NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ former personal assistant testified at his sex trafficking trial Friday that she threw her phone across the room in terror and ran outside when she saw the hip-hop mogul calling her days after his longtime ex-girlfriend sued him two years ago.
“It was just so triggering to see that,” said the assistant, who was identified in court only by the pseudonym “Mia.” She was the second of three women expected to testify at the federal trial in Manhattan that they were sexually abused by Combs.
Bail was repeatedly denied for Combs following his September arrest after prosecutors argued he and his coconspirators reached out to potential victims or witnesses after the former decade-long girlfriend, R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, sued him in November 2023.
The suit, which alleged years of sexual abuse, was settled within a day for $20 million.
At a September bail hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said Combs had contacted at least one victim in November 2023 and was in constant contact with witnesses, including as late as last July.
Mia said she at first was elated to hear from D-Roc, one of Combs’ former bodyguards, when he reached out to her days after Cassie’s lawsuit — until she realized he was at the Bad Boy Records founder’s home and trying to reconnect her with her former boss.
Then, she said, she felt “terrified, threatened, scared, nervous.” Mia said she “wanted to play dumb” and needed a game plan to protect herself.
“I didn’t want my life to be in danger,” Mia said.
Still, when she soon saw Combs himself trying to call her, “I threw my phone as far as it would go behind the couch, and I ran outside.”
Combs’ lawyer Brian Steel launched into his cross-examination by quizzing the woman about several dozen posts she made about Combs, Cassie and other people and events in their orbit.
Among them: a still image she posted on Combs’ birthday in November 2013 from a comedy video featuring Combs as a doctor helping Mia give birth to a baby. “Shout out to my mentor,” she wrote, referring to Combs, “Thank you for always letting me give birth to my dreams.”
“Here, you have posted on your personal account your rapist delivering the baby,” Steel said.
On Thursday, Mia testified that she was awakened and then raped by Combs as she slept in a bunk bed in his Los Angeles home just months after he’d forcibly kissed her at his 40th birthday party in 2009. She said sexual assault continued sporadically, seemingly infrequent enough that each time she’d think it would never happen again.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges that could result in a prison term of from 15 years to life if he is convicted.
Mia, who worked for Combs from 2009 to 2017, including a stretch as an executive at his film studio, said there were exciting times in the job and the “highs were really high and the lows were really low.”
After she left Bad Boy Entertainment, Mia said, she received $250,000 of a $400,000 settlement to reimburse her for promised bonuses that were never paid and for unpaid overtime. But she said she never told her lawyers about the sexual abuse.
She acknowledged during her testimony that she referenced her co-workers as “family” and used the word “love” in her correspondence with Combs even after he sexually attacked her.
“That’s how we all talked to each other,” Mia said. While working for Combs, she said, she dated his sound engineer, although it wasn’t a typical relationship because they rarely saw one another outside work.
She said she hasn’t been able to work since leaving the job because of post-traumatic stress.
Mia said she’d misinterpret emails asking “where are you?” as scolding. She said someone calling her name from across the room would cause her alarm, even if it was an innocent attempt to get her attention.
Throughout his cross-examination, Steel struck a familiar, incredulous refrain, asking: “Why would you promote the person who has stolen your happiness in life?”
Mia told Steel that the posts were a facade.
“Instagram was a place to show how great your life was, even if it was not true,” she explained, adding that followers of her then-public account included many Combs fans. “Of course you post great times,” she said.
