It was a dramatic piece of tape, and legal professionals defending Sean “Diddy” Combs need the jury to view it as undercutting the core of the sex-trafficking case in opposition to the rap mogul, who may spend the remainder of his life behind bars.
As a part of their effort to solid doubt on claims by Combs’ ex-girlfriend that she was in a coercive relationship with Combs, marked by her being pressured to take part in intercourse with male prostitutes, protection attorneys Thursday performed an audio recording of Combs suggesting she ought to break off their romance.
“Transfer on,” Combs’ voice may very well be heard by jurors listening to the audio recordsdata.
“Simply concentrate on what, on the finish of the day, will make you are feeling higher,” Combs was heard saying. “How can we get to an answer the place you’ll be able to transfer on? I do not need to be in a relationship like this…Finish this cycle. Transfer on together with your life in order that you do not really feel like I wasted your life.”
Testifying below the pseudonym “Jane” for a marathon six days on the witness stand, she stated her relationship with Combs “began to deteriorate” in December 2023, and she or he tried to be candid about the best way she felt in regards to the drug-fueled orgies — she referred to as “resort nights” — that Combs made her take part in. Combs didn’t understand that was how she felt, Jane advised the jurors.
“He had indicated to you he wasn’t conscious of the way you had been feeling,” protection lawyer Teny Geragos stated.
Jane responded, “Sure.”
“He didn’t need you to be upset,” Geragos stated.
“Sure,” Jane answered once more.
Combs is charged with intercourse trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to have interaction in prostitution in a sensational case that has captured headlines from the beginning. Combs has pleaded not responsible and insists that any intercourse act, regardless of how far out of the mainstream, had been non-public issues amongst consenting adults.
Jane, like witnesses earlier than her, has laid out deeply intimate and disturbing particulars about what she says occurred behind closed doorways with the rap mogul and trend tastemaker who has been locked up since September 2024.
The ex-girlfriend painted an intense image of how Combs allegedly unraveled throughout their three-year relationship, as he began to face public scrutiny over his non-public life, civil lawsuits and the federal legal investigation that has positioned him in a struggle for his life in a Manhattan courtroom.
“Jane” is cross-examined by lawyer Teny Geragos (not seen) throughout Sean “Diddy” Combs’ intercourse trafficking trial in New York Metropolis, June 12, 2025, on this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Testifying by means of tears and sobs, Jane advised the jury Thursday that she would surrender all the cash, holidays and items Combs provided her throughout their relationship if it meant she had by no means needed to have intercourse with a stranger in the course of the dayslong intercourse events, she stated, Combs pressured her to take part in.
Jane advised the jury she took half within the orgies as a result of Combs had threatened to withhold her exorbitant lease funds or launch a tape of her having intercourse. She stated he even violently attacked her as soon as.
Combs’ attorneys spent days making an attempt to solid doubt on these claims by getting her to confess that her relationship was complicated and even loving. Jane — one of many prosecution’s key witnesses — admitted she nonetheless loves Combs, deeply wished to have a traditional relationship with the rap mogul, and was even jealous of the time he spent with different ladies.
“I used to be simply made to be, simply carry this inconceivable strain they usually weren’t requested to carry any of that strain like I did,” Jane testified. “I simply thought it was unfair. All of the nights with these males.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs confers together with his legal professionals after a gathering with the decide throughout his intercourse trafficking trial in New York Metropolis, June 12, 2025, on this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Because the trial nears the tip of its sixth week, prosecutors instructed they might relaxation their case someday subsequent week. Courtroom will resume Friday with a federal agent and Jonathan Perez, one among Combs’ assistants and a abstract witness.
Attorneys for Combs haven’t stated whether or not the rapper would testify on his personal behalf or what they’ve in retailer for the jury earlier than the trial ends.
Prosecutors launch voice recordings of Combs
As protection questioning got here to a detailed, they launched two audio recordings of Combs that had been performed for the jury earlier this week. The legal professionals argued the recordings spotlight how each Jane and Combs had been prepared members within the “resort nights” that featured witnesses partaking in numerous intercourse acts with male prostitutes whereas Combs watched, masturbated and swapped with the escorts.
Jane testified that she wouldn’t have traveled with Combs to the Turks and Caicos had she identified a male escort would present up. Combs’ legal professionals, nonetheless, performed for the jury a voice observe she despatched to Combs after the journey, saying, “I had so, so, a lot enjoyable with you.”
Jurors additionally heard an effusive voice memo from Combs, thanking Jane for approaching the journey, and stated she was his “crack pipe.”
“Hey child, we had a good time. Keep within the gentle. Um, it is all good. Get your relaxation. You’re the crack pipe. That is my new title for you, crack pipe, or ought to I name you CP,” Combs was heard within the March 2023 audio recording.
“To your data, what was he saying you are the crack pipe? He had an habit to you, is that what you understood?” Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos requested.
“Yeah, to my intercourse,” Jane responded. Within the recording, Combs additionally referenced their love “contract,” which, Jane defined, was the settlement they reached for Combs to pay her $10,000 month-to-month lease.
In one other recording, taken in 2021, Combs is heard asking for Jane to arrange a “resort evening” with a male escort named Don.
“I am making an attempt to make excuses to get out of this factor that he is encouraging for me to arrange,” she testified after the message was performed.
Combs’ authorized issues develop
Because the testimony in Combs’ legal trial continued Thursday, one other former girlfriend of the rap mogul re-filed a civil lawsuit in opposition to him, alleging she was coerced into touring to see him and into having intercourse with him.
Chelsea Lovelace, whose title has been talked about by Jane at Combs’ legal trial, accused Combs of drugging her, getting her pregnant after which urging her to abort the being pregnant earlier than she suffered a miscarriage.
The civil criticism echoes the legal fees Combs faces, with Lovelace alleging Combs was assisted by staff to induce her to do issues in opposition to her will and compelled her to take medicine. She alleges Combs slapped her and paid her an allowance, “which he used to manage her, as she in the reduction of on working.” Lovelace is looking for unspecified damages for sexual assault, battery, and negligent infliction of emotional misery.
Lovelace initially filed her lawsuit below a pseudonym final 12 months. Combs has denied wrongdoing and tried to dismiss the lawsuit.
The lawsuit provides to the rising checklist of civil lawsuits Combs faces along with the federal legal case for which he’s on trial. Not less than 59 totally different folks — 32 ladies and 27 males–– have accused Combs of sexual assault over the past three many years and have energetic lawsuits pending, in accordance with courtroom information reviewed by ABC Information.
Protection focuses on thriller rapper
The primary two hours of courtroom on Thursday had been dominated by a closed-door dialog between the decide overseeing the case, Combs’ legal professionals and federal prosecutors.
In response to protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo, the difficulty revolved round a January 2024 incident that “occurred behind closed doorways in a resort room however there have been different folks there.”
Agnifilo spoke vaguely about it as a result of the decide instructed he had dominated sure particulars should stay undisclosed as a part of his order permitting Jane to testify below a pseudonym. Agnifilo pushed the difficulty to be absolutely aired within the courtroom.
“A part of the explanation that trials are absolutely public is so if different folks understand they know one thing about an occasion mentioned in a public courtroom, they’ll come ahead and share their recollection about it,” Agnifilo stated. “That’s form of the sensible aspect to the constitutional proper to a public trial. It is public for a purpose.”
Prosecutor Maureen Comey disagreed, saying ample details about Jane and the occasion in query has been revealed. Disclosing extra, she stated, is a “pretense to aim to harass and intimidate this witness.”
U.S. District Decide Arun Subramanian agreed with federal prosecutors. After that, Jane returned to the witness stand, the place Geragos requested her a few January 2024 journey to Las Vegas that she took with an unnamed rapper.
Throughout a break in her relationship with Combs, Jane stated she flew to Sin Metropolis on the second rapper’s non-public aircraft, attended a birthday dinner, visited a strip membership, and returned to the rapper’s resort room. There, she stated, she discovered an escort named Anton – an escort she had slept with throughout a “resort evening” with Combs – having intercourse with a girl whereas a few half dozen folks watched.
In discussing the episode throughout direct examination, Jane stated she briefly flirted with the rapper however rapidly left the room. What was not mentioned till protection questioning on Thursday was Jane’s admission that she had flashed her breasts to the room earlier than taking off.
“I believe he stated one thing alongside the traces of that he thought I used to be lovely, and he wished to clean me,” Jane testified.
“And the rapper advised you in that second he had all the time had a crush on you?” Geragos requested.
“Sure,” she stated.
Jane stated she didn’t inform Combs in regards to the episode till June 2024, after she testified, Combs bodily assaulted her, leaving her with welts and a black eye. After an explosive struggle, which Jane admitted she first initiated – she testified that Combs pressured her to have intercourse with Anton, the identical male escort she noticed in Vegas.
Earlier than any sexual contact with Anton, Jane stated she had advised Combs about seeing Anton on the January occasion in Las Vegas.
Geragos quoted Combs as saying, “I am unable to imagine you went to a different man’s freak-off.” Combs and different witnesses have referred to “resort nights” as “freak-offs.”
Combs was so indignant that Jane testified, Combs left with out the 2 of them having intercourse on the finish of the occasion.
Geragos additionally requested Jane in regards to the alcohol she and Combs consumed earlier than the struggle – two glasses of champagne and two or three pictures of tequila every – and the next sexual encounter. Protection attorneys have argued that Combs’ violence was pushed by his drug habit and jealousy, reasonably than a need to coerce the ladies into intercourse.
