After two days of testimony on how his relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs became violent and coercive, Cassie Ventura faced six hours of exhausting counter-examination on Thursday, while defense lawyers tried to question his credibility and to portray it as a voluntary participant in their sexual activities.
Defense lawyers have turned around a decade of archived text messages to question Ventura on the coherence of his previous testimony, highlighting his apparent eagerness to engage in the Combs’s lifestyle to swing in orgies fueled by drugs. They insist that it was not the victim of sexual traffic or racketeering and that Combs is innocent of the federal accusations which he is confronted.
During other parts of the counter -examination, the lawyer for Combres, Anna Estevao, seemed to use apparently banal messages – such as planning dates or expressing their romantic feelings to each other – as an opportunity to humanize the combs, which sometimes hoche his head as his lawyers questioned Ventura.
Combs lawyers argued that, although he made mistakes, engaged in domestic violence and abused drugs, he never assaulted or sexually treated. Sitting next to his lawyers, Combs seemed to be engaged in the counter-examination and reported at one point a heart with his hands to the wife of his main defense lawyer, a former prosecutor whose customers now include an alleged CEO of Unitedhealthcare, the suspect Luigi Mangione, who was part of a non-guilty plea.
Ventura’s testimony as a star witness of the accusation should conclude tomorrow, since the singer, now eight months pregnant, could enter work this weekend.
Lawyer Anna Estevao Contre-binge Casandra “Cassie” Ventura during Sean “Diddy” Combs ” Trial of sex traffic in New York, on May 15, 2025, in this sketch of the courtroom.
Jane Rosenberg / Reuters
Defense lawyers use text messages to show a mutual affection between Combs and Ventura
Ventura has openly recognized in her two direct directors and in counter-examination that she loved combs for more than a decade and hoped to build a life with him. She told the jurors that she had fallen in love with Combs shortly after their meeting, and the jurors saw messages from the start of their relationship.
“We only really had one week of each other just together and I can say that it was the best and the worst,” wrote Ventura in 2007. “I am sad, crazy, frustrated and injured that you just don’t feel good.”
The jurors also saw messages in August 2009, when the couple made their relationship with their relationship and other messages of more than two years in their relationship.
“I love you so much that it consumes my life,” she wrote in April 2010.
Ventura testified that even if the messages seemed positive, she began to see another side of the combs when they spent more time together – the one who, according to her, was subject to violence, jealousy and rage.
“The more time I spent with him and that I knew him, his real personality – or at least what I thought was his real personality – has come out,” said Ventura.
Defense lawyers press Ventura on the apparent desire to engage in freight
During her direct examination, Ventura admitted that she had first agreed to participate in a panoramic to make the comb happy by engaging in her sexual fantasy. She said that she quickly realized that she had not appreciated the orgies fueled by drugs that could last days and that she included her sexual meetings with prostitutes and foreigners.
To counter Ventura’s assertion, she was forced to plan and participate in breakdowns, defense lawyers presented a series of messages apparently showing a different attitude. “I’m still ready to panic,” she wrote in August 2009.
The jurors also saw text messages that suggested that Combs expressed interest in Ventura’s desires, although she previously testified that those who did not matter for the combs. The messages also seem to show that she tried to please combs by preparing for monsters, including visiting a sex-shop before an orgy.
“Trying to find something to impress you,” she wrote in a message. At least one of the jurors raised the eyebrows because an explicit message has been shown to court.
Defense lawyers pressed Ventura about his reasons for which he was reluctant to engage in breakdowns, suggesting that she was frustrated not by violence or coercion, but rather because she wanted more of the relationship.
“When we used to panic when we were so in love. There was no question asked, it was good, as if it had meaning for the next stage of our sex life together. I am nervous that I become the girlfriend with whom you transmit your fantasies and that’s it.
During her first two days of testimony, Ventura testified at length about an episode of 2016 when she said that she had tried to leave a monster but was attacked by Combs – an assault that was captured on a surveillance video and shown to the jurors. In counter-examination, Ventura showed text messages that suggested that she was impatient to participate in the climb, and the violence of Combres could have been influenced by her drug use.
“The drugs you and Mr. Combs took that day were a bad lot of MDMA, right?” Said Estevao.
“I have no idea,” asked Ventura.
Defense lawyers suggest that the relationship has been defined by mutual jealousy
Defense lawyers pressed Ventura about the faults of his relationship with the combs, arguing that jealousy and infidelity have made both senses for the couple.
Ventura admitted that she “had a certain jealousy” of Kim Porter, the mother of the mother of four children of Combs, and was turned upside down when Combs continued a relationship with another woman.
“Was it disappointing and hurtful to discover that you weren’t the main girlfriend?” Asked Estevao.
“Yes,” replied Ventura. “This did not concern all situations, but I was definitely jealous of certain situations in which he was.”
The jurors received text messages showing combs and Ventura expressing the anger of the infidelity of the other, with combs seeing another woman while Ventura was in a relationship with actor Michael B. Jordan. Ventura was questioned about her relationship with Kid Cudi – whose real name is Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, and who she previously testified that she had ceased to see because of the tension with Combres – and how she told that Combs had “run” when he discovered their relationship during an effort.
“Did you feel justified to deceive him with Mr. Mescudi because of Mr. Combs’ infidelity?” Asked Estevao.
“I could have, I don’t know,” she replied.
