The hip-hop mogul is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
NEW YORK -- The third week of testimony in the sex trafficking trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs got underway Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege that Combs, a three-time Grammy winner, used his fame and fortune to create a deviant empire of exploitation, coercing women into abusive sex parties while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and beatings.
Combs' lawyers argue that all the sexual acts were consensual, and although he could be violent, he never veered into sex trafficking and racketeering.
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.)
While her former boyfriend is on trial, elsewhere in New York Cassie Ventura has given birth to her third child, a source close to her told ABC News.
No other details were immediately available. The source said Cassie and her husband Alex would post an update in the future.
Ventura testified for four days against Sean Combs while visibly pregnant and the judge arranged frequent breaks to accommodate.
At the start of his testimony, celebrity stylist Deonte Nash saw an airbrushed image of himself that he said, with a smile, was not a fair representation of what he looked like while he was working for Sean Combs and Cassie Ventura.
"I look amazing," Nash told prosecutor Maureen Comey, earning a laugh from the gallery.
Nash said he was around Cassie "all the time" and heard Combs call her names on regular occasions.
"He told her she was an 'outright ho,'" Nash said. He said he heard Combs call Ventura a b**** "quite a bit, that was his favorite."
And "quite a few times," Nash said he heard Combs tell Ventura, "He would beat her a**." He also testified he heard Combs tell her "that he wouldn't put her music out, that he would get her parents fired from their jobs, that he would put out sex tapes."
Federal prosecutors have alleged Combs maintained coercive control over Ventura that caused her to engage in "freak offs" that she did not desire.
Nash told the jury Combs required him to send photos of Cassie in different outfits.
"He would pick which one he liked and that would be the one we went with," Nash said.
He recalled arriving with Cassie at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty.
"She looked bomb. Her hair was down," Nash said, but he told the jury Combs came over and said "I thought I told you she needs to wear her hair up."
Nash said Combs angrily grabbed him by his jacket and lifted him up. "I just started asking people at the party for hair pins," Nash said.
He also recalled one night in 2013 going to a gay club with Ventura, Rita Ora and others. The group returned to Ventura's apartment when he said she "got a call from Puff."
The phone call was on speakerphone and Nash said he heard Combs tell Ventura "that she ought to bring her a** to his house."
He recalled Ventura "started to panic" before Combs called back and told him "we were wild and that he thought he told us not to be going out."
He said Ventura "just packed her stuff and went to his house."
Court is taking its lunch break.
The defense sought on cross-examination to undercut the credibility of Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator Lance Jimenez and questioned him about a single black glove found on the back seat of rapper Kid Cudi's Porsche 911 Cabriolet. Jimenez previously testified about what he discovered during his investigation of an attempt to set the car on fire with a Molotov cocktail.
Jimenez testified that he did not send the glove for testing because he did not find it significant to his investigation.
"I believed it belonged to the owner," Jimenez testified. "It was a driving glove, according to him," referring to Scott Mescudi, aka Cudi.
"You thought it was significant enough that you talked to the owner about it?" defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked.
"Yes," Jimenez replied.
"He said it was his glove, correct?" Agnifilo asked.
"That is my recollection, yes," Jimenez testified.
"Did you put anything in your report about this single glove?" Agnifilo questioned.
"I don't think I did," Jimenez testified.
On re-direct examination by the prosecution, Jimenez called the glove "irrelevant."
The defense said that female DNA was allegedly found on the malt liquor bottle filled with gasoline that was used to make the Molotov cocktail and that was found in the vehicle, but Jimenez had already testified to prosecutors that DNA was outside of his area of expertise.
Jimenez testified on cross-examination that Cassie Ventura did not call him back when he attempted to contact her about the car fire incident and that Capricorn Clark declined to speak with him.
The cross-examination did not mention fingerprints.
Jimenez's testimony has concluded. The next scheduled witness is Deonte Nash, a stylist and friend of Ventura's.
Defense attorneys for Sean Combs called it "outrageous" that federal prosecutors asked a Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator about the destruction of fingerprints that he testified had been lifted from Scott Mescudi's front door.
The investigator, Lance Jimenez, testified he did not order the prints destroyed. He told the court that he blamed "someone in the LAPD."
When prosecutor Christy Slavik asked whether it was "unusual" for evidence to be destroyed in an open case, the defense objected and Judge Arun Subramanian summoned the attorneys to a sidebar.
The judge then sent the jury from the courtroom for a break. The defense moved for a mistrial, alleging Slavik's question was meant to plant an inference in jurors' minds that Combs was responsible for the destruction of evidence.
Subramanian denied the mistrial and gave the jury an instruction upon their return from the break.
"Before the break, you heard some testimony about fingerprint cards and I'm now instructing you that questions regarding the destruction of the fingerprint cards, and the answers, are irrelevant to this case and to the defendant and are not to be considered by you," Subramanian said.
Jimenez testified that he tried calling several people at Mescudi's suggestion, including previous witnesses Capricorn Clark and Cassie Ventura, and was unable to reach them.
There were never any charges connected to the arson but the case has not been closed. Jimenez testified that the current status of the case is "inactive pending anything further."
