NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former personal aide testified on Wednesday, describing his role in cleaning up hotel suites following the hip-hop star’s lengthy sexual encounters. This included discarding empty liquor bottles, baby oil, and drugs, rearranging pillows, and ensuring the scene appeared untouched.

Part of his responsibilities involved safeguarding Combs’ image, as emphasized by George Kaplan to the jury during Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial. “Protecting him and maintaining his public persona was crucial,” Kaplan testified.

Employed by Combs between 2013 and 2015, Kaplan explained that the Bad Boy Records founder would occasionally request him to deliver a “medicine kit” to his hotel room. This kit contained prescription medications along with over-the-counter pain relievers. Kaplan also mentioned that Combs instructed him to procure drugs, such as MDMA, often known as ecstasy.

Kaplan, 34, was granted immunity to testify after initially telling the Manhattan court that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Prosecutors contend Combs leaned on employees and used his music and fashion empire to facilitate and cover up his behavior, sometimes making threats to keep them in line and his misconduct hush-hush.

Kaplan testified that Combs threatened his job on a monthly basis, once berating him for buying the wrong size bottled water. Combs’ longtime girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, testified that Kaplan quit after seeing Combs beat her.

Kaplan’s testimony resumes Thursday. He’ll be followed by rapper and actor Kid Cudi.

Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, is expected to testify about his brief relationship with Cassie in 2011. Prosecutors say Combs was so upset that he arranged to have Cudi’s convertible firebombed.

Also Wednesday, a federal agent showed jurors two handguns he said were found in a March 2024 raid at Combs’ Miami-area home, along with photos of ammunition and a wooden box marked “Puffy” — one of his nicknames — that the agent said contained psilocybin, MDMA and other drugs.

Investigators also found items prosecutors say were hallmarks of “freak-offs,” including dozens of bottles of baby oil and lubricant, said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Gerard Gannon.

Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos suggested the search — which involved 80 to 90 agents, an armored vehicle smashing the security gate, handcuffed employees and boat patrols — was overkill. Combs’ Los Angeles mansion was also searched.

Gannon confirmed the federal investigation began the day after Cassie filed a lawsuit in November 2023 alleging that Combs abused her for years and involved her in hundreds of “freak-offs” with him and male sex workers. Combs soon settled for $20 million, she said.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he leveraged his fame and fortune to control Cassie and other people through threats and violence. His lawyers say the evidence reflects domestic violence, not racketeering or sex trafficking.

Jurors also heard from a psychologist who delved into the complexities of abusive relationships. Dawn Hughes explained victims often experience a “low sense of self” and tend to stay with abusers because they yearn for love and compassion they experienced in a relationship’s early “honeymoon phase.”

Hughes also explained how a victim’s memory can sometimes become jumbled — retaining awareness of abuse, but mixing up details. Hughes, who was paid $6,000 by the prosecution to testify, didn’t examine or mention Cassie or Combs, but her testimony paralleled some of what Cassie said she experienced with him.

Cassie testified that she started dating Cudi in late 2011. Although she and Combs broke up, they still engaged in “freak-offs,” she said. It was during such an encounter that Combs looked at her phone and figured out she was seeing Cudi, Cassie said.

Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified Tuesday that Cassie emailed her in December 2011 that Combs was so angry about the relationship that he planned to release explicit videos of her and have someone hurt Cassie and Cudi. Regina Ventura said Combs also demanded $20,000. Scared for her daughter’s safety, she said she sent Combs the money, only to have it returned by Combs days later.

Cassie testified that she broke up with Cudi before the end of the year.

“It was just too much,” she said. “Too much danger, too much uncertainty of, like, what could happen if we continued to see each other.”

After Cassie reunited with Combs, he told her that Cudi’s car would be blown up and that he wanted Cudi’s friends there to see it, Cassie said.

__

Associated Press reporter Julie Walker contributed to this report.