LA law enforcement agents to take the stand in Diddy trial

Editor’s Note: This story contains discussions of rape or sexual assault that may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can find help and discreet resources on the National Sexual Assault Hotline website or by calling 1-800-656-4673.

(NewsNation) — Prosecutors are expected to call Los Angeles law enforcement agents to open testimony Wednesday in the criminal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs. 

Combs entered the courthouse on Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday, Combs’ former assistant, Capricorn Clark, testified for a full day, telling jurors she was kidnapped at gunpoint by Combs, who also threatened to kill her. 

Clark testified that she was kidnapped in December 2011 by Combs, who forced her to go to Kid Cudi’s home to confront him about his relationship with his ex-partner, Casandra "Cassie" Ventura. 

She said Combs showed up at her door with a gun in his hand and told her to, “put some motherf------ clothes on. We’re going to kill this n----,” referring to Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi.

Clark testified she told him she did not want to go but that Combs was insistent, saying he did not care what she wanted to do.

She said that while at Cudi's home, she called Ventura to warn her that Combs was inside. 

According to Clark’s testimony, Combs threatened to kill her, Ventura and Cudi.

In his testimony last week, Cudi said Clark told him that Combs allegedly broke into his Hollywood Hills home in 2011. He said Combs had gone into the house because he was upset Cudi was seeing Ventura. 

Clark also recounted that on her first day on the job with Combs, he threatened to kill her over her former employment with his rival Suge Knight, who ran record label Death Row Records. 

“He told me that he didn’t know that I had anything to do with Suge Knight and if anything happened, he would have to kill me,” Clark testified. 

When asked by the prosecution what she made of Combs’ intimidating remark, she said she believed he was “very serious.”

Clark was the third former assistant to testify against Combs. She worked for him from 2004 to 2012.

Tamara Holder, a Chicago-based women's rights and sexual abuse attorney, spoke to NewsNation on Wednesday about Clark's testimony.

"This is another attempt to get the jury to understand coercive control, that Diddy did not just have this kind of control over Cassie but also over young women who worked for him. He was all-powerful and he acted like a puppet master, controlling women whether lovers or employees using the same tactics of fear and violence."

..."Also let me stress these women were young. You don't see older women being lured into this lifestyle or workplace," Holder said.

Her testimony appeared to match accounts of the other former assistants who had previously testified: David James and George Kaplan. 

Clark told the jury she was ordered to take a lie detector test after Combs accused her of stealing jewelry. 

James had also testified that Combs made him take lie detector tests when Combs was trying to find out who stole money and a watch.

All three assistants said they either set up or cleaned up hotel rooms for Combs' “Freak Off” sex parties. 

Jeffrey Lichtman, a criminal defense attorney who is representing Combs’ son, Justin, told NewsNation that the government overcharged Combs.

"The Feds overcharged Diddy with a RICO case, and I think at the end of the day, the jury won't see him as the type of defendant that typically runs a RICO enterprise i.e. a mafia boss, a cartel leader, etc. So, for that reason, I suspect he will walk. He's lucky that the government hates him so much to overcharge him so badly," Lichtman said.

However, the criminal defense attorney, the evidence against Combs "has shown just the worst behavior by Diddy. The guns. The domestic violence. The blackmail. The extortions. The abuse of everyone around him. And the defense has haplessly done almost nothing to counter it. No witness has been even remotely impeached."

Combs is facing federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution.