Cassie Ventura cross-examination focuses on threats she allegedly made | USAEMALL.com

The defense asked Ventura if she saw Combs again on Sept. 27, 2018. She didn’t remember, but said “sure” when asked if a document refreshed her memory. 

The defense asked Ventura if she had sexual intercourse with Combs that night.

“I did,” Ventura replied. 

She was asked if she received a FaceTime call while having sex with Combs. 

“I did,” she said. 

Ventura said she did not answer and that the caller ID showed it was her now-husband calling. She also said she didn’t know if her husband knew she was with Combs that night. 

Ventura said she later told her now-husband that Combs raped her and that she believes he reacted by punching a wall.

The defense continued asking Ventura about text messages between her and Combs after the alleged rape. 

In one exchange, Ventura told him she heard he was in a romantic relationship with a yoga instructor. Combs said he’s not dating or going out to dinner with anyone. Ventura didn’t seem to believe him and Combs asked who does she think he’s dating. 

“I actually need to stop even caring,” Ventura’s next text said. 

“Do you want to start dating, if you are, let’s just talk about it,” Combs responded. 

Later in the exchange, Ventura told Combs she chose her “sanity over everything” and that she’s finally sleeping well and gaining weight. 

The defense attorney noted that Ventura did not say anything to Combs like, “The last time we saw each other, you raped me.”

In the next text, Combs told Ventura he’s not a stalker and that she should focus on her sanity. Ventura told him she’d rather talk in person and that she knows he’s not a stalker. 

Ventura told attorneys Combs used the alias Frank Black, as some of the messages refer to “FB.” 

The defense showed Combs responded to Ventura’s message, saying he was trying to call her but was getting sent to voicemail. Another message showed Ventura responded, “I know I look bad to you … I could tell I didn’t turn you on yesterday …”

There’s a sidebar, and the defense has Ventura clarify she said in an April 2025 meeting the alleged rape happened in August 2018, not September. 

Ventura was asked if she saw Combs the day before sending the last text message and the one with a heart emoji. 

“I think so,” she said. 

Ventura said she continued seeing Combs because of their 10-year relationship. 

When the defense asked Ventura if she still hates Combs, she said, “I don’t hate him.” 

“I have love for the past, for what it was,” she said. 

The defense asked Ventura about her recollection of the lawsuit and if she remembers stating Combs forced himself into her apartment and tried to kiss her after dinner at an Italian restaurant in Malibu. 

She didn’t remember the exact wording of her statement. 

“I don’t remember the word forced, but maybe,” Ventura said. 

She’s then asked about meeting with investigators in November 2023 shortly after filing the lawsuit alleging rape. 

Ventura said Combs was acting strangely at dinner, but she didn’t remember telling investigators he later seemed anxious or that she didn’t think he was in his right mind. 

The defense showed an August 2018 text message allegedly from Ventura to Combs, saying, “Hit me when you can [heart emoji].” But she said she didn’t recognize it.

The defense’s questioning of Ventura continues as Combs’ team asks about her continuing to communicate regularly with him. 

Ventura said yes, she continued telling him the relationship was over. By that time, she was seeing her now-husband, she said. 

Ventura said, from her perspective, she and Combs were not together anymore, but she had dinner with him and went to her house with him. 

She’s then asked about her lawsuit accusing Combs of rape in 2018.

Prosecutors submitted a letter to the judge Friday morning, accusing the defense of trying to drag out Ventura’s time on the stand. 

“The Government respectfully submits this letter requesting that the Court exercise its discretion to limit the defendant’s cross examination of Ms. Ventura, if necessary, to ensure that her examination concludes by the end of the trial day today, May 16, 2025,” the letter read in part. 

Prosecutors say both sides agreed to wrap up her testimony Friday, but the defense has since filed more than 400 exhibits that appear “to be a strategic choice by the defense that delayed the Government’s ability to lodge objections and predictably and significantly delayed the proceedings during the first day of cross-examination yesterday.”

Ventura is eight and a half months pregnant with her third child and has been seen rubbing her stomach at times. 

“The defendant should not now be afforded the opportunity to hold Ms. Ventura on cross-examination over the weekend, offering him an additional two days to review transcripts of the witness’s testimony to prepare additional cross-examination inquiry, or risk a mistrial if the witness goes into labor,” prosecutors wrote in their letter.

Ventura has been on the stand since Tuesday, and her husband joined her in court for support.

“Cross-examination that lasts multiple hours longer than direct examination is more than enough to vindicate the defendant’s confrontation rights and satisfy any relevant defense strategy. No more is required, and any more risks harassing the witness at best and a mistrial at worst,” prosecutors wrote.

With the jury out of the room, the judge asked both sides why there is some confusion about what is and isn’t admitted into evidence. 

The defense said its exhibits are provided to the government by 7 p.m. the day before trial at the latest. 

The judge also asks that messages used in the trial be shown to witnesses in binders, so they don’t have to look up at a screen to see them, which has been taking up some time.

The judge said he wants the government’s witness list and anticipated order of witnesses by 5 p.m. Sunday. 

Questions then returned to Ventura’s treatment and whether she understood it was for PTSD. 

Ventura said she did not do a lot of somatic experiencing therapy. But from what she recalled, it lets people complete a trauma that’s been cut off, such as if you were getting beaten up and couldn’t walk out of the room, you could walk out of the room. 

She was asked if that meant reimagining traumatic experiences, and she said yes. 

Ventura was asked what she meant by her testimony about still physically developing. She said she meant everything, including her brain and body, that every woman continues to develop after age 22. 

The defense then spoke about the place where Ventura went for treatment, saying it treats sex addiction and something called love addiction. They asked if Ventura was treated for either of those during her stay, and she said no. 

Meanwhile, outside the courtroom, the courthouse itself was placed on a brief lockdown. No mention of it was made inside the courtroom, and the trial continued unaffected. The lockdown was lifted about 10 minutes later. Apparently U.S. Marshals had to track someone down, and did so. 

Ventura went on to testify she had a prior suspicion that someone was recording them. 

The defense brought up a reality television show that followed escorts, and alleged that one of the escorts made comments on a picture of Combs. Ventura said she hadn’t seen the show and did not remember that. 

The defense asked Ventura if she had wanted to make sure the escorts she hired were discreet, which Ventura said yes to. 

The defense then asked a number of questions about Ventura’s prior testimony, including bringing up the person she knew who said he’d seen a sexual video of her, and when Combs had messaged her not to let him out of her sight. 

The defense referenced another incident where Ventura allegedly got into a fight with a woman at her brother’s birthday party in Connecticut, and a text she sent Combs where she said she’d gotten into a bar fight and “tried to kill a b****.” 

The defense then played a recording apparently of the conversation between Ventura and the man who said he’d seen the sexual video of her. On the recording, Ventura can allegedly be heard asking the man to show her the video, whether or not he had it on him on his phone, that she wanted to see it, “it’s my life and I’ll kill you.” 

The recording continues, with Ventura allegedly saying to that person: 

“I will cut you up and put you in the f****** dirt right now … I’m gonna kill you and then he’s going to kill you again … I’ve never killed anybody in my life but I will kill you.” 

She allegedly accused the man of playing games with her, saying he saw something that he was now saying he didn’t.

“I’m not playing with you,” Ventura allegedly said. 

She allegedly told him to be her brother and tell her what he saw. 

Ventura was asked if Combs was in rehab after the incident at the InterContinental Hotel, and she replied she didn’t know. 

She testified she doesn’t remember a whole lot about the aftermath of that incident, that she went to New York to do promotion for a movie she was in. 

The defense asked if she remembered Combs going to Sedona after the InterContinental Hotel incident. Ventura said he could have, and said at some point she went to Sedona to take a break from drugs and partying. 

Ventura was asked what happened when Combs suspected her of cheating in 2016. Combs had taken her phone, the defense said. 

Ventura said the two of them were not in a great place at that point, that she was dating a professional football player and wasn’t sure how Combs found out about it. The two of them were in a car, driving to a doctor’s appointment, when Ventura told Combs she wanted to message her mom that she was OK. That’s when Combs grabbed her phone, Ventura said. She testified she thought he did so because he wanted to get into the phone.

The defense then asked about other times Combs took her phone. 

Cross-examination of Ventura resumed Friday morning. 

Defense attorneys asked Ventura about a message she allegedly sent Combs after the InterContinental Hotel incident in Los Angeles. 

“When you get f****** up the wrong way, you always want to show me that you have the power and you knock me around, I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child,” the message said. 

Combs has been held at Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn since his arrest last September. He was denied multiple requests for bail. 

MDC Brooklyn is the only federal jail in New York City since Metropolitan Correctional Center New York shut down in 2021. 

The Brooklyn jail is also where Luigi Mangione is being held as he awaits trial in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Other high profile inmates over the years have included Sam Bankman-Fried, Ja Rule and R. Kelly, who sued the facility in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing.

Security video showing Combs attack Ventura in the hallway of the InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles is a key piece of evidence in the trial.

The video, obtained and published by CNN last year, shows Combs throw her onto the floor before kicking and dragging her. 

The former security manger for the hotel was the first witness on the stand and testified Combs threw a stack of cash at him and said, “don’t tell anyone.”

Ventura testified she took a selfie after the incident, which showed her with a fat lip and wearing sunglasses. She said she wore the sunglasses to cover a black eye. 

Combs texted her claiming police were at the hotel, asking her to call him immediately, Ventura testified. 

She testified she responded, saying she was supposed to attend a premiere but now had a black eye.

“You are sick for thinking it’s OK to do what you’ve done,” Ventura texted. “Please stay far away from me.”

Prosecutors allege the assault happened during a “freak off,” but Combs’ lawyers, who sought to have the video excluded from trial, argue it was a “glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship.” 

Combs later apologized for the behavior seen on the video.

Ventura testified she went to dinner with Combs in August 2018 to have a conversation about closure after ending their relationship. 

They were not together then, and she was seeing another man, who is now her husband, she testified. 

She said Combs was nice, playful and romantic, and he brought her home. 

“And then he raped me in my living room,” Ventura testified. “On the floor.” 

Ventura said she remembered crying and saying no, but Combs wasn’t himself and didn’t stop.

She said she was intimate with Combs one more time after the incident. When asked why she agreed to see him again, she replied they had been together for years and were very connected, something you don’t just turn off. 

On Wednesday, Ventura gave explicit details about so-called “freak offs.” She said Combs would direct her and a male escort to perform sex acts. 

At one point, a text she sent Combs was displayed. It said, “Nothing good comes out of FO’s anymore. You treat me like you’re Ike Turner.” 

Ventura said Combs would hit her and that she developed infections and sores in her mouth. 

In addition to ecstasy and cocaine, she said Combs would supply ketamine and GHB. 

Combs’ defense team started questioning Ventura on Thursday about her off-and-on relationship with Combs that lasted nearly 11 years. 

Attorneys showed the jury many messages between the two, including some that were sexually explicit. Others were about Ventura helping Combs coordinate a “freak off.” 

They also asked Ventura about her drug use and pointed out how she often took drugs without Combs. 

It was Ventura’s third day on the witness stand, but first for cross-examination.

There is no livestream available for the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial because cameras are not allowed in federal court. 

Sketch artists, however, are allowed. 

CBS News New York’s Alice Gainer has been covering the trial all week and will provide live updates on today’s testimony.

The jury has heard from three witnesses so far:

1. Israel Florez, a security guard at the hotel where Combs was caught on video beating Ventura.
2. Daniel Phillip, who told jurors he was paid to have sex with Ventura and did while Combs watched.
3. Ventura, who has levied allegations of rape and blackmail against Combs, testified about “freak offs,” and detailed more of her relationship with him.