NEW YORK (AP) — Casandra Ventura, the R&B singer and actor known simply as Cassie, began testifying Tuesday in Sean “Diddy” Combs ' sex trafficking trial. She is expected to return to the stand on Wednesday.
The music mogul is charged with leveraging his status to coerce women — including Cassie — into abusive sexual encounters and using violence if they refused. He has pleaded not guilty. Cassie sued Combs in 2023 alleging years of rape and abuse. The suit was settled within hours, but was followed by dozens of similar legal claims and touched off a criminal investigation.
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Cassie Ventura wipes tears from her eye while testifying in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Cassie Ventura, right, walks out of the courtroom past Sean Diddy Combs after testifying in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Sean Diddy Combs listens during opening statements on the first day of trial in Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 12, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
FILE - Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean "Diddy" Combs appear at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating "China: Through the Looking Glass" in New York on May 4, 2015. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Singer Casandra Elizabeth Ventura also known as Cassie arrives for the screening of Killing Them Softly at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)
FILE - Singer Cassie Ventura also known as Cassie arrives for the screening of Killing Them Softly at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)
Here’s what you need to know about the 38-year-old star witness:
A singer, actor, dancer and model, Cassie's professional ambitions began in adolescence, when she signed to the top-tier talent and modeling agency Wilhelmina. Her music career launched shortly thereafter, when she left her home state of Connecticut for New York, where she signed with manager Tony Mottola and first met Combs.
Cassie is perhaps best known for the 2006 hit single “Me & U,” which secured the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart and No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 all genres chart. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The song was the lead single of her only studio album, released by Combs' Bad Boy Records, and was self-titled. She left the label in 2019.
As an actor, she appeared in several television and film projects including Fox’s “Empire," “The Perfect Match” and “Spenser Confidential.” She made her acting debut in 2008 in “Step Up 2: The Streets” and contributed the song "Is It You" to its soundtrack.
She appeared in a number of music videos as well, including Wiz Khalifa's “Roll Up” and Mario's “Just A Friend 2002.”
Although she never released her long-teased sophomore album, at one point tentatively titled “Electro Love," she did drop a few tracks: the R&B-pop “Official Girl” with Lil Wayne, “Must Be Love” with Combs, and “Let's Get Crazy” with Akon. And in 2012, Nicki Minaj tapped her for a feature on “The Boys” from Minaj's “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded — The Re-Up.”
Cassie is also a wife and a mother. She married personal trainer Alex Fine in September 2019. Their first daughter, Frankie Stone Fine, was born that same year and they welcomed their second daughter, Sunny Cinco Fine, in 2021. She is currently pregnant with their third child, a son.
Cassie met Combs in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37. He signed her to his Bad Boy Records label and, within a few years, they started dating.
In her 2023 civil lawsuit, Cassie alleges Combs trapped her in a “cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking” for more than a decade, including raping her and forcing her to engage in sex acts with male sex workers. Combs settled the lawsuit the next day.
In May 2024, CNN aired video that showed Combs attacking Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016. The video closely mirrored an assault described in her lawsuit, which said Combs had already punched her that night, and she was trying to leave the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles when he woke and came after her. In the footage, a man who appears to be Diddy, wearing only a towel, punches Cassie, kicks her, and throws her on to the floor. The lawsuit alleges Combs paid $50,000 to bury the video at the time.
Later, Combs apologized for the assault on Cassie in his first real acknowledgment of wrongdoing since the stream of allegations began.
Among other things, Cassie alleges Combs raped her when she tried to leave him and often punched, kicked and beat her, causing injuries including bruises, burst lips, black eyes and bleeding.
She also alleges that Combs was involved in blowing up rival rapper Kid Cudi’s car when he learned that Cudi was romantically interested in her, and she alleges that Combs ran out of his home with guns when he learned that Suge Knight, a rival producer, was eating at a nearby diner.
On the first day of Combs' sex trafficking trial, a witness, Daniel Phillip, said he was a professional stripper who was paid $700 to $6,000 to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and gave instructions, with the first encounter in 2012.
Phillip told jurors that he stopped meeting with the couple after he saw Combs throw a bottle at her and then drag her by her hair into a bedroom as she screamed.
AP writer Mike Sisak contributed to this report.
Cassie Ventura wipes tears from her eye while testifying in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Cassie Ventura, right, walks out of the courtroom past Sean Diddy Combs after testifying in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Sean Diddy Combs listens during opening statements on the first day of trial in Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 12, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
FILE - Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean "Diddy" Combs appear at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating "China: Through the Looking Glass" in New York on May 4, 2015. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Singer Casandra Elizabeth Ventura also known as Cassie arrives for the screening of Killing Them Softly at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)
FILE - Singer Cassie Ventura also known as Cassie arrives for the screening of Killing Them Softly at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was set to address the nation Wednesday night and offer an update on the war in Iran, his first prime-time speech since launching strikes alongside Israel more than a month ago.
The speech will offer Trump a wide audience to articulate clear objectives for the war that could attempt to reconcile weeks of changing goals and often contradictory messages about whether he’s winding down or ready to escalate military operations — even as Iran kept up its attacks on Israel and Persian Gulf neighbors and airstrikes pounded Tehran.
It comes amid rising oil prices, volatile financial markets and polling showing many Americans feel the U.S. military has gone too far in Iran — even as more American troops move into the region for a possible ground offensive. Trump opted not to deliver such an address closer to when the U.S. and Israel first launched attacks, and questions now remain about whether it is now too late for what he says to break through.
A White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of the address and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the president will talk about U.S. progress on achieving his goals in Iran and will reiterate his estimated timeline for concluding operations within two to three weeks.
The president, in comments during a Easter lunch on Wednesday afternoon, said of Iran: “We could just take their oil. But you know, I’m not sure that the people in our country have the patience to do that, which is unfortunate.”
“Yeah, they want to see it end. If we stayed there, I prefer just to take the oil,” Trump said. “We could do it so easily. I would prefer that. But people in the country sort of say: ‘Just win. You’re winning so big. Just win. Come home.’ And I’m OK with that, too, because we have a lot of oil between Venezuela and our oil.”
The media was not permitted to watch the president’s remarks at the lunch, but the White House uploaded video of the speech online before taking it down. The White House did not return requests for comment from The Associated Press on the video and why it was taken down.
In a social media post earlier Wednesday, Trump maintained a belligerent tone, demanding that Iran stop blocking the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway vital to global oil supplies — or the U.S. would bomb the Islamic Republic “back to the Stone Ages.” The president has also said the U.S. “will not have anything to do with” ensuring the security of ships passing through Hormuz, an apparent backtrack from a previous threat to attack Iran’s power grid if it didn’t open the strait by April 6.
In the same Easter lunch, the president reiterated some of his complaints about NATO allies for their reluctance to get involved in securing the Strait of Hormuz while suggesting that China, Japan and South Korea could also step up to reopen the waterway.
“Let South Korea, you know, we only have 45,000 soldiers in harm’s way over there, right next to a nuclear force -- let South Korea do it,” Trump said of efforts to reopen the strait. “Let Japan do it. They get 90% of their oil from the strait. Let China do it.”
In another morning social media post, Trump wrote that “Iran’s New Regime President” wanted a ceasefire. It wasn’t clear to whom the U.S. president was referring since Iran still has the same president. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, called Trump’s claim “false and baseless,” according to a report on Iranian state television.
Speaking earlier to Al Jazeera, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signaled Tehran’s willingness to keep fighting. “You cannot speak to the people of Iran in the language of threats and deadlines,” he said. “We do not set any deadline for defending ourselves.”
Hours before Trump’s address, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian posted a lengthy letter in English on his X account appealing to U.S. citizens and stressing that his country had pursued negotiations before the U.S. withdrew from that path. “Exactly which of the American people’s interests are truly being served by this war?” he wrote.
Since the war began on Feb. 28, Trump has offered shifting objectives and repeatedly has said it could be over soon while also threatening to widen the conflict. Thousands of additional U.S. troops are currently heading to the Middle East, and speculation abounds about why.
Trump has also threatened to attack Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub. And the U.S. could decide to send in military forces to secure Iran’s uranium stockpile — a complex and risky operation, fraught with radiation and chemical dangers, experts and former government officials say.
Adding to the confusion is what role Israel — which has been bombing Iran alongside the U.S. — might play in any of these scenarios.
Trump has been under growing pressure to end the war that has been pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other goods. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, is up more than 40% since the start of the war.
The U.S. has presented Iran with a 15-point plan aimed at bringing about a ceasefire, including a demand for the strait to be reopened and for its nuclear program to be rolled back.
Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful. And in a report last week by Iranian state TV's English-language broadcaster, an anonymous official was quoted as saying Iran had its own demands to end the fighting, including retaining sovereignty over the strait.
In the interview with Al Jazeera, Araghchi acknowledged receiving direct messages from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. He insisted, however, that there were no direct negotiations and said Iran has no faith that talks with the U.S. could yield any results, saying “the trust level is at zero.”
He warned against any U.S. attempt to launch a ground offensive, saying “we are waiting for them.”
In a deal ostensibly to give diplomacy a chance, U.S. officials have given “clear assurances” that Araghchi and Iran's Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf won't be targeted, according to three officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they're not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Farnoush Amiri in New York and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
A rainbow forms over the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A young girl is comforted by her father and Israeli soldiers as they take cover in a bomb shelter during air raid sirens warning of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
People inspect the site of an Israeli strike amid debris and damaged vehicles in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A man feeds stray cats in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The Indian flagged LPG carrier Jag Vasant transporting liquefied petroleum gas, is seen at the Mumbai Port in Mumbai, India, after it arrived clearing the Strait of Hormuz, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Firefighters and rescue workers work at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A firefighter extinguishes a car at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Israel's rescue teams and residents take shelter as sirens sounds next to a site struck by an Iranian missile in Bnei Brak, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A police vehicle is seen through a shattered windshield at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Two men ride scooters past charred debris at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
