Sean Combs sex trafficking trial updates: Cassie's testimony ends after days of describing abuse

After four days on the witness stand, Cassie Ventura concluded her testimony Friday at the trial of her ex-boyfriend, Sean Combs.

"Have a great weekend," Judge Arun Subramanian said.

On re-cross, defense attorney Anna Estevao returned to a central theme of the defense, questioning whether Combs coerced Ventura into sexual activity as alleged, confronting her for a second time with some of her explicit text exchanges with Combs.

Ventura said she has reached the end of settlement discussions with the InterContinental Hotel and expected to receive $10 million, the first time the figure has been publicly revealed.

She confirmed settlement negotiations concluded shortly before her testimony.

Prosecutor Emily Johnson asked, "Do you have any financial stake I the outcome of this trial?" Ventura responded quickly, "Absolutely not."

After Ventura compared being Combs' girlfriend to being "basically a sex worker," Estevao on re-cross highlighted the benefits of the relationship.

"Stand by his side at the Met Gala and premieres?" Estevao asked. "Yup," Ventura answered.

"You were given opportunities in terms of your ability to access contacts in the entertainment industry?" Estevao asked. "Sometimes given but also earned," Ventura responded.

The next witness is Yasin Binda, a special agent.

The cross-examination of Cassie Ventura concluded with a 2012 text exchange in which Sean Combs asked Ventura if she wanted to "have a freak off one last time."

Prosecutor Emily Johnson immediately showed the exchange on re-direct as part of a longer thread in which Ventura expressed different feelings about "freak offs."

The exchange cemented a central theme of the defense cross-examination: to attempt to portray Ventura as a willing, even eager, participant in the kind of sexual lifestyle Combs wanted.

The defense also asked Ventura about her Instagram post after CNN first aired the hotel surveillance video depicting Combs attacking her near the elevator.

"Domestic violence is the issue and it's an important issue," Ventura posted in part.

"That's what you focused on in your Instagram post?" defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. "There was more to it but yeah," Ventura replied.

The defense has argued that Ventura may have been a victim of domestic violence, but that she was not a victim of sex trafficking.

The defense has also argued Ventura is motivated by money and pointed out she canceled an Australian and New Zealand tour after settling her 2023 civil lawsuit.

"You saw you would get $20 million and you canceled," Estevao said. "That wasn't the reason why," Ventura said.

After fears that Cassie's testimony could spill over to next week, Estevao says she'll finish questioning Cassie "much sooner" than expected this afternoon, even before the next break.

The defense questioning may have been sped up because Cassie has been a cooperative witness throughout her four days on the witness stand.

She hasn't challenged Combs' lawyer or claimed often that she can't remember what happened during a period of her life when she concedes she was addicted to drugs.

The jury is seeing messages and hearing testimony about the prolonged breakup of Sean Combs and Cassie Ventura in late 2018, which the defense appears to be using to try and raise further doubt about her rape allegation.

"You don't say anything to the effect of, 'the last time we saw each other you raped me,'" Estevao noted about Ventura's communications with Combs.

According to Ventura's testimony, the last she and Combs had sex was Sept. 27, 2018, when Ventura testified she received a FaceTime call from her now-husband Alex Fine.

"Did you answer that call?" defense attorney Anna Estevao asked. "No," Ventura responded.

"Was it in the middle of sexual intercourse that you received this call?" Estevao asked. "We were together. I don't know," Ventura responded.

"Your husband learned about your evening with Mr. Combs, right?" Estevao asked. "You told your now-husband that Mr. Combs raped you."

"That wasn't the evening I was raped," Ventura testified. When Fine eventually found out about the alleged rape, Ventura testified that he punched a wall.

Earlier, the defense showed Ventura transcripts of her interviews with law enforcement agents, pointing out that she told them that the night of the alleged rape Combs was acting "nice but strangely." The defense also tried to point out how Ventura wondered whether the alleged attack occurred because of Combs potentially having bipolar disorder, the first time such a condition was mentioned at trial.

Combs discussed his mental health struggles in a 2009 Playboy Magazine article.

"I think therapy is good. I've been called bipolar - I'm not; I just have very drastic mood swings," he said in the interview.

The jurors are in a lunch break.