Kid Cudi recounted the alleged drama surrounding Sean “Diddy” Combs and their mutual ex-girlfriend, Cassie, when he took the stand in Diddy’s sex trafficking trial. (Diddy has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.)
Cudi, 41, testified about his past with Diddy, 55, and Cassie, 38, at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse on Thursday, May 22, arriving in an unusually casual look that consisted of jeans, a T-shirt and a leather jacket.
The “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper began his testimony by saying that he thought Cassie was no longer seeing Diddy when he started dating her, telling the court, “I didn’t think that she was still diddling with him.” He recalled a day when Cassie called him in a panic to tell him that Diddy had learned of their romance. She had given Diddy Cudi’s address and was worried that the music mogul might go to his house and confront him.
Cudi went on to claim that Cassie told him Diddy was “abusive” during their relationship. After Diddy found out they were dating, Cudi took her to the Sunset Marquis hotel so she would be “safe away from him.” Cudi told the court that Cassie was “very stressed” and “nervous” when he picked her up. While they were there, assistant Capricorn Clark, who worked for both Cudi and Diddy, called Cudi “on the verge of tears” and told him Diddy “and an affiliate” were at Cudi’s house.
After that phone conversation, Cudi drove home and called Diddy on the way, asking him, “Motherf***er, are you at my house?” Diddy allegedly seemed “calm” and said he wanted to talk to him.
When Cudi arrived, he found that his exterior security cameras weren’t working and one had been moved to a different angle. Inside the house, gifts for his family that had been on the kitchen counter were opened. His dog was “locked up” in the bathroom, he claimed, adding that the pet was “very on edge all the time” after the alleged incident.
“I wanted to confront him,” Cudi recalled of Diddy, adding that he called the police. “I wanted to fight him.”
Later, after Cudi and Cassie had already broken up, his dog sitter called to tell him that his car was on fire. The jury was shown photos of the damaged car, which Cudi said couldn’t be repaired. He reported the incident to police, telling the jury that his honest reaction to the burned car was, “What the f***?”
Following the car incident, Cudi allegedly met up with Diddy at the Soho House in Los Angeles. “Sean Combs was standing there with his hands behind his back like a Marvel supervillain,” Cudi claimed, adding that his fellow rapper said they were “homies” and said he didn’t understand why Cudi would date Cassie. “He kept offering me water. It was weird that he was so calm,” Cudi continued, noting that he found Diddy’s demeanor “off-putting.”
When Cudi asked him about the car, Diddy allegedly gave him a “very cold stare” and replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Cudi said he then rescinded his offer of a handshake and left.
Years later, the two men had a second meeting at Soho House, where Diddy allegedly told Cudi he was sorry for the past. “Man, I just want to apologize for everything, all that bulls***,” Cudi recalled Diddy saying, adding that the Sean John founder brought one of his daughters to the meeting.
“After that apology, I kind of came to peace with all of it,” Cudi told the court. “That’s the last thing I was expecting to get.”
In his cross-examination, Cudi told defense attorney Brian Steel that there was no damage to his home during the 2011 break-in and said the house had been unlocked, so there were no signs of forced entry. He also noted he never saw Diddy get violent with Cassie and claimed his ex-girlfriend never disclosed any sexual abuse to him.
Steel went on to ask Cudi about his meeting with Diddy, and the “Pursuit of Happiness” rapper said the two men agreed that Cassie misled them about being single. Cudi further alleged there was never any movement from the police about his report on the blown-up car, but Steel claimed the DNA on the car came back as having come from a female.
During redirect questioning, Cudi told the prosecution that Cassie told him Diddy “would hit her” and “sometimes kick her,” adding that she was “really shook” when they broke up.
“The drama, it just became out of hand,” he recalled of their split. “I just wanted to give it space. Things were getting out of hand. For my safety, for her safety, I just stopped.”
When asked why he had safety concerns, Cudi replied, “I knew Sean Combs was violent.” As for his understanding of Diddy telling him he didn’t know about the car bombing, Cudi felt that “he was lying.”
Cassie dated Cudi during a break from her relationship with Diddy, whom she was with on and off from 2007 to 2018. Cassie (full name Casandra Ventura) has since moved on with Alex Fine, whom she married in August 2019. The couple share daughters Frankie, 5, and Sunny, 4, and are expecting their third baby. Cudi, for his part, announced his engagement to Lola Abecassis Sartore in April 2024 and is the father of daughter Vada, 15.
Following his September 2024 arrest, Diddy is on trial for racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and denied all of the allegations against him.
In her own testimony earlier this month, Cassie claimed that Diddy found out about her romance with Cudi (real name Scott Mescudi) in 2011 when he searched through her emails during a “freak off” and found a correspondence between her and Cudi’s team about bringing a toiletry bag to a house. Cassie alleged that Diddy subsequently lunged at her with a “wine bottle opener.”
According to Cassie, she ran away and called Cudi from her burner phone to ask him to pick her up. Cudi took her to his house in the Hills, but when she later returned to a hotel room she was staying in, it had been trashed, with urine and feces allegedly located in the bathroom and the furniture in disarray.
Cassie testified that Diddy “was going to hurt Scott and I,” claiming that he also threatened to release two explicit videos of her from a freak off. She ultimately broke up with Cudi after receiving the alleged threats from Diddy.
“Too much danger, too much uncertainty of what could happen if we continued to see each other,” she said on the stand.
Cassie also claimed that Diddy threatened to blow up Cudi’s car and wanted Cudi’s friends to be there to witness it.
After Cassie and Cudi’s split, Cudi allegedly met with his ex and Diddy to discuss his car, which was set on fire by an “incendiary device” in January 2012, per a Los Angeles City Fire Department report obtained by Rolling Stone.
“What about my vehicle?” Cudi asked, according to Cassie’s testimony. “What vehicle?” Combs allegedly replied.
“And that was the end of the meeting,” Cassie said.
Cassie previously filed a lawsuit against Diddy in November 2023, accusing him of physical abuse and sexual assault during their relationship. The court papers mentioned the allegations that Diddy threatened to firebomb Cudi’s car. Diddy denied Cassie’s claims at the time, and the case was settled out of court one day after it was filed.
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.
