Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs are arguing in court that one of his alleged victims was an active participant in the sexual encounters Combs arranged for her to have with other men, which he used to call “Freak Offs.” The defense team also said video footage of the encounters with “Victim-1,” whom they previously identified as Combs’s former partner Cassie (real name: Casandra Ventura), would prove she “not only consented, but thoroughly enjoyed herself.”
A lawyer for Ventura didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But the arguments, which were part of a letter submitted in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, offer a preview of how the music mogul’s lawyers will seek to spin the mountain of sexual-violence allegations against the 55-year-old in his sex-trafficking and racketeering trial. As Combs’s team tells it, Combs is innocent of the charges against him and the government is overreaching by painting private consensual sex acts as crimes.
When Ventura sued Combs in November 2023, accusing him of rape and physical abuse over the course of their decadelong relationship, the 38-year-old singer alleged that Combs would orchestrate the Freak Offs, which he also recorded. Ventura says he not only directed her throughout the encounters but also plied her with drugs to the point that she’d disassociate. “Ms. Ventura was repulsed by Mr. Combs’s demands, but between the physical beating and recognizing his incredible power and incredible temper, Ms. Ventura became petrified of her partner and boss, and felt that she could not say no,” the lawsuit said. Ventura and Combs settled the lawsuit the day after it was filed.
“Contrary to what the government has led this Court and the public to believe, the so-called ‘Freak Offs’ were private sexual activity between fully consenting adults in a long-term relationship,” Combs’s lawyers wrote in their letter. “Like many Americans in the privacy of their own bedrooms, they sometimes filmed their sexual activity.”
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and will remain incarcerated until his trial, which is scheduled for May. In addition to labeling the prosecution against Combs as “sexist and puritanical,” the rapper’s legal team requested that the judge waive a protective order and make the prosecution turn over electronic copies of nine videos showing Combs’s alleged Freak Offs so that his defense team can further investigate the footage.
This isn’t the first time that the rapper’s legal team has sought to downplay prosecutors’ video evidence. In November, Combs’s lawyers filed a motion arguing that graphic surveillance footage published by CNN, which shows him assaulting Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, had been deceptively edited by the government. In the footage, which aligns with an incident Ventura described in the since-settled lawsuit, Combs can be seen pushing Ventura down, kicking her, and then dragging her down the hall by her sweatshirt as she struggles.
Separate from the criminal case, more than 40 people have sued Combs since November 2023, accusing him of sexual violence. Many of his alleged victims claim the rapper drugged them before assaulting them; some of them say they were minors, including two accusers who say they were 10 and 13 at the time of the attack. The most recent complaint was filed this week by a woman who claims that the music mogul drugged and raped her when she was a 16-year-old babysitter who worked in the same building that housed one of Combs’s former partners. Combs has denied all the civil allegations as well.