Scott Mescudi, the rapper and actor better known as Kid Cudi, took to the witness stand during the Sean ‘P Diddy‘ Combs sex trafficking trial on Thursday US time.
The trial for the federal prosecution’s case against the disgraced music mogul, who’s been charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, is currently nearing the end of its second week of testimony.
Mescudi, who briefly dated Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ ex-partner, Cassie Ventura, was called as a witness in the federal prosecutor’s case to highlight the government’s narrative that Combs used violence as a tool to control and coerce those around him for the purposes of upholding his alleged criminal enterprise. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On the stand, the court heard how Kid Cudi became an alleged target of Combs’ jealous rage which included a break-in at his house and claims that Combs was responsible for the firebombing of his car.
So what happened between Kid Cudi and Diddy and why is he testifying against Combs in court? Below, an explainer of how the two got here, and what it means for the case.
Why Is Kid Cudi Testifying Against Diddy?
Kid Cudi, who testified under his legal name, Scott Mescudi, has become the first celebrity to appear in court, apart from prosecution’s main witness, Cassie Ventura, as part of the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial, so far.
During Ventura’s testimony, she told the court that she’d dated Mescudi briefly in 2011 at a time when she and Combs “were not in a good place.” When Diddy found out, he allegedly told her “he was going to hurt Scott and I.”
The allegations mirrored a statement she’d previously made in her civil suit against Combs, which was settled in 2023, claiming that Combs “became enraged” and threatened to blow up Kid Cudi’s car.
In court on Thursday, Mescudi, 41, said that while he’d first met Cassie in 2008, but they weren’t romantically involved until 2011 when he believed that Ventura had separated from Combs. At the time, Mescudi told the court, Ventura had opened up to him about the alleged abuse she’d suffered.
He recalled receiving a phone call from a “really stressed” and “scared” Ventura in December 2011, during which she explained that Combs had found out about their relationship.
After he went to pick Cassie up and take her to hotel, Mescudi told the court that he then spoke to one of Combs’s employees who also sounded “very scared”, and told him that Combs was inside Mescudi’s home.
Mescudi claimed that he called Combs while driving back to his house, asking: “(Expletive) are you in my house?” to which Combs allegedly replied: “I just want to talk to you.” Mescudi then told the court that he told him he’d “be right down,” which Combs answered with: “I’m over here waiting for you.”
Did Diddy Break Into Kid Cudi’s House?
When Mescudi arrived at his house, he told the court that Combs was absent, but when he entered his house, items where out of place and he found his dog locked in a bathroom “jittery and on edge.”
“I wanted to confront him, I wanted to fight him,” Mescudi told jurors when asked about the phone call he attempted to make to Combs after he returned home.
He claimed that his security cameras had been turned to face the wrong way, and that unopened Christmas presents left out for his family had been rifled through. A police report about the suspected break-in was filed at the time.
What Happened To Kid Cudi’s Car?
Mescudi told the court that he was in Los Angeles in January 2012, when he received an early morning phone call from his dog sitter.
The sitter told him that “my car was on fire,” Mescudi said. “I immediately went to my house.”
When the rapper arrived home, he told the court that he found the car destroyed. “The top of my Porsche was cut open and that’s where they inserted the Molotov cocktail,” he said.
Jurors were shown photos depicting the aftermath of the explosion, where it was clear the roof had been slashed open and charred remnants of the Molotov could be seen.
Following the incident, Kid Cudi told the court that he instigated a meeting with Diddy, recalling the moment he arrived to the meeting: “Sean Combs was standing there, staring out the window with his hands behind his back, like a Marvel supervillain,” he said. Asking Combs if he knew anything about his car, Combs allegedly responded: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
When he was asked by the prosecution for the reason he’d set up the meeting, Mescudi said “I knew he had something to do with it,” to which the defence objected and had the comment removed from evidence.
Mescudi further testified that despite Combs giving him “his word” that he had nothing to do with the attack, he believed “He was lying.”
What Did Kid Cudi Say About Cassie Ventura?
When he was questioned on the stand about why he and Ventura had ended their relationship at the time, Mescudi told the court that they broke up “for my safety, for her safety.”
“I knew Sean Combs was violent,” he added, before specifying that he’d never been witness to the abuse, nor had he been threatened directly by Combs during he and Ventura’s relationship, but that the “drama was too out of hand.”
As the cross-examination continued, Mescudi was asked by Combs’s lawyer, Brian Steel, if he believed Ventura “was living two different lives, is that true?” to which Mescudi replied, “yes.”
While Mescudi is the only celebrity to take the stand during the trial, he’s not the first celebrity to be mentioned during testimony. Earlier in the trial, jurors heard that Sinners star Michael B. Jordan had briefly been with Ventura in 2016. That relationship, according to additional testimony given by Ventura’s then-friend, Kerry Morgan, inspired similar rage in Combs, after she told the court that he was “jealous of it.”
For a full timeline of the case and allegations leading up to this trial, see our comprehensive explainer here and explore our wider coverage at this link.
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