Diddy Trial

Cassie told Diddy she felt like he was treating her like a prostitute during their relationship ... at least according to a text between the exes that was just read aloud in court.

Federal prosecutors in Diddy's criminal case in New York are introducing some old texts between Cassie and Diddy as new exhibits in his sex trafficking trial.

Prosecutors first read this text between Cassie and Diddy -- "You treat me like a hooker to be honest. You always want to call one and you have one. This hooker has been here for 10 years." They said Diddy responded, "wow."

Sean "Diddy" Combs' ex-assistant Brendan Paul says he didn't see any force or coercion from his former boss when it came to "freak-offs" with "Jane" ... and he says he was absolutely not a drug mule.

Brendan, a former Syracuse University basketball player and aspiring music producer, took the stand Friday in Diddy's criminal trial in NYC and told jurors about his 18 months working as an assistant to the music mogul.

During cross-examination from Diddy's defense attorney Brian Steel, Brendan testified he would often talk to Diddy's former girlfriend "Jane" before and after freak-offs ... and he said she did not come across as hesitant or apprehensive, and he says there was nothing from her indicating she was not a willing participant.

Brendan Paul, Diddy's alleged "drug mule" -- who's been given immunity by Judge Arun Subramanian to testify in the music mogul's federal trial after confirming to the judge he's received a subpoena and intends to invoke the 5th Amendment -- took the stand in the federal trial Friday ... and the testimony is expected to revolve around drugs, TMZ has learned.

Remember ... Diddy's former assistant was arrested in March 2024 at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport when authorities allegedly found cocaine and marijuana candy in his bag. The arrest occurred at the same time federal law enforcement raided Diddy's properties in L.A. and Florida.

The charges against Paul were dropped after he completed a pretrial diversion program ... and, now he's testifying at his former boss' trial.

The Diddy trial went dark Thursday to observe the Juneteenth holiday ... but prosecutors were working overtime, releasing new exhibits showing a cache of weapons and ammo, as well as drugs -- and, of course, baby oil!

Federal prosecutors released the trove of photos that appear to paint a much fuller picture of what federal agents confiscated inside Diddy's Los Angeles mansion during the March 2024 raid.

Homeland Security Investigations agents snapped the images as they recovered pistols, long guns and rifles from inside the security office, as well as bullets, body-armor-piercing ammo and a high-volume ammunition magazine.

Diddy's defense played jurors an audio recording of Cassie confronting a man who she says had told her he'd been shown a video of her doing a "freak-off" ... and now we're finally getting to hear what was played for the jury.

In a batch of freshly released Diddy defense exhibits, there's an audio file that Diddy’s defense team says features Cassie making death threats to a man she calls Sugit.

The recording was played in court over a month ago during Cassie's testimony but it's only now being made public.

Cuba Gooding Jr. says he's turning to the Lord during this trying time for Diddy ... revealing he's praying for the fallen mogul as his federal trial creeps on.

We caught up with the actor at LAX Wednesday ... and, we asked him if he's been keeping up on the developments in Diddy's sex trafficking trial -- which he tells us are darn near impossible to avoid these days.

Cuba says he's keeping Diddy and his alleged victims -- pointing to Cassie Ventura and her family specifically -- in his prayers.

The juror who got booted from the Diddy trial was NOT in awe of Diddy's celebrity or his rap empire ... we've learned the guy was indifferent about Diddy and is mostly into Spanish-language music, so there was no celeb wow factor for him.

A source close to Juror 6 tells TMZ ... the guy never wanted to be part of the high-profile trial, but he got a summons and ended up being picked for the jury.

We're told he's a quiet person who likes to get his work done without being hassled ... and he's not comfortable with all the media attention now that he's been kicked off the jury.

It's like right out of a Hitchcock movie, but not really ... the judge pulled the plug in the Diddy trial Wednesday after learning one of the jurors came down with vertigo.

We don't know the underlying condition of the juror in question, but the evidence was truly head-spinning this week, with jurors fixated on various freak-off videos.

Jurors put on their headphones Tuesday and watched around 10 minutes of the vids, featuring sex scenes between Diddy, Cassie, and male escorts. You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom, as the peanut gallery heard moans bleeding through the headphones.

We've reached the home stretch in the Diddy criminal trial and on the 25th day of witness testimony, prosecutors tried to lay out for the jury how they say Diddy spent big to transport male prostitutes across the country for sex romps.

DeLeassa Penland, a special agent with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York -- the agency prosecuting the case against Diddy -- was back on the stand and she testified about a bunch of charges Diddy incurred flying sex workers across state lines.

The testimony mostly went towards the Mann Act and some of it to the RICO charge against Diddy.

Diddy's defense team isn't backing away from the jury seeing the alleged "freak-off" videos  ... because Diddy's lawyers are now showing jurors even more footage from them.

The viewing went down Tuesday in Day 25 of Diddy's federal trial in Manhattan ... as defense attorney Teny Geragos was cross-examining a Department of Justice special agent.

Geragos cued up a few videos ... and jurors put on headphones and watched the freak-off footage on screens not viewable by lawyers, prosecutors, or those in the gallery.

Sean "Diddy" Combs' federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial resumed Tuesday in NYC for the 25th day ... and a federal special agent testified about travel and hotel expenses involving alleged male escorts that Diddy paid for.

DeLeassa Penland, a special agent with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York -- the agency prosecuting the case against Diddy -- testified Diddy's American Express account was charged nearly $47,000 for damages at a single hotel in New York in one instance.

Penland told the jury Diddy, Cassie Ventura and Jules Theodore -- an alleged male escort -- stayed at the London Hotel on a particular date, which was paid for on Diddy's AmEx, as well as Virgin America plane tickets for Jules.

The jury in Diddy's trial got a spicy break from the usual testimony Monday with prosecutors playing portions of some alleged "freak-off" videos -- but for the jurors' eyes only.

The viewing went down during the afternoon session of day 24 in the trial ... as a federal prosecutor was questioning a Department of Justice special agent on the witness stand.

The prosecutor asked the special agent to verify a list of hotels where Diddy allegedly hosted his freak-offs with Cassie and male escorts. The agent went down the list, describing the hotels and the freak-off videos pertaining to the corresponding locations.

Prosecutors are getting closer to resting their case in Diddy's criminal trial and on the 24th day of witness testimony they finally showed jurors what they've been waiting for ... videos from the alleged freak-offs with Diddy and Cassie.

After some drama with the jury -- one juror was dismissed and another was on the hot seat after seemingly blabbing about the cases -- prosecutors showed members of the jury snippets of some sexual encounters between Diddy, Cassie and a hired male escort.

The jury had seen still images earlier in the trial, but prosecutors waited until they got towards the end of their case to break out the actual video footage ... presumably for dramatic effect.

Diddy once had a sick, twisted Christmas gift idea for his then-girlfriend Cassie when they were dating ... a "freak-off."

The jury in Diddy's federal criminal trial was shown text messages in court Monday from January 2013, including one in which Diddy asked Cassie if she wanted to belatedly celebrate Christmas by having a freak-off ... which numerous witnesses in the case have described as essentially sex marathons in hotels with a hired male escort.

The conversation began with Diddy texting Cassie, "You horny" ... to which Cassie responded, "Lol yeah".

Diddy's trial is on the verge of another jury shakeup due to one of them getting a strange text message that's left the judge with concerns this juror is talking about the case outside of court.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ the juror alerted the court on Friday about the text message, from a phone number he didn't recognize, asking him if HE was Juror No. 6 -- who'd already been in the news as someone Judge Arun Subramanian might dismiss.

We're told this other juror wanted the judge to know about the mystery text and, indeed, Judge Subramanian did have lots of questions for him about the message and the phone number from which it came.

On the 24th day of Sean "Diddy" Combs' federal racketeering and sex trafficking trial in NYC, a paralegal specialist took the stand to testify about evidence showing the travel arrangements for participants in alleged "freak-offs."

Ananya Sankar is asked about a December 2019 message from Kristina Khorram -- Diddy's former chief of staff -- in response to Ryan Lopez, a former Diddy assistant, who texts KK about spotting a male escort -- who he calls "one of the cowboys" -- in a hotel lobby, which KK replies with four "laughing" emojis, and the message "how long is he going to stay awake?"

The prosecution plays an audio file in court they say was recorded on January 30, 2023 ... and Sankar is asked to read transcripts back and forth of a conversation between Khorram and another former assistant, Dave Shirley, about a trip to a Four Seasons hotel location. KK writes, "Heads up, he's about to do wild king tonight." Dave Shirley responds about picking up some money ... and says he needs "to reup on baby oil."