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The Diddy trial: “Jane,” the government’s sleeper witness
00:29:08
The anonymous testimony from one of Sean “Diddy” Combs’s ex-girlfriends that’s at the heart of the government’s sex-trafficking allegations.
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Elahe Izadi
This week in the trial of Sean Diddy Combs, the world got an inside look into one of his most recent romantic relationships and its messy dynamics.
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Jane
Hey, I really don't know what's going on with you, but I just want to just give you a heads up that I'm about to really disappear on you. You feel me? I'm not gonna be playing these games with you at all.
- [00:55]
Anne Brannigan
At all.
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Jane
So I don't know. You think you silence treating me and you think I'm gonna be. Nah, you'll have a rude awakening. You'll just have silence.
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Elahe Izadi
Combs sent that voice memo to his then girlfriend Jane, who he dated on and off between 2021 and 2024. And it's just one of many clips being played during his trial. He's facing charges of racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty. Jane has been on the stand all week. That's not her real name, by the way. Jane is her court approved alias to protect her identity. And both the prosecution and defense have been trying to use these clips to support their arguments for the prosecution. Combs was manipulative and Jane was a victim of sex trafficking. To the defense, Combs was a warm and affectionate partner who was just really into Jane.
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Jane
Hey, baby, we had a great time. Stay in the light. It's all good. Get your rest. You are the crack pipe. That's my new name for you, Crack pipe. Or should I call you CP.
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Elahe Izadi
Style? Reporter Anne Brannigan has been in New York covering the trial and she has spent days listening to Jane's testimony about her relationship with Combs.
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Anne Brannigan
Going into the trial, Jane was really this X factor. We didn't know anything about her. And in fact, she is quite central to the government's case against him.
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Elahe Izadi
From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. I'm Elahe izadi. It's Saturday, June 14th. We're continuing our weekly coverage of the trial of music Mogul Sean Combs, also known as Diddy, Puff, Puff Daddy. Today, Ann explains why Jane's testimony could be so crucial in this trial. We'll learn more about Jane's messy relationship with Combs and how it's playing out before the jury determining his fate. Combs faces life in prison if convicted. And just a heads up, we'll be discussing sex, drug use, and violence in this episode. So, Ann, I know that when you and I spoke last week, we did touch on Jane's testimony, and as you said earlier, she could be really central to this trial in a way that maybe people weren't thinking about before. So let's really zero in on her today. Can you tell me who Jane is? Like, what can we say about who she is, given that she is an anonymous person? But there are some things coming out.
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Anne Brannigan
So we know that Jane is a single mom and that she met Sean combs in late 2020, but they began a relationship in 2021. She was with him on and off up until his arrest in September of last year. So this is a very, very recent time period. And in part because it's so recent, there is a lot of evidence. I'm talking about pages and pages and pages of exchanges between these two people. Now, a central part of their relationship, she says, are these hotel nights, which we know from this trial as freak offs, but they're essentially the same thing.
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Elahe Izadi
And those are, as we've said before, those sex parties involving male escorts and Combs allegedly directing his girlfriends to perform sex acts with them.
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Anne Brannigan
Exactly. So this is a person who's been on and off with him for years, but who has alleged and who told him across the relationship that she felt that she was being exploited and used solely for the purpose of these hotel nights.
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Elahe Izadi
And where does she fit into the charges that Combs is facing, just so we understand the role she's playing in this trial?
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Anne Brannigan
So she is actually, in this case, an alleged sex trafficking victim. And you might remember that Sean Combs is facing three kinds of charges. One of those charges is sex trafficking, of which there are two counts. One of those counts revolves around Cassie Ventura. The other one revolves around Jane.
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Elahe Izadi
Hmm. Yeah. And Cassie Ventura, we've talked about her before. She's another ex girlfriend of Combs. She testified at length in the beginning of this trial. But when we're talking about Jane, what can we say about her relationship with Combs now, since they were together so recently? Like, how would you characterize her feelings towards him now?
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Anne Brannigan
In a lot of ways. And I think this came through in multiple ways on the stand, both in her testimony and in her demeanor. This is somebody she still feels a lot of love and affection for and that she can still speak quite affectionately about. She spoke a bit lovingly this week about rubbing his feed and watching Dateline together, which was apparently his favorite show. So this is all very recent. And she also said that she only recently started seeing a therapist about these experiences that she's had with Combs. So she's somebody who's, in a lot of ways, still reckoning with those experiences as she's testifying about them. They're still entangled in a lot of ways. So one thing that we discovered both through the direct testimony and the cross examination, is that Combs paid for and is still paying for counsel for her and that he's still paying the rent on her Los Angeles home, which she moved into in 2023.
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Elahe Izadi
Wow. That's pretty fascinating to think that this witness for the government is, you know, still entangled with him in that way. I wonder, hearing you talk, if she also filed a lawsuit against him like the other alleged sex trafficking victim in this case. We talked about Cassie Ventura. And just as a reminder, Ventura filed her lawsuit against Combs in 2023. We now know they settled for $20 million. A lot of other people after that filed lawsuits against Combs. Was Jane one of them?
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Anne Brannigan
Right. So dozens of people have filed lawsuits against him. Jane was not one of them. And on the stand, she said multiple times that she never sent a demand letter, which is what you would do before you file a lawsuit against somebody. She hasn't filed a lawsuit and does not plan on filing a lawsuit.
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Elahe Izadi
So I guess, given all of that, why is she testifying?
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Anne Brannigan
Simply put, because she was asked to, she was subpoenaed, and so she's compelled to testify and to give honest testimony. An important part of that is that she also did get immunity for her testimony. And as a reminder, she's not being paid for her testimony, and she will not be paid once this trial is over either. And actually, up until very recently, she was actually meeting with Sean Combs defense.
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Elahe Izadi
So. Wow. Given all of that, I would want to know more about what Jane shared in her testimony about her experience with Combs. Like you said earlier, she participated and was involved in these hotels. That sounds very similar to what we heard earlier in this trial from his other ex girlfriend, Ventura. Did anything stand out to you in Jane's testimony that was distinct from or maybe different than what we've heard before? Was it the same so there were.
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Anne Brannigan
Really, really striking similarities between her and Cassie Ventura's allegations. And in fact, she ends up talking about those allegations further on in her testimony. But the real significant similarities here are these freak offs, which she and Combs referred to as hotel nights. And like Ventura, she describes these as events that could last hours, revolved a lot around drugs, and in this case she said ecstasy. And that these were highly choreographed, but they involved essentially a male escort who she referred to as entertainers. In one case, Combs own personal trainer or a person who trained Combs was involved. And what stands out is the volume over a short amount of time, according to her testimony, that this was essentially their relationship was hotel nights. And it was a source of frustration for her very early on because what she wanted from him was a romantic relationship. Now, from the beginning, she said that he did say he was polyamorous and that she was okay with that because she wanted to spend time with him. But that relationship evolved, or you could say devolved from her perspective, into promises of luxurious trips of one on one time, of quality time, but always with the caveat of needing to do a freak off. Now, there's also a monetary aspect of this that's really important. So we talked about the home that Combs paid for in Los Angeles in 2023. Now, this coincides, she says, with a time period where she was being more vocal about not wanting to participate in these hotel nights. And that they came to an agreement, what they call a love contract, where he agreed that he would pay her an allowance of $10,000 each month. And that allowance she said she put towards a home that she and her son lived in.
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Elahe Izadi
So was she testifying that she felt forced or coerced into doing things she didn't want to do?
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Anne Brannigan
Exactly. The home is the thing that comes up again and again because she said that after she moved into that home, she felt obligated to, quote, perform in these sex acts with these entertainers and that she never wanted to do that. All she wanted was to have alone time with Combs. And so there's that element of feeling obligation, but also the coercion of being promised this relationship or being promised something, sometimes fancy gifts or trips, but that they always came with this catch. And she also alleged that when she would try to assert herself and not do these things or say she didn't want to do these things, that he would threaten to not pay her rent or that he would distance himself. And in this case, distancing himself comes with losing potentially her home.
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Elahe Izadi
Yeah, like the roof over her head?
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Anne Brannigan
Yes.
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Elahe Izadi
What about physical violence? I know that that was something that came up in Cassie Ventura's testimony. And there is hotel surveillance video showing physical violence. Is that something that came up in Jane's relationship with Combs?
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Anne Brannigan
So this is something that's very different, right, in Jane's situation, which is that physical violence is not at play in terms of her feeling pressured to perform in these sex acts. One major exception, though, and it's a pretty big one, that happened just last year in June 2024. So what happens according to Jane's testimony is that she actually instigates a physical fight with Combs over another woman, but that after she does this, he dramatically escalates this fight and he follows her around the home. She tries to hide. She said that she tells him to leave and he kicks down her doors. He kicks down the bedroom door. When she hides in the bedroom, she hides in the bathroom. He kicks down that door. She hides in a walk in closet. He kicks down that door. And what she describes is a fight that stretches out over several hours, and that includes him punching her in the face a few times. She alleges that he kicks her, he has her in a chokehold at one point, and that after all this is done, after they have this massive fight, a fight that they've never had anything like before, he tells her, you're not going to ruin my night and makes her put on lingerie. He calls over an adult film star whom they've had break offs with before and tells her that she needs to have sex with him.
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Elahe Izadi
And I mean, what you're sharing is really intense and there's echoes of it from testimony that we've heard earlier in the trial of events that took place like a decade or more ago. But one thing that really stands out to me about Jane's testimony is that she and Combs were together really recently until like less than a year ago. What do you make of that?
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Anne Brannigan
There is an incredible messiness, I think, to it because it's so recent, right? Because these two people are so entangled in each other's lives still. But also because of that, Jane isn't that far removed from these events. So unlike the rest of the where people are being asked to recall things that happened 10, 15, 20 years ago and can't, she is able to recall with a lot of clarity her state of mind during certain times. And as I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of evidence she's somebody who committed to writing via text, via notes, apps, also in voice Memos how she felt about all of this stuff. And since 2021, there is a string of her saying, I feel used. She said at one point, I am not an animal. I am not a porn star. And really articulating this deep unhappiness and this deep resentment about being made to. And she's used this word many times to perform these sex acts.
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Elahe Izadi
And Ann, he also was allegedly having these sexual encounters with her, and she was having these experiences while he was being investigated by the federal government.
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Anne Brannigan
Yeah, now, that part is legitimately stunning, and I think the government is very aware of that as they're presenting her accusations. Right. So to put this in perspective, this June altercation happens one month after CNN publishes that video of Sean Combs assaulting Cassie Ventura. So here's this allegation that he got violent again with a woman and that he was ordering freak offs as the government was investigating him for this very thing. Because it's so recent, we also get a little bit of a window into how Combs was reacting during these pivotal times. So, for example, the month before Cassie Ventura's lawsuit comes out, she and Combs have, again, another big disagreement. And she is very upset about these hotel nights. And then Cassie Ventura's lawsuit comes out, and she says that reading it felt like she was reliving her sexual trauma, that she was stunned that her experiences were reflected in this document. In her words, word for word, it was a really, really stunning revelation for her. And it's something that they actually end up talking about in the days after that lawsuit was filed.
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Elahe Izadi
So we got to learn through Jane, at least according to her, how Combs was reacting privately to that lawsuit.
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Anne Brannigan
Yes. And not only do we have her account, but we actually have two phone calls that they had discussing the lawsuit. And come to find out, it's not Jane who recorded these calls, it was Combs. And to be clear, these are phone calls that were played in the courtroom because they are evidence, but they're not available to the public. And it was in these calls where she talks about what a hard time she's having, that she's having nightmares since the lawsuit came out, that it is word for word, her experience. And we also hear Combs kind of cutting her off and, you know, talking about how much he needs her support. So it's a really interesting window into this relationship at this point in time. That's really. That's really a turning point for Combs. But there's also this one other really striking moment that she talks about, which is she is with him in his home in Miami when that Intercontinental video that shows Combs beating Cassie Ventura, she is with him when that comes out. And so she witnesses the reaction that he had with his kids. She described, you know, everybody kind of huddling and sort of figuring things out. And that when she saw it, she was incredibly shocked because it wasn't something that she had seen from him before. She hadn't seen that kind of behavior. And so it was really, really shocking for her.
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Elahe Izadi
After the break, the ways this testimony could help and hurt the government's case against Combs. We'll be right back.
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Elahe Izadi
Ann, I think a lot of people listening and learning more about Jane's testimony could come away feeling like, wow, this sounds like a very toxic relationship, not healthy, reprehensible behavior. But also, she is an adult who is making her own decisions here. Why is the government saying no, what she is describing is a crime.
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Anne Brannigan
There is a kind of murkiness that's a little bit inherent to sex trafficking laws and how they've come to be enforced in the 25 years since they've been introduced. So this is a really recent kind of law that we're reckoning with, and there is a lot of gray area within that. So sex trafficking, as defined by federal law, is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, or obtaining a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. Now, let's take a pause there. Commercial sex act means sex that is being exchanged. It could be money, but it could also be goods. It could be interpreted a few different ways. And there's also this element, too, that the person who is engaging in the sex act is doing so under force, fraud, or coercion.
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Elahe Izadi
So I see.
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Anne Brannigan
Yeah. So the thing that makes this an alleged sex crime here is the fact that she says many times that she does not want to do these things. So there's the element here of a lack of consent. There is also an element here potentially, and this is what the government is arguing of fraud, that all of these things that Combs promises her, you know, the promise of quality time or the promise of gifts, that all of those are done to kind of loop her into these things, and that he has no intention of actually following through on them. So, for example, he invites her on a trip to New York. He tells her to bring her a passport. She's really excited. You know, they talk about going to a nice dinner, going shopping, and she says those things don't happen. In fact, she comes to New York and what do they do? They do a hotel night.
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Elahe Izadi
And then there's that commercial or material element. When you brought that up, my mind immediately went to him paying for her home and her testifying that, you know, she felt a sense of if she didn't agree or do what he was asking, she may not have a roof over her head.
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Anne Brannigan
Exactly. There's this coercion bit that the government has been arguing that directly tied to the financial control that he had over her. A big part of that is the Love Contract that we talked about before and the house that she lived in. But there's also a few other elements to that. So, for example, there's the drug usage that she said was a really big part of these nights, in which she said she only ever did with combs.
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Elahe Izadi
Yeah. Is it that because she was on these drugs, she was not in a clear state of mind to be able to consent the effect of those Drugs.
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Anne Brannigan
Was to make her more promiscuous and horny. She said so. Yes.
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Elahe Izadi
So you just laid out why the government is arguing why Jane is a victim of sex trafficking. I know that the defense also had an opportunity to question her on the stand. How did the defense try to undercut that argument?
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Anne Brannigan
It was very, very similar to what they did with Cassie Ventura when she was on the stand. So they made her read a lot of text messages, a lot of loving messages where she's expressing love and appreciation for Combs. Even after nights where they had to freak off. They made her read a lot of lewd and very sexually graphic text messages, which she referred to as fantasy talk, but that kind of alluded a little bit to some of those hotel nights. So casting her as consenting, as enthusiastic, as having caring and good relationships with even some of the, you know, the quote unquote entertainers, and also somebody who had a lot of sexual desire for Combs and was willing to be sexually adventurous for him. Another big thing that they did that's similar to what they did with Cassie Ventura is that they suggested that the real trigger for her upset wasn't actually these freak offs, but her jealousy of other women and that she would raise her issues with these freak offs only after she saw photos of Combs having nice vacations with these other women, only when she felt that she had been slighted.
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Elahe Izadi
And then how did they try to depict Combs in this relationship?
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Anne Brannigan
So they also read out some of Combs messages, and in some of these messages, he's suggesting that he's okay if they don't have a freak off. Um, you know, he's expressing care and support for her, but also kind of standing his ground and saying, like, look, if you don't want to do these freak offs with me, then we can break up. And it also highlights, like, this is a moment where you could have stepped away from this relationship, that you could have ended this and, you know, saying to Jane that you chose not to.
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Elahe Izadi
Mm. So, Ann, just given all of what you shared, which is really messy, you know, like, this is a really complex relationship. Has Jane's testimony been helpful or damning to Combs case? How should we think about what this testimony has done for his defense or for the government's case?
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Anne Brannigan
There were a lot of things that came up during this testimony that seemed really damaging to Combs. Again, because there is this volume of, you know, these written declarations of not wanting to do these things, not feeling okay doing these things. And so that is something that is Very supportive to the government's case. And remember, because there are many people who have sued and are suing Combs. Jane is not suing him and said that she does not plan to. And so this is something that the government repeatedly kind of asked her, I think, in part because it makes her seem more credible and honest as a witness that she has nothing to gain from making these accusations. Now, something the defense wants to remind us is that she hasn't sued yet.
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Elahe Izadi
Hmm.
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Anne Brannigan
But I think for both sides, we're being asked to hold a lot of ideas concurrently. Right. And so the framework I'm thinking of here, and I think what the jury will have to do is to deal with these really nuanced questions around consent. So, for example, when does fantasy talk stop? You know, if you consent to one thing, does that mean you consent to everything that follows after? Can you consent to some things but not to others?
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Elahe Izadi
Yeah. That's really complex.
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Anne Brannigan
Right. You know, this is somebody who's still expressing a lot of love for him while also saying that she felt humiliated by the things he did to her. And this is something we've seen come up time and again in this trial, is this tension, and it depends on the Dynamics of the 12 people in that box and how they work it out amongst themselves. Right. Because they will have to reach a consensus about what it all means. I think one moment that perfectly sort of encapsulated the tensions here. The. The conflict here was when Jane left the stand. So she was on the stand for six days, and first she hugs prosecutor Maureen Comey, and then she hugs Tenny Garagos, the defense lawyer who was questioning her and essentially asking her, well, you had the opportunity to leave, didn't you? And she hugs both of those women before she walks out of the door.
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Elahe Izadi
Wow, Anne, I can't imagine that scene. I mean, that is quite something to see.
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Anne Brannigan
Right. It's a lot to hold, and it's a lot that the jury is going to have to hold as they decide Sean Combs, fate in a few weeks.
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Elahe Izadi
Well, Anne, thank you so much, as always, for taking time to explain all of this from New York.
- [30:36]
Anne Brannigan
Thank you very much for having me, Alahi.
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Elahe Izadi
Anne Brannigan is a style reporter for the Post. That's it for Post Reports. Thanks for listening. Today's show was produced by Sabi Robinson, who also contributed reporting from New York. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Shawn Carter. Thanks to Carla Spardos and Janae Kingsbury. If you love our show, help other people. Discover it by leaving a rating on Spotify or or a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. We really appreciate it. I'm Elahe Izadi. We'll be back on Monday with more stories from the Washington Post.
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Anne Brannigan
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Elahe Izadi
How many discounts will you stack up?
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