NEW YORK (AP) — This week, rapper and actor Kid Cudi is slated to testify at the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs. Cudi will discuss his brief relationship with Combs’ former partner, the R&B singer Cassie, which took place 14 years ago.
Prosecutors say Combs was so upset about the relationship that he arranged to have Cudi’s convertible firebombed, according to court filings.
Cudi, who goes by the legal name Scott Mescudi, won’t take the stand until Thursday, as indicated by prosecutors to the judge. Currently, a federal agent continues his testimony in the Manhattan courtroom about the discoveries made during a raid on Combs’ residence in March 2024—six months prior to his arrest last September.
Agent Gerard Gannon from Homeland Security Investigations provided details of the operation, revealing that 80 to 90 agents stormed the Miami-area home. They employed an armored vehicle to break the security gate, restrained and searched several employees, and patrolled the surrounding waters with boats.
Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos portrayed the search as overkill.
Gannon showed jurors a pair of handguns he said agents found at Combs’ home, along with photos of ammunition and a wooden box marked “Puffy” — one of Combs’ nicknames — that contained various drugs including psilocybin, Xanax and MDMA. Agents also found items that prosecutors say were hallmarks of Combs’ drug-fueled “freak-off” sex marathons, including dozens of bottles of baby oil and lubricant, Gannon said. His Los Angeles mansion was also searched.
The agent confirmed the federal investigation began the day after Cassie filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging years of abuse and involvement in hundreds of the so-called freak-off performances with male escorts, which Combs watched and sometimes participated in.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges that he leveraged his fame and fortune to oversee a two-decade-long racketeering enterprise that controlled Cassie and others through threats and violence.
His lawyers say evidence in the case reflects domestic violence, not anything amounting to a criminal racket or sex trafficking.
Later Wednesday morning, a psychologist hired by prosecutors delved into the characteristics and complexities of abusive relationships. Dawn Hughes, who was paid $6,000 for her testimony, explained victims often experience a “low sense of self” and tend to stay with abusers because they yearn for the love, compassion and kindness they experienced in a relationship’s early “honeymoon phase.”
She also explained how a victim’s memory can sometimes become jumbled — retaining awareness that abuse occurred, but sometimes mixing up details or blending parts of different instances of abuse. Hughes didn’t examine Cassie or Combs and didn’t mention them by name, but her testimony paralleled some of what Cassie said she experienced while dating the mercurial hip-hop mogul.
A former Combs assistant, George Kaplan, was granted immunity to testify and is expected to take the witness stand Wednesday afternoon. Subpoenaed by prosecutors, he had initially told the court that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Cassie testified last week that her relationship with Cudi began in late 2011. Although she and Combs broke up, she said they still engaged in so-called “freak-offs.” It was during one of those episodes that Combs looked at her phone and figured out that she was seeing Cudi, Cassie said.
On Tuesday, Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified that she received an email in December 2011 from Cassie saying that Combs was so angry about her relationship with Cudi that he planned to release sexually explicit videos of her and send someone to hurt Cassie and Cudi.
Afterward, Regina Ventura said, she received a demand from Combs for $20,000. Scared for her daughter’s safety, she went to the bank and 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.”
Cassie and Combs resumed their relationship. When they were out of the country, Combs told her that Cudi’s car would be blown up and Combs wanted Cudi’s friends there to see it, Cassie said.
