, dayslong sexual performances that she and Combs called "hotel nights."

"It was too much of it," she told the jury.

Jane is due to testify this week and next at Combs' federal trial in Manhattan, with her testimony meant to bolster the two top charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

Her testimony follows that of R&B singer and sex-trafficking witness Cassie Ventura, who said Combs coerced her into humiliating sex with male escorts in the 10 years ending in 2018. Former Combs employee "Mia" has also testified and said he sexually assaulted her at least four times between 2009 and 2017.

Jane is the millionaire music and lifestyle mogul's last victim before his arrest, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors say Combs sex-trafficked Jane —meaning forced her to cross state lines to engage in sex with paid male escorts — between 2021 and 2024, the year he was arrested at the Park Hyatt, a Manhattan luxury hotel.

Inside Combs' hotel room, investigators recovered bags of ketamine and ecstasy powder, a blue party light, and more than a dozen bottles of baby oil and sexual lubricants, a Department of Homeland Security investigator testified during the trial's first week.

Prosecutors have previously described these items as the ingredients for freak offs, the dayslong sexual performances at the center of the sex trafficking case. Prosecutors have suggested that Jane will testify to having participated in Combs' final freak off — or "hotel night," as she called them — at that hotel.

On Thursday, Jane told the jury that she agreed to the first encounter in 2021 because she loved Combs and wanted to make him happy. She conceded on the stand that she felt "exhilarated" afterward.

Still, "I didn't think that we would be doing that again," she told the jury. "I figured it was something we did that one time, and maybe on a random night we might do it again."

She said she soon realized that participating was the only way Combs would agree to have sex with her.

But when she would tell him she wanted to stop having the encounters, which jurors have also heard were called "freak offs" and "king nights," Combs would abruptly brush her off.

"I could just feel the tension was building," she said. Combs would tell her, "We don't have to," and "That's fine," she said, and then quickly changed the subject.

Ultimately, she said, "We would just do it" again.

Prosecutors have also said that Combs could be violent with Jane. In openings last month, they described Combs chasing her through the rooms of the house he paid for her to live in in Los Angeles, breaking down doors as she tried to escape.

Jane's testimony may be key to proving not just sex trafficking, but racketeering as well. Racketeering requires proof that Combs, through his business empire, committed at least two underlying crimes.

Those potential underlying crimes include sex trafficking. They also include bribery and obstruction of justice, two crimes that prosecutors have alleged that Jane witnessed.

During her May 12 opening statements, Emily Johnson, an assistant US attorney, told the jury that Combs and his family members repeatedly reached out to Jane in an attempt to influence her testimony against him.

"You will hear him try to manipulate Jane into saying she wanted freak offs," Johnson said in her opening, describing a recorded phone call she promised the jury would hear.

"You will hear him interrupt Jane when she pushes back," the prosecutor added.

Prosecutors say Combs made sure that Jane would continue to receive housing payments from him after his arrest, something they may describe as a bribe.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to the indictment, through which he risks a maximum potential sentence of life in prison.

His lawyers have insisted that all sexual contact in the indictment was consensual, and they have described his business activities as legitimate and not constituting a criminal "racket."

The trial may continue into early July, depending on the length of the defense case, which is expected to begin in mid-June.

This story has been updated with additional detail from Jane's testimony.

• A judge rebuked Sean "Diddy" Combs' attorney for a question he asked witness Kid Cudi.
• Combs' lawyer questioned the rapper about his sex life with star prosecution witness Cassie Ventura.
• "One, the line was crystal clear. And two, the line was crossed," the judge said.

The judge overseeing Sean "Diddy" Combs' criminal trial slammed an attorney for the hip-hop mogul for questioning Kid Cudi about his sex life with R&B singer Cassie Ventura.

US District Judge Arun Subramanian's rebuke followed more than an hour of testimony given by Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi.

While under cross-examination in Manhattan federal court, Steel asked Mescudi a series of questions that appeared intended to besmirch the credibility of Ventura, the prosecution's star witness in Combs' sex-trafficking and racketeering trial.

Steel asked if Mescudi had felt "played" by Ventura — and if Combs had been likewise "played" — because she'd told both men that their relationship was exclusive.

"Yes," Mescudi answered.

Mescudi and Ventura briefly dated in 2011 while Ventura was on a break from Combs. Ventura and Combs dated on and off between 2007 and 2018. During that time, prosecutors allege that Ventura was one of two women whom Combs sex-trafficked.

During his line of questioning, Steel asked Mescudi if he and Ventura had been sexually intimate during their romance — a question that sparked a speedy, successful objection from prosecutors.

After Mescudi left the witness stand and the jury was excused from the courtroom, the judge admonished Steel, who has also represented rapper Young Thug.

The judge said that Steel's question was way out of line under federal rules barring the use of prior sexual activity in impugning sex-crime accusers.

"One, the line was crystal clear. And two, the line was crossed," Subramanian said, his voice angry. "Mr. Steel, you knew what you were doing when you did it, and you did it anyway."

When Subramanian asked, "Is it going to happen again?" Steel said it wouldn't. The judge also ordered that the question, which Mescudi never answered, be struck from the record.

While on the witness stand, Mescudi told the jury that Combs broke into his Los Angeles home after the music tycoon found out he was dating Ventura.

Christmas gifts from Chanel that Mescudi had gotten for his family were unwrapped and opened, and his dog was shut in the bathroom during the December 2011 break-in, he testified.

Mescudi told the jury that his Porsche was firebombed weeks later while it was parked in his driveway.

During Ventura's more than 20 hours of testimony in the trial last week, she said her relationship with Mescudi sent Combs into a violent rage. Ventura also testified that Combs threatened to blow up Mescudi's car when they were out of the country.

Prosecutors have alleged that Combs previously ordered his underlings to torch a car using a Molotov cocktail.

• The prosecution has rested its case against Sean "Diddy" Combs.
• Combs' two sex-trafficking accusers have testified.
• Here are 17 of the biggest revelations from the trial so far.

The prosecution has rested after 6 ½ weeks of testimony in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex-trafficking and racketeering trial.

A federal jury in Manhattan has heard R&B singer Cassie Ventura — Combs' ex-girlfriend and the catalyst for his public downfall — tearfully testify about the humiliating "freak offs" she says she endured throughout their 11-year relationship.

A second sex-assault accuser, who testified as "Mia," described four times she says Combs attacked her, and a third accuser. The third accuser, "Jane," testified about the alleged violence underlying what prosecutors say were her three years as Combs' sex-trafficking victim.

Along the way, there have been numerous celebrity mentions, including pop icon Britney Spears, actor Michael B. Jordan, rapper Kid Cudi, and late music legend Prince.

Combs was arrested in September on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution — the culmination of months of lawsuits and public accusations of sexual assault and other misconduct.

The music tycoon is arguing through his defense team that all sexual encounters were consensual, including the alleged drug-fueled freak offs at the trial's center — and that any violence fell short of sex trafficking.

Here are some of the most striking moments from the trial so far.

Kanye West granted VIP courtroom access

Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, has been given special access to attend his pal Combs' trial.

The "Jesus Walks" rapper has been added to Combs' friends and family trial guest list, according to two sources with knowledge of the document.

Ye showed up to court to support Combs during the trial's fifth week, but was denied entry to the Manhattan courtroom.

"He did not wait in line like everybody else from the public," a court source previously told BI. "No one gets special treatment."

Ye was instead seated in an overflow room on the courthouse's 23rd floor — three floors below where Combs' trial is unfolding — and left after listening to about half an hour of testimony.

It's not clear whether Ye will be back to support Combs at his trial, but if he does, he will have a seat available alongside Combs' family members in the courtroom.

Diddy's ex says he beat her a month after he apologized for Cassie abuse

In May 2024, shortly after CNN aired hotel surveillance video showing Combs dragging Ventura down a hallway and beating her, the rapper posted an apology on Instagram.

On video, Combs told his followers that his behavior that day was "inexcusable" — and that he began therapy soon after the 2016 hotel incident.

"I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I'm disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now," he said in his Instagram video.

On June 9, however, Combs' ex testified that exactly one month after he posted that apology, he abused her, leaving her face covered in bruises.

After the abuse, she said, Combs leaned close to her and asked her: "Is this coercion?"

The woman, who testified under the pseudonym "Jane," said he then demanded she put on makeup, pop an ecstasy pill, and have sex with a male escort.

"Take this fucking pill. You're not going to ruin my fucking night," Jane said Combs demanded as she screamed, "I don't want to! I don't want to!"

Prosecutors say Combs sex trafficked Ventura and Jane by means of false promises, violence, and coercion.

Jane's and other trial witnesses' testimony contradicts the story she says Combs told people close to him after the CNN video was released.

Jane testified that when the news broke, Combs "huddled" with his team and his family.

"He said that that was the only time that they had physical violence like that," Jane said of the abuse between Combs and Ventura. "He said that she was a hitter and she would hit.

At trial, the jury has heard testimony from multiple witnesses describing more than a dozen times they said Combs physically abused Ventura between 2008 and 2018.

A witness said Combs personally counted a $100K bribe to kill the Cassie hotel video

A former security guard described Combs personally pulling $100,000 out of a paper bag and counting it, painting an image that's both surprising and legally significant.

The guard said Combs hoped the cash — prosecutors call it a bribe — would bury forever a 15-minute video showing him beating Ventura in the hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in March, 2016.

Combs fed "stacks of $10,000 at a time" into a money-counting machine, then stuffed it back in the paper bag, according to the ex-guard, Eddy Garcia.

The ex-guard said Combs then handed him the bag as payment for a USB thumb drive containing what both men believed was the only copy of the incriminating footage.

"Eddy, my angel," the guard said Combs called him after the transaction.

"Something like this would ruin him," he said Combs told him.

Eight years later, a surviving copy of the video was first made public by CNN. Now, it's the single most important piece of evidence in the trial, both sides say.

Prosecutors say the video shows Combs in the very act of sex-trafficking Ventura, meaning coercing her through physical force into engaging in sex at the hotel with a male sex worker known only as "Jewels."

The first charge in Combs' indictment accused him of racketeering, a charge that requires proof of at least two underlying crimes. Prosecutors may argue that the video alone is proof of three underlying crimes: sex trafficking, bribery, and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors hope the video will also clinch the second charge in Combs' indictment, which accuses him of sex trafficking Ventura. Both racketeering and sex trafficking carry maximum sentences of life in prison.

Combs raped his PA, "Mia," as she slept in the staff room at his Beverly Hills mansion, she said

One of Combs' former personal assistants testified under the pseudonym "Mia," telling jurors he sexually attacked her four times between 2009 and 2017, when she was in her mid-20s and early 30s.

She said that two of the attacks were at the sprawling glass and concrete mansion he rented in Beverly Hills, including a rape in the staff bedroom. She described waking to feeling Combs on top of her. "Be quiet," she said he told her.

"I knew his power and I knew his control over me," she told the jury, her voice hushed and halting.

"And I didn't want to lose everything that I worked so hard for — or this, like, this world that was the only thing I had anymore."

Combs beat Ventura outside a Prince party, Mia also told jurors

Combs once attacked Ventura during a party thrown by music icon Prince, the former personal assistant also testified.

The ex-PA, who used the pseudonym "Mia," told the jury she and Ventura had snuck out to Prince's Los Angeles home after learning he would be performing for a small gathering — a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience, as Ventura described it on the stand.

Prince did not disappoint. Mia said that as he played music, they danced atop his backyard pool, which was backlit and covered in purple plexiglas.

Then Combs showed up, she said.

"I saw his bucket hat come through the entrance and then made eye contact with him," Mia said of Combs. "Me and Cass just booked it."

They ran through Prince's house and into the woods out front, where "Puff caught Cass," and started beating her, Mia said, until Prince's security intervened.

Later that night, Ventura testified that Combs continued to beat her back at her hotel, leaving her with "bruising on my face, knots on my head."

Ex-employee Capricorn Clark testified Combs kidnapped her at gunpoint

Capricorn Clark, another former personal assistant and one who became one of his top marketing executives, kicked off week three of the trial by telling jurors that he once kidnapped her at gunpoint.

It was December 2011, after Combs learned of rapper Kid Cudi's brief relationship with Ventura, Clark testified on May 27.

Combs was "furious" with Clark for keeping him in the dark about Ventura's romance with the "Pursuit of Happiness" rapper, she said.

Clark told the jury that Combs, armed with a gun, went to her house in a rage and banged on the door.

"He just said, 'Get dressed, we're going to go kill'" him, Clark testified that Combs told her, using the N-word to refer to Kid Cudi.

Combs then took Clark to Kid Cudi's Los Angeles home, she told the jury, describing it as being "kidnapped."

"The way he was acting, I just felt like anything could happen," a tearful Clark testified.

Ex-exec says years before "freak offs" Combs took Kim Porter to hotels too — with candles and baby oil

In the first week of trial testimony, Ventura told jurors that starting in late 2008, she was coerced by Combs into a decade's worth of near-weekly "freak offs" — dayslong sex performances, usually at luxury hotels, involving male escorts, Glade candles, and numerous bottles of baby oil.

Clark told jurors that in the years she was Combs personal assistant, from 2004 until 2006, she would set up and clean up the hotel rooms where Combs took another longterm girlfriend, model Kim Porter, the mother of four of Combs' children.

During those years, Combs and Porter would stay for days at luxury hotels in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York. Clark said, as a personal assistant, she made sure Combs' suite was stocked with ecstasy, baby oil, and pricey Diptyque candles.

Cleanup was tricky, Clark told jurors, who mentioned "handprints left in oil on the, like, ultra-suede wall" as a particular problem. "It was just a lot of baby oil. It was just everywhere."

These were not "freak offs," Porter's former family attorney, Suzanne Kimberly Bracker, told Business Insider.

"He was madly in love with Kim," said Bracker, who helped negotiate Combs' child support settlement and who said that Porter had two children with Combs at the time.

"There is absolutely no way that he would share her with another man," she said. "He would tell her 'I'm not gonna pay for an apartment with my kids in one room while you're with another guy in the other bedroom.'"

Kid Cudi said Combs broke into his house and probably torched his Porsche

Kid Cudi took the witness stand in Combs' trial on May 22, telling jurors that in December 2011, the music tycoon broke into his Hollywood Hills home, enraged after finding out about the rival rapper's short-lived romance with Ventura.

Kid Cudi, given name Scott Mescudi, told the jury that he returned home after the break-in to find the Christmas gifts he'd planned to give his family unwrapped and opened. His dog, he said, had been shut in the bathroom.

"Motherfucker, you in my house?" Mescudi recalled telling Combs over the phone as he raced home to confront him.

Combs was gone by the time he arrived, Mescudi said.

Mescudi also told the jury that some two weeks later, his Porsche was firebombed while in his driveway.

The Porsche "arson" is a specific element in the racketeering charges against Combs. Prosecutors alleged in court papers that Combs ordered his underlings to torch a vehicle "by slicing open the car's convertible top and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside the interior."

Cassie's mom describes 'trying to hit' Combs in a fight over her daughter's stolen phone

Regina Ventura corroborated her daughter's testimony, telling jurors she witnessed the aftermath of two of Combs' violent, jealous rages over romantic rivals.

The first was in 2011. The mom said Cassie Ventura came home to Connecticut for the Christmas holidays with a large bruise on her back.

Cassie Ventura had told jurors the week before that the bruise was from being kicked to the ground by Combs during a fight over Mescudi.

Regina Ventura also confirmed a 2016 incident from shortly before the younger Ventura's 30th birthday. Combs had swiped her cellphone, Cassie Ventura testified, after learning about her affair with an unnamed professional NFL player.

When she returned to her Los Angeles apartment without her phone, her mother, who was visiting, called the police and confronted Combs outside the building as her daughter remained upstairs, the elder Ventura testified.

"I was yelling and screaming and trying to hit him," the mom told jurors. "He did give it back," she told jurors of the missing phone.

Cassie screamed, 'Isn't anybody seeing this?' as Combs attacked her on his private jet, ex-assistant says

A former Combs personal assistant described watching — and doing nothing — as his boss brutally attacked a cowering Ventura in the bedroom of the rapper's private jet.

George Kaplan, 34, said the attack happened on a crowded flight to Las Vegas in the latter half of 2015. Kaplan said he heard the sound of screams and shattering glass coming from the jet's bedroom.

He said he turned to see Combs standing over Ventura with a "whiskey rock glass" in his hand, as she cowered on the bed.

"After the glass crashed, Ventura screamed, 'Isn't anybody seeing this?'" Kaplan told the jury.

"Did you look away?" asked a federal prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey. Kaplan said he did.

"And after you looked away, what did you hear?" the prosecutor asked.

"Further glass crashing and chaos."

When the prosecutor asked what, if anything, the Combs security staff did in response, Kaplan answered, "Nothing."

No one, he said, went back to check on Ventura after Combs left the bedroom to rejoin his employees.

"I was 23 years old," Kaplan said in explanation of his own inaction. "All I wanted to do was have a great job in the entertainment industry."

Ultimately, he told the jury, this and similar domestic violence incidents drove him to quit.

Another former personal assistant told of the night he said Diddy went looking for Suge Knight

Combs' former personal assistant spent two days on the witness stand, and in his most dramatic testimony, described how a 2008 run for cheeseburgers at an all-night diner nearly escalated the East Coast-West Coast rap wars.

It started at 4 a.m. in the parking lot at Mel's Drive-In in Los Angeles, the ex-assistant, David James, testified.

Combs' trusted security guard, Damian "D-Roc" Butler, noticed that Suge Knight, cofounder of rival recording studio Death Row Records, was sitting in an Escalade just a few parking spots away.

James, Combs' personal assistant from 2007 to 2009, testified that he was at the wheel of Combs' silver Lincoln Navigator when Knight and D-Roc faced off.

"What are you doing in my city?" James, according to his testimony, remembered hearing Knight asking Combs' security guard, who had introduced himself as "D-Roc, Biggie's boy," a reference to the rapper Notorious B.I.G.

Within moments, James and the bodyguard saw someone pass a gun to Knight and watched as four SUVs pulled up into different corners of the parking lot, he told jurors.

James testified that he was ordered by D-Roc to speed back to Combs' Hollywood Hills estate. There was no mention of whether they drove back with or without the cheeseburgers.

Once back home, and as Ventura protested in tears, Combs grabbed three guns for the ten-minute drive with D-Roc back to Mel's, testified James, who said he was still the driver.

Knight was nowhere to be found upon their return, James said.

"It was the first time I realized my life was in danger," the former PA testified, telling jurors that he sent in his resignation soon after.

Dawn Richard testified about a brutal beating, an alleged death threat, and flowers

Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard was the fifth prosecution witness, and her testimony on May 16 alleged that in 2009, Combs brutally beat Ventura after she took too long to cook him dinner.

"Where's my fucking egg?" Richard recounted to the jury Combs shouting in 2009, as he stormed into the kitchen of his rented Los Angeles mansion.

"He took the skillet with the eggs in it and tried to hit her in the head, and she fell to the ground," Richard testified.

Ventura cowered on the floor "in a fetal position" as Combs punched her and kicked her, she testified. Then he dragged her upstairs by her hair, she said, adding that she then heard the sound of screaming and breaking glass from the third floor.

The next day, Combs called Ventura and Richard into the mansion's first-floor recording studio, she said.

"He said that what we saw was passion, and it was what lovers in a relationship do," Richard said.

She said Combs told the two women that "he was trying to take us to the top, and that, where he comes from, people go missing if they say things like that, like, if people talk. And then he gave us flowers."

While back on the stand on May 19, Richard re-emphasized that she felt this was a threat to her life.

The details in the testimony came as a surprise to Combs' lead defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, who called it prejudicial and "just a drop dead lie."

"It didn't happen," the lawyer complained to the judge. "And the reason we know it didn't happen is that Ms. Ventura didn't talk about it" during her four days on the witness stand.

On cross-examination on May 19, Richard agreed that she only recalled the alleged death threat in speaking with prosecutors earlier this month. It had gone unmentioned, she agreed, during a half-dozen prior interviews with prosecutors.

Combs attacked Ventura over bathroom use, prosecutor and ex-bestie say

Ventura was beaten by Combs for the most minor of perceived infractions, including taking too long in the bathroom, prosecutor Emily Johnson said in her opening statement.

"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," Johnson said.

Ventura's ex-best friend, Kerry Morgan, was called to the witness stand on May 19 and told jurors about two attacks on Ventura she witnessed, including one while on vacation in Jamaica in 2013.

Morgan said Ventura at one point went to the bathroom at the residence where they were staying, and Combs said, "She's taking too long."

"A few minutes later, I heard her screaming — like guttural. Terrifying," Morgan said. "He was dragging her by her hair on the floor."

Morgan told jurors that she saw Combs push Ventura to the ground, causing her to hit her head on the paving bricks.

"She didn't move. She fell on her side," Morgan said, adding, "I thought she was knocked out."

Ventura, too, had testified that arguments with Combs would regularly result in physical abuse.

Ventura —who dated Combs on and off from 2007 to 2018 — described six separate times when Combs' attacks left her with injuries, with the most severe beating occurring in Los Angeles in 2009 following a party Combs had hosted at a club called Ace of Diamonds.

Ventura said she punched Combs in the face after he called her a "slut or a bitch" for talking to a record producer. Combs retaliated in the back seat of a chauffeured luxury vehicle by punching and kicking Ventura throughout a ten-minute ride to the rapper's rented mansion, she said.

She said she hid under the back seat to escape the attack. Combs demanded she stay hidden in a hotel for a week so her bruises could heal, she said.

The surprising things Combs kept in his luxury NYC hotel room while waiting to be arrested

The prosecution's fourth witness took the witness stand briefly on May 16 to detail what she and other Homeland Security investigators say they found inside Combs' suite at Manhattan's Park Hyatt New York after his September arrest.

Combs had checked into the luxury Midtown hotel, his lawyers have said, in case federal prosecutors in Manhattan had asked him to surrender voluntarily.

Special Agent Yasin Binda told the Combs jury she photographed what her colleagues found inside the room.

Those items included a clear plastic bag of baby oil bottles found inside a duffle bag. There were three more bottles of baby oil in his bathtub, alongside two bottles of personal lubricant.

Two more bottles of lubricant were recovered from a nightstand drawer, next to a prescription pill bottle she said held two small baggies containing a pink powder.

On the living room floor was a large blue party light of the kind Ventura testified were used to illuminate freak offs.

Similar bags of pink powder have previously been seized from Combs and tested positive for ecstasy and other drugs, a prosecutor had said in court the day after Combs was arrested.

Ventura's big settlements after her lawsuit and that infamous hallway-beatdown video

In some of her final moments on the witness stand, Ventura was asked by the defense about a legal settlement that she said she is on the verge of receiving from the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles.

"I think it was $10 million," Ventura said of the settlement, hesitating when asked for the total amount agreed to.

The InterContinental is where security cameras captured Combs beating Ventura in a hallway in 2016, as she tried to flee what prosecutors say was one of Combs' freak offs.

The jury was shown the infamous footage at the beginning of the trial.

Johnson, the prosecutor, said in her opening statements that at the time of the attack, Combs paid a security guard at the hotel $100,000 in a brown paper envelope in exchange for the footage.

Combs apologized for his actions in the video after CNN published the footage last year.

It was the second big-money settlement revealed in Ventura's testimony.

Earlier in her testimony, Ventura told jurors that Combs paid her $20 million to settle her civil suit against him in 2023.

Britney Spears and Michael B. Jordan were among the celebrities mentioned at the trial

Pop icon Britney Spears and actor Michael B. Jordan were both name-dropped on May 15, on Ventura's third day of testimony.

During a cross-examination, Ventura was asked to tell the jury about the 21st birthday party Combs threw for her in 2007, at a club in Las Vegas.

The party was a significant moment in the Combs-Ventura story. Ventura testified that Combs, who recently signed her to his record label, gave her an uninvited kiss in a bathroom, sparking their relationship.

"I believe there were other celebrities there in attendance?" defense attorney Anna Estevao asked Ventura, who answered yes, there were.

"Sean was there, and he brought Dallas Austin, he brought Britney Spears," Ventura said, referring to the "Oops!… I Did It Again" singer and the record producer. "I think those were the two people that stand out to me," Ventura added.

Asked how a 21-year-old of limited fame was able to attract such big names to her party, Ventura credited Combs, saying, "That was all him."

Jordan's name came up as the cross-examination focused on 2015, when Combs became suspicious that she was having an affair with the actor.

"Is Michael B. Jordan a celebrity?" Estevao asked.

"I would say so," Ventura answered, sounding surprised.

Ventura said she first joined Diddy's freak offs out of love

Ventura testified on May 13 that she was initially nervous, but felt a sense of responsibility to participate in Combs' freak offs.

"I was just in love and wanted to make him happy," Ventura told the jury.

Ventura testified that in 2007, Combs first proposed "this sexual encounter that he called voyeurism, where he would watch me have a sexual encounter with a third man, specifically another man."

"I didn't want to upset him if I said it scared me or if I said anything aside from, 'OK, let's try it,'" she said.

Johnson said in her opening statements that Combs eventually made it Ventura's job to find and book escorts to participate in the sex encounters.

While on the stand, Ventura described in detail what went on during freak offs. Prosecutors say Combs arranged, directed, and often electronically recorded the sex performances.

Ventura testified that Combs would urinate and ask escorts to urinate on her during the freak offs.

"It was disgusting. It was too much. It was overwhelming," she said. "I choked."

• Prosecutors want to seal Sean Combs' "freak off" videos in sex-trafficking trial.
• Combs is accused of sex trafficking and racketeering, with Cassie Ventura as a key victim.
• The judge is hammering out resolutions for different legal issues before the trial in May.

Prosecutors want to make sure the public doesn't see the "freak off" videos made by Sean "Diddy" Combs, which they say they'll present as exhibits in his upcoming criminal sex-trafficking trial.

Even the audio from those videos shouldn't reach the ears of the public and the press, argued Assistant US Attorney Madison Smyser in a court conference on Friday.

"These are extremely sensitive videos, they are going to involve videos of 'freak offs,'" Smyser said. "They involve other parties, victims, and, in some videos, Mr. Combs."

Smyser said prosecutors and defense lawyers were working out a way so that only jurors would be able to see and hear the videos when they're presented in court.

The indictment, brought by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, accuses Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering.

The primary victim prosecutors identified is Cassie Ventura, who was in a romantic relationship with Combs for 10 years. According to prosecutors, Combs sexually abused Ventura through "freak offs," which they described as elaborate and lengthy sexual performances that Combs staged, masturbated during, and often recorded.

Prosecutors have identified another four accusers who are expected to testify as victims in the trial. The judge has also allowed one "propensity witness," a yet-identified former romantic partner who is set to testify by name about alleged prior abuse, but who is not considered a victim in the criminal charges. Some of the witnesses are also expected to include sex workers who were recruited for the "freak offs."

Combs was attentive during Friday's court conference, the penultimate one before jury selection begins on May 5.

The hip-hop artist wore khaki jail garb and what appeared to be laceless Vans slip-on shoes.

Before the start of the hearing, Combs hugged his three female attorneys and then shook hands with one of his male lawyers. Throughout the conference, he sipped water from an unusually small plastic cup on the defense table before him.

US District Judge Arun Subramanian, who is overseeing Combs' criminal case, asked prosecutors to provide legal justifications for sealing the "freak off" videos, which would become court records if they were to be entered into evidence.

Prosecutors said they'd file a letter providing examples where similar procedures were followed in other cases. In R. Kelly's trial in Brooklyn, the court had jurors watch videos of sexual abuse on small screens in front of their jury seats while wearing earphones, while journalists and members of the public were kept out of the courtroom.

A victim's 'medical procedure'

During Friday's hearing, prosecutors also said they wanted an accuser to testify about a "medical procedure" that they said was a result of a "freak off."

Combs's defense attorneys argued that the procedure wasn't sufficiently related to the conduct described in the indictment, and that the accuser shouldn't be able to testify about the experience.

Submaranian ultimately concluded that he'd wait and see what else the victim would testify about before deciding if prosecutors could ask questions about the purported medical procedure.

The judge also issued a ruling narrowing the scope of what Dawn Hughes, an expert on interpersonal relationships, would be allowed to testify about. Hughes, who previously testified in the trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, and is expected to testify in Harvey Weinstein's ongoing trial, is expected to testify on behalf of Combs. Combs's lawyers have said she would partly testify about the "swingers" lifestyle the singer participated in.

Subramanian previously resolved most of the other legal issues ahead of the trial, which is set to take place in the same lower Manhattan courtroom where Combs's jailmate Sam Bankman-Fried had his trial.

The judge allowed Combs's team to obtain drafts of Ventura's memoir for cross-examination, but did not allow them to obtain other notes, emails, or bank records they had requested.

Subramanian also forced Warner Bros. to give Combs' lawyers interview footage with two accusers taken for a Max documentary, "The Fall of Diddy." An attorney for Combs said in Friday's hearing that they expected to receive the footage next week.

The contents of Ventura's memoir have never been made public, and little information about it is known.

Combs's lawyer Marc Agnifilo discussed the memoir in a September court hearing, where he unsuccessfully asked a judge to allow Combs to stay out of jail ahead of the criminal trial.

Agnifilo said Combs and Ventura had a consensual, if complicated, 10-year relationship, and that she essentially tried to extort him with the memoir draft after it ended. In November 2023, Combs settled a civil sexual abuse lawsuit that Ventura brought against him.

"'My client has written a book, and she is going to publish it, but if you want to buy the rights, then you will have the exclusive rights, and she won't be able to publish it.'" Agnifilo said, characterizing an offer from one of Ventura's previous lawyers. "'And you know what, you can buy the rights for $30 million.'"

Later, Ventura retained a different lawyer and sued Combs under New York's Adult Survivors Act, alleging sexual abuse,

"'I am not really here to embarrass you anymore to the tune of $30 million; I am going to bring this civil sex claim against you,'" Agnifilo said, purportedly quoting Ventura's other attorney.

Agnifilo's arguments were not successful. Combs has been detained in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center since September.