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The federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs resumed on Friday with testimony from a former girlfriend and alleged victim, identified as “Jane”.
The woman, described by prosecutors as a single mother who met Combs in 2020, testified on Friday that Combs denied requests that escorts wear condoms during the drug-fueled sexual encounters with male escorts at hotels known as “freak-offs” or “hotel nights”, which she claims Combs orchestrated and watched as she took part.
Jane told the court that she asked Combs at least twice if an escort could wear condoms, but said that Combs “guilt-tripped me out of it … He didn’t want to see a rubber while he was watching.”
Combs, 55, was arrested in September 2024 and faces federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Jane began her testimony on Thursday and told the court that she began dating Combs in 2021, and that their relationship was loving and passionate.
However, she described a turning point in their relationship in May 2021, when Combs revealed his sexual fantasies involving other men and role-playing.
She said that, wanting to please him, she agreed to go along with the idea and that within hours she was in a Miami hotel room watching Combs’s assistants set up for a group sex encounter.
“That night really opened a Pandora’s box for our relationship,” Jane testified. “It set the tone for our relationship going forward … It was a door that I was unable to shut.”
Jane testified that after that point, 90% of her sexual encounters with Combs included other men while Combs watched, masturbated and directed the sex acts.
When the prosecutor asked if she wanted to have sex with the others, Jane replied: “No … just Sean.”
She said she repeatedly told Combs, in person and in writing, that she no longer wanted to participate in these sexual encounters, but he pressured her, and she felt “obligated”.
Jane told the court how she became financially dependent on Combs, who paid her rent and would send her money. She said that at times, when she voiced discomfort with the sexual encounters, he threatened to stop paying her rent.
On Friday, Jane testified that she feared losing her home if she refused to participate in the so-called hotel nights or freak-offs.
On the stand, she read aloud texts from 2023 in which she told Combs that it felt like the sexual encounters were “the only reason you have me around and pay for the house”, adding that she was “doing things that make me disgusted with myself”.
In other messages, Jane told Combs that she felt she had to perform for him and regretted ever participating in the encounters, writing: “Ever since I opened Pandora’s box, I haven’t been able to close it.
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“I don’t want to keep feeling like that,” she wrote, telling Combs that she wanted them to “talk like adults and figure out where we’re going from here”.
Combs replied: “Girl, stop.”
Jane recalled crying at least twice during the encounters with Combs and male escorts, and said that Combs appeared offended and “disgusted” by her display of emotion.
While Combs’s lawyers have acknowledged his history of domestic violence, they argue that the women participated in the freak-offs consensually and they maintain that Combs is not guilty of sex trafficking or racketeering, or of operating a criminal enterprise.
So far, Jane’s testimony has echoed that of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who dated Combs on and off from 2007 to 2018 and testified last month.
Ventura told jurors that she was subjected to years of physical and emotional abuse during the relationship. She alleged she was coerced, through violence and blackmail, into taking part in the freak-offs, which she said were orchestrated and directed by Combs and involved drugs and male sex workers.
During cross-examination, Combs’s attorneys sought to portray Ventura as a willing participant in the freak-offs, framing the encounters as part of a “swingers lifestyle”.
If convicted on all counts, Combs could face life in prison.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
