Sean Combs' ex-girlfriend was willing participant in 'freak-offs,' defense lawyers seek to show at sex trafficking trial
Sean "Diddy" Combs at the MTV Video Music Awards in New Jersey in 2023. Credit: TNS/Angela Weiss/AFP
Sean "Diddy" Combs' legal team on Wednesday questioned the motivation of his former girlfriend — a key witness in the racketeering and sex trafficking case against him — using the woman’s own text messages to suggest she willingly participated in drug-fueled sex marathons until she found out he was seeing other women.
Combs, who pleaded not guilty to the charges in Manhattan federal court, has acknowledged through his attorneys that he has an unusual sex life, described at times in court testimony as a "swinging lifestyle" or "polyamorous."
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told a judge that his client suffered from substance abuse issues and routinely had prolonged sexual sessions during which he would watch his girlfriend have sex, sometimes for days on end, with a paid male escort.
"The way that this couple chose to be intimate was they would bring a third party into their intimacy," the lawyer said. "That was their thing." Combs would refer to these sexual benders as "freak-offs," "king nights" or "hotel nights," according to testimony.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Defense lawyers for Sean Combs sought Wednesday to show, through texts, that an alleged sex trafficking victim sometimes enjoyed extended group sex sessions with Combs and other men.
- The lawyers wanted to illustrate that the witness, testifying under the pseudonym Jane, became disenchanted only when Combs romanced other women
- The witness acknowledged that she refused to participate in freak-offs at times when she was mad at Combs.
His defense lawyers cross-examined the woman, testifying under the pseudonym "Jane" to protect her identity as a sex victim, about text messages they read in court that they said indicated she was a willing participant.
"That was the roughest sex we’ve ever had," a male escort texted to the woman in 2021 after one such episode, according to court testimony.
"One for the books," Jane acknowledged she replied with a blown-mind emoji.
Defense attorney Teny Geragos read several texts in which Jane appeared to savor the memory of these encounters, which could sometimes involve her having sex with three men in succession and then with Combs in a dark high-end hotel suite over the course of several days.
Earlier in her testimony, Jane acknowledged that she enjoyed the hotel nights with Combs because she knew it excited him and she wanted to make him happy.
She began to sour on the experience, defense lawyers suggested, when she saw in the press or social media that Combs was romancing other women.
"You have me feeling so taken advantage of and regretting everything," Jane admitted she texted Combs after he took another woman to Paris in January 2022 after she had just had a three-day session with three men days before.
Jane said she threatened to break up with him several times over their 3½-year relationship.
She reveled in his attention and the money and gifts he spent on her — a bracelet that said "LOVE," a Van Cleef necklace and expensive vacations, according to testimony. He rented a private dining room for her birthday and spent $12,000 on her birthday dinner with a dozen friends.
She also had a freak-off that night with him with three other men.
"I appreciated the little details that my lover put into my birthday," she texted him afterward.
But two weeks later, when she saw that he had sparked an affair with the music artist Yung Miami and taken her to Turks and Caicos on a yacht, the messages became bitter.
"Grow up and call me or we’re going to have problems," she texted. "I gave you the clearest path to tell me the truth."
Fed up, she said that she took a trip to Paris for Fashion Week with her girlfriends and stopped communicating with him for a couple of weeks.
She said that Combs would often become persistent, calling her multiple times or having someone else call her.
"He would offer a breakup and then a week later, he would be persistent, blow up my phone, have other people blow up my phone, be back in my face," she said.
Prosecutors say Combs manipulated her, lying to her about his other relationships so that she would continue to have freak-offs with him.
These lies, if proven, could support the sex trafficking charge. The defense team has argued that the so-called victims were adult women able to make their own choices.
Jane said she refused to have a freak-off with Combs during a time when they were quarreling.
"This is the rare occasion where I used the hotel card," she told the court.
Jane returns to the stand on Thursday for a sixth, and likely final, day on the witness stand.
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