Daniel Phillip testified in court that he was allegedly paid to have sex with Cassie while Sean “Diddy” Combs watched.
While taking the stand on Monday, May 12, Phillip claimed that he was paid anywhere from $700 to $5,000 or $6,000 to be intimate with Cassie, 38, while Diddy, 55, was present and “always sitting in a corner masturbating.”
“I didn’t care if I was paid one way or another,” Phillip said, noting that he sometimes received nothing if he could not perform sexually. “I didn’t ask to get paid, they gave that to me.”
The first time Phillip met with Cassie for their first alleged sexual encounter, he claimed that the singer answered the door and invited him into the room. According to Phillip, Cassie wore lingerie, high heels, dark glasses and a wig. She allegedly told him, “Your boss told me to hand you $200 upon arrival.”
Phillip claimed that Diddy was sitting in the room while wearing a bathrobe and a bandanna. The music mogul allegedly did not say anything.
When Phillip allegedly stripped down to his underwear, he gave Cassie a massage. He claimed that Diddy “was in the corner immediately masturbating.”
Phillip testified that he had sex with Cassie multiple times in front of Diddy, and the trio allegedly would meet in hotel suites. He claimed that they would use baby oil, with Diddy allegedly telling Phillip to use more on multiple occasions. Phillip also alleged that Diddy would have him role-play with Cassie before getting intimate.
Recalling one instance when he was alone with Cassie for the first time, Phillip claimed that Cassie “wasn’t usually a kisser” but “they started getting into it.” While Cassie and Phillip were together, Diddy allegedly came into the room and said, “I like that we were getting along in that way.”
Phillip also claimed that Diddy recorded these alleged sexual encounters on his phone “once or twice” and took a photo of Phillip’s driver’s license. “It’s just for insurance, just in case,” Phillip alleged Diddy told him, adding, “I understood it to [mean] that he was threatening me.”
Phillip was the second witness to testify on Monday after both sides presented their opening statements. The trial began earlier this month with jury selection.
Diddy was arrested in September 2024 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied all of the allegations against him.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement at the time. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Since his arrest, Diddy has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. His four requests for bail were denied by Judge Arun Subramanian.
Diddy’s arrest came nearly one year after Cassie filed a lawsuit against him accusing him of sexual and physical abuse throughout their relationship, which lasted off and on from 2007 to 2018. He denied her claims in a statement shared by his attorney.
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” Diddy’s lawyer Ben Brafman said at the time.
One day after the suit was filed, Diddy and Cassie settled out of court. In May 2024, CNN published a hotel surveillance video of Diddy kicking and grabbing Cassie in 2016. He later apologized for his actions in a video shared via Instagram.
Cassie is expected to testify in the trial on Tuesday, May 13.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
