June 23, 2025 – Testimony in the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial

• In court today: The jury in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal criminal trial has been dismissed for the day. Today, they heard from the final prosecution witness, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello, who testified about government-compiled evidence charts. Both sides also showed the jury several minutes of sexually explicit video related to the case.

• Trial timeline: The defense says it expects to finish cross-examining Cerciello tomorrow morning. The defense indicated it intends to start and end its case — which will include submitting exhibits into evidence — tomorrow. Closing arguments are expected to run Thursday and Friday.

• Federal charges: Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges that include racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to life in prison.

• Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with intimate partner violence, there are resources available, including the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Our live coverage has ended. You can read about today’s testimony in the posts below.

The attorneys for both sides are done for the day.

Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello is expected to get back on the stand tomorrow morning for more cross-examination.

The jury has been dismissed for the day.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos said she has about one hour and 15 minutes of additional questioning for Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello on Tuesday morning.

The parties are discussing logistics for the rest of the week. Geragos said both sides expect their closing arguments to take four hours.

Closing arguments will likely continue into Friday. The government will have an opportunity to give a rebuttal after the defense’s closing argument.

The jury saw messages between Jane and the entertainer known as “Sly” regarding two separate encounters in December 2021, when Jane asked Sly to join her and Sean “Diddy” Combs.

After one encounter, Jane wrote to Sly, “So happy you are such a sweetheart,” and “thank you for making me feel beautiful.” In another message, she wrote, “getting flashbacks,” followed by a drooling emoji.

With Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello under cross-examination, defense attorney Teny Geragos has addressed a certain time frame — November 8-10, 2021 — that Cerciello had touched in testimony under examination by the prosecution earlier today.

Geragos pointed to some messages that Jane — one of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ accusers who testified under a pseudonym — sent during this time frame that were not included in the summary chart.

After Combs texted Jane asking if she wanted to see him and an “entertainer” called Paul, Jane wrote that she was horny, according to one of the messages highlighted by Geragos.

Combs asked her what she wanted to do, telling her to “be explicit.” Jane then texted him descriptions of sexual interactions she wanted to have with Paul and Combs, according to the exchange that Geragos highlighted.

In other texts, Jane sent explicit messages to the entertainer called Sly and told him she wanted to see him.

Geragos had the jury watch a sexually explicit video clip from November 10, 2021. The jury then watched several other clips of sexually explicit videos from November and December 2021, totaling more than five minutes.

Earlier today, prosecutors showed the jury more than 12 minutes of sexually explicit video clips, including one from November 10, 2021.

Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello confirmed that many of the incidents listed in the summary chart occurred before April 2023, when Sean “Diddy” Combs began paying rent for Jane’s new home.

Cerciello also confirmed that there could have been times that Jane and Combs saw each other that were not included in the summary chart.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos went through a September 2023 invoice from Sean “Diddy” Combs’ travel management company that listed expenses, including flights for Jane and the “entertainer” Sly for the trip to New York City.

The invoice says, “Various expenses for Sean Combs.”

Geragos highlighted that the invoice lists Combs personally, not one of his business entities.

Judge Arun Subramanian is on the bench after the lunch break, and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello is back on the stand.

The jury also is back, and defense attorney Teny Geragos is beginning her cross-examination of Cerciello.

Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey finished the direct examination of Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Joseph Cerciello. Cross-examination is scheduled to begin after the lunch break, around 1:45 p.m.

Before the break, Cerciello reviewed text messages related to the June 18, 2024, violent altercation between Jane and Sean “Diddy” Combs at her home that had previously been read into the record.

The jury saw records from the days around October 18, 2023. “Jane” previously testified she and Sean “Diddy” Combs had a “sobriety party” in Beverly Hills, California, around that time.

Joseph Cerciello, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, confirmed this is the summary chart’s last entry before Cassie Ventura’s November 2023 civil lawsuit against Combs.

Cerciello walked through some messages between Jane and Combs from the days before the sobriety party, which the jury has previously seen. In the messages, Jane said in part, that she didn’t want to be mistreated, and that “I don’t feel like performing loveless, cold sex.”

The jury saw messages indicating Jane went to Combs’ Los Angeles home the next day. In a later conversation, Kristina Khorram, who was Combs’ chief of staff, messaged Combs assistant Brendan Paul and other assistants about prepping a hotel room, according to messages seen by the jury.

The jury also saw messages between Combs and an escort from Cowboys for Angels, coordinating a time to go to the hotel. Hours later, Combs sent an “entertainer,” Paul, the hotel information. Records showed $3,000 was deposited into an account of the “entertainer” shortly after.

In the days following the hotel reservation, Jane messaged Combs, asking if he could put something in her account, saying she felt “violated and manipulated,” the records show.

Remember: Jane, one of Combs’ accusers who testified under a pseudonym, testified the following about the October 2023 “sobriety party”: She said she wanted Combs to get sober around this time, and he agreed to stop taking substances for 30 days but wanted to have “one last sobriety party” first. This party was a “hotel night” that lasted 12 to 18 hours, she testified. She didn’t take any drugs, but Combs took ecstasy and cocaine, she testified.

Joseph Cerciello, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, reviewed records from January 2023, when the government asserts Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jane hosted three “entertainers” during a “hotel night” in Los Angeles.

Combs sent Jane an audio message, according to the records: “Hey let me know right now if I should book debauchery for 9 o’clock Yes or no answer.”

Jane, one of Combs’ accusers who testified under a pseudonym in this trial and dated Combs from 2021 to 2024, texted him back, according to the records: “yea its a thumbs up.” She then asked him for money to buy new clothes, the records show. Later, Combs sent another audio message, “sent you $15,000 baby girl,” according to the records.

The jury saw flight records for all three “entertainers.”

Combs scheduled one of the “entertainers” through Cowboys for Angels, according to the records. Jane paid Cowboys for Angels $1,100 on Cash App and texted Combs, “send this as proof of payment,” the records show.

Remember: Jane testified extensively about going with Combs to what she called “hotel nights,” which she described as sexual encounters with a male “entertainer,” often in a hotel room, with Combs present. People who worked for Combs sometimes called such encounters “king nights” or “wild king nights,” according to testimony. Cassie Ventura, who dated Combs from around 2007 to 2018, also testified about similar encounters, which she said Combs called “Freak Offs.”

The jury saw messages around November 14, 2021, when Kristina Khorram, Sean “Diddy” Combs’s former chief of staff, booked a hotel in Los Angeles for Combs and Jane. Khorram texted him when an assistant was there, setting up the room. Later in the day, Khorram texted Combs, “Hotel called Paul coming up.”

Paul is someone whom Combs and Jane would pay to have sex with Jane on multiple occasions during “hotel nights,” but he also worked with Combs as a trainer.

Joseph Cerciello, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, reviewed documents around November 8-10, 2021. Sean “Diddy” Combs texted “Jane,” asking if she wanted to see him and an “entertainer” called Paul, according to the documents. Combs later messaged Paul, telling him to let him know when he was close.

In that time frame, Jane (one of Combs’ accusers who testified under a pseudonym in this trial and dated Combs from 2021 to 2024) also was texting an “entertainer” called Sly about travelling to Los Angeles from Atlanta. Combs was messaging his travel manager about booking a flight and hotel for Sly, and Jane was then relaying the travel information to Sly, according to the documents.

The jury saw several messages between Combs and his then-chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, in that time frame, including messages in which he requested $5,000 cash and she notified him that some baby oil had been dropped off, according to the records.

Several explicit videos were taken during those days, Cerciello said.

Around that time, Jane sent Sly a Cash App payment, and a large amount of cash was deposited into one of Paul’s accounts, according to the records.

The jury saw more text messages between Sean “Diddy” Combs and his former chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, days later in September 2023. Combs told Khorram to keep someone named “Chelsea” at a Miami hotel and get a hotel suite at a different hotel for him and “Jane,” one of his accusers.

He told Khorram that Chelsea would move from the hotel to his Miami residence after Jane left. The chart also included a flight record booked by Combs’ travel manager for Jane from Miami to Los Angeles.

Joseph Cerciello is still reviewing messages related to the September 17-19, 2023, trip to New York City.

The jury saw messages Sean “Diddy” Combs sent to an entertainer from the Cowboys for Angels escort service telling him when to arrive at the hotel room.

Hours later, an employee from Cowboys for Angels texted Combs saying he still needed to pay $600.

The jury saw other texts between “Jane,” one of the Combs’ accusers, and an entertainer called Sly coordinating his arrival at the hotel. They also saw messages involving Brendan Paul, a former assistant for Combs, coordinating an IV drip for three people.

Judge Arun Subramanian is back on the bench and Joseph Cerciello, the special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, is back on the stand. The jury is entering now.

Throughout the time that the videos were played it was silent in the courtroom.

Many of the jurors were paying attention but there were moments when two jurors closed their eyes.

At this point in the trial the jurors have watched at least 40 minutes of sexually explicit video.

The jury is on a break until 11:15 a.m.

Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey said she has more than an hour of questioning left on direct examination and that it could take up to two hours to complete.

Joseph Cerciello reviewed entries in another summary chart from September 2023 when “Jane” met Sean “Diddy” Combs in New York City.

“Jane” is one of Combs’ accusers who used a pseudonym in court,

Cerciello and Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey read text messages exchanged around that time, many of which were previously read into the record during witness testimony.

Some of the texts were between Jane and Combs in which she first said she wouldn’t go to Manhattan because she knew he wanted a hotel night. She later acquiesced and planned the trip. Others messages were between Combs’ staff planning the logistics of the trip and hotel arrangements.

In one thread recounted in the summary chart, Combs texted with someone from Cowboys for Angels, an escort service, to inquire about hiring an escort.

Joseph Cerciello, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, walked through another chart that he says maps out records surrounding a September 17-19, 2023, trip Jane took with Sean “Diddy” Combs to New York City.

The chart shows flight and hotel records for Jane (who testified under a pseudonym in this trial and dated Sean “Diddy” Combs from 2021 to 2024) and an “entertainer” called Sly. Records show hotel stays at the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan. A credit card paid for by “Bad Boy Ent” paid for Jane’s travel, according to records.

The records show Jane paid for Sly’s transportation but was sent $5,000 by Combs’ account manager around that the time. The travel arrangements were booked by Combs’ travel manager, the records show.

The jury also saw records related to a September 24-26, 2023, stay in Miami. Records showed the hotel was booked with a credit card held by Combs’ travel manager. Round trip flights for Jane and Sly were booked with the same card, records show.