Biggie was one of the first artists signed to Bad Boy, and his two studio albums ("Ready to Die" in 1994 and "Life After Death," which was released 16 days after his death in 1997) were released through Bad Boy.

Publicly, the two appeared to be close friends, and Diddy released "I'll Be Missing You" with Biggie's wife, Faith Evans, in 1997.

However, their relationship had become strained. Rolling Stone reported the "Juicy" rapper was preparing to leave Bad Boy. He "was absolutely about to leave Puff" before he was shot, fellow rapper Babs Bunny told the publication.

In the decades since his death, Biggie's mother Violetta Wallace (before her death in February 2025), negotiated with Diddy to gain control of her son's music, per Variety. In February 2025, his estate partnered with Primary Wave Music to handle his music in the future.

Primary Wave did not respond to a request for comment.

Evans, who was married to The Notorious BIG from 1994 until he died in 1997, was also signed to Bad Boy Records.

Her first three albums, 1995's "Faith," 1998's "Keep the Faith," and 2001's "Faithfully," were put out through Bad Boy. She then moved to Capitol Records.

"In my heart, I really wanted to try and leave Bad Boy after Big died. I mean, after I came back to any type of reality, any clear thinking. I just was so distraught," Evans told XXL in 2014.

Evans said she left Bad Boy because she felt Diddy and the label were paying more attention to other artists, but she emphasized that there was no bad blood.

Evans did not respond to a request for comment.

Mase released his first two albums, "Harlem World" and "Double Up" through Bad Boy, and was also known as Diddy's hype man through the '90s.

Their partnership collapsed after he released his third album, "Welcome Back," in 2004, also with Bad Boy.

Mase said he felt like his contract was too constricting, leading him to crash a Diddy interview on V103 in Atlanta and demand that Diddy sign paperwork allowing him to feature on other artists' songs.

Things simmered down until 2022, when Mase once again criticized Diddy's business practices in a now-deleted Instagram post.

"Your past business practices knowingly has continued purposely starved your artist and been extremely unfair to the very same artist that helped u obtain that Icon Award on the iconic Badboy label," he wrote.

Mase added that he had offered Diddy $2 million to buy his songs back and was refused. "This is not black excellence at all," he wrote.

Diddy responded during an interview on the syndicated iHeartRadio show "The Breakfast Club" and said that Mase actually owed him $3 million after failing to deliver an album.

In 2023, on another "Breakfast Club" appearance, Diddy said they were "brothers" and that he had "unconditional love" for Mase.

Mase's rights were returned to him when Diddy allowed songs from Bad Boy to revert back to artists that year.

In 2024, Mase called Diddy's arrest "the big payback" and added that "reparations is getting closer and closer" on an episode of the podcast he cohosts with Cam'ron, "It Is What It Is."

During the trial, Mase wondered aloud if he should attend Diddy's trial on his podcast, but it doesn't appear that he ever went.

Mase did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The R&B group 112's first four albums were released through Bad Boy from 1996 to 2003. Most famously, they were featured alongside Diddy and Faith Evans on the song "I'll Be Missing You."

As MTV reported, 112 said that they left Bad Boy for Def Jam because of a "lack of money and attention." They added that they also left because their contract was "doo-doo."

"We still work with [Diddy] as far as getting ideas. We got three joints from his camp. It's no bad blood, it's no love lost," said member Mike in 2003.

"It's unfortunate what happened with Diddy," 112 member Slim said while appearing on "Ryan Cameron Uncensored" after the verdict was announced on Wednesday. "That's somebody people looked up to, and there was no win for any of the victims or anybody involved in the situation. It's more like you learn something from this."

112 did not respond to a request for comment.

Cassie started publicly dating Diddy shortly after her debut album, "Cassie," was released in 2006 through Bad Boy. They dated until 2018.

In November 2023, Cassie sued Diddy and accused him of rape, abuse, and blowing up Kid Cudi's car after Diddy found out the rapper was interested in Cassie. The suit was settled the same month for an undisclosed amount, The New York Times reported.

In May 2024, CNN published a 2016 video that appeared to show Diddy dragging and kicking Cassie through the halls of a California hotel. Diddy apologized in a since-deleted Instagram post and said he was "disgusted" by his behavior in the video.

In an Instagram post, Cassie thanked fans for their support after the video was made public. "The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning," she wrote. "Domestic Violence is THE issue."

Cassie was one of the witnesses called during Diddy's trial, taking the stand for four days. "I hope that people still see what Cassie did and think that she really made a difference," her lawyer, Douglas H. Wigdor, told ABC News after the verdict announcement.

"She was pleased that he's been found guilty and held responsible to federal crimes, something that he's never been held responsible [for] in his entire life," Wigdor said outside the courthouse.

Cassie Ventura had no comment on the lawsuit when reached by Business Insider.

In December 1999, Diddy, his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, and his protégé, Shyne, were arrested after a nightclub shooting, but Shyne was the only one who went to prison.

He was later convicted of assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison, reports The New York Times.

Bad Boy released his self-titled debut album in September 2000, while he was in prison.

In 2012, Shyne, who served almost nine years, told MTV that he and Diddy made amends.

"As far as Puff is concerned, that's been a long time coming," he said. "He had reached out to me twice while I was in the pen, but I just wasn't ready for it."

In 2024, he spoke about Diddy's legal troubles. He told journalists soon after Diddy's arrest, "Let us not forget what the cold facts are. This is someone who destroyed my life."

A Hulu documentary following Shyne, "The Honorable Shyne," is set to be released on November 18. In the trailer, he said he believed he was set up to be the fall guy for the shooting.

In December, he told People, "We live in a world, in democracies at least, where the rule of law is tantamount. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I pray for justice, I pray for the victims. I pray for Diddy."

Shyne did not respond to a request for comment.

The Lox released their first album, 1998's "Money, Power & Respect," via Bad Boy before the trio — Sheek Louch, Styles P, and Jadakiss — left for Ruff Ryders and Interscope.

That wasn't without its drama. The Lox said they had to plead with Diddy to get off Bad Boy and started a grassroots campaign to "Free The Lox," as they felt they weren't receiving a fair publishing deal.

This culminated in a 2005 appearance on Hot 97 in which Styles P threw a chair at Diddy, per Billboard.

"We made one record with you, 'Money Power & Respect.' It's 10 years later, and you still got half of our publishing. And you can't make it justifiable that you deserve half of our publishing," Styles P is heard saying in the recording.

According to AllHipHop, a deal was struck soon after the altercation.

In 2023, Jadakiss appeared on an episode of the podcast "I Am Athlete," saying how he appreciated how Diddy handled the situation: "He could've played much harder ball than he played."

The Lox did not respond to a request for comment.

Monáe is one of the remaining artists signed to Bad Boy who isn't Diddy or his family members.

All four of Monáe's albums have been released through Bad Boy, including the 2019 album of the year nominee "Dirty Computer" and her most recent album, 2023's "The Age of Pleasure" (though both were also co-released by Atlantic Records).

"I got to say, I was scared to be partnering with a major label after a few years of being independent. I met Puff at a time I had decided to live frugally," Monáe told Billboard in 2018.

"But when I spoke to him, his words were, 'I love what you and Wondaland are doing," she continued, referencing the indie record label she had founded. "I don't want to be creatively involved. I just want people to know who you are and what you guys are doing.'"

"It was so humbling and beautiful. We're still close," she added.

Monáe did not respond to a request for comment.

Dream, a girl group, was formed in 1998 and then signed to Bad Boy as its first white act.

Their first album, "It Was All a Dream," was released in 2001 and debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200. Their second album, 2003's "Reality," failed to chart at all, and they were dropped from Bad Boy and broke up.

"There were some shady people who maybe didn't have the best intentions for children. And there were some people who maybe were just doing business," Ashley Poole, a former member, told Complex in 2016.

"There was a big disconnect from Puff and us because we were from such different worlds," continued Poole. "Puff was straight business. He didn't care if feelings were hurt. He said what he needed to say. He would tell us we needed to lose weight."

One of Dream's former members, Alex Chester-Iwata, told Business Insider that working with Bad Boy was "a nightmare," saying they "pitted each of us against each other."

Another group member, Holly Restani, told Business Insider what she thought of the verdict.

"Sean Combs, the same as all individuals, should be held accountable for his wrongdoings, namely his abuses of power, coercion, manipulation, violence, and harm of others in positions beneath him," she said.

"Many of these are well documented and known to many to have occurred. He was acquitted of the charges the prosecution brought in his trial. He is not free of accountability, nor is he innocent," she continued.

The other members of Dream did not respond to a request for comment.

Yung Joc was one of the biggest musicians signed to Bad Boy South, another offshoot of Bad Boy, this time focusing on rappers out of cities like Atlanta.

Both of the rapper's albums (2006's "New Joc City" and 2007's "Hustlenomics") were released by Bad Boy South.

Two years later, it went south: In 2009, Yung Joc told Billboard he was planning to sue Bad Boy and Block Entertainment, his original record label that partnered with Bad Boy, for "failure to pay royalties and advances for his first two albums and charging 'outrageous clearance fees' for his collaborations with other artists."

"Diddy said he's got to stay out of it because it's between me and Block Entertainment," he said, adding, "I feel like [Bad Boy] isn't doing anything to try to intervene and help the situation."

It's unclear if he ever filed the suit.

He hasn't released an album since, though he has put out singles and EPs independently.

In 2014, Yung Joc told The Grio, "Diddy and I are great. We made a lot of money together. Every time we've crossed paths since, it was love."

Yung Joc did not respond to a request for comment.

All four of French Montana's albums have been Bad Boy releases, most recently 2021's "They Got Amnesia."

"The deal [with Diddy] just felt right and it felt like it was the right thing to do. I felt like I can make a change with this for the music culture that I came from," Montana told Billboard in 2011.

In April 2024, during an episode of "Vlad TV," he confirmed he had left Bad Boy.

"I fulfilled everything. I make sure everybody got their money. I made sure, you know, Rozay got his money," he said, referring to rapper Rick Ross, who also owns a record label. "I made sure Puff got his money, made sure Epic got their money."

French added that he left Bad Boy on good terms with Diddy.

Montana did not respond to a request for comment.

After an eight-year hiatus, New Edition teamed up with Bad Boy for their first album, "One Love." It was released in 2004 and is their last album to date.

The band's members said there were lots of disagreements about the future of the band with Diddy and his label. In a 2005 radio interview, they opened up about the problems.

"Diddy, when we didn't agree with him on certain songs, we would get sent home for like six, seven months. You know, it would just be nothing being done," said member Ricky Bell.

The final straw, they said, came when a song that none of the members liked appeared on the album instead of a song they worked on together with their longtime producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

"On top of that, Puffy paid himself $50,000, on top of that put a song on it that we didn't like, and we just felt like that was just a slap in the face. No respect," Bell added.

New Edition did not respond to a request for comment.

Pitbull released two albums via Bad Boy: 2006's "El Mariel" and 2007's "The Boatlift."

Pitbull was one of the first acts signed to Bad Boy Latino, an offshoot founded by Diddy and Emilio Estefan in 2005, per Billboard. He was also a partner in the venture and had an A&R role.

It didn't last long. Before "The Boatlift" was announced, Pitbull said he was leaving the label. Pitbull was dissatisfied with his role, a 2006 New York Post report said.

"I told him, 'Yo, I want a piece. If I'm gonna get in the bed with you, I want a piece,'" he said. "I got a whole lot to bring to the table, which [he] is gonna definitely capitalize off of."

Pitbull did not respond to a request for comment.

From 2012 to 2022, Machine Gun Kelly's six albums and three EPs were released through Bad Boy. His most recent EP, "Genre: Sadboy," was released in March through Interscope.

The "Wild Boy" rapper was first signed in 2011, as Diddy noted in a now-deleted Instagram post in August 2019.

"When I first signed @machinegunkelly I knew he was going to be a star. I didn't know how exactly we'd get there but I knew it would happen," he wrote. "'I'm so proud of the artist he is becoming, he's shown all the traits of an artist that will stand the test of time."

Kelly did not respond to a request for comment.

Both of B5's albums — 2005's "B5" and 2007's "Don't Talk Just Listen" — were released by Bad Boy. They were a departure from Bad Boy's roster, as the group was primarily a boy band that also appeared on Radio Disney.

During an interview with The Shade Room in 2023, the brothers said they didn't regret leaving Bad Boy. "We just couldn't see eye to eye so we decided to split," said Patrick Breeding.

They added that after Diddy announced his intentions to revert publishing to the original musicians, they hadn't heard anything from him.

"We didn't hear anything. We didn't get no calls or nothing like that from them," said Carnell Breeding.

Dustin Breeding added, "Puff, Diddy, yeah, we all want our publishing too. We were so young at the time, we didn't understand the business of it. But looking back now, damn, why our names wasn't on the credit?"

B5 did not respond to a request for comment.

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.

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 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.

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 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."

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.

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 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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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."