Diddy trial live: ‘Punisher’ escort to take the stand after shocking ‘Freak Off’ pictures go public

Incendiary images shown in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial reveal the disgraced rap mogul was preparing for a hotel ‘freak off’ despite knowing he was about to be arrested, prosecutors say.

To hear all the explosive testimony from singer Cassie Ventura and the other witnesses in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial, tune in to Daily Mail’s hit podcast The Trial.

From sworn testimony to video evidence and the rapper’s every subtle move, our team of journalists take you inside the courtroom of the world’s biggest celebrity case.

Daily Mail has been following Diddy’s downfall from the very beginning. Join us as we hear from experts involved in the case, and members of the rapper’s inside circle.

David James told the court that he quit as Diddy’s assistant after an incident involving the mogul’s rival Suge Knight in 2008.

James said Diddy’s friend D-Roc noticed Knight at a famous diner in LA and approached him.

Knight then allegedly asked D-Roc: ‘what you doin in my city?’

Diddy’s team then went back to the mogul’s house.

Diddy then allegedly grabbed three guns and instructed James to drive back to the diner

‘This was the first time as his assistant that I realized my life was in danger. I told them I want to leave but give six months notice so I could train the next assistant,’ James told the jury on Tuesday.

Richard said on the stand Monday that Diddy punched Cassie in the stomach during a private argument at a West Hollywood restaurant in 2010.

She claimed several celebrities were at the dinner, including Usher, Ne-Yo and superstar music executive Jimmy Iodine.

‘Mr Combs punched Cassie in the stomach,’ Richard told the jury.

‘They were having a private conversation, we were all sitting eating at the tables together. Some of Bad Boy label mates, some celebrities were in the room.

‘They were secretly arguing [and] he punched her in the stomach.

Richard added: ‘[Cassie] immediately bent over and he told her to leave, I could see him point out and she went out.’

David James said he once took ecstasy and went to a Diddy party.

‘I was also drinking Ciroc that night,’ he said.

‘Normally I’m very straight edged, don’t have much emotion. I was dancing, Diddy bopping all around the party… I was just vibing, enjoying myself.’

A few days later, Diddy confronted him with a video of him dancing at the party, James claimed.

Diddy’s former assistant David James told the court he applied to work for the mogul because he wanted a career in fashion.

James was emotional, crying, as he described his first days working for Diddy.

He said one of the executives at Bad Boy Entertainment told him his job was to please the mogul.

‘I remember sitting at her desk and there was a picture of Mr Combs on the wall,’ James told the court Monday.

‘She pointed at the wall and said this is Mr Combs kingdom. We’re all here to serve him.’

Diddy’s former assistant is being questioned about an incident Cassie Ventura mentioned during her time on the stand involving Suge Knight.

Cassie claimed Diddy one left her during a freak off at his Los Angeles home to confront rival record executive Suge Knight at Mel’s Drive-In, a landmark diner nearby.

‘R-Rock came in and said Suge was down at a diner. Sean drove over there…. I cried, said don’t do something stupid,’ Cassie said.

‘It was like I wasn’t even there. They put on a bunch of black clothes, went in the safe, grabbed guns.

‘Next thing I knew they were in the SUV just whipping down there. I saw them get dressed and leave the house.’

Knight, 59, was the CEO of Death Row Records while Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, 54, was the CEO of rival company Bad Boy Entertainment.

Their beef began in the mid 90s as East Coast and West Coast rappers became entangled in a heated battle that shook up the hip-hop scene.

Diddy’s former assistant told the court the mogul always traveled with a medicine back that contained about 30 pills.

‘Some advil, tylenol,’ David James said.

‘He had water pills to help him lose weight, viagra, pills that helped increase his sperm count.’

James said Diddy would take Percocets throughout the day and Ecstasy at night.

When asked, James said one of the Ecstasy pills Diddy took ‘was in the shape of former president Obama’s face.’

Regina Ventura arrived in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday to take the stand for the prosecution against Diddy.

She walked into the courtroom with her husband, Rodrick Ventura.

She is expected to testify about witnesses Diddy’s alleged abuse and threatening of Cassie, his ex-girlfriend and main accuser.

Cassie named David James as one of the assistants who facilitated the alleged Freak Offs.

James worked as a personal assistant for Diddy from May 2007 to May 2009, the court heard on Monday.

Diddy’s former assistant David James told the court he applied to work for the mogul because he wanted a career in fashion.

James was emotional, crying, as he described his first days working for Diddy.

He said one of the executives at Bad Boy Entertainment told him his job was to please the mogul.

‘I remember sitting at her desk and there was a picture of Mr Combs on the wall,’ James told the court Monday.

‘She pointed at the wall and said this is Mr Combs kingdom. We’re all here to serve him.’

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs longtime rival Suge Knight sensationally warned that President Donald Trump would pardon the disgraced music executive if he’s convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering.

The imprisoned co-founder of Death Row Records made the bombshell allegations on Wednesday, hours after Diddy’s ex Cassie Ventura addressed the duo’s feud during her testimony in his criminal trial.

‘That’s me, a selfie of me with a fat lip,’ the singer replied when asked about a photo entered as evidence last week.

The image, taken after Diddy assaulted Cassie in the hallway of an LA hotel, was released to the public on Monday.

Cassie said she took it while on an Uber on her way home following the filmed 2016 assault.

She said she texted Diddy saying: ‘I have a premiere for the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my life on Monday. You are sick for thinking it’s OK to do what you’ve done. Please stay away from me.’

The rapper reportedly then claimed he was getting arrested.

Cassie said her then-best friend, model Kerry Morgan, became upset when she saw her face and called police.

Cassie said she chose to not report who had assaulted her when police showed up because she wanted to protect Diddy.

Diddy took his seat by the defense on Tuesday in a blue sweater.

He shook hands with his attorneys as he came in the federal courtroom.

The mogul is allowed to wear his own clothes to the trial but with some conditions.

He can only have up to five pairs of pants, shirts and socks and only two pairs of shoes – with no laces.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ legal team introduced salacious text messages from ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura that claimed the R&B singer ‘loved’ Combs’ infamous ‘freak-offs.’

Diddy’s lawyer Anna Estevao used the messages in court on Thursday in an effort to paint Cassie, 38, as a willing participant in the drug-fueled sex sessions that could last up to four days.

‘I love our FOs when we both want it,’ she wrote in one missive, adding: ‘I want to Freak Off right now LOL. I want to have fun with you.’

Diddy replied: ‘Let me know if you want to have a late night. Jules is available. If you’re not into that NP. We can just do a thing. Love you.’

Cassie simply replies with a ‘love you’ back.

Diddy asks: ‘If you’re not super horny wtf?’

‘Horny. Of course I am,’ said Cassie.

The first week of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ sex trafficking trial saw a litany of bombshell claims and evidence unveiled before the Manhattan courtroom in New York.

R&B singer Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura delivered horrifyingly graphic testimonies alleging that the music mogul physically and psychologically abused her over more than a decade from 2007-2018.

The 38-year-old detailed the regular beatings she allegedly experienced, the rapper’s use of blackmail and scare tactics to coerce and manipulate, depraved sex acts she claims she was forced to participate in – and the medical toll she suffered as a result.

The R&B singer told the court that her ex-boyfriend threw a wooden hanger at her then best friend, giving her a concussion.

Ventura also mentioned the alleged incident in the 2023 lawsuit she filed against Combs, where she accused the disgraced rapper of putting her through years of a ‘cycle of abuse, violence and sex trafficking.’

The alleged incident between Morgan and Combs led to a settlement between the two, and Ventura also paid additional money to ‘resolve the dispute between her close friend and her abusive and controlling boyfriend,’ legal documents stated.

Following the alleged ordeal, the Me & U singer’s relationship with Morgan, a model,  became ‘strained,’ per the filing.

Richard told jurors at Diddy’s sex trafficking trial on Monday that the hip-hop mogul threatened to kill her if she told anyone she saw him physically abusing his longtime girlfriend.

Richard testified that Combs made the threat the day after she witnessed the Bad Boy Records founder punch and kick Cassie Ventura after taking a swing at her with a skillet. Richard said he told her and another woman who saw the attack that “we could go missing” if they didn’t stay quiet.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner asked Richard what she took ‘we could go missing’ to mean.

‘That we could die,’ Richard responded, saying she was shocked because all of this happened just as she was beginning to record with Diddy — Dirty Money, a musical trio with Combs and another R&B singer.

Cassie told the court last week that, while she was packing to go to Drake’s music festival in Canada, Diddy scuffled with her friends and threw her into a bed frame.

Cassie said she suffered a ‘pretty significant gash’ above her left eye. Diddy’s security personnel brought her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills to get the wound stitched up.

Afterward, she texted Diddy a photo of her injured face and wrote: ‘So you can remember.’

Diddy replied: ‘You don’t know when to stop. You pushed it too far. And continued to push. Sad.’

Cassie then described a photo of her where she is with rapper French Montana at the festival in Canada.

Cassie said last week that when she went home for Christmas in 2011 with bruises from an altercation with the hip-hop mogul, she lied and told her mother it was the first time he’d hit her.

‘I couldn’t hurt her like that,’ Cassie testified. ‘And it was terrifying. It’s not normal, constantly being bruised up by the person you love — who says they love you.’

Jurors saw photos showing a large, dark bruise on Cassie’s lower back and other bruises on her shoulder and thigh that she said she sustained in the altercation.

Incendiary images shown in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial reveal the disgraced rap mogul was preparing for a hotel ‘freak off’ despite knowing he was about to be arrested, prosecutors say.