NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Kid Cudi is set to testify Thursday at the New York sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs. He follows a former aide to the music mogul, George Kaplan, who told the jury about the threatening world he said Combs created for his inner circle.
Prosecutors allege that Combs, a three-time Grammy winner, used his fame and fortune to create a deviant empire of exploitation, coercing women into abusive sex parties while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and beatings. Combs’ lawyers argue that all the sexual acts were consensual, and although he could be violent, he never veered into sex trafficking and racketeering.
Kid Cudi is expected to testify about his brief relationship 14 years ago with Combs’ ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie. She spent four emotional days on the witness stand responding to questions about the most disturbing secrets of her sex life, and describing being beaten and raped by a man she once loved.
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Now Combs’ former personal assistant is cross-examined
Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo suggested that the hip-hop mogul’s violent tendencies were bad for business — in part because Kaplan, a valuable and trusted employee, was driven to leave after seeing him abuse Cassie.
— “Mr. Combs’ temper, from what you saw, did not help his business,” Agnifilo prompted him. — “No it did not,” Kaplan replied. — “It hurt his business.” — “Yes it did.” — “Among other things, it prompted a hardworking, dedicated person, meaning yourself, to leave the company.” — “Correct.”
A paid holiday honoring the late Biggie Smalls
Kaplan revealed that May 21 — the birthday of Combs’ late protege Biggie Smalls — is a paid holiday at Combs Enterprises.
Smalls, who was also known as The Notorious B.I.G., signed to Combs’ Bad Boy Records label in 1993. The rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was fatally shot in Los Angeles in 1997.
▶ Read more on the rap rivalry that led to the killings of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was like ‘a God among men’
Kaplan told jurors that his tenure with Combs has “proven to be one of the most complicated pieces of my life.”
“I’m a young man and this is a God among men talking to me,” said Kaplan, who served as an assistant for Combs and his Combs Enterprises company from 2013 to 2015.
“He not only pushed me to my depth he pushed me to depths I didn’t even know I had,” Kaplan said, explaining he “never worked harder in my life.”
Despite leaving the job after seeing Combs abusing Cassie, he said he still thinks fondly of many aspects of their work together and wishes the hip-hop mogul well on his birthday — blurting “Nov. 4,” unprompted.
Kaplan describes Combs’ business empire
The former assistant offered insights into Combs’ varied interests in music, TV, liquor and fashion. Among the highlights of Kaplan’s tenure, he said, was the launch of Revolt, Combs’ cable TV network focused on hip-hop.
Through a partnership with liquor giant Diageo, Combs served as the public face of vodka brand Ciroc. One of his companies, Blue Flame, provided marketing services for the brand.
Combs also ran Sean John, a fashion label, and Bad Boy Records, a recording label.
Combs was intimately involved in the businesses, launching Revolt in 2013 with a broadcast from the stoop of his protégé Biggie Smalls’ home. And he was keenly aware of who he wanted to reach and employ.
“Everything Mr. Combs did, diversity was a big part of it, specifically for African American people,” Kaplan said.
Another girlfriend, another act of violence
Kaplan testified that he witnessed Combs being violent with another girlfriend, Gina, throwing green apples at her when they were together at Combs’ Florida home.
“He was very angry,” Kaplan said. “She was trying to shield herself with her arms.”
Kaplan said he tried to rationalize this behavior — wondering if witnessing such things might just be part of the industry.
“I thought it might be normal and this is what I might expect if I wanted to have a career in this industry,” he said. “I was working all of that out as a young man.”
Kaplan is testifying in response to a government subpoena and only after the judge gave him immunity from any potential criminal liability he might face as a result of his testimony.
Kaplan says the attacks on Cassie prompted him to quit
Kaplan testified that he decided to quit the job he’d held for about two years after Combs’ attack on Cassie on the private jet, and that he gave three months notice when he later saw Cassie sitting in a bedroom with a black eye and Combs sent him to pick up anti-inflammatory medicine at a convenience store to treat the injury.
He said he told Combs that he wanted to quit because his father had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Even so, he said he still credits Combs for teaching him a work ethic that has helped him be successful in jobs since then.
“I had been a fan of his since I was a child,” he said. “I keep lessons from him to this day.”
To some extent, the feeling might be mutual — when Kaplan first entered the courtroom on Wednesday, Combs smiled.
A witness is asked why he didn’t intervene
Kaplan testified that he was 23 years old when he witnessed Combs’ be violent with Cassie, and he didn’t respond to Cassie’s call for help because he was in his dream job and didn’t want to wreck it and “couldn’t believe my good fortune to be working for such an icon.”
He said that after he heard more glass crashing and chaos where Combs stood over Cassie in the back of the jet, Combs seemed “even keeled” as he came forward and sat down, telling Cassie to stay in back.
Asked if anyone on the plane went to check on Cassie, he said no.
Kaplan says Cassie pleaded for help — and didn’t get it — on a trip to Vegas
George Kaplan testified that he witnessed Combs be violent with Cassie only once, on a trip to Las Vegas aboard the rap promoter’s private jet in the second half of 2015 when he heard glass breaking behind him.
He said he looked over his shoulder and saw Combs standing with a whiskey glass in his hand.
“There was tremendous commotion and a scuffle and then after the glass crashed, Cassie screamed: ’Isn’t anybody seeing this?”
Kaplan testified that neither he nor any of the security workers or Bad Boy management staff on the plane did anything to respond to Cassie’s call for help.
Former assistant describes carrying thousands of dollars in cash
Kaplan said he once was given a bag of cash by the rapper’s security staff to carry onboard Combs’ private jet — and that he was told it held $50,000.
Several other times, he said, he was asked to pick up a few thousand dollars at a Western Union office.
The jury doesn’t get the jokes about the fate of a dog
The loudest laughs of the trial so far came with the jury out of the room on Thursday when lawyers discussed the behavior of a dog at Kid Cudi’s residence after a break-in occurred there.
At one point, Judge Arun Subramanian asked about anticipated testimony by the rapper, saying: “He’s not going to testify about what the dog thought?”
Loud laughs echoed through the courtroom each time lawyers or the judge mentioned the dog afterward, including when the judge said “I agree it’s a serious issue” and when Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson noted that “unfortunately the dog is no longer with us.”
The serious legal point that inspired the discussion was whether claims that the dog wasn’t the same after the break-in are prejudicial and should be excluded from testimony.
Cassie’s mother says Combs demanded $20K because her daughter was seeing someone else
Regina Ventura said she felt “physically sick” when her daughter sent her an email in late 2011 to say Combs threatened to release two explicit videos of her and send someone to hurt her and the man she was seeing, the rapper Kid Cudi.
“I did not understand a lot of it. The sex tapes threw me,” Ventura told the Manhattan federal court.
Ventura, of New London, Connecticut, said she then received a demand from Combs for $20,000.
“He was angry that he had spent money on her and she went with another person,” she said.
Ventura said she tapped a home equity loan to pay Combs because she was “scared for my daughter’s safety.” Days later, she said, the money was returned and Cassie was soon dating Combs again.
▶ Read more about Cassie’s mom’s testimony
Ex-assistant described cleaning up booze, drugs and baby oil after sex marathons
Combs’ one-time personal assistant testified Wednesday that he was in charge of cleaning up hotel rooms after the hip-hop mogul’s sex marathons — tossing out empty alcohol bottles, baby oil and drugs, tidying pillows and making it look as if nothing had happened.
Kaplan, who worked for Combs from 2013 to 2015, said the Bad Boy Records founder would sometimes summon him to a hotel room to deliver a “medicine kit,” a bag full of prescription pills and over-the-counter pain medications. He said Combs dispatched him to buy drugs including MDMA, also known as ecstasy.
Kaplan, 34, was granted immunity to testify after initially telling the Manhattan court that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Prosecutors contend Combs leaned on employees and used his music and fashion empire to facilitate and cover up his behavior, sometimes making threats to keep them in line and his misconduct hush-hush.
▶ Read more about Kaplan’s Wednesday testimony
Manhattan courthouses are familiar territory for some rappers
Rapper and actor Kid Cudi will be following in the footsteps of plenty of other rappers who have had reason to visit the two Manhattan federal courthouses over the past two decades. They’ve appeared as witnesses, participants in civil lawsuits, and in some cases, criminal defendants.
Among those who came to these courts before him was Tekashi 6ix9ine, Ricky “Slick Rick” Walters, DMX, the Beastie Boys, N.O.R.E. or Noreaga and Lil’ Kim.
What is Kid Cudi’s involvement with Combs and Cassie?
Last week, Cassie testified that Combs arranged for her to meet Cudi in 2011 to work on music. The two began dating soon after, and she said she got a burner phone to communicate with Cudi in secret.
Cassie said she and Combs had broken up at the time, although they still engaged in sex parties that Combs orchestrated. It was during one of these that Combs looked at her phone and learned of the Cudi relationship, Cassie testified.
In response, she said he lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her in the back.
When Cassie and Combs were out of the country in 2012, Combs told her that Cudi’s car would be blown up and Combs wanted Cudi’s friends there to see it, Cassie testified.
On Tuesday, Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified that Cassie told her Combs was so angry about her relationship with Cudi that he planned to release sexually explicit videos of her and send someone to hurt Cassie and Cudi.
Who is Kid Cudi?
The Cleveland born-and-raised, skinny-jean wearing, Grammy Award-winning rapper has long been celebrated for his alternative hip-hop, emotional music that effortlessly weaves genres together in surprising ways.
Cudi began as something of a protégé of Kanye West, when the then-uncontroversial rapper signed Cudi to his G.O.O.D. Music label in 2008. Cudi left in 2013.
He is featured on Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3” and West’s landmark “808s & Heartbreak.” Cudi has always had an eye and ear toward innovation. In 2022, his album “Entergalactic” was released alongside a Netflix adult-animated romantic comedy of the same name, which he told The Associated Press allowed him to “explore the abstract.”
Kid Cudi expected to take the stand
Cudi’s turn on the witness stand will come immediately after George Kaplan, a former personal assistant to Combs, finishes his testimony. A prosecutor said testimony by Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, was not expected to be lengthy.
Cassie testified last week that Combs threatened to blow up Cudi’s car and hurt him after he learned she was dating the rapper and actor.
Cudi is to follow Kaplan to the witness stand after the personal assistant to Combs from 2013 to 2015 finishes telling about what he experienced during 80- to 100-hour work weeks.
▶ Read more about Cudi’s upcoming testimony
