Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.

Summary

Dateline NBC: Sean Combs Trial – Capricorn Clark Testifies

Episode Release Date: May 28, 2025
Host: NBC News
Podcast Title: Dateline NBC
Episode Title: Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark Testifies

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Introduction to the Trial

In this gripping episode of Dateline NBC, host Andrea Canning delves into the high-stakes racketeering trial of music mogul Sean Combs, also known as Diddy. The focus of this episode centers on the dramatic testimony of Capricorn Clark, a long-time associate of Combs, whose revelations could significantly impact the case.

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Who is Capricorn Clark?

Capricorn Clark has been a pivotal figure in the trial, having worked intermittently for Sean Combs over a span of approximately 14 years. According to Clark, her roles within Combs' organization evolved from personal assistant to high-ranking positions such as Director of Marketing for Sean John Women's and Global Brand Director for Bad Boy Entertainment.

Chloe Meloss, NBC News correspondent present in the courtroom, provides detailed insights into Clark’s background and her relationship with Combs. “She held some massive titles within the company,” Meloss explains (02:53).

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Allegations of Threats and Intimidation

Clark's testimony begins with a harrowing account of her first day working for Combs. On 02:47, she recounts being taken for a walk in Central Park by Combs accompanied by a security team member. “He threatened her because she was close with Suge Knight, a major rival,” Meloss reports. Clark states, “If something happens, I'm gonna have to kill you” (02:53), highlighting the severity of the intimidation she faced.

She emphasizes the gravity of the threat: “He was completely serious, straight-faced, and I took it as a real threat to my life” (03:20). Despite the fear, Clark felt compelled to continue working for Combs, recognizing the unique opportunities and financial stability the position provided.

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Involvement with Cassie Ventura and Kid Cudi

Clark unveils complex interpersonal dynamics involving Cassie Ventura and Kid Cudi, labeling the situation “almost like a soap opera, but it's real life” (04:58). According to her testimony, Cassie was engaged in a romantic relationship with Kid Cudi, which she concealed using a burner phone financed by Combs. Clark admitted her awareness of this secret relationship and facilitated Cassie's efforts to maintain it, describing an attempt to help Cassie “live her authentic life” with Cudi.

A critical incident occurred when Combs discovered Cassie's burner phone after a hotel stay, leading Clark to describe a near-violent confrontation: “Diddy, at like five in the morning, goes to Capricorn's apartment and starts banging on her door with a gun” (05:45). Clark characterizes this event as a forced abduction, detailing a tense car ride to Kid Cudi's residence (05:56).

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Alleged Car Chase and Attempts to Confront Combs

Clark further describes an ensuing car chase involving Kid Cudi. She asserts that “Kid Cudi actually rolled up on them in his car, made eye contact with them, and then he sped off,” leading to a prolonged pursuit until sirens appeared (07:09). This account contradicts Kid Cudi’s previous testimony, where he denied any encounter with Combs, adding layers of complexity to the case.

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Assault Allegations Against Combs

The testimony takes an even darker turn as Clark recounts an alleged physical assault perpetrated by Combs against Cassie Ventura. She describes how, upon Cassie's return, Combs “started just kicking her violently...he kicks her all the way from the front of the house to the street” (09:37). Amidst the chaos, Clark attempted to intervene, urging Combs to stop the assault. The distressing account culminates with Clark having to call Cassie's mother to report the beating (10:36).

Combs categorically denies these allegations. His attorney, Mark Agnifolo, challenges Clark's account, suggesting she "didn’t willingly go with him because you wanted to make sure he didn't do something special, stupid" (06:57), casting doubt on her credibility.

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The Jewelry Theft Incident

Adding to the mounting allegations, Clark describes an incident involving the disappearance of high-value jewelry from Jacob the Jeweler, a renowned celebrity jeweler. She claims that after the jewelry went missing, she was confined to a room in one of Combs' office buildings. During this ordeal, she underwent a five-day lie detector test under the supervision of a menacing figure, who purportedly threatened her with harm if she failed (11:04).

Despite denying any involvement in the theft, Clark's repeated exposure to the lie detector test raises questions about the internal operations within Combs' organization.

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Defense’s Cross-Examination and Clark’s Motivations

During cross-examination, the defense probed Clark’s continued employment with Combs despite her allegations. Clark cited financial dependency and limited job opportunities as reasons for her persistence. She revealed that after being fired in 2012, presumably due to her involvement in the Kid Cudi incident, Combs had effectively blacklisted her, leaving her with no viable employment options (15:07).

Furthermore, emails presented by the defense showed Clark pleading for forgiveness from Combs, including requests to rejoin his team amid the criminal investigation (16:25). These communications undermine her current stance and suggest possible coercion or manipulation.

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Contrasting Testimonies and Defense Counterclaims

The episode underscores the conflicting narratives between prosecution witnesses like Clark and Combs’ defense team. Notably, Kid Cudi, a central figure in the case, did not mention the alleged car chase during his testimony, further complicating the narrative.

Meloss remarks on the duality of testimonies, “There are two sides to every story” (06:57), highlighting the ongoing battle to establish the truth amidst conflicting accounts.

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Conclusion and Ongoing Developments

As the trial progresses, Capricorn Clark’s testimony introduces significant allegations of intimidation, violence, and misconduct within Sean Combs' inner circle. The defense's efforts to discredit her raise critical questions about her motivations and the validity of her claims.

Dateline NBC continues to provide comprehensive coverage of the trial, with daily updates and in-depth analysis from reporters like Chloe Meloss. Listeners are encouraged to follow the trial's developments through the Dateline True Crime Weekly series and the accompanying NBC Newsletter, Diddy on Trial.

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For more detailed reporting and updates on the Sean Combs trial, subscribe to Dateline NBC and follow the latest episodes of Dateline True Crime Weekly.

Transcript

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[Lester Holt]

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[Tom Brokaw]

I'm Tom Brokaw.

[Andrea Canning]

You hope to see you back here.

[Lester Holt]

I'm Lester Holt. It's carried forward. Tom Yamaz is there for us. Firefighters are still working around the clock. As the world changes, we look for what endures. We are coming on the air with breaking news right now we look for a constant and from one era to the next, trust is the anchor for NB Tonightly news. I'm Tom Yamas. A new chapter begins NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas starting Monday on NBC.

[Andrea Canning]

This is On Trial a special series from Dateline True Crime Weekly bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs racketeering trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Andrea Canning and it's Tuesday, May 27th. Just a heads up. In this episode we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter. Week three at the federal courthouse began with one of the most dramatic prosecution witnesses so far. Her name is Capricorn Clark. She worked on and off for Sean combs for about 14 years. Clark struggled to find the words as she described what she said she witnessed. Combs due to Cassie Ventura and what she claimed he did to her. NBC News correspondent Chloe Meloss was in the courtroom for this dramatic testimony and she's now out to tell us what she heard. Hey, Chloe.

[Chloe Meloss]

Hey Andrea.

[Andrea Canning]

Let's start. Just tell us more about who Capricorn Clark is. And what she did for Sean Combs.

[Chloe Meloss]

So she is somebody who was friends with Diddy before she actually started to work for him. They met around 2002. She says it might have been 2001, but in 2004, she officially joined Bad Boy. And her first role was being Diddy's personal assistant.

[Andrea Canning]

And she said that Combs threatened her pretty early on in this case. In this role. Yeah.

[Chloe Meloss]

So she says that on the first day of working for him, that Diddy actually took her on a walk through Central park with a member of his security team and he threatened her because she was close with Suge Knight, who we've talked about before and is a major rival of his. And that he said to her, if something happens, I'm gonna have to kill you.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, my gosh. And she is saying this, that as though Combs is being serious. Right?

[Chloe Meloss]

This is.

[Andrea Canning]

He's not joking around here. According to her.

[Chloe Meloss]

She said that he was completely serious, straight faced, and she took it as a real threat to her life. But that, you know, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for Diddy and she just tried to maintain the peace.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, my goodness. Okay. And just like we heard from the assistant last week, she also said she learned so much from Combs. So there's, there's a positive side to this as well, right, Chloe? Yes.

[Chloe Meloss]

I mean, she had all sorts of different roles. At one point, she was the director of marketing for Sean John Women's. Then she went on to become the global brand director for several years for Sean Combs. So, I mean, she held some massive titles within the company.

[Andrea Canning]

So we actually heard Capricorn Clark's name for the first time last week. She was brought up during Kid Cudi's testimony. And just a reminder, Kid Cudi is Combs romantic rival with Cassie.

[Chloe Meloss]

Basically, Cassie was cheating on Diddy with Kid Cudi. Diddy found out because Cassie had a burner phone. She had a separate phone that she was using to communicate with Kid Cudi. And we heard this not only in Cassie's testimony, but we also heard this in Kid Cudi's testimony last week. But today is really the first time that I had learned that the Capricorn Clark is the one that actually took Cassie to Best Buy to buy her this burner phone so that she could essentially live this double life. Or another way to look at it is to get out from the clutches of Diddy and live her authentic life with someone that she was falling in love with, which was Kid Cudi.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah, this is almost like a soap opera, but it's real life. Capricorn knew about the relationship between Cassie and Cudi.

[Chloe Meloss]

Not only did she know about it, she actually thought that Cassie was putting their lives in danger. She actually said she thought that they were going to get killed because Cassie was being just kind of so nonchalant and not really hiding the relationship because she was texting about Kid Cudi and to Kid Cudi on a phone that was paid for by Diddy. But it wasn't long, Andrea, before Diddy found out about that burner phone. Because Cassie spent the night with Diddy in a hotel room and. And he found the phone.

[Andrea Canning]

And this is, of course, according to Capricorn's testimony. What did Capricorn say happened on the day Combs went over to Cudi's house?

[Chloe Meloss]

Diddy, at like five in the morning, goes to Capricorn's apartment and starts banging on her door with a gun and is like, let's go get dressed. We're gonna go kill Kid Cudi.

[Andrea Canning]

This all sounds just so unbelievable. What does she say happened next?

[Chloe Meloss]

She says that she got dressed and she didn't want to go, but that she went. She was worried. He had a gun. He was furious. And she jumped into this black Escalade that was waiting in her parking garage and they started the 20 minute drive to Kid Cudi's house.

[Andrea Canning]

She actually on the stand characterized it as a kidnapping. Is that correct?

[Chloe Meloss]

Yes, she did, but it's not like she was bound her feet and her hands and, like, thrown into the trunk of a car. Like someone might think that's what a kidnapping looks like. But he had a gun and she felt like she was being forced against her will.

[Andrea Canning]

Have we heard Combs side to the kidnapping allegation? Does he deny it?

[Chloe Meloss]

Not only does he deny it, Mark Agnifolo, one of Combs defense attorneys, said on cross examination today, he said to Capricorn, didn't you willingly go with him because you wanted to make sure he didn't do something special, stupid? So, see, there are two sides to every story.

[Andrea Canning]

Yes. All right, so Capricorn testified that she stayed in the car when they got to Cudi's house and that she saw Combs and two members of his security team go into Cudi's house. What happened next?

[Chloe Meloss]

She says that she called Cassie on her burner phone and was like, you need to know what is going on. Right now I'm in front of Kid Cudi's house and Kid Cudi was in the background and could hear this conversation and was like, what do you mean he's inside my house? And that's when Kid Cudi jumped in his Porsche to confront Diddy. Meanwhile, she changes Cassie's name in her phone to a friend of hers because she was so worried that Diddy was going to find out that she called her. And lo and behold, when he got back into the Escalade, what did he do? He said, who were you on the phone with? I mean, it's like he's omnipresent. How did he know? And then he finds out that Kid Cudi is on the way. And now a twist, a plot twist. Kid Cudi had said that he went to his house, didn't find Combs, got in his car to look for Combs, and never found him. But today, Capricorn Clark says Kid Cudi actually rolled up on them in his car, made eye contact with them, and then he sped off. And then they actually chased him. And there was a car chase for several minutes. And then Kid Cudi, I guess in his Porsche, he outran the Escalade. And. And then all of a sudden they saw these sirens. Because, remember, Kid Cudi testified last week that he had called 911 because he was worried about what Combs could do. And so when Diddy saw the sirens, that's when he got really calm, according to Capricorn, and they left.

[Andrea Canning]

So Diddy's attorneys, and Diddy, he denies the alleged kidnapping. Did they have something to say about this whole story about the chase?

[Chloe Meloss]

So they're not calling it a kidnapping. They're. They're also saying that this didn't happen. They're also not calling it a break in. They're calling it a trespassing because there's no signs of forced entry. But they're also saying there's no proof. There's nothing on Kid Cudi's surveillance cameras. There were no signs of forced entry.

[Andrea Canning]

And we should be clear as well that Kid Cudi did not talk about this car chase on the stand. So this is just coming from her.

[Chloe Meloss]

Correct. Lots of new information today when Capricorn started to talk.

[Andrea Canning]

So. So the next part of Capricorn's testimony got really emotional. She said that Combs refused to let her go unless Cassie came back to him.

[Chloe Meloss]

Yeah, so she tells Cassie, look, he's not gonna let me leave unless you meet up with him. And so Cassie agrees. And Capricorn actually gets into a staff car of Diddy's and goes to pick up Cassie.

[Andrea Canning]

And then she says Capricorn that when Cassie did come back, Sean Combs beat her.

[Chloe Meloss]

Diddy is wearing a bathrobe and underwear, and he's livid. And right as they make their way into the entry of this mansion of his, Diddy allegedly starts just kicking her violently and just kicking her over and over. And she falls into this fetal position and he somehow kicks her all the way from the front of the house to the street. And that Capricorn Clark is just begging Diddy to stop. Starts calling members of his security team, telling them to call Diddy and get him to stop, and he won't stop. And nobody is calling Diddy's phone that she can see. So then she actually ends up leaving the premises because Diddy's like, get out of here. And so as she's leaving, she calls Cassie's mom, Regina Ventura, and is like, your daughter is being being beaten within an inch of her life. You need to call 911.

[Andrea Canning]

Sean Combs has denied all of this. Everything that you're talking about, he's saying that this didn't happen.

[Chloe Meloss]

Yes, he's denying it all.

[Andrea Canning]

Did Capricorn ever tell anyone about this incident that she says she witnessed between Combs and Cassie?

[Chloe Meloss]

She says that she told Harve Pierre, the president of Bad Boy, in March of 2012. And she says that he just said to her, that's crazy, but it's all gonna be okay.

[Andrea Canning]

Capricorn had another incident to talk about on the stand. She talked about being locked in a room in one of Combs office buildings after some jewelry went missing.

[Chloe Meloss]

This is a wild story. So this is shortly after she starts working for Diddy. They were on their way to Miami when a bunch of jewelry from Jacob the Jeweler. If you know Jacob the Jeweler, he is a big time celebrity jeweler. He's known for his, like, big, flashy diamond pieces. These very expensive items that were on loan went missing. And she was the last person to have them. And when they couldn't find the jewelry, that's when she was taken to this building that was under renovation. And they take her to the sixth floor of this building. They lock the door, she claims, to the front of the building behind her. And when she goes inside, there's this like, huge man sitting at a table that he's so large that he doesn't even stand up and that he's chain smoking cigarettes and drinking black coffee. It was such a great visual description, Andrea. And that he proceeds to give her a lie detector test for five days. So she does go home in the evening, but that she is subjected to just repeatedly answering questions about the jewelry and that it was inconclusive, like every single time.

[Andrea Canning]

What does she say about the jewelry? Does she deny that she took the jewelry?

[Chloe Meloss]

Yeah, I mean, she repeatedly denies that she had anything to do with it, but she actually said that this heavyset man whose name she doesn't know said to her, if you fail this test, they, meaning Combs is gonna throw you into the east river, meaning that she could lose her life. Wow.

[Andrea Canning]

And do we have any response from Combs side or any of these people?

[Chloe Meloss]

I feel like the prosecution is laying the groundwork for these individuals to take the stand. And I feel like one or some of them have flipped and that they have gotten immunity because they have been mentioned and their photos have been shown so many times. But again, Diddy denies all of this.

[Andrea Canning]

Chloe, the way you're describing it, it sounds like a mob movie.

[Chloe Meloss]

It sounds like Goodfellas.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah, we're gonna leave that there for now. When we come back, Capricorn faces a very tough cross examination as the defense confronts her with her own emails.

[Tom Brokaw]

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[Tom Brokaw]

Andrea Canning and the Dateline team cover breaking crime news around the country. And now a special series with daily updates from the trial of Sean Combs.

[Andrea Canning]

I'll be talking to NBC News correspondent Chloe Meloss and every day after court about what she's seeing inside the witnesses, the evidence, and what it all means.

[Tom Brokaw]

Dateline True Crime Weekly. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Andrea Canning]

Welcome back, everyone, on Cross examination The defense asked. The question I think a lot of us are asking is why did Capricorn keep working for Combs in if she says these horrible things were happening?

[Chloe Meloss]

Well, I think a lot of it comes down to money, right? And access when you're working for someone like Diddy. I mean, everyone who has worked for him so far says that they learned so much from him. And on the other hand, she also says that she tried to get other jobs and she couldn't. So she kept coming back to work for Diddy because she just couldn't find a job that either paid as well or really gave her the opportunities that Diddy did. And also after the Kid Cudi incident, she was fired for allegedly putting in vacation days wrong. She says that she lost everything. She was really crying while she talked about this. Losing her 401k, her credit card, losing her car. And Diddy was even actually, like, paying for her home. So everything was tied to Diddy and working at Bad Boy.

[Andrea Canning]

And Capricorn did go back to work for bad boy in 2016 as Cassie's creative director.

[Chloe Meloss]

She says she needed the money. She couldn't get another job, that Diddy had actually blacklisted her from getting other jobs in 2012. So she went back and she worked as Cassie's creative director and was really trying to turn her into this star that she wanted to be.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense showed emails where Capricorn asks Combs to forgive her. What's that about?

[Chloe Meloss]

And as recently as last year, she approached Diddy's legal team and asked to be his chief of staff amid this criminal investigation.

[Andrea Canning]

Chloe, thank you so much for again, all of your incredible insight from the courthouse.

[Chloe Meloss]

Thanks for having me.

[Andrea Canning]

Thanks everyone for listening. We'll be back with a new episode tomorrow. If you want to read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter, Diddy on Trial. And go to nbcnews.com diddy to find that. On Trial is produced by Franny Kelly with help from the Dateline True Crime Weekly team. Our senior producers are Alison Orr and Liz Brown Karloff Original Music by Jesse McGinty. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline Foreign.

[Tom Brokaw]

Some say Odoo business management software is like fertilizer because of the way it promotes growth. Some say Odoo is like a magic beanstalk scaling with you while being magically affordable. And some say Odoo's programs for manufacturing, accounting and more are like building blocks for creating a custom software suite. But I say Odoo is all of it. Fertilizer, Magic beanstalk. Building blocks for business. Yeah, Odoo. Exactly what every business needs. Sign [e-mail]. that's o d o o dot com.