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

Defense lawyers made it clear before the trial that they intended to label a lot of Combs' sexual behavior as reflective of a swingers lifestyle.

Now Estevao is asked Cassie directly if she thinks "freak-offs" were related to this lifestyle.

"In a sexual way," Cassie responded, before adding: "They're very different."

A day earlier, Cassie told prosecutors they went to swingers clubs together several times in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

While prosecutors focused on Combs' desire to see Cassie having sex with other men in marathons of sexual activity, she acknowledged under defense questioning that she sometimes watched Combs have sex with other women.

Cassie testified that this happened maybe four times throughout the course of their decade-long relationship, and that Combs told her it was part of a "swingers lifestyle."

After going through a pile of Cassie's years-old emails and text messages, defense questioning pivoted to the highly orchestrated encounters in which Cassie says Combs watched as she engaged in sex acts with male sex workers.

Early on, Cassie testified, she disguised herself with wigs and masquerade masks because while Combs was a recognizable star, she was an up-and-coming R&B singer and neither of them wanted people finding out.

"The encounter itself was pretty crazy," Cassie told jurors. "I really followed his lead on that because I had never done it before."

Nearly two hours into cross examination, the questioning of Cassie seems to have taken a turn from what had been mostly friendly questioning.

Estevao asked Cassie if it's "fair to say" that Combs' career was ruined after she sued him in November 2023, making public for the first time the concept of "freak-offs."

"I could understand that," Cassie responded.

Cassie testified earlier this week that when she tied to end their relationship, Combs threatened to end her career by releasing degrading sexual videos of her.

After testifying for two days that Sean Combs forced her into sexual encounters with male prostitutes under threat of violence and reputational harm, Cassie Ventura was confronted on cross-examination by messages that appeared to show her reluctance was only because she wanted more from the relationship.

"When we used to freak off when were so in love. There were no questions asked, it felt right, like it literally made sense for the next step in our sex life together," Ventura wrote in a message to Combs from December 2009. "I get nervous that I'm just becoming the girlfriend that you get your fantasies off with and that's it. I don't get the other part."

"At the time you were afraid that you were being treated as someone who he could just get his fantasies off with?" defense attorney Anna Estevao asked.

"That was a concern," Ventura answered.

Estevao asked Ventura whether "freak offs" were a "defining feature" of their relationship.

"It became a very integral part of our relationship early on," Ventura responded.

"And you wanted your relationship to develop more?" Estevao asked.

"Right," Ventura said.

The defense showed the court additional explicit messages, meant to support their contention that Ventura was an eager sexual partner who shared Combs' desires.

In one August 2009 message exchange, Ventura expressed, with explicit detail, excitement about a then-forthcoming sexual event.

"I can't wait. That's what I want to see," Combs replied.

"I can't wait either," Ventura wrote back.