Combs defense seeks to show ex-girlfriend had agency
NEW YORK (AFP) — Sean Combs's defense lawyers on Tuesday began questioning a woman who dated the music mogul up until his arrest, and who has testified in agonizing detail that he pressured her into drug-fueled sex with escorts.
In the initial hours of questioning, defense attorney Teny Geragos sought to demonstrate that the woman speaking under the pseudonym Jane had agency throughout her relationship with Combs — an attempt to show that what prosecutors deem to be sex trafficking was in fact consensual.
The defense exhibited loving messages and voice notes the pair shared, and also asked Jane about her "jealousy" regarding Combs's "polyamorous" lifestyle that involved other girlfriends.
Geragos elicited testimony from Jane in which she said she gravitated to men who were "successful."
The witness, who told jurors she still loves Combs, also testified that at points she felt "very loved" by him, and that he was her "baby."
Attorney Geragos spent much of the afternoon prompting Jane to read lengthy, lewd texts aloud.
During the uncomfortable, painstaking process Jane repeatedly emphasized there was an "undertone" to the messages in which she felt compelled to write what Combs wanted to hear.
Jane was largely calm and confident throughout defense questioning, but one particularly tense exchange saw her patience wane.
Pressing her over jealousy related to the gifts Combs gave other women, Geragos asked her if he ever gave her a Chanel bag.
"No, I only got trauma," Jane responded.
"What is a Bottega bag?" Geragos then asked, referring to another luxury accessory that Jane had previously said she received from Combs.
"I'm sure you have one," Jane quipped, before the lawyer asked her how much a Bottega bag costs."
Jane clapped back: "How much does my body cost?"
Violent outburst
Jane previously told jurors how the final year of her relationship with the artist known as "Diddy" exploded into violence in June 2024.
At the time Combs was already under investigation by federal authorities, and the now-infamous security footage of him assaulting his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura in a hotel was public.
Jane, who began seeing Combs in early 2021, detailed how she had longed for a more traditional romantic relationship with him.
But she said 90 percent of their time together resulted in sometimes days-long sex parties that saw Combs direct her to have sex with male escorts while he watched, even as she told him the encounters made her feel "sleazy" and "disgusted."
Jane told jurors Combs paid for her rent at the time and still does, and he covers her legal expenses.
She previously testified at length that she felt "obligated" to participate in the so-called "hotel nights" for "fear of losing the roof over my head" that Combs was bankrolling.
A June 2024 date-turned-argument escalated when Jane said she pushed Combs's head onto a marble countertop in her home and began hurling candles — acts of "built-up" anger, she testified.
Combs was livid: Jane said he kicked down doors and ultimately put her in a chokehold.
She ran out, but upon return Combs kicked and punched her until she had a black eye and "golf ball" sized welts, she said.
Combs instructed her to ice the injuries and prepare for a hotel night with an escort.
"You're not going to ruin my fucking night," she said Combs told her. When she said she didn't want to participate, he stood closely to her face as he asked in a "forceful" tone: "Then is this coercion?"
Jane ultimately complied: "I just felt like I wasn't even in my own body," she said.
Sexual trauma
When Ventura — who last month testified of physical and psychological abuse in similarily excruciating detail — filed her 2023 civil lawsuit that opened the door for a federal investigation, Jane said she "almost fainted."
"There was a whole other woman feeling the same thing," Jane said.
"I feel like I'm reading my own sexual trauma. It makes me sick how three solid pages, word for word, is exactly my experiences and my anguish," she messaged Combs, in text records read in court.
The 55-year-old faces life in prison if convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Jane's story was not in the original indictment against Combs, but she was added after receiving a subpoena requiring she testify in November 2024 before a grand jury.
Jane has not filed any civil suit against Combs, and testified she has no plans to do so. She is expected to stay on the stand through Thursday.
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