Diddy’s testimony twist is REVEALED as defense finally affirms its high-stakes decision: Live trial updates

Diddy does not seem set to testify in his trial after his lawyers said their defence case would last two to five days.

If Diddy was testifying then it would likely take weeks as he would be on the stand for several days.

However there has been no public announcement yet and Diddy may later choose to testify. He can change his mind up to the very last minute.

To hear all the explosive testimony from singer Cassie Ventura and the other witnesses in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial, tune in to Daily Mail’s hit podcast The Trial.

From sworn testimony to video evidence and the rapper’s every subtle move, our team of journalists take you inside the courtroom of the world’s biggest celebrity case.

Daily Mail has been following Diddy’s downfall from the very beginning. Join us as we hear from experts involved in the case, and members of the rapper’s inside circle.

The charts being used by summary witnesses are intended to support the prosecution’s claims and make it easy for the jury to understand the timeline of events.

They combine texts, calls and hotel and flight records to show Ventura and Diddy speaking to escorts for Freak Offs and other incidents.

Among the other records shown to the jury were hotel records for the Four Seasons in Los Angeles showing a bill for $7,192 for a two-night stay.

Flight records showed Clayton Howard, the escort known as ‘Dave’ being flown in by Diddy from New York to Los Angeles at the same time.

The records showed another $495 being added to the charges for a second room, which the prosecution appear to be suggesting was used for a Freak Off.

The jury was shown a chart of text messages and calls made in March 2016 in the wake of Diddy beating his ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles.

The incident in a hotel corridor was captured on surveillance footage and sparked panic in Diddy’s camp that the footage could be released – he later bribed a security guard with $100,000 for the only copy, the jury has been told.

The chart showed that in the hour or so after the incident, Diddy called Ventura about 20 times.

During one seven minute period alone, he called her eight times: none of the calls were picked up.

Ventura texted Diddy pictures of her fat lip and messaged him that she was about to attend the premiere of a film she starred in, calling it the ‘biggest thing in my life’.

But now she had a fat lip and Ventura said that Diddy was ‘sick for thinking it’s OK to do what you’ve done’.

Diddy’s relentless calls and texts continued, telling Ventura repeatedly: ‘Call me now’.

Another message said: ‘Call me now, the cops are here’.

In reality, security guards at the hotel did not call the police and neither did Ventura, the jury has been told.

In another message Diddy said: ‘You gunna abandon me all alone?

He also told her: ‘If you don’t pick up now, you’ll never hear my voice again’.

Even though the police had not been called, Diddy told Ventura in another message: ‘I’m about to be arrested’.

DEEP DIVE delves into Diddy’s 30-year reign of excess and debauchery in unprecedented detail, starting with his ‘crazy’ fits of rage as a student in the 1980s that earned him the disturbing ‘Puff’ nickname.

Contained within hundreds of pages of civil court documents are the horrifying details of his tempestuous relationship with Cassie Ventura – which ultimately led to the floodgates opening.

Among the many allegations contained within the papers are claims that Diddy filmed fellow A-list celebrities taking drugs and having sex with prostitutes. In many cases, the name of the celebrities involved have been kept anonymous by court order.

Read the interactive story here:

TMZ reported Monday that the judge in Diddy’s trial is concerned about another juror – after juror #6 was dismissed this morning.

Judge Arun Subramanian is worried about a juror talking about the case outside of court.

The juror in question apparently alerted the court on Friday to a mystery text from a number he did not recognize asking if he was juror #6.

The juror said he did not recognize the number, but the judge was still concerned he might be discussing the trial outside of the jury.

Diddy’s wildest sexual fantasy involved a twisted NBA roleplay – casting himself as Michael Jordan, his ex-girlfriend as Kobe Bryant and the male escort she regularly slept with as Shaquille O’Neal – the ex testified on day two of the fifth week in the disgraced rap mogul’s sex trafficking trial.

‘Jane’, who testified under a pseudonym, said the hip hop mogul’s obsession with ‘cuckold’ scenarios may have been a way to live out his bisexual fantasties without physically engaging with men – because he was ‘too ashamed’ to do so openly.

Jane described the ‘Freak Offs’ she attended during their relationship as filled with extravagant sexual roleplay where participants gave each other nicknames inspired by legendary basketball stars.

Read the full story here:

On Tuesday the jury was shown a December 2015 bill from the L’Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills for ‘linen damage / deep clean’.

The court has previously heard that Diddy left hotel rooms in such a state after freak offs that he was charged extra because of the amount of baby oil he used.

The Beverly Hills Hotel charged Diddy $500 in February 2013 for damage to the room and the carpet.

Credit card receipts from July 2010 showed him spending $740 on Diptyque candles which he used in freak offs and $435 on alcohol.

During September 2014, another high spending month, Diddy ran up a total of $307,00, the jury was told.

Diddy was once charged $46,000 for damage to a penthouse suite, the jury was told on Tuesday.

The staggering bill was levied by the InterContinental in Times Square, New York, in October 2012 for ‘loss / penthouse damage’ – apparently from baby oil during freak offs.

The bill was paid by Diddy’s American Express credit card which racked up an enormous $944,000 in charges for the month which had to be paid off from several bank accounts.

The bank receipts and invoices were read out to the jury by DeLeassa Penland, a special agent with the US Attorney’s office.

The hip hop mogul, 55, made the motion on Tuesday after seeing the clips of Cassandra Ventura having sex with male escorts while he watched.

Diddy had asked to see the videos before testimony began for the day, but when it got to 9am, the start time, he hadn’t come out yet.

In one text exchange in January, 2013, Diddy asked Cassie: ‘Wanna celebrate Christmas and have a freak off tomorrow or Friday?’

Cassie then contacted an escort service and personally messaged several escorts to set up staggered arrivals on January 11 and January 12.

Cassie previously told the jury that arranging the freak offs became her main job during her relatipnship with Diddy.

In 2023, Kristina Khorram texted Diddy to ‘make sure’ that his staff were ‘not doing anything dumb’ like stopping paying the $10,000 a month rent on his ex Jane’s Los Angeles home.

During Jane’s testimony she said that having Diddy pay her rent made her feel like she had to do the Freak Offs or she would lose her home.

In a message to one of Diddy’s other assistants, Khorram tried to figure out how hard her boss was partying.

She wrote: ‘Wild King mode active, or Gucci bag active?’

‘Wild King’ appears to be a reference to ‘King Nights’, another name for Freak Offs. The Gucci bag appeared to refer to Diddy’s personal pouch in which he kept drugs like ketamine, MDMA and cocaine.

The assistant replied: ‘In between the two’.

After six weeks of witnesses and evidence, prosecutors said they plan to rest on Wednesday. After that, Diddy’s lawyers said they’ll start calling witnesses.

Diddy’s lawyers have said it will take them two to five days to present their case.

Diddy had to watch the freak off clips in a side room on Tuesday as they are sealed and his monitor in court is viewable by the public.

The jury saw the videos yesterday and a black female juror winced as she saw them, as another shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

The footage shows Cassie Ventura having sex with male escorts while Diddy watched

Dirk Swain was on his first night out after escaping what should have been certain death.

The 20-year-old had just recovered from being shot in the head after a college football game – and finally felt ready to embrace his second chance at life.

But as he stood on the stairs of a New York gymnasium waiting to enter a celebrity charity event thrown by a relatively unknown 22-year-old music producer called Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, the expectant atmosphere began to change.

Minutes later, Dirk took his final breaths.

Read the full story here:

The judge in the Diddy trial threatened to prosecute lawyers for both sides over an article which revealed sealed material about a juror.

Judge Arun Subramanian said that ‘someone’s lying’ after prosecutors and the defence denied being the source of the article, which was not identified.

The judge appeared angry that information about the juror which was heard on Friday during a sealed proceeding had been leaked.

The judge said the ‘courtroom was sealed, the transcript was sealed’ and that it must have come from one of the parties.

Judge Subramanian called it a ‘flagrant violation’ of his orders and warned lawyers for both sides there will be ‘no passing the buck here’.

‘The buck stops here’, the judge said, adding that the lead lawyers for each side will face consequences for another breach.

For the defence that is Marc Agnifilo. For the prosecution that is Assistant US Attorney Maureen Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey.

Judge Subramanian said the case had to be tried based on the evidence and not ‘in the media’.

He warned that any further leaks of sealed material will result in an ‘inquiry, testimony under oath, delivery of (electronic) devices to this court’ and possible ‘criminal or civil sanctions’.

Special agent DeLeassa Penland, with the US Attorney’s Office will continue her testimony as a summary witness Tuesday morning.

She will talk about various records involving Diddy’s traveling and finances.

Diddy’s former assistant Brendan Paul, 25, is the next witness on the prosecution’s list as they prepare to rest their case.

Paul accepted a plea deal after he was arrested at Opa-Locka Airport in Miami on March 25, 2024, and was initially hit with two felony drug possession charges.

Officials at the time said they had found suspected cocaine and marijuana laced-candy in his luggage.

Paul was referred to as Diddy’s ‘drug mule’ in a $30 million lawsuit Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones filed against Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs.

The man’s testimony is expected after the jury was shown footage from one of Diddy’s infamous freak offs.

Prosecutors played portions of three sex videos recovered from a Combs-linked account on a cellphone that his former longtime girlfriend Cassie provided to authorities, giving jurors a close-up view of the encounters they’ve heard about repeatedly since testimony began May 12.

A black female juror furrowed her brow and winced Monday while watching the first of three clips of the freak offs, which ran from 20 or 30 seconds.

Another black female juror moved uncomfortably in her seat and put her hands to her head as she watched the footage.