Diddy told Cassie's friend 'I'm the devil and I could kill you,' she testifies
Among the disturbing allegations emerging from Sean "Diddy" Combs' ongoing criminal trial is a statement the hip-hop mogul supposedly said to one of Cassie Ventura Fine's friends years ago.
Bryana "Bana" Bongolan testified June 4 that she was doing an impromptu beach photoshoot with Ventura Fine and a photographer friend one day when Combs went up to her and issued a threat.
"He came really close to my face and said, 'I'm the devil and I could kill you,'" she told the court.
She admitted she was likely high on cocaine at the time. Regardless, she "was terrified" and unsure why Combs said that to her.
Bongolan's remarks came on the 20th day of Combs' trial, which kicked off with jury selection on May 5. During her time on the stand, which will continue into a second day of cross-examination, Bongolan also detailed a 2016 incident in which Combs allegedly held her up on Ventura Fine's 17th-floor balcony and balanced her on the railing, making her think that she might fall.
The event was first described in Ventura Fine's 2023 lawsuit, and Bongolan filed her own suit seeking $10 million in damages from Combs a year later.
Bongolan told the court she'd first met Ventura Fine in the mid-2010s while working at a streetwear company called Diamond Supply Company, where the latter had been tapped to design a clothing line.
She didn't meet Combs until about a year into their friendship, Bongolan said, but she knew she "wasn't fond of what I was seeing" in his relationship with Ventura Fine. She didn't really want to meet him, she testified.
Bongolan also said that during a FaceTime before "The Perfect Match" premiere, she witnessed the black eye Ventura Fine allegedly suffered from Combs assaulting her in the hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in May 2016.
"I was pretty quiet. I remember saying, 'I'm sorry.' She was also pretty quiet," Bongolan testified.
Federal prosecutors claim Combs led a "criminal enterprise" that operated on sex trafficking, kidnapping, drug offenses and forced labor, among other crimes. Combs leveraged his wealth and celebrity status to "fulfill his sexual desires" in a "recurrent and widely known" pattern of abuse, investigators allege.
He faces two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and one count of racketeering. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Contributing: Patrick Ryan and Gina Barton, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cassie's friend testifies Diddy said 'I'm the devil', 'could kill you'
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