A former personal assistant to Sean "Diddy" Combs who says he raped her testified Monday that she continued sending him loving text messages for years after her job ended in 2017 because she was "brainwashed."
The woman, testifying for a third day under the pseudonym "Mia" at the music mogul's federal sex trafficking trial, used the word as defense attorney Brian Steel confronted her with skepticism and even suggested she fabricated her claims.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges. His lawyers concede he could be violent, but he denies using threats or his powerful position in the music industry to commit abuse.
RELATED STORY | 50 Cent says he will reach out to President Trump to prevent pardon for Sean 'Diddy' Combs
Steel had Mia read aloud for the jury numerous loving text messages she sent to Combs, including one in 2019 in which she said she had a nightmare that she was trapped in an elevator with the singer R. Kelly and Combs rescued her.
"And the person who sexually assaulted you came to your rescue?" Steel asked incredulously. He rephrased, asking if she really dreamed of being saved by a man "who terrorized you and caused you PTSD?" Prosecutors objected and the judge sustained it.
It was one of many objections during a combative cross-examination of Mia at the trial, now in its fourth week, during which several government witnesses have been treated more gently by defense lawyers and have even spoken positively of Combs.
In an Aug. 29, 2020, message to Combs, Mia recalled happy highlights from her eight years working for him — such as drinking champagne at the Eiffel Tower at 4 a.m. and rejecting Mick Jagger's offer to take her home — saying she remembered only "the good times."
In the same message, Mia mentioned once feeling "bamboozled" by a woman. Steel asked why she didn't say Combs had bamboozled her as well, given her accusations.
"Because I was still brainwashed," Mia answered.
Asked to explain, Mia said that in an environment where "the highs were really high and the lows were really low," she developed "huge confusion in trusting my instincts."
When Steel suggested her assault claims were made up, Mia responded: "I have never lied in this courtroom and I never will lie in this courtroom. Everything I said is true."
She said she felt a moral obligation to speak out after others came forward with allegations against Combs.
"It's been a long process. I'm untangling things. I'm in therapy," Mia said.
RELATED STORY | Who are all of the celebrities mentioned during Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial and why?
Prosecutors criticized Steel's two-day cross-examination, which has relied heavily on Mia's social media history.
Mia alleges Combs forcibly kissed her and molested her at his 40th birthday party, and raped her months later in a guest room at his Los Angeles home. She testified last week that the assaults were “random, sporadic, so oddly spaced out” she didn’t think they'd happen again.
For a long time, Mia said, she kept the assaults to herself — staying quiet even after her friend, Combs’ former longtime girlfriend Cassie, sued Combs in November 2023, alleging sexual abuse. The lawsuit, settled within hours for $20 million, touched off Combs’ criminal investigation.
Mia followed Cassie as the second of three key prosecution witnesses. The third, using the pseudonym “Jane,” will testify later this week.
Mia said she didn’t feel comfortable telling Cassie, the R&B singer whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, that she was also victimized. She said she didn't tell prosecutors when she first met with them in January 2024, waiting about six months to do so.
“Just because you find out something doesn’t mean you immediately snap out of it. I was still deeply ashamed and I wanted to die with this,” Mia testified.
Steel suggested Mia only told prosecutors after she obtained legal counsel, accusing the witness of trying to lay the groundwork for a lawsuit against Combs.
But Judge Arun Subramanian shut down Steel’s attempts to ask Mia if she chose her attorney because of that lawyer’s success getting hefty judgments for writer E. Jean Carroll in sex abuse-related lawsuits against President Donald Trump.
Prosecutors warned that Steel’s treatment of Mia in the closely watched Combs case could deter victims from testifying in other, unrelated cases.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey accused Steel of yelling at and humiliating Mia, and argued that picking apart her social media posts was excessive and irrelevant.
“We are crossing the threshold into prejudice and harassing this witness,” Comey told Subramanian after jurors left the courtroom for a break.
Subramanian said he hadn’t heard any yelling or sarcasm in Steel’s questions but cautioned the lawyer not to overdo it with questions about Mia’s social media posts.
PREVIOUS TRIAL COVERAGE:
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs' former assistant says the job gave her severe PTSD, preventing her from working
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs' former assistant says fear of being killed kept her from reporting alleged rapes
- Former stylist says Cassie's outfits needed approval from Sean 'Diddy' Combs
- Ex-assistant tells of cleaning up booze, drugs and baby oil after Sean 'Diddy' Combs’ sex marathons
- Kid Cudi expected to testify in Sean 'Diddy' Combs federal criminal trial
- 'I can't get out:' Witnesses say Sean 'Diddy' Combs controlled every part of Cassie's life
- Cassie's husband Alex Fine releases statement as her testimony in Combs trial concludes
- Cassie's testimony against Sean 'Diddy' Combs ends after days of detailing abuse
- Diddy's lawyers paint his 'freak offs' as a swinger lifestyle fueled by mutual drug use with Cassie
- Cassie claims 'Diddy' told her he wanted to blow up Kid Cudi's car in second day of trial testimony
- Baby oil, Glade candles, prostitutes: Cassie details 'freak offs' in Diddy's sex trafficking trial
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial opens with graphic testimony
