Sean ‘Diddy' Combs' ex-assistant tells jury that music mogul kidnapped her to help ‘kill Cudi'

Sean 'Diddy' Combs' former assistant Capricorn Clark, her voice quivering, told a Manhattan jury Tuesday that the armed rap mogul kidnapped her late one night in 2011 to help him 'kill (Kid) Cudi.'
Taking the stand as the 17th witness, Clark bolstered testimony from Combs' ex, Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura, and Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, about a disturbing incident in late 2011 that saw Mescudi's Hollywood Hills house burgled by Combs when he found out he'd been dating Ventura.
'(Combs) came to my house with a gun and told me I had to go with him to kill Cudi,' Clark, Combs' assistant from 2004 to 2012, testified in Manhattan federal court.
Clark said she was driven to Mescudi's home by a security guard with Combs, against her will, and called Ventura while he was inside, warning her that the Bad Boy Records co-founder was out for blood.
The jury heard from Mescudi last week that upon hearing from Ventura, he brought her to the Sunset Marquis hotel to stay safe and then called Combs, who told him he just wanted to talk. When Mescudi got home, Combs was not there, but he discovered his house had been burgled, with Christmas gifts torn open and his dog locked in the bathroom.
Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner, Clark said Tuesday that around a day later, she went to pick up Ventura from the Sunset Marquis and brought her to Combs' sprawling Los Angeles mansion, where the mogul began mercilessly beating Ventura upon their arrival.
'Puff was standing there in a robe and his underwear, and he immediately began kicking Cassie,' Clark testified. 'One-hundred percent full force, in her legs to begin with.'
Asked to describe the beating in greater detail, Clark said, 'He kept kicking her. He never used his hands.'
Sounding on the verge of tears as she recounted the chilling scene, Clark said she was too scared to contact the cops, as 'the mission of the day was to get (Kid) Cudi not to call the police.'
' He told me if I jumped in, he was gonna f–k me up too.'
When Combs did not let up, Clark said she called Combs' security team and eventually Ventura's mother, Regina Ventura, telling her, 'He's beating the s–t out of your daughter. I'm in over my head … I can't call the police, but you can.'
Jurors have already heard how weeks after the burglary, Mescudi's Porsche was blown up in his driveway in an apparent Molotov cocktail attack. Clark said she informed Combs that authorities were probing the arson and had contacted her.
Earlier in her testimony, the former assistant, who started out working for Def Jam and then Death Row Records, described experiencing an extremely hostile workplace during her employment for Combs, including him aggressively shoving her when she expressed dissatisfaction with her work. After a lapse in working for Combs, which she said involved grueling and untenable hours, Clark returned as a marketing director for his Sean John clothing line in 2006. Clark said she was fired in 2012 over supposed issues related to vacation time and would work for him again in 2016 as Ventura's creative director until 2018.
At one juncture, when the mogul's jewelry went missing, she said he subjected her to five days of lie detector tests on the sixth floor of an abandoned skyscraper near Times Square. When she arrived there, an unnamed bodyguard chain-smoking cigarettes threatened her.
'He said if you fail this test, they're going to throw you in the East River.' She would pass the test.
After the burglary incident at Mescudi's, Clark said Combs' threats against her only increased, estimating he threatened her around 50 times between December 2011 and the following summer, usually in the presence of his longtime security guard, D-Roc, and Ventura.
Combs, 55, could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted in the case. He's pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment, including counts of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transporting individuals for prostitution.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office alleges the rap entrepreneur, whose net worth has been estimated at close to a billion dollars, compulsively coerced women into humiliating sexual performances with male escorts for years with assistance from a network of high-ranking employees, akin to a mafia family who resorted to sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice to facilitate his desires. Prosecutors have presented extensive evidence of Combs' violent and unpredictable temper.
A heavily pregnant Ventura spent four days on the stand during the first week of testimony, describing in devastating detail being trapped in a cycle of violent abuse, recovery, and humiliation during their 11-year relationship. The now 39-year-old singer said she was frequently beaten bloody and coerced into hundreds of degrading sexual performances with other men that Combs dubbed 'freak-offs,' tapes of which the mogul used against her as blackmail.
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© 2025 New York Daily News.
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Key moments from the sixth week of Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial

NEW YORK -- The sixth week of the Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial was shortened by a holiday and a juror's illness as prosecutors nearly concluded their case, setting the stage for a one- or two-day defense presentation next week. In the trial's first five weeks, jurors repeatedly heard testimony about drug-fueled marathon sex events described as 'freak-offs' by one of Combs' ex-girlfriends and as 'hotel nights' by another. In the sixth week, they were shown about 20 minutes of video recordings from the dayslong events. Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges in the trial, which continues Monday. Here are key moments from the past week: Jurors largely kept their reactions muted when they were shown about 20 minutes of recordings made by Combs of his then-girlfriends having sex with male sex workers at the elaborately staged 'freak-offs' or 'hotel nights.' Prosecutors say the events were proof of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges because Combs coerced his employees, associates and even his girlfriends to recruit and arrange flights for sex workers while his workers obtained drugs, stocked hotel rooms with baby oil, lubricant, condoms, candles and liquor and delivered cash. In her opening statement, defense lawyer Teny Geragos had called the videos 'powerful evidence that the sexual conduct in this case was consensual and not based on coercion.' Prosecutors played about 2 minutes of the recordings before the defense team aired about 18 minutes of the videos. The public and the press were unable to observe whether the prosecutors or defense lawyers had the better arguments after the judge ruled that neither the recordings nor the sound could be seen or heard by anyone except lawyers, the judge and the jury. Several jurors seemed to cast their eyes and sometimes turn their bodies away from the screens directly in front of them while the recordings played. The jurors listened through earphones supplied by the court, as did Combs and lawyers. Judge Arun Subramanian started the week by dismissing a juror whose conflicting answers about whether he lived in New Jersey or New York convinced the judge he was a threat to the integrity of the trial. Subramanian said the juror's answers during jury selection and in the week before he was excused 'raised serious concerns as to the juror's candor and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the jury.' 'The inconsistencies — where the juror has lived and with whom — go to straightforward issues as to which there should not have been any doubts, and the answers also go to something vital: the basic qualifications of a juror to serve,' the judge said. Residents of New Jersey would not be permitted to sit on a New York federal jury. A day before Subramanian ruled, defense lawyers argued fiercely against dismissal, saying that replacing the Black juror with a white alternate juror so late in the trial would change the diverse demographics of the jury and require a mistrial. The jurors are anonymous for the Combs trial. It wasn't the only issue regarding jurors for the week. The judge, angered by a media report about the questioning of another juror the week before that occurred in a sealed proceeding, warned lawyers that they could face civil and criminal sanctions if such a leak happened again. That juror was not dismissed. And Wednesday's court session had to be canceled after a juror reported "vertigo symptoms" on the way to the courthouse. Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo seemed to close the door on any chance Combs would testify when he said Friday that the defense presentation would be finished Tuesday or Wednesday the following week, even if prosecutors don't rest until late Monday. It is not uncommon for defendants to choose not to testify at criminal trials. Besides being exposed to cross-examination by prosecutors, the testimony can be used by the government against the defendant should there be a need for a retrial. Also, if there is a conviction, the judge can conclude that the jury believed the defendant lied on the stand. Brendan Paul, fresh off the college basketball courts where he once played in a cameo role for Syracuse University, joined Combs' companies as a personal assistant in late 2022 and was warned by a friend who had worked for Combs about what was ahead. 'He told me to get in and get out,' Paul recalled for the jury, citing the endless days and always-on-edge existence. 'If you have a girlfriend, break up with her. And you're never going to see your family.' The friend also instructed him to 'build a rolodex of clientele and get out,' he said. Paul said he worked 80 to 100 hours a week for a music power broker who received 'thousands and thousands' of text messages and emails a day. He was paid $75,000 salary initially, but it was raised in January 2024 to $100,000. He said Combs told him he 'doesn't take no for an answer' and wanted his staff to 'move like Seal Team Six.' Several times, Paul said, he picked up drugs for Combs and knew to keep his boss out of the drug trade because 'it was very important to keep his profile low. He's a celebrity.' The job came to an abrupt end in March 2024 when Paul was arrested at a Miami airport on drug charges after a small amount of cocaine that he said he picked up in Combs' room that morning was mistakenly put in his travel bag as he prepared to join Combs on a trip to the Bahamas. The charges were later dropped in a pretrial diversion program.

Business Insider

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A Combs trial glossary: ex-PA tells jury what 'SEAL Team Six' and 'Gucci bag active' mean in Diddy-speak

Sean Combs ' jury got a lesson in Diddy Speak on Friday, courtesy of the sixth former personal assistant to testify against him in the rap mogul's Manhattan sex-trafficking and racketeering trial. "Zans," "Gucci bag active," and "SEAL Team Six" — ex-PA Brendan Paul was tasked with explaining all these Combsworld slang terms and more. Paul's testimony was tactically important. Prosecutors used his descriptions of drugs, sex, and grueling work schedules to bolster the narcotics-distribution, sex-trafficking, and forced-labor allegations of a racketeering charge that carries a potential life sentence. The testimony also offers a primer in deciphering Diddy. Here are some insider references the PA translated for jurors: 1. Gucci-bag active Paul, who worked as Combs' gofer from 2022 into 2024, once texted Kristina Khorram, chief of staff at the mogul's music and lifestyle empire, to let her know that their boss was up and at 'em. "PD active now," he texted. "Like, wild king mode active?" Khorram responded, according to the February 2024 text chain shown to jurors on Friday. "Or Gucci bag active?" "In between the two, if that makes sense LOL," Paul answered. Paul explained from the witness stand that Khorram was asking if Combs was busy preparing for the evening's "wild king night" (see below) or if he had also been dipping into a certain pouch-sized, black leather Gucci bag. Asking if Combs was "Gucci bag active" was Khorram's way of finding out, "Is he partying? Is he getting high?" Paul told the jury. Multiple PAs have testified that the Gucci bag was always stocked with drugs and went with Combs wherever he traveled. The bag, now known as Government Exhibit 10A-103-M1, contained an assortment of cocaine, ketamine, methamphetamine, and Xanax when federal agents seized it from Combs' Miami home in March 2024. It also had three orange pills stamped with the word "Tesla" that tested positive for ecstasy. 2. Wild king nights Combs is accused of sex trafficking two girlfriends, R&B artist Cassie Ventura and "Jane Doe," by forcing them to have sex with male escorts as he watched, masturbated, and recorded them. Jurors have previously heard that between 2008 and 2018, Combs and Ventura used the term "freak offs" to describe these drug-fueled, dayslong performances at the center of the sex-trafficking case. By the time Combs began dating the second accuser, "Jane," in 2021, they were called "hotel nights," at least for a while, prosecutors said. On the stand on Friday, Paul provided a clue as to when — and why — the name changed from "hotel nights" to "wild king nights." "After Cassie's lawsuit, they stopped being in hotels," Paul said, referring to Ventura's highly publicized November 2023 suit, which accused Combs of beating her and forcing her to have sex with male escorts in luxury hotels across the country. 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Paul said he was arrested for possessing seven tenths of a gram of his boss's cocaine. The charge was eventually dismissed. 4. Flower, tree, and Sunset Sherbet On cross-examination, defense lawyer Brian Steel asked if the amount of drugs Paul purchased for Combs appeared to suggest mere "personal use." Paul agreed, answering that it represented "what I would consider personal use." Still, the cost could pile up. Paul was asked about a February 9, 2024, text in which he complained that the company owed him nearly $5,000 for drug outlays he'd made on Combs' behalf. In the text, Paul told Khorram and a Combs Global finance exec that he'd been waiting months to be paid back for $4,200 he'd spent on "flower" — meaning marijuana, the ex-PA explained. "King Louie and Sunset Sherbet," Paul told the jury when asked what Combs' favorite strains of weed were. (One of his first jobs as PA, he testified, was "packing joints.") According to the same 2024 text, Combs also owed Paul $780 for "Gucci items." Asked what that term meant, Paul answered, "hard drugs." 5. Tusi Paul told the jury he had worked for Combs for only a few weeks when he found a vial of bright pink powder and a bag of blue pills left out on Combs' desk in his Los Angeles mansion. Paul said he texted a photo of the two items to his fellow personal assistants, asking what he should do. On Friday, he was asked about the photo. "I took it," he confirmed. He said he tucked the items out of sight and later learned the pink powder was called "tusi" or "2C." Tusi is a mix of the powdered horse tranquilizer ketamine and ecstasy, "dyed pink for the aesthetic," Paul told the jury. Combs once asked him to sample some pink powder, "to see if it was any good," Paul testified. "Euphoric," he said when the prosecutor asked how he felt afterward. He didn't want to try the drug, but did so anyway. "I wanted to prove my loyalty," he told the jury. 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Paul said that after the Lululemon mishap, he just kept returning to work. "I saw him again," some days later, Paul told the jury, "and he was like, 'Oh hey.'" Testimony continues Monday, when the government is expected to rest its case. Lead Combs attorney Marc Agnifilo told the judge Friday that the current plan is to rest the defense case after only one or two days of testimony, in which case closing arguments could begin on Thursday. "If there's any shifting in that, I'll let everyone know immediately," the lawyer told US District Judge Arun Subramanian and prosecutors.

New York Post

2 days ago

• New York Post

Gavin Newsom sipped wine at Napa fundraiser while anti-ICE protesters plunged L.A. into chaos

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