Cassie Ventura says Sean Combs used sex videos as blackmail tools

New York: Casandra Ventura, the singer and model known as Cassie, testified Wednesday that she had stayed with Sean Combs despite beatings and other abuse partly because of the nagging, persistent fear that videos of their sexual encounters with male prostitutes, the "freak-offs" that Combs enjoyed watching and recording, would be posted online.

In her testimony in federal court in Manhattan, she said hers was not idle anxiety based on what she viewed Combs might be capable of, but the consequence of repeated threats he had made to use the material to damage her if she deviated from his wishes. In one case, she described flying on a plane with him when he displayed for her videos that she thought had been destroyed.

"I just felt trapped," she said.

Combs is accused of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his lawyers have argued that Ventura and another woman who is part of the case were willing participants in the marathon sex sessions.

In bringing forward what Ventura described as threats of blackmail, the government was attempting to rebut arguments by the defense that the sex was consensual and the charges an attempt to criminalize unconventional, but lawful, behavior.

Ventura's matter-of-fact tone during hours of testimony disguised the extraordinary violence and dysfunction she said were part of her drug-fueled relationship with Combs, who was not only her boyfriend but her record label boss.

"He would grab me up," Ventura said in describing Combs during sex marathons with the men Combs hired. "Push me down. Hit me in the side of the head. Kick me. You name it."

She read a text message she sent to Combs in 2017. "You treat me like you're Ike Turner," the text said, referring to Tina Turner's former husband, who was abusive to her.

She stayed in the relationship, Ventura has said, in part because she loved Combs and in part because of how much damage she thought would result if the world, her family, her mother saw the footage.

Once when she was dating rapper Kid Cudi in 2011, she said Combs told her, "I'm going to put out two embarrassing videos of you." The incident on the plane followed an argument, and Ventura said Combs, sitting beside her, pulled up the videos on his laptop and told her that he was going to "embarrass me and release them."

Combs' three adult sons -- Quincy Brown, Christian Combs and Justin Combs -- listened to the testimony inside the courtroom -- Justin with his arm draped around Combs' mother, Janice Combs. Three of his daughters who had been attending the trial were not there Wednesday.

Combs -- wearing a cream-colored sweater and gray pants -- tracked Ventura with his eyes as she walked to the witness box in the morning to begin her day on the stand. She stared ahead. Ventura's husband, Alex Fine, looked at Combs as his wife spoke.

She began by detailing the aftermath of Combs' attack on her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Ventura had told the jury Tuesday that Combs had hit her in the face during a freak-off there and she had fled.

But he followed her, wearing only a towel, and as recorded in a surveillance video shown in court -- and broadcast in parts by CNN last year -- Combs struck, kicked and dragged her in the hallway.

Ventura said she left the hotel and, in an Uber ride back to her apartment, took a selfie of the "fat lip" she suffered in the beating. Once she got home, a friend called police, but when officers arrived, Ventura said she declined to identify who had assaulted her.

"Did you want to protect Sean?" asked the prosecutor, Emily A. Johnson.

"Yeah, of course," Ventura answered.

The couple reconciled enough that, days after the assault, they appeared together at the premiere for a film she starred in called "The Perfect Match." The jury was shown a photograph of the couple together at the premiere. Ventura said she had covered the bruises on her face with makeup.

Combs' defense team has acknowledged he was violent during the relationship but has argued that those acts do not constitute either racketeering or sex trafficking, the charges on which he is being tried.

Ventura's testimony is viewed as critical to the case and in many respects mirrors what she said in a 2023 lawsuit that accused Combs of abuse. It was settled in just one day, and Combs apologized for assaulting her in the hotel hallway after the CNN video aired.

Some of the text messages read in court Wednesday displayed the emotional polarity of the couple's relationship. In one loving message she sent him on Father's Day, she said "You are truly the most extraordinary man," and said she looked forward to having a child together.

"Thank you for always showing me love and happiness, the way it's supposed to be," she wrote. Asked by the prosecutor why she sent the message, Ventura responded, "Because I loved him and it was Father's Day."

But the frequency and extremes of the freak-offs, which she said were held in hotels around the country, were damaging both emotionally and physically, Ventura testified. In one case, she said, Combs took her away from her birthday party to engage in a freak-off.

She said she developed mouth sores, attributing them to activities during the freak-offs, including taking drugs and performing oral sex. In a text message, Combs expressed sympathy, writing, "I'm sorry."

Ventura said she also had persistent urinary tract infections when she and Combs were having frequent freak-offs. She would continue to perform in the encounters despite the infections, calling the pain "horrible."

One violent episode left a permanent scar, she said, recounting an incident in 2013 when she was with two friends in her apartment before traveling to a music festival. Combs entered and began yelling about her sleeping on the couch rather than packing, she said. When Combs moved to attack her, she recounted, her friends "jumped on his back."

During the altercation, Combs threw her down, and she cut her eyebrow on the corner of her bed, she said.

Afterward, Combs had security take her to a plastic surgeon's office in Beverly Hills to have the gash sutured. She said she later texted him a photo of the injury and wrote, "so you can remember."