Burden of Proof: Diddy Made Death Threats, According to Key Witness

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Commercial Insurance.

Trucking is a big job, so Progressive is proud to offer truckers the coverage they need and discounts to help them save.

Quote Truck Insurance in as little as eight minutes at progressivecommercial.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Discounts not available in all states or situations.

Hey, it's Brian Buckmire.

Court was back in session today after the holiday break with explosive testimony from a former assistant to Sean Combs.

The former assistant told the jury that Diddy threatened to kill rapper Kid Cuddy after learning about Cassie Ventura's relationship with him.

More on that and other big moments from the Diddy trial from our colleagues over at ABC News Live.

Here's today's episode of Burden of Proof, the case against Diddy.

Week three of testimony in the Sean Diddy Combs trial starting with the music music mogul's former assistant, Capricorn Clark, taking the stand.

She testified she was held against her will twice, at one point alleging she was forced from her apartment and into a car to take Combs and one of his bodyguards to the home of rapper Kid Cuddy to, quote, kill him.

Cuddy was dating his ex, Cassie Ventura at the time.

Clark also claimed Combs threatened to kill Ventura if she didn't convince Kid Cuddy not to tell police that Combs was allegedly involved with a break-in at his house.

Clark also telling the jury that a large man repeatedly administered lie detector tests to her on suspicion that she stole jewelry loaned to Combs.

She testified that this man said if she flunked the test, they're going to throw you in the East River.

Federal prosecutor said outside of the jury's presence that their case is running ahead of schedule and could be finished in five weeks.

Previously, they said it could take six weeks.

Now Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

His defense team says any sexual encounters were consensual.

He faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.

We have our team closely following the case from inside the courtroom.

Let's get right to the federal courthouse in Manhattan.

That's where we find our chief investigative correspondent, Aaron Katersky.

And Erin, we have to start with Sean Combs' former assistant,

Capricorn Clark.

What did she tell the jury?

A lot.

Eva, she testified that Sean Combs at one point threatened to kill Kid Cuddy after finding out that he began dating Cassie Ventura.

But she talked about three distinct episodes as prosecutors today started to hone in on one of the elements of the alleged racketeering conspiracy, and that's kidnapping.

Capricorn Clark said in 2004 in New York, she was forced to take a lie detector test for five days straight on suspicion of stealing jewelry.

In 2008, she said Sean Combs charged at her and kept shoving her with his hand.

She demonstrated for the jury until pushing her all the way out of his house in Miami Beach when she said that she hates it here and forced her out of the house.

And then in 2011 in Los Angeles is when she says she was forced at gunpoint into a car to go to Kid Cuddy's house because Sean Combs was very upset.

Erin Clark painted a picture of what it was like to work for Combs, saying she even had to take a lie detector test.

Why did she have to do that?

This goes back to July 4th weekend in the Hamptons.

Sean Combs was hosting one of his now famous white parties, and he was

able to wear three very high-end pieces of jewelry loaned to him by Jacob the jeweler.

And after the party, Capricorn Clark was supposed to take possession of the jewelry and bring it on a private plane to Miami Beach where Combs was headed.

And on her way to the airport, she realized the bag wasn't there, and she said that she suspected it was an inside job.

But apparently Combs and one of his bodyguards, a guy by the name of Uncle Polly, that's how he was known, ended up taking her to what would be the headquarters of Bad Boy Entertainment.

At the time, it was on 40th Street and Broadway.

This was going to move uptown into the upper 50s, but the building wasn't finished.

And she recalled for the jury being taken to a dilapidated space.

There was only a folding table and chairs.

And she remembered a huge guy, five times her size, chain-smoking and hooking her up to a lie detector machine every day for five days straight and threatening that if she failed the test, she'd be thrown into the East River.

The defense also pulled out some old text messages between Clark and Combs.

What did they say?

Some of them showed her affection for him, how she wished him a happy birthday and wanted to get back into his good graces, graces, asked if he had forgiven her yet.

It's not quite clear for what, but

she repeatedly tried to get back into Combs' good graces to work, even up and including in 2024.

And she ended up telling the jury

as she tearfully read these emails on cross-examination that she was desperate.

She had a child to take care of with autism.

She wasn't really doing anything meaningful for work.

And on redirect, after the defense suggested that, you know, she just loved Sean Combs, and how could any of this be true?

She said, look, he blackballed me in the music industry, stymied her as she tried to get other work.

And so eventually she felt like she had no choice but to return to Sean Combs, and that's why she was so eager to work for him.

I'm curious what Combs's response was hearing this in the courtroom.

He was a really active defendant today.

For the whole trial, he's been listening intently, scribbling notes, but on several occasions as Capricorn Clark was testifying, he would whisper into his attorney's ear, and Mark Agnifilo would then jump up to object when Capricorn Clark was trying to make a point.

So he clearly did not remember the course of events that she described today the same way that Capricorn Clark did.

And it was almost as if he was directing some of the cross-examination.

Aaron Katersky for us there outside the federal court in Manhattan.

Thank you so much.

And here to dig into the start of week three of this trial as ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmeyer, you've been in the courtroom almost all of this trial, right?

So whose testimony so far do you think has been the most significant?

Well, I mean, I think the obvious answer has got to be Kathy Ventura.

Kathy Ventura, for a number of reasons.

One, according to the government, she is victim number one, and she does describe a lot of the allegations that the government is putting forward against Sean Combs, whether it be the racketeering conspiracy as to how this criminal enterprise operated, the different players.

She's named a few of the security guards, for example, D-Rock, Ruben, also the sex workers and dancers who participate in these freak offs.

She's named them all because she participated in hiring them, according to her, because Sean Combs made her do so.

And then, of course, just hearing the other details like Kid Cuddy's car being hit with a molotov cocktail.

That's really giving us direction as the case continues.

Okay, today we heard from Capricorn Clark.

She detailed some violence against Cassie Ventura and also against herself.

Why does this matter?

All right, so it matters for two reasons.

One would be corroboration.

So corroboration is when one witness takes a stand and says, this is what happened, this is how it happened, this is where it happened.

And then you have another witness who was also privy to those events and saying, yes, Kathy Mentura was abused.

She was harmed in this way.

But another reason it also plays into us, even looking at this quote here as well, is Capricorn Clark is a part of this case in her own right because of that kidnapping allegation that feeds into the racketeering conspiracy.

She's telling us about individuals who participated in kidnapping her and attempting to go after Kid Cuddy and threatening his life, according to her allegations.

And that feeds into that criminal enterprise that the government is saying Sean Combs is at the head of.

We have to talk though about this moment with the defense team today and Clark.

They brought up these old text messages that they had found between her and Combs.

This one here really stood out in that line of questioning.

Why talk about this?

Yeah, so in court, it took them a little bit of time to land this plane, but it did come out pretty well.

They had it up there as a piece of evidence.

I think the idea here is, is that people keep going back to Sean Combs.

There were allegations that he had pushed her at one point in time and then she quit.

Then she went to another job where she was making over $30,000 more than she was at Sean Combs' job.

And then she decided to come back again and then quit or got fired and then came back.

The back and forth, back and forth, but underlying it all is showing these text messages that she was very enamored by him, very much in love with him, showing that at one point in time, she had the biggest crush on him as well, and trying to show that it's not the violence that people are running away from, but actually at Combs, they're running back to him for the reasons of trying to be close to him, trying to be close to power, trying to get something out of him.

And I think they're going to try to use those allegations and that kind of thought process for Capricorn as they will with Cassie.

The prosecution signaling that this could be five weeks, not six, like they originally thought.

Does this tell us anything about how they feel right now?

So on one hand, it could be that they believe they've done all what's on their checklist, that they've established a criminal enterprise.

They've shown the freak offs were elaborate and organized, that they've demonstrated there wasn't consent in this, but it could also be the fact that we heard that victim number three, who we believe to be Gina Huang, isn't showing up.

And maybe without this other alleged victim in the case, they have a much shorter case to prove or put on at least.

And so maybe that's why they're stopping short of what we believe that would have been their case.

Yeah.

I'm curious.

So we don't know if that witness is going to be coming.

As of now, we don't.

Okay.

The next witness we expect to see is an arson investigator from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

What can we expect here?

So we already heard the evidence that Kid Cuddy put out there saying that his car was hit with a molten cocktail.

There was an investigation that went into it.

So we're going to hear from the LA Fire Department as well as the LAPD.

And I think one point that did come out that didn't really land as hard, but it might do so.

In that investigation, there was female DNA on this car.

We know that Kid Cuddy was at his ex-girlfriend's sister's house at the time this happened.

Maybe there's something else for the defense to dig in there, or maybe it's nothing.

Ex-girlfriend's sister's house, trying to keep it all straight.

Yeah.

Brian, thank you so much for being here with us.

Still ahead, Kid Cuddy, Suge Knight, Mel's Diner.

After 17 witnesses and more than 200 pieces of evidence seen so far, look at some of the bombshell moments from inside the courtroom.

And up next, our legal team breaks down Capricorn Clark's testimony, how they think what she said will play with the jury.

Stay with us.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Commercial Insurance.

Trucking is a big job, so Progressive is proud to offer truckers the coverage they need and discounts to help them save.

Quote Truck Insurance in as little as eight minutes at progressivecommercial.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Discounts not available in all states or situations.

CRM was supposed to improve customer relationships.

Instead, it's shorthand for can't resolve much.

Which means you may have sunk a fortune into software that just bounces customer issues around but never actually solves them.

On the ServiceNow AI platform, CRM stands for something better.

With AI built into one platform, customers aren't mired in endless loops of automated indifference.

They get what they need when they need it.

Bad CRM was then.

This is ServiceNow.

Welcome back.

Week three of the Sean Diddy Combs trial featured key testimony from another one of Sean Combs' former assistants, Capricorn Clark.

Let's break down the key legal strategies we saw playing out in court today.

Brian Buckmeyer is back playing the defense.

Bernarda Viellona playing prosecutor.

Bernarda, let's start with you.

We are now many days into this trial.

Do you think the prosecution is making progress in proving the charges in this case?

So today was a big day for the prosecution in terms of proving the racketeering conspiracy.

I think today they gave the most amount of evidence having to deal with the racketeering conspiracy, specifically as to the criminal enterprise.

You ask at times, who does Sean Combs conspire with?

Why is he the only only one that's at the table?

Today, you heard from Capricorn Clark that the person that was acting along with Sean Combs at his behest, together with Sean Combs, it was his security guard.

And that security guard is the person who would normally be considered a co-conspirator.

And that if they were to charge him, he would be sitting at the table with Sean Combs.

So today, in terms of racketeering conspiracy, They brought the criminal enterprise.

They also brought another predicate act having to deal with the kidnapping.

and not just on one occasion, but on multiple occasions.

The one of going to kid Cuddy's house, but also when she was subjected to going through these lie detector examinations for multiple days in a row.

All right, Uncle Paulie of it all, right, Brian?

What did you think?

Yes, I'm going to do exactly what the defense did today and not talk about anything that was bad and then just switch over to something else because that's exactly what the defense did here.

And I think that's all you can really do.

And instead, they use this witness to try to get information out, like, why was Cassie's career on a hold?

Was she really that talented?

And you had Capricorn Clark say, well, she had talent, but she wasn't talented.

I think they're trying to go after the argument of saying that Sean Combs wasn't controlling her career to a point that she couldn't get music out.

She's that she wasn't that good.

And I think that's another argument that they tried to focus on and really just sidestep that issue because they didn't touch that a lot, if at all, on cross-examination.

I mean, she had a hit before she signed with

Sean Combs.

And so did Vanilla Ice.

And

not as many.

And I think that's what the defense is going to argue.

I think, because

the point she made was she was no Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey.

I mean, no one.

How did I go there?

I mean, she brought that up on her own.

It was a discussion about, so the context was, was she talented and was she not?

And then she brought in that Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey comparison and said that Cassie Montreux is what she called a studio artist, that she was someone who had to be in the studio and have the different technologies alter her voice in a way that made it a product that can be sold.

And I think the idea there for the defense is the reason why her career didn't go so well, that she wasn't good when it came to live performances, which many people saw when Cassie did a performance for 106 in Park, that she could only be product in a certain way and not in other ways.

And that's why her career failed.

It wasn't because of the freak offs.

It wasn't because of Sean Combs.

Do you think that's a problem at all for the prosecution?

Well, the prosecution is going to be able to deal with it, not just through Ms.

Clark, but also through the other witnesses that testify.

And also, Cassie Ventura testified.

So you got to think the defense gave it the spin that they could have with this witness because Capricorn Clark was so damaging to the defense that the way that they were able to attack her was dealing with something else having to deal with the coercion factor when you're dealing with Cassie Ventura.

But let's not forget though that we have another victim that's going to come in and testify and that is Jane.

So what is your response to Jane and how she was actually controlled or not controlled?

Let's talk about Clark's testimony some more because she also brought the whole kid cutty of this all.

It was very intense in the courtroom.

I was in the courtroom doing her testimony and let me tell you in terms of capricorn clark it seems like she was almost crying through her entire direct but because of her voice and how close she came to tears literally i would say for at least 75 percent of her direct

Yeah, I mean, all I can think about.

I know you want to avoid this.

Oh, yeah, I want to avoid it all.

But all I can think about were Kid Cuddy's words and be like, this guy's a Marvel super villain.

Like, this goes beyond the trafficking.

This goes beyond like sexual assault and and abuse.

This is someone that the government's going to say, look at the amount of force.

Look at the people that he could bring together to exert this force, to break into someone's home, to hold an employee at gunpoint, because that's what she accused Sean Combs of having a gun there, telling her, you're getting dressed.

I don't care what you're doing.

We're going out here and we're doing this and I'm going to kill him.

We're going to kill him were the allegations that were put forward today.

And this is not the first time that we heard testimony of Sean Combs with a gun.

So now you have Sean Combs with the gun kidnapping Capricorn Clark.

But guess who else and what other time you heard Sean Combs with a gun when it came to Mr.

James?

And when he said he got in the car, Sean Combs had three guns in his lap and they were going after

Shug Knight.

So not a bad light for the defense.

It's now starting to pile up with each witness that comes in to testify.

And she also talked today about how she called Cassie Ventura when all this was going on with the car.

Yeah, so it's kind of suspect.

exactly how it happened because she didn't have a 100% accurate recollection of how it went down.

But she said at one point when Sean Combs and the security guard were inside of Kid Cuddy's home that she took the moment to first call Miss London and also to call Cassie to give them a heads up like, look, Sean Combs is inside of the house.

He wants to kill Kid Cuddy.

You know, someone do something.

I will say this for whatever it's worth though.

We heard this event from Kid Cuddy.

We heard it from Cassie and now we've heard it from Capricorn Clark.

And all three of those stories have different versions of what happened.

Was there a car chase or was there not a car chase?

What's material?

Because this is the thing, having been a foreign prosecutor 16 years and a defense attorney now and tried over 100 cases, you're never going to get 100% accuracy when you're dealing with multiple witnesses testifying about the most important thing.

Is that a problem for the test?

No, what's the most important thing is focus on the material fact, not minor inconsistencies, the material fact.

The material fact went to the house to try to shoot up Kit Cuddy.

Yeah, but it's not just minor things.

There was a whole car chase that was added into it.

There are whole arguments that are added to it from different people.

So I agree with you.

Yes, was the person wearing a green dress or a brown dress?

Yeah, that's minor.

But it wasn't just minor differences in the stories.

All right, we have to leave it there.

We're out of time.

Brian and Bernarda, thank you both for being with us.

Coming up after 17 witnesses and more than 200 pieces of evidence seen so far, a look at the bombshell moments from inside the courtrooms.

Stay with us.

Since 2011, American Giant has has been making everyday clothing with extraordinary effort.

Not in far-off factories, but right here in the USA.

We obsess over fabrics, fit, and details, because if you're going to wear it every day, it should feel great and last for years.

From the cut of a hoodie to the finishing of a seam, nothing is overlooked.

Our supply chain is tight-knit and local, which means less crisscrossing the country and more care in every step.

The result is durable clothing, t-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and denim that become part of your life season after season.

This isn't fast fashion, it's clothing made with purpose by people who care as much about how it's made as how it fits.

Get 20% off your first order with code STAPLE20 at American-Giant.com.

That's 20% off your first order at American-Giant.com with code STAPLE20.

Welcome back.

The trial of Sean D.

D.

Combs is in its third weeks.

Jurors have listened to 10 days of testimony from 17 prosecution witnesses and viewed more than 200 pieces of evidence.

We've been following key witness testimony all throughout this trial.

Let's take a look at some of the key moments in the trial so far with ABC News contributor Kelly Carter.

Kelly, so good to have you.

Let's start with the hotel manager's testimony.

Why did that moment stand out to you?

You know, it stood out because, A, I have been to that very bougie, very excellent hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

It is pristine, it's awesome.

And the fact that he said they had a file on how to deal with hotel rooms and the aftermath of him renting it stood out to me.

I mean, if you or I rented a hotel and we trashed it essentially, we would not be allowed to come back.

But for them, they said they needed a week to clean it in addition to a bunch of other things that absolutely stood out.

Capricorn Clark made your list.

What stood out about her testimony?

Yeah, you know, when she specifically talked about being taken to Central Central Park, I mean,

because of the realization that she had once worked with his rival, Shuge Knight, stood out to me.

It felt very much like what we had heard in some of the music that he produced over the years, kind of glorifying or at least romanticizing, I think, this kind of mafia style of life.

And then to hear her and her testimony describe some of the things that we maybe have heard him talk about definitely stood out to me.

She was a former assistant.

Another key moment to you, another one of Combs' former assistants, David James.

Yeah, you know, when he talked about, you know, being placed in that, and that, I believe it was an escalator in SUV, certainly going to Mel's Diner on the hunt for Suge Knight.

First off, the Mel's Diner of it all.

Who knew that Suge Knight was a fan of Mel's Diner, but definitely going because I feel like a lot of people thought that that beef between Suge Knight and Sean Combs kind of ended in the horrible tragedy of Tupac and Notorious BIG no longer being with us.

But to discover that that rivalry was still very much alive and so much alive that you needed allegedly three weapons to go to deal with it, I think was a bit of a shock for people.

Okay, your biggest moment of the trial so far.

A kid Cuddy.

I mean, you know, let's talk about, we've been waiting to hear from him, right?

But let's talk about, you know, the scene that he created, that Marvel super villain.

I mean, even though this is not Marvel, I immediately kind of conjured Morpheus in

the Matrix series because that's really what he kind of gave us when we assumed that he met him

at the Soho House, but also actually seeing footage of the car for the very first time because we've been hearing since she filed her civil suit since Cassie filed a civil suit in 2023 about

the car being blown up, seeing what it looked like, I think stood out to a lot of people and hangs in our memory.

I know that's your biggest moment, but a lot of people still talking about the Cassie Ventura testimony.

Absolutely, because of course, none of this happens without that initial civil suit and most certainly without her, you know, taking the stand for all those days and giving all the details.

Kelly Carter, thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you.

And thank you for joining us.

We'll be back with new episodes every day of the trial right here on ABC News Live, Disney Plus and Hulu, weekdays at 5.30 p.m.

Eastern and Pacific.

For even more on the Diddy Trial, make sure to follow our podcast, Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy, hosted by our very own Brian Buckmeyer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

I'm Evan Pilgrim in New York.

Have a good rest of your day.

I'm John Quiñones.

Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old soldier, vanishes while on duty at an Army base in Texas.

Her family demands answers.

How can she go missing on a military base?

That's too ridiculous.

The search goes on for months.

Where is Vanessa?

And a dark story starts to unfold.

She told her family that she was being sexually harassed and wasn't reporting it out of fear of retribution and retaliation.

What investigators finally uncover is horrifying.

Find out how one soldier, a beloved sister and daughter, ignited a movement and sparked a reckoning in the U.S.

military.

Listen to Vanished, What Happened to Vanessa, a new series from ABC Audio in 2020.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

Introducing the new ESPN Fox One bundle.

Unlock all of ESPN and all of Fox One with one unbeatable price.

Catch the biggest games.

College football, NBA, NHL, and more on ESPN.

Stream your faves.

Big noon Saturday, the World Series, and NASCAR on Fox One.

All for just $39.99 a month.

That's 20% off.

The ESPN Fox One bundle.

Offer valid for eligible subscribers only.

Access content from each service separately.

Savings compared to purchasing both plans separately.

See stream.espn.com for complete terms and conditions.