Rihanna linked to Diddy trial as assistant testifies about nightmare vacation: Live trial updates

Diddy's former assistant Capricorn Clark said she was on vacation with pop star Rihanna when Diddy fired her in 2012.

Clark read an email she sent at the time: 'My boss Sean Combs (is) upset I went on vacation and (is) being petty as usual whenever I have happiness in my life.'

Capricorn Clark’s account of Combs’ volatility and violence launched the third week of testimony at his federal sex trafficking trial in Manhattan.

Prosecutors called Clark, the former global brand director for Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment, as they work to prove he led a racketeering conspiracy that relied on beefy bodyguards, death threats and the silence of frightened staff to ensure he got what he wanted.

Clark is pictured below in 2011.

To hear all the explosive testimony from singer Cassie Ventura and the other witnesses in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial, tune in to Daily Mail's hit podcast The Trial.

From sworn testimony to video evidence and the rapper's every subtle move, our team of journalists take you inside the courtroom of the world's biggest celebrity case.

Daily Mail has been following Diddy's downfall from the very beginning. Join us as we hear from experts involved in the case, and members of the rapper's inside circle.

50 Cent has trolled his longtime nemesis as the music mogul undergoes a revealing federal trial.

The duo first met in the '90s, as up-and-coming hip hop artists. They ran in the same circles, but 50 Cent never considered Diddy a friend.

He said he never 'partied or hang out with him' and that their relationship was strictly business.

By 2006, any pretense of even a working relationship was crushed when 50 Cent released his diss track, The Bomb.

In it, he accuses Diddy of being involved in the 1997 murder of fellow artist Biggie Smalls.

'Who shot Biggie Smalls? We don't get 'em / They gonna kill us all ... Man, Puffy know who hit that n****,' he sings.

Diddy has been plagued by rumors he knows more about the deaths of both Biggie and Tupac. He denies any involvement.

Then, in both 2018 and 2024, 50 Cent claimed he'd felt a 'little uncomfortable' about the rapper for a long time.

50 Cent has insisted he never attended any of Diddy's now infamous parties and continued to publicly call Diddy out, speaking frequently about the accusations against him and insinuating about his sexuality on multiple occasions.

Several A-listers have been named-dropped during the first three weeks of Diddy's trial.

Here is everyone mentioned so far:

Richard said on the stand that Diddy punched Cassie in the stomach during a private argument at a West Hollywood restaurant in 2010.

She claimed several celebrities were at the dinner, including Usher, Ne-Yo and superstar music executive Jimmy Iodine.

'Mr Combs punched Cassie in the stomach,' Richard told the jury.

'They were having a private conversation, we were all sitting eating at the tables together. Some of Bad Boy label mates, some celebrities were in the room.

'They were secretly arguing [and] he punched her in the stomach.

Richard added: '[Cassie] immediately bent over and he told her to leave, I could see him point out and she went out.'

Diddy's mother Janice was spotted leaving court on day ten of his trial.

The mogul's former assistant and global brand director Capricorn Clark was also seen leaving the courthouse after taking most of the day to testify.

So far, the blockbuster trial has consisted of a number of bombshell testimonies from his ex-girlfriend and main accuser Cassie Ventura, rapper Kid Cudi, Dawn Richard, a former member of Combs' pop group Danity Kane, and his former executive assistant George Kaplan, among others.

Regina Ventura testified that Diddy demanded that Cassie pay him $20,000 after he learned she was dating rapper Kid Cudi.

She said she and her husband took out a home equity loan because 'that’s the only way we could get the money' and they were scared for Cassie's safety.

'[Diddy] was angry he’d spent money on her and she’d been with another person.

'His bookkeeper emailed me the wire information. I went to the (bank) and wired the money to the account.'

Regina said the money came back about 'four to five days later.'

Judge Arun Subramanian provisionally denied a joint application by news outlets for the videos to be played in open court and be described by the media.

He agreed with a prosecution argument that playing them would 'revictimize' Ventura and one of the unnamed female victims who will testify later iun the trial.

The judge also denied an alternative proposal to allow three pool reporters to stay in court when they were played, and share reports with other outlets.

“I’m not seeing any case that would suggest in any way, shape, or form that images or videos of these types of acts that are alleged to be sexual abuse would be required to be shown in open court when they pose the obvious risk of revictimization,' he said.

Robert Balin, the lawyer who argued on behalf of the press, earlier said the First Amendment was 'at its zenith' in the case.

He argued it was important 'people, though the press, be able to see justice is being done'.

Balin said the best evidence of whether the sex acts in the 'freak offs' were coerced - which underpinned the prosecution's case - were the videos themselves.

The application was only ever to view the videos and describe them, not for the footage to ever become public.

Capricorn Clark said that after Diddy fired her in 2012, she called music mogul, co-founder of Interscope Records Jimmy Iovine hoping to discuss work opportunities.

'I made a couple of calls. Jimmy Iovine called me, chairman of Interscope, he told me to come by,' Clark said on Tuesday.

'When I got there, himself and Mary Jackson, Senior VP of interscope - it wasn’t about job opportunities, they were there to tell me to leave Puff alone and it wasn’t going to end well for me.'

Clark became very emotional as Diddy's lawyers had her read old emails she sent to the music mogul in the years after she stopped working for him.

One text from November 4, 2015, read: 'My hope for this year is you make good on things and actually be my friend. I just minded my own business and grown people did what they wanted to. [Cassie] was clearly never my real friend.'

The judge asked Clark if she needed a moment as she explained her thinking at the time.

Clark said she was upset that her relationship with Cassie got in the way of her job with Diddy.

'Yes, absolutely. This is my whole life and their shenanigans, I have no parents, my son has autism, he’s nonverbal. My stakes are higher, sir,' she told the court.

'I needed his help so I could take care of my son.'

Prosecutors said on Tuesday they are 'so far' ahead of schedule that they will be done presenting their case in five weeks instead of six.

The judge had previously said the trial should be over by July 4th.

While Cassie said on the stand that Diddy's sexual demands put her music career on hold, Capricorn Clark claimed the mogul was focused on promoting her work.

She said by 2012, Cassie was getting the same amount of attention as other popular Bad Boy artists such as Machine Gun Kelly and French Montana.

Clark said Diddy initially gave Cassie more resources than other artists.

'From my (point of view), the lion’s share of Bad Boy was on Cassie in that first block of time,' Clark told the court.

Cassie testified that the mercurial music mogul — powerful, abusive and controlling — beat her mercilessly and ordered her to have 'disgusting' sex with strangers during drug-fueled, multi-day marathons he called 'freak offs.'

Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, sniffled and dabbed her eyes with a tissue, sighed heavily and paused to compose herself through about five hours of testimony at Combs’ sex trafficking trial.

The singer told jurors that his demands for her to engage in sometimes-revolting sex acts — sometimes as he watched from another room via FaceTime — left her feeling 'heavily objectified.' But, she said, she endured them because she was in love with Combs.

When she did try to leave, she said, Combs punished her — most notably in a 2016 assault captured on a security camera at a Los Angeles hotel. In the video, played in court for a fifth time, Combs is seen hitting, kicking and attempting to drag her back to their room.

Defense lawyer Teny Geragos took a novel approach to defending Combs in her opening statement.

She conceded the hip-hop impresario has a 'bad temper' and is prone to violent outbursts that are often fueled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs.

But she maintained that while his actions might have warranted domestic violence charges, they aren’t proof he engaged in sex trafficking and racketeering — the charges he faces.

Geragos argued that Combs’ sexual habits were part of a swinger lifestyle involving consenting adults and reminded jurors that “kinky” sexual predilections don’t equate to sex trafficking.

'Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case,' she said. 'This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money.'

Cassie Ventura was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday as she is due to give birth any moment.

TMZ reported she was taken to the labor unit as she prepares to give birth to her third child with Alex Fine.

Cassie was eight months pregnant when she took the stand against Diddy earlier this month.

She is the main alleged victim in the sex-trafficking trial.

Incendiary images shown in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial reveal the disgraced rap mogul was preparing for a hotel 'freak off' despite knowing he was about to be arrested, prosecutors say.

The shocking images were shown to jurors as Diddy's ex-girlfriend Cassie testified at his federal trial on Monday - after she previously alleged how she was coerced into a life of manipulation and abuse.

On Monday, prosecutors brought up a set of images taken by law enforcement when Diddy was arrested at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan in September 2024.

Diddy's former assistant David James told the court last week the mogul always traveled with a medicine back that contained about 30 pills.

'Some Advil, Tylenol,' David James said.

'He had water pills to help him lose weight, viagra, pills that helped increase his sperm count.'

James said Diddy would take percocets throughout the day and ecstasy at night.

When asked, James said one of the ecstasy pills Diddy took 'was in the shape of former president Obama's face.'

Diddy's bizarre cheeseburger topping has sickened the court after it was exposed during his blockbuster sex-trafficking trial.

Former assistants took to the stand in Manhattan and revealed more of the rapper's habits as they spilled his secrets on the witness stand.

Instead of the usual ketchup and mustard combo, it was revealed he tops them with applesauce.

Lawyer Brian Steel suggested that Cassie was living a 'double life' while playing both Combs and Kid Cudi in their relationships.

Cudi testified that when he started dating Cassie in late 2011, she’d led him to believe that she and Combs were broken up.

In reality, she testified, she was still seeing Combs for so-called 'freak off' sex marathons and using a burner phone to contact Cudi and keep their relationship secret from Combs.

'She told me they were broken up and I took her word for it,' Cudi said, recalling for jurors what he told Combs when they met to clear the air in January 2012.

'Ms. Ventura was living two different lives, is that true?' Steel asked.

'Yes,' Cudi replied.

Last week, Diddy instructed his lawyers to not follow up on an an answer from Kid Cudi - one of various ways he has been at the helm of his own defense.

The extent of Combs’ involvement in his defense was illustrated at the end of Cudi’s testimony when prosecutor Emily Johnson asked if he believed Combs when he said he didn’t know what he was talking about when he brought up the car fire during a meeting.

Cudi said he came away from his meeting with Combs thinking “that he was lying.” At that point, two defense lawyers on either side of Combs consulted whether they should get the last word in and ask any follow-up questions.

Combs told them no and shook his head. Both lawyers then shook their heads, too, and the judge was informed that there would be no more questions from the defense. With that, Cudi, who yawned several times as he testified, was permitted to leave. He left the courtroom without looking in the direction of Combs.

Sean 'Diddy' Combs longtime rival Suge Knight sensationally warned that President Donald Trump would pardon the disgraced music executive if he's convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering.

The imprisoned co-founder of Death Row Records made the bombshell allegations on Wednesday, hours after Diddy's ex Cassie Ventura addressed the duo's feud during her testimony in his criminal trial.

Diddy's lawyers confronted Capricorn Clark with a text she wrote the mogul in 2021 telling him that she once had a crush on him.

Totally unrelated to our current conversation, but did you know I had the biggest crush on you before I first started working for you? When we hung out all the time. I played it super cool….I couldn't tell if it was mutual. I just know for sure you liked to have me around.

Sometimes I wonder if we misused all that dope chemistry. It was super fun back then.... We called you Choc, short for Chocolate…..great memories.

Capricorn Clark will resume her testimony in Diddy's trial after a lunch break.

Diddy's attorney Marc Agnifilo began cross-examination of Clark by asking her about a meeting between they previously had in 2024.

Agnifilo got Clark to admit that during that meeting, she told Diddy's lawyers something to the effect of he 'wouldn’t be in this mess if he had kept (her) around.'

Clark said she retained an attorney in 2023 becasue she 'was upset about Cassie’s civil complaint.' She said the filing 'traumatized' her.

Clark said she decided to meet with Diddy's lawyers because she 'wanted her life back.'

She said she wanted to discuss 'What it would look like if I came in as Chief of Staff, got [Diddy] in rehab, what it would look like if someone from the inception of his business deals was back in place.'

Diddy has become the 'quarterback' of his legal team after shaking off early nerves in the courtroom during his trial, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The hip-hop mogul is using his street smarts to help lawyers battle the sex trafficking and racketeering allegations he faces, a source close to the trial claimed.

Diddy has been passing dozens of notes in court each day, grilling his lawyers during breaks and suggesting they bring in different evidence.

Clark told the court she was fired as Diddy's assistant in 2012 after complaining that she was being sent work while on vacation.

She said she told an HR employee that Diddy was mad at her because she 'didn’t tell him his girlfriend was cheating on him.'

Shortly after, she was fired for supposedly improperly taking a vacation.

Clark said Diddy told her she would never work again - 'that he would show me that all these people weren’t my friends, that he would make me kill myself.'

The witness also told the court she received a settlement through Diddy's attorneys over wrongful termination allegations in 2012. She did not disclose the amount.

But Clark returned as Cassie's creative director in 2016 after struggling to find other work. She worked in that position until 2018.

Diddy's spokeswoman and crisis management publicist Holly Baird has been supporting him in court nearly every day since the trial started earlier this month.

She specializes in damage control for notorious public figures.

Baird previously worked as a publicist for disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.

50 Cent took to Instagram Tuesday to react to his name being dropped during Capricorn Clark's testimony against Diddy.

Clark said she once heard Diddy saying about his rivalry with 50 Cent: 'I don’t like the back and forth, I don’t like that. I like guns.'

50 Cent took to social media to respond.

'Wait a minute PUFFY’s got a gun, I can’t believe this I don’t feel safe,' 50 Cent wrote on Instagram alongside an AI-generated image of him in a film set.

Clark said that after Diddy broke into Kid Cudi's house, the mogul texted Cassie saying 'he has me and he’s not going to let me go until [she comes get to me.]'

Diddy's former assistant said Diddy told her and Cassie they needed to go convince Kid Cudi to not call the cops after the break-in.

Diddy allegedly told them, 'If you guys don’t convince him of that I’ll kill all you motherf***ers.'

Clark said she told Cudi, 'if you tell on him he’s going to hurt us all.'

Capricorn Clark told the court when a 'furious' Diddy found out about Kid Cudi seeing Cassie, he showed up at her house armed with a gun.

'[Diddy] said get dressed we’re going to go kill this n*****,' Clark said as she teared up on the stand.

Clark told the jury she was then forced to go to Cudi's house in the Hollywood Hills despite saying she did not want to go.

She said once they arrived at Cudi's home, she stayed in the car while Diddy and his staff tried to get inside the mansion.

Clark then reportedly called Cassie and Cudi, and informed them Diddy was at his house.

'I could hear [Cudi] running out. I said Cassie, stop him, he’s going to get himself killed.'

Sean 'Diddy' Combs is allegedly making millions from prison by renting out his $60M private jet to wealthy travelers who have no idea he's the owner.

The rapper, who is currently facing a sex trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court, has raked in $4.1M since his arrest on September 16, according to the US Sun.

Diddy's jet, a Gulfstream G550 registered to his company LoveAir LLC, has been used by unwitting clients at least 126 times up to May 20, racking up 149,540 miles.

Clark told the jury she learned that Cassie was seeing Kid Cudi when the R&B singer brought him to her apartment for a hangout.

She said she became 'very concerned' that Diddy would learn about the relationship.

'I took her to Best Buy to buy a burner phone. The way she was moving she was going to get us all killed,' Clark said in court.

Diddy's team objected to the comment, and the judge sustained it.

London, who was a close friend of Cassie Ventura, came up in Clark's testimony Tuesday.

Clark said Diddy once explained to her and London why they 'didn't have a man.'

'(He said) let me show you something. He called Cassie over and he asked her to sit down, stand up, turn around, turn the other way, walk over there, grab that hand me that, walk back, turn around, go back in the other room,' Clark told the jury.

When Ventura left the room, '[Diddy]said, "did you see that? You bitches won't do that. That’s why you don't have a man."

'To which we said: "You’re motherf***ing right."

Clark, Cassie and London are pictured in 2009.

Diddy's ex-assistant Capricorn Clark told the court she once heard the mogul discussing weapons as he spoke of his rivarly against rapper 50 Cent.

She said she and Diddy were leaving a press event at MTV when the mogul told an executiven he was having issues with 50 Cent.

Diddy reortedly said, 'I don’t lie the back and forth, I don’t like that. I like guns.'

Diddy has frequently dispelled any rumors of a feud between the legends, but Curtis Jackson, also known as 50 Cent, has been slamming his nemesis publicly for years.

Sean 'Diddy' Combs' former assistant Capricorn Clark took the stand against him during his sex-trafficking trial in New York.

The mogul's ex-employee has been mentioned about a dozen times by various witnesses who have taken the stand in the trial, and prosecutors claim she was kidnapped twice by Diddy or his bodyguards.

Clark described Diddy as 'the devil' in 2023 after he was hit with several lawsuits, writing: 'Last 11 years of my life, I have had to deal with EVERYONES nonsensical allegiance to the devil.'

Clark told the jury about several instances where she was allegedly threatened by Diddy.

She said the first threat came when the mogul learned she had previously worked for his rival Suge Knight.

'He told me he didn’t know I had anything to do with Suge Knight. If anything happened he’d have to kill me,' Clark told the jury.

Clark also told the jury her life was threatened after she was robbed while carrying Diddy's jewerly bag and forced to take a lie detector test.

'He said I had been brought to the building to take a lie detector test to figure out what happened with this jewelry,' Clark said in court.

'He said if you fail these tests they’re going to throw you in the East River.'

Clark said she was forced to come back to take the lie detector test for the next four days.

'I wanted to prove my innocence and didn’t like the threats. I just wanted to get through it,' she told the jury.

Capricorn and Cassie are pictured together in 2008.

Clark took the stand Tuesday and told the court she started working with Death Row records after graduating college.

She said Suge Knight was her manager and described him as the 'father of my best friend's children.'

The mogul's ex-employee has been mentioned about a dozen times by various witnesses who have taken the stand in the trial, and prosecutors claim she was kidnapped twice by Diddy or his bodyguards.

The music mogul's staggering downfall began when Cassie, real name Cassandra Ventura, filed a bombshell lawsuit in 2023 detailing terrifying claims of sexual abuse and violence.

The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount just a day after it was filed, but it was too late for Diddy's reputation, and the rapper was then hit with dozens of lawsuits including similar claims.

Sean 'Diddy' Combs is currently in the fight of his life in federal court as he stares down the prospect of decades behind bars.

The disgraced rap mogul, 55, has been charged with two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and one count of racketeering.

According to prosecutors, the rapper used his 'multi-faceted business empire' to carry out a 'criminal enterprise' for years, allegedly coercing victims into sexual 'freak off' marathons and threatening them into silence.

The racketeering and sex trafficking charges carry a minimum sentence of 15 years each, while transportation to engage in prostitution carries a maximum of 10 years behind bars.

The music mogul has entered the federal courtroom on Tuesday for the third week of his sex-trafficking trial.

He is wearing a Navy sweater, one of the personal clothing items he has been allowed to wear throughout the trial.

The mogul is allowed to wear his own clothes to the trial but with some conditions.

He can only have up to five pairs of pants, shirts and socks and only two pairs of shoes - with no laces.

Diddy is charged with racketeering conspiracy, two charges of sex trafficking and two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.

Prosecutors claim Diddy coerced victims into drug-fueled sex parties using sex and violence. The rapper has denied all accusations, saying all sex acts were consensual.

As the 55-year-old music mogul faces at least another six weeks of grilling, the Daily Mail unpacks the drama which has unfolded in the Manhattan federal courtroom so far.

The music mogul returned to court today wearing a navy sweater after a long weekend break.

Diddy spent Memorial Day break behind bars after Judge Subramanian told the jury on Thursday that they had 'earned' a four day weekend.

At the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, the former rapper reported dined on barbecue chicken, kidney beans, macaroni and cheese, mixed veggies and wholemeal bread for Memorial Day lunch.

Inmates were then served a 'festive dessert' and beverage.

'He is being treated like any other detainee awaiting trial,' an insider disclosed to the Mirror in September 2024.

Once one of the most powerful music moguls in the world, Sean 'Diddy' Combs is now relying on a $10 million team of legal heavyweights to rescue his ruined reputation as his sex trafficking trial rolls on for another six weeks.

The defiant Grammy Award winning rapper is used to commanding a crowd - but he has been sitting silently on the defense benches while eight key defense attorneys take center stage during the blockbuster case in Manhattan federal court.

His leading lawyers are Marc Agnifilo, 60, a former Manhattan District Attorney who has tried more than 200 cases during his 30-year career, and millennial 'nepo baby' defender Teny Geragos, 34, who has been using TikTok to argue Diddy's case.

Williams previously claimed that she was fired from popular New York City radio show Hot 97 in 1998 after sharing her belief that Combs was gay.

She supposedly claimed to have a photo of Diddy being intimate with a man.

She also made scandalous remark about the percentage of gay entertainers during a Hot 97 segment addressing the allegations that then-basketball star Eddy Curry had made sexual advances at his male driver.

Williams, during the broadcast, cited her 'inside' experience in the entertainment industry as evidence to support self-proclaimed statistics for the percentage of rappers and pro-athletes who were gay.

She claimed that 'two out of ten' players and 'five out of ten in music' were gay.

On Tuesday, prosecutors say they’ll call Capricorn Clark, who was an assistant to Combs and a member of his marketing team.

They said they also expect to call witnesses from the Los Angeles police and fire departments.

Kid Cudi testified Thursday that Cassie sounded 'very stressed, nervous, just scared' when she phoned him in December 2011 to say that Combs had learned they were dating.

Cudi said he was confused because he thought Combs and Cassie had broken up.

Then, he said, one of Combs’ assistants called.

She said Combs and an aide were in Cudi’s home, waiting to speak with him. She also said she had been forced into a car to join them.

Cudi said he raced to his house, but Combs was gone. Inside, he testified, he found Christmas gifts had been opened and his dog was locked in the bathroom. After the break-in, his dog was 'very jittery and kind of on edge all the time,' he said.

Then, someone set fire to Cudi’s car, destroying it.

Cudi set he met with Combs to squash their beef the next day at a Los Angeles hotel. When he walked in, he said Combs was staring out the window standing with hands behind his back 'like a Marvel supervillain.'

Combs denied having anything to do with the burned car, but Cudi said he didn’t believe him.

Diddy's trial has inspired deep fake videos that use AI-generated images to falsely claim that certain celebrities have been mentioned in the mogul's sex-trafficking case.

One of the viral fake videos claims Oscar-winner Mo'Nique took the stand against Diddy and mentioned Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry.

Another viral fake video claims Jennifer Lawrence testified in the case.

While these stars have no known connection to the case and did not take the stand, many celebrities have indeed been named in the trial.

Michael B Jordan and Kid Cudi have come up as men Diddy was jealous of because of their relationship with Cassie.

Barack Obama's name came up in testimony as one of Diddy's former assistants claimed the mogul used to take ectasy pills pressed with the former president's face.

Britney Spears also came up as Cassie listed the starts who attended her 21st birthday party.

And Prince was named as Cassie described being attacked by Diddy after a party at the late superstar's house in LA.

Diddy's defense asked Capricorn Clark about her work as Cassie' creative director.

Clark said Cassie had 'a talent,' but was not on the level of vocalists such as Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

Talented to me is Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey - [a] very talented is that level.

Cassie was more of a studio artist. A bit more comfortable in the vocal booth, to have things equalized for you. Less of a live performer.

Her voice would have to be manipulated by other means.