NEW YORK (AP) — A former private assistant who accuses Sean “Diddy” Combs of rape testified Monday that she continued sending the hip-hop mogul loving messages for years after her job led to 2017 as a result of she was “brainwashed.”
The lady, testifying underneath the pseudonym “Mia,” pushed back at defense lawyer Brian Steel’s suggestions that she fabricated her claims to cash in on “the #MeToo money grab against Sean Combs.”
Mia was on the witness stand for her third and remaining day at Comb’s federal intercourse trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan, which is in its fourth week of testimony.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible. His legal professionals concede he could possibly be violent, however he denies utilizing threats or his music business clout to commit abuse.
Metal had Mia learn aloud quite a few textual content messages she despatched Combs. In a single from 2019, she advised Combs that he’d rescued her in a nightmare during which she was trapped in an elevator with R. Kelly, the singer who has since been convicted of intercourse trafficking.
“And the person who sexually assaulted you came to your rescue?” Metal requested incredulously. He rephrased, asking if she actually dreamed of being saved by a person “who terrorized you and caused you PTSD?” Prosecutors objected and the choose sustained it.
It was one among many objections throughout a combative and sometimes meandering cross-examination that stood in distinction to the protection’s gentler remedy of different prosecution witnesses. A number of occasions, the choose interrupted Metal, instructing him to maneuver alongside or rephrase difficult questions.
In an Aug. 29, 2020, message to Combs, Mia recalled glad highlights from her eight years working for him — resembling consuming champagne on the Eiffel Tower at 4 a.m. and rejecting Rolling Stones entrance man Mick Jagger’s supply to take her dwelling — saying she remembered solely “the good times.”
In the identical message, Mia talked about as soon as feeling “bamboozled” by a girl. Metal requested why she did not say Combs had bamboozled her as properly.
“Because I was still brainwashed,” Mia answered.
Requested to elucidate, Mia mentioned that in an atmosphere the place “the highs were really high and the lows were really low,” she developed “huge confusion in trusting my instincts.”
When Metal recommended her assault claims have been made up, Mia responded: “I have never lied in this courtroom and I never will lie in this courtroom. Everything I said is true.”
She mentioned she felt an ethical obligation to talk out after others got here ahead towards Combs, telling jurors: “It has been a protracted course of. I am untangling issues. I am in remedy.”
Mia alleges Combs forcibly kissed her and molested her at his fortieth celebration, and raped her months later in a visitor room at his Los Angeles dwelling. She testified final week that the assaults have been “random, sporadic, so oddly spaced out” she didn’t suppose they’d occur once more.
For a very long time, Mia mentioned, she stored the assaults to herself — staying quiet even after her good friend, Combs’ former longtime girlfriend Cassie, sued Combs in November 2023 alleging sexual abuse. The lawsuit, settled inside hours for $20 million, touched off Combs’ prison investigation.
Mia adopted Cassie because the second of three key prosecution witnesses. The third, utilizing the pseudonym “Jane,” will testify later this week.
Mia mentioned she didn’t really feel comfy telling Cassie, the R&B singer whose authorized identify is Casandra Ventura, that she was additionally victimized. She mentioned she did not inform prosecutors when she first met with them in January 2024, ready about six months to take action.
“Just because you find out something doesn’t mean you immediately snap out of it. I was still deeply ashamed and I wanted to die with this,” Mia testified.
Metal recommended Mia solely advised prosecutors after she obtained authorized counsel, accusing the witness of attempting to put the groundwork for a lawsuit towards Combs.
However Choose Arun Subramanian shut down Metal’s makes an attempt to ask Mia if she selected her legal professional due to that lawyer’s success getting hefty judgments for author E. Jean Carroll in intercourse abuse-related lawsuits towards President Donald Trump.
Prosecutors warned that Metal’s remedy of Mia within the intently watched Combs case might deter victims from testifying in different, unrelated instances.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Maureen Comey accused Metal of yelling at and humiliating Mia, and argued that choosing aside her social media posts was extreme and irrelevant.
“We are crossing the threshold into prejudice and harassing this witness,” Comey advised Subramanian after jurors left the courtroom for a break.
Subramanian mentioned he hadn’t heard any yelling or sarcasm in Metal’s questions however cautioned the lawyer to not overdo it with questions on Mia’s social media posts.
