Combs defense seeks to show ex had agency / Photo: Angela WEISS - AFP
Combs defense seeks to show ex had agency
Sean Combs's defense lawyers on Tuesday began questioning a woman who dated the music mogul up until his arrest, and who has testified in agonizing detail that he pressured her into drug-fueled sex with escorts.
In the initial hours of questioning defense attorney Teny Geragos sought to show that this woman speaking under the pseudonym Jane had agency throughout her relationship with Combs -- an attempt to show that what prosecutors deem to be sex trafficking was in fact consensual.
The defense exhibited loving messages and voice notes the pair shared, and also asked Jane about her "jealousy" regarding Combs's "polyamorous" lifestyle that involved other girlfriends, some of them public.
Geragos elicited testimony from Jane in which she said she gravitated to men who were "successful."
"My ideal partner is a protector and provider," Jane said.
She also testified that at points she felt "very loved" by Combs and that he was her "baby."
This witness questioning core to the case has so far been largely cordial, with Jane responding calmly and precisely.
At one point when Geragos asked her a probing question about her ex's relationship with their child, Jane was direct.
"What does that have to do with this whole thing?" she answered.
- Violent outburst -
Jane previously told jurors how the final year of her relationship with the artist known as "Diddy" exploded into violence in June 2024.
At the time Combs was already under investigation by federal authorities; his homes had been raided, and the now-infamous security footage of him assaulting his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura in a hotel was public.
Jane, who began seeing Combs in early 2021, detailed how she had longed for a more traditional romantic relationship with him.
But she said 90 percent of their time together resulted in sometimes days-long sex parties that saw Combs direct her to have sex with male escorts while he watched, even as she told him the encounters made her feel "sleazy" and "disgusted."
Jane told jurors Combs paid for her rent at the time and still does. He also continues to fund her legal costs.
She previously testified at length that she felt "obligated" to participate in hotel sex parties for "fear of losing the roof over my head" that Combs was bankrolling.
A June 2024 date-turned-argument escalated when Jane said she pushed Combs's head onto a marble countertop in her home and began hurling candles -- acts of "built-up" anger, she testified.
Combs was livid: Jane said he kicked down doors and ultimately put her in a chokehold.
She ran out but upon return Combs kicked and punched her until she had a black eye and "golf-ball" sized welts, she said.
Combs instructed her to ice the injuries and prepare for a hotel night with an escort.
"You're not going to ruin my fucking night," she said Combs told her. When she said she didn't want to participate, he stood closely to her face as he asked in a "forceful" tone: "Then is this coercion?"
Jane ultimately complied: "I just felt like I wasn't even in my own body," she said.
- 'Sexual trauma' -
When Ventura -- who last month testified of physical and psychological abuse in similarily excruciating detail -- filed her 2023 civil lawsuit that opened the door for a federal investigation, Jane said she "almost fainted."
"There was a whole other woman feeling the same thing," Jane said.
"I feel like I'm reading my own sexual trauma. It makes me sick how three solid pages, word for word, is exactly my experiences and my anguish," she messaged Combs, in text records read in court.
Jane said that following their physical fight in the summer of 2024, they saw each other twice more before his arrest last September.
The 55-year-old faces life in prison if convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Jane's story was not in the original indictment against Combs, but she was added after receiving a subpoena requiring she testify in November 2024 before a grand jury.
She began speaking to prosecutors in January of this year.
Jane testified that she told Combs's defense team about the brawl last summer before she told prosecutors.
She said she felt "obligated" to meet the defense team "due to my relationship."
Jane has not filed any civil suit against Combs, and said in court Monday she has no plans to.
Jane's testimony is expected to last through Thursday, and the Manhattan federal trial is anticipated to continue several more weeks.
R.Lagomarsino--PV
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