A surprise allusion to former President Barack Obama was made during testimony in the music entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs’ current federal prosecution.
The reference was made during a dramatic court appearance by David James, Diddy’s former personal assistant, who detailed the rapper’s troubling drug and sexual misconduct culture.
James testified that some partygoers took drugs shaped like the former president’s face, but he noted that Obama was never at any of Diddy’s notorious “freak off” events. The remark was made during more general testimony that detailed the extensive usage of drugs, including as Percocet and ecstasy, by celebrity attendees.
James also detailed Diddy’s purported regular drug use, asserting that the music mogul used ecstasy at night and Percocet during the day.
He claimed that Combs had a bag full of pills, including Viagra, Tylenol, Advil, weight-loss water pills, and drugs allegedly used to increase sperm count.
On the witness stand, the former assistant became tearful as he related upsetting incidents from his time working for Combs.
He claimed that Diddy once recorded him in ecstasy at one of the “freak off” sex parties he was frequently entrusted with planning and threatened to use the video as blackmail.
James stated that an executive from Bad Boy Entertainment told him at the start of his job that his job was to serve Combs.
“This is Mr. Combs’ kingdom,” she remarked, pointing to a photograph of Mr. Combs on the wall. He informed the court, “We’re all here to serve him.”
The trial has also attracted the attention of other celebrities. Dawn Richards, a former member of the girl group Danity Kane and a close friend of Diddy’s ex-partner Cassie Ventura, identified singer Usher in her testimony.
Richards asserted that Usher was in attendance at a 2010 dinner where singer Ne-Yo and music mogul Jimmy Iovine reportedly witnessed Diddy assaulting Ventura in a private room at a restaurant.
Richards claims that during the meal, Diddy struck Ventura in the stomach. According to her testimony, Ventura “immediately bent over” in agony, and “no one intervened.”
Richards further said that Diddy struck Ventura in the mouth and took her by the neck as the duo left the restaurant.
Richards, who collaborated with Diddy in the early 2000s, also asserted that she saw Ventura being physically abused on several occasions. In addition to describing how Diddy reportedly hit her with a skillet of eggs in 2009, she also detailed how he allegedly choked, dragged, and punched the singer.
Richards testified that Diddy threatened her after one of the attacks, saying, “He said you could go missing, that we could die.”
On federal allegations of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution, Sean Combs entered a not guilty plea.
