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Sean Combs, the rapper and producer known as Diddy, will return to a courtroom in Manhattan this morning. The charges he faces, which include racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, could put him in prison for life.
The trial this week will focus on the testimony of former employees and other witnesses who were privy to Combs’s violent outbursts. But its most dramatic revelations may have emerged last week during the testimony of Casandra Ventura, a singer also known as Cassie who dated Combs on and off for 11 years.
At the core of the case are “freak-offs,” voyeuristic sex marathons with male prostitutes that prosecutors say Combs coerced Ventura and another woman to participate in. Combs’s lawyers have argued that the government has twisted consensual sex with long-term girlfriends into serious federal charges.
Though the trial is expected to last about seven more weeks, several early moments are likely to stick with jurors. In today’s newsletter, I’ll tell you about them.
A relationship on trial
Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, took the stand over four grueling days. She recounted the heady beginnings of her relationship with Combs and read aloud affectionate and sometimes sexually explicit texts she wrote to him throughout their relationship. But she also described a pernicious pattern of beatings that she said left her in a state of fear, as well as drug-fueled sex marathons that she said she participated in to avoid his anger or retaliation.
“I just felt like it was all I was good for to him,” Ventura testified.
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