Judge threatens to remove Diddy from courtroom

The judge presiding over Sean “Diddy” Combs’ criminal trial has threatened to ban the disgraced music mogul from the courtroom for nodding and making faces at members of the jury.

Judge Arun Subramanian called his actions “absolutely unacceptable”. Mr Combs’ attorneys assured the judge that it would not happen again.

Judge Subramanian said Mr Combs was “vigorously nodding” during the cross questioning of Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Mr Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura who accused the rapper of holding her over a balcony.

Mr Combs has pled not guilty to all charges, including sex trafficking and a racketeering conspiracy.

The court also heard from a woman using the pseudonym “Jane”, who dated Mr Combs between 2021 and his arrest in 2024.

Jane described the initial months of her relationship with Mr Combs as an exciting whirlwind; she said he took her on trips to Miami, and another one to Turks and Caicos, and the Bahamas. The rapper took her to upscale restaurants and she described herself as “head over heels” for him.

But she testified that Mr Combs soon asked her to participate in what prosecutors referred to as “hotel nights”, when Mr Combs hired an escort in order to watch Jane engage in sexual acts with another man. The first encounter in May 2021 took place in Miami, and she believed it would be a one-off experience.

“That night opened a Pandora’s box in our relationship,” Jane told the court. “It was a door I was unable to shut for the rest of the relationship. There was so much of it after, and it was too much.”

Jane testified that she went along with additional encounters because “I just really loved him at that point and wanted to make him happy”. But she also said “many times” that she had told Mr Combs she did not want to engage in these “hotel nights”.

But Mr Combs asked her to participate in several more and she “felt frustrated, I felt just obligated” to go along with his wishes, she told the court.

Starting in approximately April 2023, Mr Combs began paying $10,000 per-month for a home for her, she testified. Jane said the arrangement came with a sense of obligation, and the rapper had implied he did not want to pay rent for a woman he was not seeing.

Mr Combs also provided her with drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine and ketamine from the onset of the relationship, she testified. She told the court she had used the substances during some of her encounters with Mr Combs as well as the “hotel nights”.

Her testimony will continue on Friday, and she will later face questioning from Mr Combs’ defence team.

Get all the latest trial updates on the BBC Sounds ‘Diddy on Trial‘ podcast available wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

The court also heard more intense questioning of Ms Bongolan, Cassie Ventura’s friend who the rapper’s defence attorneys say has given different accounts of Mr Combs’ alleged abuse at different times.

Ms Bongolan has accused Mr Combs of lifting her onto the rail of a balcony in a threatening altercation, and throwing her into nearby furniture, causing bruises and injuries.

Defence attorney Nicole Westmoreland asked Ms Bongolan about an allegation she made in both a letter from a lawyer, which Ms Westmoreland said included a demand for money, and a lawsuit against Mr Combs: that during the balcony incident, the rapper had allegedly sexually assaulted her.

Ms Bongolan had testified in court that Mr Combs ran his hands over her chest area as he allegedly lifted her on the balcony. Ms Westmoreland repeatedly pressed her on the differences between a sexual assault allegation and her description in court of the rapper’s alleged actions.

The defence also accused Ms Bongolan of fabricating details of the alleged balcony incident with Mr Combs, introducing evidence that showed Mr Combs performing at a concert in New Jersey and attending events in New York on 25 and 26 September 2016.

Prosecutors had previously shown a photo of a bruise on Ms Bongolan’s leg, with a timestamp of 26 September 2016 in the metadata. Ms Bongolan said that she took the photo of the bruise the day after Mr Combs allegedly threw her into balcony furniture.

“You came in here and lied to the ladies and gentlemen of this jury,” Ms Westmoreland said.

“I can’t agree with you,” Ms Bongolan responded.

Later in the day, prosecutors brought back up the disagreement. They displayed a text message taken from the phone of Ms Ventura, Mr Combs’ ex-girlfriend, dated 30 September 2016.

The text stated Mr Combs had come to her apartment in the middle of the night, choked Ms Bongolan, and held her off the balcony.