The Latest: Cassie is being cross-examined after exposing Diddy’s violence

By Canadian Press on May 15, 2025.

NEW YORK (AP) — The R&B singer Cassie is being cross-examined after two days of testimony recounting tumultuous details of life with her ex-boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Prosecutors allege Combs used his fame and fortune to orchestrate an empire of exploitation, coercing women into abusive sex parties. His lawyers argue that all the sexual acts were consensual, and although he could be violent, he never veered into sex trafficking and racketeering. Combs has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Combs’ seven attorneys are led by New York lawyer Marc Agnifilo and also includes Teny Geragos, who has expertise in sexual misconduct cases, and attorney Brian Steel, who represented Young Thug in a lengthy trial before the rapper pleaded guilty to gang, drug and gun charges. Celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, Teny’s father, has advised the team. Defense Attorney Anna Estevao began the cross-examination on Thursday.

Here’s the Latest:

‘I love you sooooo much it makes me cry’

Estevao is confronting Cassie with loving emails and text messages she and the hip-hop mogul exchanged early on, often using Blackberry devices in the era before iPhones.

In one 2008 email, Cassie told Combs she was a lucky woman. “I love you sooo much,” she wrote after Combs thanked her for flying to Atlanta to be with him.

In August 2009, in a message sent when Combs went by the moniker “Puffy,” the rap star told her: “I love you sooooo much it makes me cry.”

Cassie replied: “U hungry pop pop?” She testified that Pop Pop was a nickname she used for Combs, while he sometimes called her Baby Girl. He said no, to which Cassie told him to let her know if he changed his mind.

In April 2010, Cassie told Combs: “Going to sleep now so it can be tomorrow faster and you can be home. Love you!!!” Combs replied: “Love my baby.”

Prosecutors are objecting frequently, and the judge is rejecting many of the objections, appearing to be giving the defense some breathing room in the early stages of its examination.

The cross-examination seems gentle, for now

Estevao has begun by questioning Cassie in a gentle tone of voice. It’s notable because so many cross-examinations can begin with efforts to unsettle and agitate a witness. This approach was the opposite as Estevao began by asking about their relationship. Cassie responded yes to a series of questions.

— “You and Sean Combs were in love for 11 years. You loved him and believed that he loved you as well.”

— “Yes.”

— Your love of Combs explained explained “why it hurt so badly when he lied.”

— “Yes.”

— “When he cheated on you,” Estevao continued.

— “Yes, Cassie said.

The ground rules

Judge Arun Subramanian began Thursday by talking to lawyers about evidence as final ground rules are set before the cross examination by defense attorney Anna Estevao begins.

He denied a request by defense lawyers to introduce text communications between Combs and Cassie that would include references to specific sexual acts.

Letters were filed with the judge overnight from both sides. The judge said he wanted to eliminate “unfair prejudice or victimization” of witnesses.

Prosecutors also complained that overnight Wednesday, defense lawyers dumped 400 “enormous, duplicitous” documents as potential exhibits on prosecutors. A defense lawyer responded that many of the documents will never be offered as exhibits during the cross examination.

There usually aren’t many last minute ground rules to go over for questioning a witness, but lawyers can argue for an hour and stay up until 3 a.m. filing letters over minor facets of law that court observers untrained in legal precedents wouldn’t know or care about. Thursday’s discussion went on for nearly an hour. The judge said that with one of his rulings, “99.9 percent of evidence is not being impaired.”

Will Diddy be in court each day?

Yes. Combs, 55, has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his September arrest. His formerly jet-black hair is now almost completely gray because dye isn’t allowed at the detention center.

Combs, who had his own fashion line, wore yellow jail uniforms in pretrial hearings. But for the trial, the judge said he can have up to five button-down shirts, five pairs of pants, five sweaters, five pairs of socks and two pairs of shoes without laces.

He interacted with his lawyers but remained largely stoic as Cassie testified on Tuesday. During a break, he made a heart shape with his hands and mouthed “thank you” to one of his twin daughters. He also blew a kiss to his mother.

Under federal court rules, no photos or video of the trial will be allowed. Courtroom sketches are permitted.

Cassie held up well under direct questioning by prosecutors. Now, the defense gets its turn

She cried several times but for the most part remained composed and matter-of-fact as she talked about some of the most sensitive subjects anyone could imagine expressing, in a courtroom packed with family and friends of Combs, journalists and one row of spectator seats occupied by Cassie’s supporters.

Cassie is in the third trimester of pregnancy with her third child with personal trainer Alex Fine. They married in 2019 and she sued Combs in 2023.

Defense lawyers have indicated that the cross examination of Cassie that will begin this morning will likely be finished by the end of Friday’s court session.

▶ Read more about the life and career of Cassie

Who is who at the trial?

The trial is in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian. He’s a Columbia Law School graduate who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and was appointed a federal judge by President Joe Biden in 2022.

The prosecution team consists of eight assistant U.S. attorneys, seven of them women. They include Maurene Ryan Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. She was among the prosecutors in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein.

Combs’ team of seven attorneys is led by New York lawyer Marc Agnifilo, who along with his wife Karen Friedman Agnifilo, is also defending Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Also on the defense team is Atlanta attorney Brian Steel, who represented Young Thug in a trial that went on for nearly two years before the rapper pleaded guilty to gang, drug and gun charges.

The cross examination of Cassie will soon be underway in Manhattan federal court

Defense lawyers say they’ll be scrutinizing how infidelity fueled the combustible nearly 11-year relationship between the R&B singer and the music mogul who controlled her career.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos suggested yesterday during a discussion between lawyers and the judge that the gameplan for today was changing on the fly out of necessity.

She didn’t get into particulars but she told Judge Arun Subramanian that the questioning of Cassie by prosecutors over two days “has gone much differently than I expected.” She added: “So we are kind of changing our strategy.”

Agnifilo later told the judge that questioning Cassie about infidelities is important. “Everybody knows that we are going to bring up infidelities, that we’re going to want to bring up text messages of infidelities, and these text messages are often in colorful language,” he said.

Defense attorney says infidelity will highlight cross-examination

After the jury was sent home for the day, lawyers squabbled over ground rules for the cross-examination of Cassie, which is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT Thursday.

Agnifilo said infidelity would be the featured subject of the questioning that is expected to stretch until day’s end Friday.

“We have worn our defense on our sleeves since the first bail hearing,” Agnifilo said. “Everybody knows we are going to bring up infidelity and text messages of infidelity.”

What to know about Cassie

Cassie sued Combs in 2023 alleging years of rape and abuse. The suit was settled within hours, but was followed by dozens of similar legal claims and touched off a criminal investigation.

A singer, actor, dancer and model, Cassie’s professional ambitions began in adolescence, when she signed to the top-tier talent and modeling agency Wilhelmina. Her music career launched shortly thereafter, when she left her home state of Connecticut for New York, where she signed with manager Tony Mottola and first met Combs.

Cassie met Combs in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37. He signed her to his Bad Boy Records label and, within a few years, they started dating.