NEW YORK, May 31 — The defence for Sean “Diddy” Combs yesterday used upbeat social media posts to attack the credibility of one of the women accusing the music mogul of sexual assault during his federal trial in New York.
“Isn’t it true that Mr Combs never had unwanted nonconsensual forcible contact with you?” lawyer Brian Steel said to a former Bad Boys Records assistant testifying under the pseudonym Mia, during questioning that included displays of her personal social media posts.
The testimony came as US President Donald Trump pondered aloud if he would offer 55-year-old Combs a pardon during a press conference at the White House yesterday, saying “I don’t know, I would certainly look at the facts.”
The facts are still unfolding in a trial that is expected to last into summer, in a case that revolves around Combs’s relationship with his former girlfriend, singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
Earlier in the trial Ventura detailed years of alleged abuse and coercive, drug-fueled sex marathons with male prostitutes known as “freak-offs.”
This week, Mia described how her job between 2009 and 2017 became a nightmare as she worked to protect Ventura from Combs’s fits of rage, or care for her after the attacks, tending to “busted lips,” “bruises” and “a black eye.”
Combs would tell Mia to “go take care of her,” adding that “we were not allowed” to go out until her injuries healed enough to conceal, Mia testified Thursday.
She also testified that she personally endured abuses, including rapes, while working for Combs, recounting the painful and traumatic episodes with her head bowed.
Instagram vs reality
During cross examination yesterday, Steel confronted Mia with her social media posts, where she presented a much more positive image of her relationship with her boss.
On a courtroom screen displaying Mia’s Instagram posts, she called Combs “an extraordinary cultural phenomenon” and shared affectionate messages on his birthdays.
Steel asked how she could publish such posts about a man she now accuses of sexual assault.
“Of course you post the great times,” Mia said. “Instagram is a place to show how great your life was even if it’s not true.”
After Mia read her posts aloud, Steel questioned Mia’s allegations, to which she replied twice “everything I said in this courtroom is true.”
“Ask any abuse victim’s advocate and they could explain it to you much better than I could.”
On Thursday, Mia testified that Combs subjected her to “sporadic” instances of sexual violence, including at the artist’s 40th birthday party at the Plaza Hotel in New York and his private residence in Los Angeles.
“I just froze, I didn’t react, terrified and confused,” Mia said about one of the assaults.
“He was the boss or the king, very powerful person,” she said.
“This is years and years before social media, Me Too, or any sort of example where someone had stood up successfully to someone in power such as him,” she added.
At the conclusion of the court’s proceedings, jurors will have to determine whether that Grammy-winning artist and producer has used his fame, wealth and influence in hip-hop to support a criminal enterprise and sexual trafficking. — AFP
