Diddy Trial Day 5: Manipulation, $20 million settlement, and former Danity Kane member speaks up

Alright y’all.

Welcome to another recap of the Diddy Trial. Today we’re covering Day 5. If you didn’t get a chance to catch up on what happened on Day 4, we were left on a bit of a cliff hanger. There were some allegations that Diddy blew up Kid Cudi’s car as well as some jealousy regarding a rumored situationship between Cassie and Michael B. Jordan.

Go ahead and catch up on that if you haven’t already. In the meantime we’re gonna dive straight in to Day 5.

Highlighting Day 5

Today we’re highlighting Diddy’s legal team. Why? Well. They’ve basically tried every gaslighting tactic in the Toxic Male Handbook (I would know — jk).

But in all seriousness, Diddy’s lawyers have been stalling court so they can review transcripts and plan their defense. Kinda corny. If you didn’t know Diddy has about 8 lawyers working on his case. So they basically have a whole football team huddle going on.

They also spent Day 5 grilling Cassie (who’s happily pregnant by the way) about whether she still loves Diddy. Classic.

The ridiculousness continued when Diddy’s lawyers decided to cherry-pick at Cassie’s post-breakup texts with Diddy. More specifically, Cassie had to sit there while Diddy’s lawyer Estevao dragged out a post-beatdown message where Cassie told Diddy, “I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child.” 

Not cool. But then again, what about any of this is cool. Now I’m not representing Diddy. But I imagine the point Combs’ lawyer was trying to make was that Cassie still continued speaking to Diddy, even after the alleged attack. You know, the whole “if you hate him why’d you text back” defense. You know the shit your guy best friend has to tell you because you keep crashing out on your last situationship.

If I offended you, sorry for the stray bullet (just tryna paint a picture here).

Anyways, even after the alleged 2016 elevator assault, and after saying she was done for good, one can argue Cassie’s messages still allegedly showed lingering feelings for Diddy. In August 2018, she finally pulled the plug after catching Diddy playing house with a woman named Gina. “I just don’t trust anymore,” she texted him. “That last shot put the nail in the coffin.”

He responded “I respect your sanity. It’s best we keep it moving. I’m not a stalker.” Smoove. Keep in mind, this was only a few weeks after the alleged rape in the hotel. Even in the midst of all this chaos, she still wrote, “I do love you. I would just prefer not being one of your girlfriends anymore.” We know.

What’s even crazier?

Even after marrying Alex Fine in 2019 and allegedly surviving a decade of hell, Cassie and Diddy were still texting like it was a Hallmark rom-com. He called her his “ride or die always” and one of the “greatest women in the world.” We see what you did there.

But wait, it gets crazier. Cassie responded that his messages “blew my mind a bit,” but clarified, “I don’t hate you. I never have.” Now, I have my own personal take on all of this. But, I can’t imagine being Cassie’s husband in this scenario. Can you?

I really think we need to do a wellness check on Alex Fine

Imagine, you’re at trial, supporting the love of your life and you have to hear about all the text messages you never knew about between them and their ex. Would you keep it cool?

The man that’s turned your wife’s life upside down is receiving cutesy, makeup texts from your wife. As if all the emotional carnage that ensued before was just a small tiff. I don’t know. It’s gotta be tough to endure.

Before Cassie left the stand, Diddy’s lawyer Anna Estevao tried to play cleanup by flashing one of Ventura’s old Instagram posts that read: “Domestic violence is the issue.” Apparently, she tried to spin this as a mic-drop moment, arguing that abuse ≠ sex trafficking and racketeering.

But the prosecution wasn’t feeling it. On redirect, they asked more about the infamous “freak-offs” and alleged that the freak-offs were Cassie’s way of staying in Diddy’s good graces.

Keep in mind though, Cassie testified that doing them left her feeling “worthless, just like dirt... like I was nothing.” She also alleged that she stuck it out, out of fear for her life, her career, and as a way to ensure that he’d still “love her.”

Just so you know, Cassie confirmed she’s expecting a $10 million settlement from the Intercontinental Hotel in LA, the same place where Diddy dragged and kicked her on camera wearing nothing but a towel. 

And since we’re on money Diddy’s legal team tried the classic “she broke, y’all” defense, hinting that Cassie only filed the lawsuit in November 2023 because she was hurting for cash. They pointed out that she, her husband Fine, and their kids had even moved in with her parents in Connecticut right before everything went down with Diddy at the hotel.

But Cassie shut that down quick, saying the move was about relocating to the East Coast, not chasing dollars. Regardless, the very next day after filing, she and Combs landed on the $20 million settlement that we all heard about some time last year.

Dawn Richard, former Danity Kane member

Finally took the stand and she did not hold back. She said she saw Diddy physically attack Cassie multiple times, including a brutal 2009 incident at his home where he allegedly came storming downstairs, screamed, then hit Cassie in the head and beat her on the ground in front of everyone.

Another time, he allegedly went full psycho, trying to hit Cassie on the back of the head with a black skillet and then punched and kicked her. Then he dragged her upstairs with his arm around her neck and hand on her head. Dawn said she was frozen in fear and didn’t intervene because she had “never seen anything like that before.”

So what did Diddy do? He called Dawn and another woman back to his house the next day and said the whole thing was just “passion,” part of what “lovers do”, and that it’d be in their “best interest” to keep quiet. Translation: shut up and forget it ever happened.

My thoughts

There’s still a lot to unpack about this Diddy case. After unpacking week 1 in it's entirety, I can almost confidently say that while Cassie has been considered a main victim in a lot of what’s been alleged against Diddy, she probably is just one chapter of a much larger story. I’m curious to see what the next few weeks or months of trial will look like. And more specifically, what other names might come up.