Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark testifies.

Summary

Dateline: True Crime Weekly – Episode Summary Episode: Sean Combs: Capricorn Clark Testifies
Release Date: May 28, 2025
Host: Andrea Canning
Guest: NBC News Correspondent Chloe Meloss

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Introduction

In the gripping episode of Dateline: True Crime Weekly, host Andrea Canning delves deep into the high-stakes Sean Combs racketeering trial. This episode focuses on the pivotal testimony of Capricorn Clark, a long-time associate of Combs, whose revelations have added significant momentum to the prosecution's case. Canning, alongside reporter Chloe Meloss, unpacks the dramatic courtroom moments and the explosive claims made by Clark.

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Capricorn Clark’s Background

Capricorn Clark, a key prosecution witness, has a 14-year history with Sean Combs, commonly known as Diddy. Her professional journey with Combs began in the early 2000s, transitioning from a personal assistant to holding prominent roles such as Director of Marketing for Sean John Women’s and Global Brand Director for Bad Boy Entertainment.

Canning [02:31]: "Just tell us more about who Capricorn Clark is and what she did for Sean Combs."

Chloe Meloss [02:31]: "She joined Bad Boy in 2004 and started as Diddy's personal assistant, later taking on significant roles within the company."

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Initial Allegations: Threats and Kidnapping

Clark’s testimony takes a dark turn as she recounts her first encounter with Combs' aggressive behavior. On her first day working for him, Combs allegedly threatened her life due to her association with Suge Knight, a known rival.

Chloe Meloss [02:55]: "He threatened her because she was close with Suge Knight... he said to her, if something happens, I'm going to have to kill you."

Clark describes the incident as a serious threat, expressing genuine fear for her safety.

Canning [03:21]: "He's not joking around here."

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The Chase and the Car Incident

One of the most dramatic moments in Clark’s testimony involves an alleged kidnapping-like scenario. She describes how, early one morning, Combs confronted her at her apartment with a gun, forcing her into an Escalade for a potential hit on Kid Cudi, Combs' romantic rival.

Chloe Meloss [05:46]: "Diddy 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."

Clark characterizes this event as a kidnapping, emphasizing the coercion and fear she experienced.

Chloe Meloss [06:22]: "He had a gun and she felt like she was being forced against her will."

The defense challenges this narrative, suggesting that Clark voluntarily accompanied Combs.

Chloe Meloss [06:58]: "Mark Agnifolo, one of Combs defense attorneys, said... didn’t you willingly go with him because you wanted to make sure he didn’t do something so stupid?"

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Alleged Assault on Cassie Ventura

Clark’s testimony escalates as she describes an alleged assault by Combs on his partner, Cassie Ventura. According to Clark, Combs violently beat Cassie in a state of rage, leaving her severely injured.

Chloe Meloss [09:21]: "Cassie agrees. And Capricorn actually gets into a staff car of Diddy's and goes to pick up Cassie."

Chloe Meloss [09:44]: "Diddy is... just kicking her violently and just kicking her over and over. And she falls into this fetal position..."

Clark recounts witnessing Diddy's uncontrolled aggression, leading her to seek immediate help by contacting Cassie's mother.

Chloe Meloss [10:37]: "She calls Cassie's mom, Regina Ventura, and is like, your daughter is being beaten within an inch of her life."

Combs has categorically denied these allegations.

Canning [10:37]: "Sean Combs has denied all of this."

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Missing Jewelry and Lie Detector Test

Adding to the complexity, Clark alleges that she was implicated in a missing jewelry case involving high-value pieces from Jacob the Jeweler. She was subjected to an extensive and inconclusive lie detector test under threats to her life.

Chloe Meloss [11:17]: "They take her to the sixth floor... he proceeds to give her a lie detector test for five days."

Despite denying involvement, Clark faced intense interrogation with threats of dire consequences.

Chloe Meloss [12:22]: "He said to her, if you fail this test, they're gonna throw you into the east river, meaning that she could lose her life."

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Defense’s Cross-Examination & Challenges to Credibility

The defense has been staunch in challenging Clark's credibility, questioning her motives and the consistency of her narrative. A significant point of contention is why Clark continued to work for Combs despite alleging severe mistreatment.

Canning [15:00]: "Why did Capricorn keep working for Combs if she says these horrible things were happening?"

Chloe explains that financial dependency and limited job opportunities influenced Clark's decisions to remain with Bad Boy Entertainment.

Chloe Meloss [15:12]: "A lot of it comes down to money, right? And access when you're working for someone like Diddy."

Moreover, emails surfaced showing Clark pleading for forgiveness and attempting to regain her position within Combs' organization amid the investigation.

Canning [16:24]: "The defense showed emails where Capricorn asks Combs to forgive her."

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Possible Motives and Dependency

Clark's financial and professional ties to Combs appear to have played a significant role in her continued association despite the alleged abuse. Her return to Bad Boy Entertainment in 2016 as Cassie’s Creative Director underscores this dependency.

Chloe Meloss [16:31]: "As recently as last year, she approached Diddy's legal team and asked to be his chief of staff amid this criminal investigation."

Clark's emotional recounting highlights the personal and financial losses she faced, including the loss of her 401k, credit, and home, further cementing her reliance on Combs.

Chloe Meloss [15:59]: "She was really crying while she talked about this. Losing her 401k, her credit card, losing her car."

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Conclusion and Next Steps

Capricorn Clark's testimony has introduced a series of explosive allegations against Sean Combs, painting a picture of intimidation, violence, and misconduct within his inner circle. While Combs and his defense team vigorously deny these claims, the courtroom drama continues to unfold with each new piece of evidence and cross-examination.

Andrea Canning and Chloe Meloss emphasize that this case is still developing, with Clark facing challenging cross-examination and the defense seeking to dismantle her narrative through evidence such as her own emails. The episode sets the stage for further revelations as the trial progresses, leaving listeners anticipating the next developments in this high-profile case.

Canning [16:40]: "Chloe, thank you so much for again, all of your incredible insight from the courthouse."

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Notable Quotes

• Chloe Meloss [02:55]: "He threatened her because she was close with Suge Knight... he said to her, if something happens, I'm going to have to kill you."
• Chloe Meloss [06:22]: "He had a gun and she felt like she was being forced against her will."
• Chloe Meloss [09:44]: "Diddy is... just kicking her violently and just kicking her over and over."
• Chloe Meloss [12:22]: "He said to her, if you fail this test, they're gonna throw you into the east river."

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and dramatic moments from the episode, providing an engaging overview for listeners and newcomers alike.

Transcript

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[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. 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 going to 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.

[Chloe Meloss]

According to her, 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 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 the. 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.

[Chloe Meloss]

And Cudi, 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 so 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 gonna 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 Cuddy 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.

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[Andrea Canning]

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 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 and 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 we.

[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.

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[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 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, 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]

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. If you want to read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter. Diddy on trial. 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.

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