Sean 'Diddy' Combs' ex's testimony includes texts and an anonymous rap 'icon'
I'm in New York City this week to watch the trial in person. Prosecutors expect to rest their case by Friday. There's an issue with a juror and also a newly discovered phone.
A woman who was in a relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs until his arrest last year told a jury she believes she fainted after reading Cassie Ventura’s lawsuit because she was so struck by the similarities to her own experiences.
She also screenshotted three pages of the complaint and texted Combs, “It makes me sick how three pages word for word is exactly my experience and my anguish.”
“I’ve been crying for three days and under stress from reading all of this. I keep having nightmares about forced nights and all the times I felt like I couldn’t say no. I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma,” she continued.
Jurors in Combs’ federal sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial in New York City saw the screenshots and texts last week as the woman testified about a three-year relationship that prosecutors allege was part of an organized crime conspiracy the 55-year-old rapper and business mogul led though his companies and employees.
Testifying under the pseudonym Jane, the self-described social media influencer tearfully detailed sex with prostitutes that she said she felt obligated to do to please Combs, including occasions where she continued after throwing up. She is the third woman to testify against Combs as an alleged victim. The first was Ventura, who described regular beatings during their 10-year relationship, and the second was a former employee testifying under the pseudonym Mia.
Mia is an alleged victim in the racketeering conspiracy charge while Ventura and Jane are alleged victims of the conspiracy as well as sex trafficking and transportation for prostitution.
Another victim, Combs’ former girlfriend Gina, is identified in the indictment as Victim-3 but is no longer expected to testify.
Prosecutors are trying to persuade jurors that Combs coerced Jane into sex with prostitutes, including by manipulating her financially. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said outside the jury’s presence last week that the criminal element or mens rea for sex trafficking “is knowledge or reckless disregard of the fact that the victim is engaging in sex acts because of force, fraud, or coercion.”
Jane testified she and Combs called the encounters with prostitutes “hotel nights,” while Ventura testified she and Combs called them as “freak offs.” On Friday, Jonathan Perez, Combs’ personal assistant until his arrest last September, testified he knew if Combs had a “king night,” it referred to Mr. Combs going to a hotel to have private time with a female.” He testified he and other employees helped set up hotel rooms for king nights.
Perez is one of several former employees who’ve testified that helping set up hotel rooms for the encounters was an official part of their job duties.
Comey spent two days questioning Jane about her and Combs’ visits with prostitutes and detailing their correspondence before transitioning into their tumultuous break up and Jane’s decision to reunite with him in February amid his mounting legal problems. She testified last week that Combs continues to pay her $10,000 monthly rent, and she confirmed this week that he’s currently paying for her lawyer. She also testified that the first people she told about Combs assaulting her last June weren’t prosecutors or grand jurors but Combs’ defense lawyers.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone about that day before you told the defense in the spring of this year?” Comey asked, according to a court reporter’s transcript obtained by Legal Affairs and Trials.
“Because I was still processing that night, and I didn’t want it to be a reality, and I just wanted to wash it away,” Jane answered.
Federal agents tried to talk to Jane the day Combs’ mansions were raided in March and again after his arrest in September, but she didn’t talk until she received a subpoena to testify before the grand jury. The U.S. Department of Justice immunized her from prosecution in exchange for her testimony.
Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos emphasized in cross-examination that Combs has not tried to influence Jane’s testimony.
“Do you believe your attorney has represented you to the best of her ability?” Geragos asked.
“Definitely,” Jane answered.
“So no pressure has been exerted by him on you at this trial, right?” Geragos asked.
“No,” Jane answered.
“In other words, he’s been paying for your attorney, and that has not prevented you from doing what you would like to do, right?” Geragos asked.
“Right,” Jane answered.
Jane discusses lawsuit aftermath, hotel video
Jane testified she’d only met Ventura briefly years before when she read the Nov. 16, 2023, lawsuit that described years of physical and sexual abuse, including coerced sex with prostitutes.
She said in court last week that she couldn’t sleep but reading the 35-page complaint “felt like a nightmare.”
“I just reacted like, ‘I can’t believe I’m reading my own story,’” Jane said.
Jurors saw a text Combs sent Jane the day after the lawsuit was filed that said, “SMH. I’m stressed and sad at how this is being handled. We’re supposed to be on the same page, and it’s sad that we’re not. Very sad.”
Jane texted Combs that reading the lawsuit was like “I’m reading my own sexual trauma.”
“I feel manipulated. This was never love between us. It’s also clear that this was sexual exploitation that you feigned as love for your sick fetishes,” Jane wrote.
Combs replied two days later, “Call me on this phone. Important.”
Investigators found a recording of the call on Combs’ Chief of Staff Kristina Khorram’s iPhone after federal agents seized it at the Miami Opa-Locka Airport in Florida the same day Combs’ mansions were raided in Los Angeles and Miami. Korrham was apparently listening in on Comb’s call with Jane without her knowledge.
After jurors heard the recording, Comey asked Jane,“Right before Sean interrupted you, what were you referring to when you were saying, ‘Just last week I was telling you’?”
“I was referring to when I was opening up to him about … the trauma and the depression and me hitting a wall over these nights,” Jane answered.
“And had you told him that before or after Cassie filed her lawsuit?” Comey asked.
“Before,” Jane answered.
Jurors also saw a text Jane wrote Combs on Dec. 7, 2023, in which she said she’s “so triggered by this because it's too close to some nights I felt forced.”
“Please stop drugging and using women for your fetish nights. It creates demons inside of us and real trauma to women who are only doing it to please you. Let that pain on other women stop with me. leave women alone who don’t want to do those nights with you. Hire prostitutes and stop emotionally harming women who love you,” Jane wrote.
Combs replied, “You trying to set me up this is crazy, fucking crazy, you’re recording my phone calls?”
“At that time did you understand why Sean was sending you a text like this?” Comey asked.
“I just felt like he was really paranoid and a bit in a frenzy around this time,” Jane answered.
Later in December, Jane texted Combs, “You threaten releasing my tapes and threaten to post them.”
She testified she was referring to him telling her, “I’m just going to show your child's father these tapes. I have nothing to lose.”
“What tapes did you understand Sean was referring to?” Comey asked.
“These tapes with other men at these nights,” Jane answered.
Jane said she texted Khorram, Combs’ chief of staff and “probably one of the very few people he listens to,” and told her, “I know I would normally not involve you in anything but he just threatened me about my sex tapes that he has of me on two phones.”
“We broke up two weeks before the controversy for a lot of things stated in that lawsuit that I personally felt in my experience with him,” Jane texted Khorram.
She also texted Khorram, “It’s all so extremely hurtful, very hurtful. For him to exploit me all this time and then threaten me with sex tapes. Please talk some sense into him because this isn’t fair to me at all whatsoever.”
Jane testified she asked Khorram in a phone call to hide the phones with the videos so that Combs can’t access him, and Khorram told her not to worry because Combs “is not going to do anything like that.”
“She said, ‘I always tell him all the time to just give these things space, otherwise we end up in a situation like we’re in now,’” Jane testified.
“What did you understand she was referring to when she said ‘a situation like we’re in now’?”
“A lawsuit,” Jane answered.
“Whose lawsuit?” Comey asked.
“Cassie’s lawsuit,” Jane answered.
In case you missed it, my previous article detailed the beginning of Jane’s testimony and the fact that prosecutors say Combs was victimizing her after he knew he was under investigation for federal sex trafficking.
Jane reunited with Combs after texted her on Feb. 6, 2024, “Sending you love. Had a dream about you. Hope you’re well.”
He asked if he could see her on her birthday, and she told him she’s “a little traumatized from my past birthdays” because he asked her to have sex with prostitutes in front of him. She ended up dining at his home on Miami’s Star Island on her birthday, then he gave her Ecstasy and invited a prostitute over for sex. They flew to Los Angeles couple days later and hosted prostitutes at his home there.
She said they didn’t go out in either city because, “By this time things had really hit the fan with everything going on, and so it was just better to just keep private and just stay away.”
“What do you mean when you say things had really hit the fan?” Comey asked.
“I mean that a lot of things had started to really go wrong in his life, and there were a lot of media attention and press regarding Cassie's lawsuit,” Jane answered.
The next month, agents left a business card at Jane’s front door the day Combs’ mansions were raided. She said she called Combs’ security guard Faheem, and he connected her with Combs’ lawyer. Combs then hired another lawyer to represent her, then hired a new lawyer that Jane testified he continues to finance.
Then in May, Jane was sleeping in Combs’ Star Island mansion when Combs’ son knocked on the bedroom door “and said that something happened.”
“I went downstairs, and I could see that everybody was speaking amongst each other, and I sat down. I went on my phone, and then I saw the video,” Jane testified, referring to he video of Combs assaulting Ventura in the Intercontinental Hotel in 2016.
Jurors have seen the videos several times and heard testimony about Combs paying the hotel’s security company $100,000 for the recording.
She said she lost her appetite and remembers the day as “very eerie.” Combs invited her “to this little huddle” in the backyard with “his sons, his writer and some friends” as they tried to draft “some sort of sincere apology post or something regarding the video.”
He also told her the incident at the hotel was the only time he’d ever assaulted Ventura.
She said Combs’ initial draft “was a good enough apologetic letter, given the circumstances.”
Jurors saw a video Combs posted on Instagram of himself apologizing for the assault, and Jane testified she didn’t believe his apology was sincere. She saw an earlier draft that was heartfelt, but she said Comb’s final apology had “no heart in it” and noted that he named Cassie in the first version but not the final.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian instructed the jury to disregard the testimony after Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnilifo said during a sidebar that he advised Combs not to name Ventura because she might be a witness the criminal grand jury investigation.
Jane testified she didn’t see Combs again until June 18, which she remembers as “a very terrible day” because Combs assaulted her after they argued about him spending time with a much younger woman during his family trip through Utah. She said she called him a “pedophile” and pushed his head onto a marble counter before he grabbed her in a chokehold and beat her, then attacked her again as she showered.
Jane testified Combs kicked down her locked bedroom, bathroom and closet doors, and jurors saw photos of the doors and her correspondence with a door supplier. After the fight, Combs called a prostitute he’d hired before and again paid him to have sex with Jane as he watched, she testified.
They partied with other prostitutes in July and August, and Combs invited her to visit him in New York City in September. She didn’t end up going because he was arrested.
Two months later, prosecutors subpoenaed her to testify before a grand jury. She also met with Combs’ lawyers and told them about the assault in June.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone about that day before you told the defense in the spring of this year?” Comey asked.
“Because I was still processing that night, and I didn’t want it to be a reality, and I just wanted to wash it away,” Jane answered.
“Why did you stop meeting with Sean’s defense attorneys in April of this year?” Comey asked.
“I know that I wasn’t legally obligated to meet with the defense, and that it was my choice, but I still felt obligated due to my relationship. And when it was time to meet with them again, I just asked myself why am I doing this, and I just felt the decision was just fear based and not wanting to make someone mad, and I just felt like at this point that they had,” Jane answered.
Comey concluded the exam by confirming Jane isn’t suing Combs and doesn’t plan to, then asked her, “Sitting here today, how do you feel about Sean now?”
“I just pray for his continued healing, and I pray for peace for him,” Jane answered.
Cross-exam focuses on texts, money, jealousy
Geragos cross-examined Jane on Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday, asking her about her good times with Combs and going over correspondence in which she appeared excited for sex with prostitutes and eager to please Combs. Geragos also asked about statements Jane made to prosecutors in pre-trial interviews that indicated the same receptiveness.
“Do you remember telling the government that he would say that you guys didn’t have to do anything and that he didn’t need these nights and that he would be defensive whenever you brought up his feelings?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“OK. And that when he would tell you he didn’t need these, you knew deep down that he did?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
Geragos also questioned Jane about occasions in which Combs listened to her when she said she didn’t want to have sex with a prostitute.
“On some rare occasions, yes,” Jane testified.
“But did you remember telling the government that there were a few instances where you wanted a hotel night to end early and it would end?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
Geragos pointed out that Jane testified she “made love” to a prostitute she identified as Paul, and she confirmed that Combs, Jane and Paul called themselves the “trifecta” and Jane and Paul compared themselves to professional basketball stars Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, while Combs was Michael Jordan.
Jane testified that she enjoyed and craved affection from Combs, which “was truly the only reason why I endured these nights, so that at the very end I could just have my love and affection with my partner.”
“Do you feel that he, that you were the only person who he truly liked sexually?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“Did you feel that that brought a closeness between you two because you shared a secret of his nobody else knew?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“And did you feel that he entrusted you with that and you took that seriously?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“And you tried — tell me if this is right — to be very sexy for him in those rooms because this is something he liked, right?” Geragos asked.
“I don’t think I tried. I think I did, and I was,” Jane answered.
“You were very sexy to him, right?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“Because you’re beautiful woman, right?” Geragos asked.
“Thank you,” Jane answered.
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Geragos also questioned Jane about inviting prostitutes herself “because you knew that he liked it.”
“I knew that there was a undertone of this expectation of me to set up a party or make an arrangement, and so I picked up on that fairly quickly and I would make these arrangements, because the undertone was a expectation,” Jane testified.
Geragos questioned Jane about Combs paying for her and her child to move across the country after they moved to the East Coast to be closer to the child’s father, who’s also a rapper, but “the purpose wasn’t being fulfilled,” so they returned to Los Angeles.
Geragos also questioned her about Combs investing $20,000 in her clothing line, in addition to paying her $10,000 monthly rent and paying for her attorney, and he wired her $20,000 for furniture. He also spent $55,000 on their trip to Turks and Caicos.
Geragos touched on questions her co-counsel Anna Estevao asked Ventura when she cross-examined her earlier in trial. Estevao questioned Ventura early in the exam about Combs thinking she was special, then said, “And that’s why it hurt so badly when he lied to you,” then continued questioning her about Combs’ infidelity and broken promises.
Geragos, who is Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos’ daughter, took a similar approach with Jane when she questioned her about Combs’ trip to Wyoming with another woman and his relationship with rapper Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee.
“With Caresha or Yung Miami when he put her out in public, he was also kind of showering her with gifts very publicly, right?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“Like you had seen that he had gotten her a Maybach, right?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“And you were really upset about that because you weren’t getting the same type of gifts?” Geragos asked.
“Mmm, probably, yes,” Jane answered.
Jane acknowledged she was jealous and possessive of Combs. Geragos questioned her bot texting Combs to complain about him buying another woman a Chanel bag. Jane dismissed the text as “my misdirected anger towards the women when my anger is truly for him and how mistreated I feel in this relationship.”
“I’m being mistreated because the pressure that my partner was putting on me was for me to have sex with strangers, and when he leaves me, he goes and spends quality time and shopping and dining, et cetera, et cetera with the others,” Jane testified.
“And you didn’t get the Chanel bag. This other person was getting a Chanel bag, right?” Geragos asked.
“No. I only got trauma,” Jane answered.
Geragos asked if she got a Bottega bag and Jane answered, “After three and a half years, I really don't think I garnered much from this relationship.”
“What is a Bottega bag?” Geragos asked.
“I’m sure you have one,” Jane answered.
“I actually don’t. What is a Bottega bag?” Geragos asked.
“It’s a high-end luxury purse for women,” Jane answered.
“How much do Bottega bags run?” Geragos asked.
“How much does my body cost?” Jane answered.
Judge Subramanian interjected, “Jane, I’m going to ask you to just respond to Ms. Geragos' questions and your lawyer can follow it up.”
“OK. Thank you,” Jane said.
“I’m asking roughly how much a Bottega bag costs?” Geragos asked
“Anywhere between 1,500 to 5,000,” Jane answered.
“OK. And a Chanel bag — how much does a Chanel bag cost?” Geragos asked.
“I don’t know,” Jane answered.
Geragos tried to refute Jane’s testimony about not wanting to sue Combs by questioning her about a text she sent telling him she wanted “my wasted three years of time reimbursed and given back to me in the monetary amount of 100K per year and 15 months left of our two-year agreement of rent, 450K to move on from the resentment of feeling exploited, manipulated, heartbroken, drugged and all of the loss of potential income.”
Geragos also questioned her about seeing the video of Combs assaulting Ventura, which Geragos said “was very difficult for you because you knew that Mr. Combs really loved her.”
She tried to ask Jane about trying to get Combs into a program for domestic violence prevention or anger management, but Judge Subramanian blocked the questions at the request of prosecutors., who said they were irrelevant.
Agnifilo also said Jane provoked a fight with Combs that night, but he told judge during a sidebar, “We are not victim blaming. I just want to say that out loud. We wouldn’t victim blame, and we are not victim blaming.”
“It’s important context because it’s something that Mr. Combs and this witness share, a vulnerable thing, a thing that makes Mr. Combs vulnerable in her eyes. She is writing a letter on his behalf to get him into a program,” Agnifilo said.
“That is victim blaming,” the judge replied. “Literally that's like if you had a dictionary that had a term ‘victim blaming,’ like that would be the explanation that you’d be given.”
Jane wept so much during cross on Wednesday that Geragos asked Judge Subramanian at a sidebar if he would give her “an opportunity to take a break if she needs it.”
“I feel badly to have her continue crying throughout the afternoon,” Geragos said.
Subramanian said he was “happy to inquire with the witness to ensure that she's able to proceed,” and AUSA Comey said she had “the same thought.”
“She cried multiple times during direct, as I’m sure everyone will recall, and each time I offered her a break or your Honor offered her a break. She said no, she wants to keep going,” Comey said. “And that has been her attitude whenever I've met with her to prepare for her testimony, that she wants to push through even when she’s emotional.”
Re-direct links hotel nights opposition to rent
In re-direct, Comey reminded Jane of the texts she was shown in cross “where you spoke positively about entertainers and hotel nights.”
“Approximately when did you start voicing to Sean that you wanted to stop doing hotel nights?” Comey asked.
“Since 2021,” Jane answered.
“And after that, throughout the rest of 2021 and 2022, did you still go along with hotel nights even though you didn’t want them?” Comey asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“And over that time, did you tell Sean sometimes that you didn’t want to do hotel nights?” Comey asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“And in 2023, did you become more vocal about wanting to stop hotel nights?” Comey asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“When did Sean start paying your rent?” Comey asked.
“2023,” Jane answered.
“After that, what, if any, obligation did you feel to continue to hotel nights?” Comey asked.
“I felt all the obligation,” Jane answered.
“Why?” Comey asked.
“Because of my livelihood,” Jane answered.
“What do you mean?” Comey asked.
“I just felt like I had to maintain not just emotional stability with these nights but just maintain, just my livelihood at this point, because my partner was responsible for that now, and so I just felt obligated to do what he wanted me to do,” Jane answered.
“After April of 2023, how often did Sean bring up your rent in the context of hotel nights?” Comey asked.
“Often,” Jane answered.
Comey brought up texts Jane wrote Combs in October 2023 in which she said, “I don’t want to be fucked and mistreated. I don'‘t feel like performing loveless, cold sex.”
She also wrote, “I’m not a porn star. I'm not an animal. I need a break. I don't want to do anything. I’ve hit a wall” and “it’s been three years of me having to fuck strangers. I’m tired.”
Another three messages said, “I just wanted to make you happy, but it’s creating a war inside me. I need a break. I can’t be in another hotel room doing drugs and performing, exhausted for days and can’t concentrate.”
In re-cross, Geragos asked her about her testimony that an escort tried to extort her and Combs over a sex tape last year as he was under federal investigation.
“So while Mr. Combs was under federal investigation and an entertainer was threatening to release those tapes, he said we need to call the police, right?” she asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“Alright. And he said that several times to you, right?”
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“Because he did not want those tapes released?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“OK. And you did not want them released either?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
Geragos also asked about Combs watching videos of her with other men instead of asking her to have sex in front of him again.
“Over the three years of your relationship, there were several times where you did not have sex with other men and instead you watched the other videos, right?” Geragos asked.
“All of it was shit,” Jane answered.
“All of it was shit, but I’m asking you a question. Over those four years —” Geragos said before Judge Subramanian interjected.
“Hold on, Ms. Geragos. Jane, if you can, please just answer Ms. Geragos’ question, and then we’ll proceed from there. OK?” he said.
Jane said, “Thank you” and Geragos tried again.
“Over those three years, there were several times where you did not have entertainers over and you did what you called movie night instead, right?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
Jane’s anonymity anonymizes a rap ‘icon’
Jane is the second of two alleged victims to testify under a pseudonym, and her court-ordreed anonymity resulted in many exhibits being redacted or sealed from public view.
The father of her child is a rapper whom Geragos described as “at the top of the music industry,” but he hasn’t been named in court.
Judge Subramanian is allowing the gender of their child to be redacted from exhibits. He’s also having the court reporter redact the transcript if somehting slips: On — , Geragos said the child’s gender and the official transcript redacted it as XXXX.
“I’m sorry. Can you reference my child as my child?” Jane said.
“I corrected myself. Of course,” Geragos said.
The anonymity extended to another rapper Jane testified she accompanied to Las Vegas in January 2024 for his girlfriend’s birthday party.
When I got to the testimony in the transcript I could barely believe what I was reading. It came across as pornographic gossip, and the connection to the actual crimes Combs is charged with seems loose: It’s all because a prostitute Combs and Jane see was in Vegas with the rapper, his girlfriend and Jane, and when Combs found out Jane had seen the prostitute without him, they argued about it.
Jane testified in direct on June 9 that a cousin of the rapper is “a really good friend of mine,” and he invited her to Las Vegas with him after she complimented the rapper said she thinks his girlfriend is “just so beautiful.”
They flew in a jet, went to a play, dined in celebration of a birthday and went to a strop club before they went to the couple’s hotel room. There, Jane recognized Antoine, a prostitute she and Combs had seen several times. He was having sex with a woman while the rapper and his girlfriend and “maybe two other people” watched.
Five months later, after Combs and Jane physically fought on June 18 and Combs kicked down her doors, Combs saw Antoine reference a “mutual friend” in a text to Jane, and Jane told him about the Vegas trip with the rapper.
“I feel like his heart sank and he just was like, ‘I can't believe what you’re telling me right now,’” Jane testified. “‘Did you just cheat on me? … Did you just slip away from us? Like, what are you doing? Like you have this porn star who has something over me?”
“How did you respond?” Comey asked.
“I was just quiet,” Jane answered.
In cross-exam, Geragos said the rapper “is very close with Mr. Combs, right?”
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“And fair to say they would record together?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“And that they had an ongoing both professional and personal relationship with one another?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“OK. And an icon in the music industry?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“And you said that you -- when you got there, you went to a dinner for the -- this person’s wife or girlfriend, right?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“OK. And that’s when you first saw Antoine?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“Did you know prior that Antoine had a relationship of some sort with this rapper and his girlfriend or wife?” Geragos asked.
“He had briefly mentioned it in the past, yes,” Jane answered.
“And he would travel with them?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“And so you had understood that Antoine would be around them sometimes, right?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“Did you know if Mr. Combs knew that?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“Oh, he was aware of that?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“From before?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
“From before January of 2024?” Geragos asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
Judge Subramanian’s decision to allow a photo of a rap “icon” to be shown to a jury in a criminal trial but sealed from the public has of course created an hysterical firestorm online as people speculate wildly about the rapper’s identity. It’s too bad no one is civic-minded enough to have their publicist release a statement like, “This wild and harmful speculation is a direct consequence of secrecy in our federal courts. It needs to stop. Courts are supposed to provide clarity, not create more problems.” Or something like that.
But really, most of the speculation isn’t wild. It’s not difficult to look at whose girlfriend’s birthday is in January and who was in Las Vegas in January 2024. Also, the day after Jane testified about the Vegas party, Kanye West showed up at the courthouse.
Speaking of showing up at the courthouse, I am typing this from a hotel in New York City, and I’ll be watching the trial in person this week. I’ll have another article soon on an issue with a juror as well as a newly discovered phone belonging to Combs that prosecutors want to bring in as evidence.
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