Judge said he would consider banning Sean 'Diddy' Combs from his sex trafficking trial after rap mogul nodded twice to jurors

The Manhattan federal judge overseeing the racketeering and sex trafficking trial against Sean "Diddy" Combs said that he would consider banning the rap mogul from the courtroom after seeing him nodding to the jury during cross-examination of a witness.

U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian halted testimony on Thursday after pointed questioning of the prosecution's witness Bryana "Bana" Bongolan, a friend of Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura, by defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland.

The judge said he saw the hip-hop entrepreneur twice nodding toward the jurors.

"There should be no efforts whatsoever to have interaction with this jury," the judge told Combs’ defense team.

Subramanian said that if it happened again, he would consider a motion from the prosecution to have Combs banned from the courtroom.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Combs had commiserated with a juror after seeing him rub his arms to stay warm. "Cold," the paper reported Combs mouthed to the juror, who nodded and smiled back at the defendant. 

Combs has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking, racketeering and transporting male escorts across state lines for the purpose of prostitution.

In her opening arguments, defense attorney Teny Geragos told the jury that there would be times during the trial when they did not like her client, but that did not make him guilty of a federal crime. The attorney admitted that Combs had been in "toxic" relationships and had resorted to violence, but had also been hit himself.

On Thursday afternoon, a second woman, a former girlfriend, whom prosecutors charge Combs sex-trafficked, took the stand to testify under the pseudonym "Jane" about how their romance devolved into a string of sex marathons, dubbed "freak-offs" or "hotel parties."

Much like Ventura, Jane told the jury about being swept off her feet by Combs, who she described as "romantic," "charismatic" and "affectionate." He wooed her with trips to Miami, Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas, she said. He had been dating her friend, but when the friend got engaged, Jane said that she felt it was OK to explore a relationship with Combs. 

A single mother who made her living as a "content creator and influencer" on social media, "Jane" said that from the start, she called him Ernie and he called her Bert, a reference to the puppet characters on "Sesame Street," and they built an instant rapport.

In February 2021, he flew her down to the Caribbean for her birthday and their drug-fueled sex life took off.

Before being introduced to Combs, Jane said that she had taken ecstasy twice, going back to New Year’s Eve 2014 and 2015, but on that trip to Turks and Caicos, they took it nearly every day.

Her first time with him, she told the jury, she became overwhelmed by the drug.

"It just hit me and I just fell to the ground and I started grabbing the sand and throwing the sand and I think I was screaming a little bit," she said.

Combs and a bodyguard had to put her under a lukewarm shower, she said, until she became reoriented, an echo of previous testimony in which Ventura woke up in a Hamptons shower after taking too many drugs.

Jane said that because she had not made much money from her social media job while she was with Combs in the Caribbean, he wired her $10,000 after the trip.

"He was sweet," she said. "He would give me money here and there."

In May, three months after the trip, while watching pornography with Jane and discussing sexual fantasies, he broached the subject of introducing another man into the relationship.

Jane said that when she agreed to take part Combs jumped out of bed, put on his robe and started making phone calls.

"We can make that happen tonight," she said Combs said. "I was like, tonight? I was taken aback and surprised, but I said OK."

Two hours later, they went to a Miami hotel suite where his staff had draped sheets and towels across the furniture and put red lights in the room to set the mood.

The first time she had sex with a stranger for Combs, Jane said that she was "exhilarated from the experience."

"I had done something I had never done before. It was exciting. Taboo," she told the court.

It was also a turning point in their relationship, she said. From May 2021 until Combs was arrested in November 2024 during their on-and-off relationship, Jane said that "90%" of their relationship involved freak-offs.

She called it a "Pandora’s box for our relationship."

"It was a door that I was unable to shut for the rest of our relationship," she said.

Jane told the jury that Combs had proposed a "love contract" after one of their brief breakups. He asked her how much she wanted him to pay her, she said. She proposed $15,000 a month, but he countered with $10,000, to which she agreed, she said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.