The trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs hit a significant benchmark this week, because the protection offered its case on Tuesday and rested it in below half-hour and with using any witnesses. As a complete, that method drastically differs from the strategies utilized by the prosecution, which known as upon a bevy of people to the stand. One of the vital notable folks to have offered testimony is Cassie Ventura, who dated Combs on and off between 2007 and 2018. Now, an knowledgeable is discussing why her statements could possibly be important to the jury’s verdict.
38-year-old singer Cassie Ventura, whose stage identify is Cassie, took the stand weeks in the past whereas she was pregnant together with her third baby with husband Alex High quality. Whereas testifying, she shared graphic particulars about her romance with Combs in addition to claims that she was pressured to take part within the rapper’s Freak Offs. As a result of on the racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking costs Combs is dealing with, Mark Chutkow (a former federal prosecutor) believes Cassie’s account could possibly be pivotal:
It was savvy to carry this as a racketeering case in some methods as a result of it allowed them to herald much more proof of his dangerous acts that they would not have in any other case been in a position to do if this was a really narrowly tailor-made case. And so in that respect, I imply, the case actually rises and falls with the testimony of Cassie Ventura. If the jury believes it, in the event that they imagine that she actually could not get away from him, and he or she needed to do the issues that he had requested, then the prosecution has gone a great distance towards a conviction on this case.
Among the many extra particular costs that 55-year-old Diddy is dealing with along with racketeering are intercourse trafficking by power, fraud or coercion in addition to transportation to interact in prostitution. What Mark Chutkow theorizes to Fox Information is that ought to jurors imagine Cassie’s claims of being with Diddy in opposition to her will, it’ll have a significant affect. That apart, Chutkow additionally lauded prosecutors for making a case that aligned with the costs specified by the unique indictment that was unsealed in September 2024:
While you take a look at the indictment, it’s extremely lengthy. It is a talking indictment, they usually have ticked off all the varied info that that they had offered to the jury in that indictment. They introduced in proof of violence. They introduced in proof of weapons, of medicine, of intercourse acts. And they also actually got here via with what they stated that they had been going to do on this case.
In regard to those that testified, Cassie wasn’t the one particular person to stage important claims in opposition to the “Gotta Transfer On” rapper. Bryana Bongolan, a good friend of Ventura’s, claimed that she was dangled from a seventeenth flooring balcony by Diddy after he confronted her in Cassie’s residence. One other rapper, Child Cudi, took the stand as properly, and he testified that Diddy allegedly oversaw a house invasion and tried arson plot in opposition to him.
Cassie’s in-court claims had been additionally backed up by a former male escort, who attested to the assertion that Sean Combs pressured the songstress to interact in sexual acts with different males. This all comes over a yr and a half after the “Is It You” performer filed swimsuit in opposition to Combs for alleged sex-trafficking, home violence and extra. Whereas Combs denied wrongdoing, the swimsuit was settled lower than 24 hours after it was filed. Cassie’s swimsuit would ultimately be adopted by a wave of different lawsuits from women and men, which featured comparable claims.
For the reason that case started, Cassie Ventura has responded to the declare that she “ruined” her ex’s profession attributable to her swimsuit. Ventura reportedly responded by saying, “I might perceive that, yeah.” With regards to the feedback Cassie shared in court docket, the magnitude of their results on the jury stay to be seen. Proper now, what is thought is that closing arguments within the case start this Thursday.