NOTE: The following article contains disturbing details and video footage. Please read at your own discretion.
A woman identified only by the pseudonym “Mia,” a former assistant of Sean “Diddy” Combs, continued her testimony for the third day on Monday at his sex trafficking and racketeering trial.
Mia testified that she continued sending Combs loving text messages for years after her job ended in 2017 because she was “brainwashed.”
The woman used the word as defence lawyer Brian Steel confronted her with skepticism and even suggested she had fabricated her claims.
Steel had Mia read aloud for the jury numerous loving text messages she sent to Combs, including one in 2019 in which she said she had a nightmare that she was trapped in an elevator with the singer R. Kelly and Combs rescued her.
“And the person who sexually assaulted you came to your rescue?” Steel asked. He rephrased, asking if she really dreamed of being saved by a man “who terrorized you and caused you PTSD?” Prosecutors objected and the judge sustained it.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of an indictment accusing him of a pattern of abuse toward ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and others.
Day 14
In an Aug. 29, 2020, message to Combs, Mia recalled happy highlights from her eight years working for him — such as drinking champagne at the Eiffel Tower at 4 a.m. and rejecting Mick Jagger’s offer to take her home — saying she remembered only “the good times.”
In the same message, Mia mentioned once feeling “bamboozled” by a woman. Steel asked why she didn’t say Combs had bamboozled her as well, given her accusations.
“Because I was still brainwashed,” Mia answered.
Asked to explain, Mia said that in an environment where “the highs were really high and the lows were really low,” she developed “huge confusion in trusting my instincts.”
“I was punished whenever Puff would be violent and I would react, confusing me and making me think I did something wrong. Nobody around batted an eye. He was still praised by everyone around him and the public,” Mia added.
When Steel suggested that her assault claims were made up, Mia responded: “I have never lied in this courtroom and I never will lie in this courtroom. Everything I said is true.”
Mia testified that Combs required her to carry around a pocket video camera to record him before he decided to hire full-time videographers.
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Steel asked Mia if she recorded any videos of Combs “in a moment of rage.”
“Absolutely not. No, I would not have been allowed to film that. I was filming whatever he wanted me to film,” she said.
She added that if she had ever filmed him in those moments, it would have been a “huge break of trust, loyalty and confidentiality.”
Steel went on to ask Mia if she ever told anyone about the abuse she said she experienced by Combs while it was happening.
“Do you have anything where you contemporaneously wrote to a friend, family member, police officer, anybody, and said this is what’s going on, I’m being assaulted, berated, anything?” Steel asked Mia.
“No, the only time I reached out for help was very subtly to people in the office, but not disclosing things that other people hadn’t witnessed,” she responded.
Mia told the court that “nobody around batted an eye” when Combs would act out and that he was still praised by everybody in his circle.
“I was always constantly seeking his approval. He was my authority figure, my only authority figure,” she added.
When Steel asked Mia about Combs finding out about private messages between her and Ventura, she accused Combs of stealing her phone “many times.”
“He has stolen Cassie’s phone many times, he has put tracking devices on her car. I’m not sure what he’s capable of. I was terrified,” she said.
Mia said that she was very close with Ventura but said she was “not allowed to tell her the truth about a lot of things.”
“Whatever story Puff told me, I had to uphold that,” she said. “One of the worst parts was being put in the middle and having to cover up for Puff to Cass, which he forced me to do constantly.”
Steel asked Mia if she ever told Ventura that she should end things with Combs.
“Not in the way I wish I could have,” she said.
Ex-employee says she was ‘screamed at’ if Combs thought she wasn’t doing her job
Prosecutor Madison Smyser went through many of Mia’s social media posts during cross-examination.
Mia confirmed that promoting Combs’ events and projects was part of her job.
When Smyser asked Mia what Combs would do if he thought she wasn’t doing her job, she said, “I would be screamed at, humiliated, made fun of, and my job would be threatened.”
She also said her Instagram posts for Combs’ birthday were part of her job and if she didn’t make the post, she would be “in trouble.”
Mia said she didn’t feel like she could have left her job with Combs.
“I would’ve been stripped of any credibility, would’ve lost — wouldn’t have been able to get a job in the same or any industry that I wanted and would’ve lost anything I knew,” she said.
She told the court that when she tried to leave her job, Combs’ chief of staff told her to go back and she also feared for her safety.
“I just knew his power and his wrath,” Mia said.
When Smyser asked Mia about speaking to human resources, she said a former employee was fired after reporting Combs’ abuse of Ventura.
“Human resources only punished me unjustly, also fired Kayla for even discussing Cassie’s abuse. They wouldn’t have believed me and I would’ve been fired immediately,” Mia told the court.
Smyser also asked Mia what she thought would happen if she had disclosed that Combs had sexually assaulted her.
“That I wouldn’t be believed. I would be wiped out, I would be abused, fired, and somehow made out to look like I was a crazy person making everything up,” Mia responded.
After Mia stopped working for Combs in 2017, she said she worked for Madonna for eight months.
“Did Mr. Combs assist you in getting that job?” Steel asked.
“Absolutely not,” Mia said.
What Combs is on trial for
U.S. prosecutors allege that for 20 years, behind the scenes, Combs was coercing and abusing women with help from a network of associates who helped silence victims through blackmail and violence.
Combs faces an indictment that includes descriptions of “freak-offs,” which are defined in the court doc as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Numerous witnesses have come forward to accuse Combs of terrorizing people into silence by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, according to prosecutors. One indictment alleges that Combs dangled someone from a balcony.
Although dozens of men and women have alleged in lawsuits that Combs abused them, this trial will highlight the claims of four women.
Combs is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has denied all the charges against him and has rejected a plea deal, choosing to go to trial instead.
If found guilty in the New York court, he could face life in prison.
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Day 13 testimony
Day 12 testimony
Day 11 testimony
Day 10 testimony
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Global News will be covering the Diddy trial in its entirety. Please check back for updates.
— with files from The Associated Press
