The hip-hop mogul is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
NEW YORK -- Sean "Diddy" Combs' former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, took the witness stand in his sex trafficking trial on Tuesday, a day after prosecutors showed jurors video of the music mogul beating her in a hotel in 2016.
Combs is accused of forcing women including Cassie into drugged-up sex parties he described as "freak offs."
Cassie testified that she was injured in multiple beatings by Combs and compelled to participate in the "freak offs" for a decade.
Lawyers for three-time Grammy winner told the jury on Monday that while Combs could be violent, he never veered into sex trafficking or racketeering.
Prosecutors allege that Combs, 55, used his fame and power at the top of the hip-hop world to sexually abuse women from 2004 to 2024. He pleaded not guilty after his September arrest and has remained held without bail at a federal lockup in Brooklyn.
If Combs is convicted on all charges, which include racketeering, kidnapping, arson, bribery and sex trafficking, he would face a mandatory 15 years in prison and could remain behind bars for life.
This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.
"Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy," a new podcast from "20/20" and ABC Audio, traces how the whispers of abuse came to light and led to the downfall of Sean "Diddy" Combs, who was once among the most influential entertainers and entrepreneurs in hip hop. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and more.
(ABC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Cassie, the R&B singer and former girlfriend of Sean "Diddy" Combs, is set to return to the witness stand on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. for more questioning from prosecutors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said she expects to finish her questioning, known as direct, on Wednesday.
After that, Combs' lawyers will have a chance to question the witness.
Cassie Ventura concluded her first day of dramatic, graphic and emotional testimony by recalling the time she tried to leave a "freak off" before it was over and it returned jurors to a visceral piece of evidence.
"There's an instance in Los Angeles where it got violent, and I chose to leave," she said, the time in March 2016 at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City depicted on widely seen video.
"There was a lot of drinking, a lot of partying. I'm not sure what happened but in the middle of it I got hit by Sean and got a black eye," Ventura said.
"When I chose to leave, I grabbed what I could and got out and Sean followed me into the hallway by the elevators, grabbed me, tried to drag me back to the room."
Jurors have already seen the video during the testimony of a prior witness, but it was played again. "That's me," Ventura said.
Ventura said she made it to the elevators when "the next thing I knew I was just thrown to the ground." She said Combs grabbed her by the back of the hoodie and threw her down. She told the jury Combs had previously thrown her to the ground on multiple occasions, "too many to count."
Ventura earlier described how degrading the "freak offs" became.
"The idea of objectifying me was tossed around like it was nothing, putting me in these compromising positions with strangers," she said.
She said Combs insisted on recording the sessions, which she said "made me feel insane" because it was "humiliating, disgusting. Never wanted anyone to see me like that."
When a prosecutor asked why, she replied: "For me it was dissociative and numbing. I couldn't imagine myself doing any of that without having some sort of buffer or way to not feel it for what it really was, which was emotionless sex with a stranger that I didn't really want to have sex with."
During her testimony, Cassie identified some of the many male escorts she says she hired for "freak offs" at Combs' behest. As she spoke, prosecutors displayed photos of the men on courtroom monitors.
She identified some by their real names. Others she knew only by their nicknames, including "The Punisher."
Cassie said some of the men, procured online, were flown to "freak offs" in such places as Los Angeles, Miami and Las Vegas. Others were only used for encounters in New York City. One of those men, a stripper named Daniel Phillip, testified on Monday and Tuesday.
Cassie Ventura participated in freak offs at nearly every one of Sean Combs' homes and, most frequently, in hotels in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Ibiza, and Turks and Caicos, she told the jury.
"After a freak off the room was pretty bad off," she said. "Oil, candle wax all over the place."
The candles were used for lighting along with studio-type lights that gave the room a reddish hue, she testified. The jury saw a photo of Combs on a bed with a wad of cash in a room that was glowing with red light.
Ventura said she remembered the smell in the room being "super pungent" from candles, body odor and urine.
Ventura said Combs liked participants' bodies "to be glistening" with baby oil. They would go through ten large-sized bottles at a time, she testified.
Ventura told the jury that the freak offs fulfilled Combs's alleged desire for voyeurism. She described in graphic detail what she said were "disgusting" acts.
When the freak offs became more frequent, Ventura said she and Combs used an escort service to supply them with participants at locations across the country.
Combs sat back in his chair listening to Ventura's testimony, with his mother and children seated in the second row behind him.
