Defense attorneys in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial of the music producer and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs tried in vain to discredit the testimony of a former assistant by showing the jury dozens of her posts on social media. But Mr. Combs may not need to rely on his attorneys if he gets a helping hand from President Trump, who said on Friday he is open to looking at the case and possibly considering a pardon.
“Nobody’s asked. But I know people are thinking about it. I know they’re thinking about it. I think some people have been very close to asking,” President Trump, accompanied by Elon Musk, told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.
Mr. Combs is currently being prosecuted by Mr. Trump’s Justice Department – in a case that was charged during the Biden Administration. The artist also known as “Diddy” faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, if convicted on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation of prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“First of all, I’d look at what’s happening, and I haven’t been watching it too closely, although it’s certainly getting a lot of coverage,” the president went on. “I haven’t seen him, I haven’t spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics… that relationship busted up, from what I read. I don’t know, he didn’t tell me that, but I’d read some little bit nasty statements.”
“I would certainly look at the facts. If I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don’t like me, it wouldn’t have any impact on me.” President Trump said.
Mr. Trump has surprisingly strong support, for a Republican, among young, black men.
On Wednesday, the president pardoned another rapper, NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, and who was sentenced to two years in prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to possessing weapons despite being a convicted felon.
During his first term, the president pardoned the hip hop star Lil Wayne, whose legal name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., who is also a convicted felon and pleaded guilty to carrying a handgun on a private jet from California to Florida. The president also pardoned the rapper and singer Bill Kapri, known by his stage name Kodak Black, who was sentenced to 46 months in prison on federal weapon charges.
But Mr. Combs has not been convicted yet (although Trump could pardon him preemptively). His attorneys are still trying to fight the charges in the on-going trial.
On Friday, defense attorney Brian Steel, who previously successfully represented the rapper, Jeffery “Young Thug” Williams in his epic racketeering trial in Atlanta, Georgia, tried to discredit a witness, who is testifying under the pseudonym “Mia.”
Federal prosecutors had called Mia to the stand on Thursday. She is one of four victims in the case against Mr. Combs, alleging sexual and physical abuse, as the Sun reported.
Mr. Steel spent the day reading positive statements about Mr. Combs she wrote on social media, as well as a showing the jury a scrapbook she made for the defendant’s birthdays, to prove that Mia had misrepresented her relationship with Mr. Combs during her emotional testimony on Thursday.
“Thank you for being the good kind of crazy,” Mia wrote in one social media post on Mr. Combs’ Instagram account for his birthday in 2014. “Thank you for being a friend and bringing friends into my life.”
When asked by Mr. Steel why she would write such a person, whom she has alleged has traumatized her, Mia answered, “It’s called psychological abuse.”
On Thursday, Mia had testified that during her roughly seven years-long employment at Mr. Combs’ entertainment enterprise, she had been subjected to numerous incidents of abuse. On one occasion, she claimed, Mr. Combs snuck into her room, laid down on top of her and “put himself inside” of her against her will. She also said he threw a computer at her head because the Wi-Fi was not working, and that he threatened to ruin her career if she dared to speak out against him.
“That’s the person who has traumatized you?” Mr. Steel asked the witness, while he showed the jury a photo collage she had made for his birthday, including pictures of him and her smiling together at music festivals and movie shoots.
“Yes,” Mia said, speaking visibly more confident and louder than she had done on Thursday when she cried, as she told the jury about the alleged sexual and physical abuse.
“Sexually?” Mr. Steel pressed.
“Yes,” Mia replied firmly.
“That’s the legend?” Mr. Steel said, quoting another one of Mia’s posts, in which she had referred to Mr. Combs, who is credited for making the careers of rap artists such as Mary J. Blige and the Notorious BIG, as a legend.
“Yes,” Mia repeated.
“Physically?” Mr. Steel added.
“Yes,” she said again.
“Why would you promote the person who has stolen your happiness in life?” Mr. Steel asked yet again, having posed the same question phrased slightly differently over and over again throughout the day.
“Those were the only people I was around, so that was my life. You had to promote it,” Mia said. “It was a very confusing cycle of ups and downs.”
Mia remained calm during her answers, and insisted that it was her job to positively promote Mr. Combs on social media. She also explained that the behavior of victims of abuse is not always logical. One time, she told the defense attorney to “ask her therapist” and to read the vast amount of literature published on trauma victims.
She said her “trauma brain” and her “logical brain” did not always align, and that eventually the abuse “became normalized.”
“You’re not a weak person, are you?” Mr. Steel asked, attempting to provoke her.
“I am not sure,” Mia said confidently.
“In 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 going into March 2017, you are strong, aren’t you?” Mr. Steel asked, referring to the years she had worked for his client, beginning in 2009 as a personal assistant and then working as a director of development and acquisitions for one of his companies, Revolt Films.
“Strong?” Mia asked. “I don’t know what you mean by that exactly.”
“You gave advice to people to say stand up for yourself. You said that to Ms. Ventura, didn’t you?” The defense attorney went on, now referencing Cassandra Ventura, Mr. Combs’ long time on-and-off again girlfriend, who is a key witness in this trial and who testified two weeks ago.
Mia told the court on Thursday that the women had been very close, “like sisters.”
“You told her (Ms.Ventura) that she’s a superstar, right?” Mr. Steel asked.
A former singer and model, Ms. Ventura had released one album before she met Mr. Combs in 2007. She did not release another album again and she has alleged that her career suffered due to the abuse she endured in her relationship with Mr. Combs.
“I told her,” Mia paused, mindful of her words, “I don’t know about standing up. Did I tell Cass she was a superstar? Probably.”
“You told her that the money has to come to her just like men get the money, right?” The defense attorney said, attempting to make the argument the defense team had brought up in their opening statements that the victims were in fact not victims but “independent” and “strong” women, who interacted with Mr.Combs because they wanted to, who made decisions of choice and free will and were not coerced or abused by the defendant as the prosecution has alleged.
“I don’t know. I don’t remember what you’re saying.” Mia replied.
“Isn’t it true that what you told this jury about the conduct of Mr. Combs is a lie? A misconduct?” Mr. Steel pressed, hoping to break the witness.
“I’m sorry, can you — what?” Mia asked.
“Isn’t it true that Mr. Combs never had unwanted non-consensual, forcible sexual contact with you, isn’t that true?” The defense attorney asked.
But Mia remained unphased, “What I said in this courtroom is the truth. I have not lied to anyone at all.”
Mr. Steel, seemingly frustrated, then dug up a scrapbook that Mia made for Mr. Combs’ 45th birthday, and asked her to read the handwritten letter she had included to the jury.
“Happy 45th birthday, Puff Daddy,” Mia read from her letter. (Mr. Combs also uses the artist names Puff and Puff Daddy.)
“Puff! Sometimes life goes by at catastrophic speeds where you never get to live in and enjoy ‘now,’” the letter went on. “I hope on this day you get to sit back and take it all in.”
Mia testified that one time, when she and Mr. Combs had been on an airplane together, he confessed to her that he was feeling depressed. She said he told her that he used to look at the world the way she did, “but now that I have kind of done everything,” meaning now that he was a superstar and had attained wealth, fame and massive success, “what’s left?”
To make him feel better, Mia said, she decided to put together a scrapbook with magazine articles from the early 90s, when Mr. Combs started his career in the music industry to remind him how far he had come.
“So I put together this book of magazine articles from 1991 to 1999 that I hope will stir up nostalgic feelings of when you started and how you felt and what was a dream to you then that’s now an everyday reality… Not that you’ll ever forget your past, but I hope it reminds you of when this world made your eyes light up,” Mia read from her letter, which ended with, “I love you forever and eva and eva….”
The defense attorney let the words sink in a moment, before he asked his witness again how she could write such tender, caring words to someone who, she has said, basically raped her, and who she said she saw beat his ex-girlfriend for year, one time, as she testified, even slamming Ms. Ventura’s head into a bed frame, causing blood to gush out.
“Then why, if you’re being sexually assaulted and your sister is being brutalized physically, are you making a scrapbook for Mr. Combs?” Mr. Steel asked.
“It’s a lot more complicated than the way you framed that,” Mia pushed back. “Ask any abuse victim’s advocate, and they could explain it to you much better than I could.”
“You say to Mr. Combs,” Mr. Steel asked, not giving up on his line of argument, “when he supposedly says to you on that airplane that life doesn’t have the same meaning, did you say to him, well, you made my life have no meaning also?”
“No. That’s not the kind of person I am. If someone comes to me in a vulnerable state, regardless, I want to help, and that is just my empathic nature. I would never say something like that,” Mia answered, later describing herself as a “people pleaser,” and an “empath,” saying “I forgive people all the time for things,” and that she “would make excuses.”
“The man who you say has ruined your life. This is what you write to him?” The defense attorney asked, slightly raising his voice.
“At the time, as low as he would make me (feel), he would also make me feel the opposite as well. Again, I can tell you what my therapist has said, but I’m not a professional to explain that,” Mia said.
While this back and forth went on for several hours on Friday, Mr. Combs leaned over the defense table, writing post-it notes to his attorneys, attentively engaged in the questioning.
Mia explained that she had very much enjoyed her work, especially while she was employed at Mr. Combs’ film and television company, Revolt Films, where she produced a documentary about his “Bad Boy Family Reunion Tour,” a joint concert tour headlined by Mr. Combs that featured various past and present artists from his Bad Boy Entertainment record label. She said she felt betrayed when Mr. Combs shut down the company in 2016 without telling her directly.
But as much as she enjoyed her work, she repeated over and over again how demanding it was, telling prosecutors in the morning that “this was not just a job, I had to ask permission to leave the place for the weekend.” She said she even had to beg Mr. Combs to attend her grandmother’s funeral.
The defense is expected to resume its cross-examination of Mia on Monday.
