The trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs returns, with Cassie’s former friend Kerry Morgan giving evidence. Combs denies all five felony charges against him. We’ll have live updates from the court in Manhattan below.
Monday 19 May 2025 21:36, UK
Here’s what we’ve learned on day six of the trial:
Court will resume tomorrow, at 1.30pm UK time, and we’ll be live blogging all the news from the court room as it happens.
Court is now adjourned for the day, with James due to return to the stand tomorrow for at least another hour of questioning.
James lists four girlfriends he said Combs had while he worked for him – Kim Porter, Sarah, Cara and Cassie.
He says Combs had initially been keen to impress Cassie, renting a yacht for her.
James says he had just two conversations with her, the first on Star Island (a man-made beach on Miami Beach). He says they were smoking cigarettes together, and she said: “This place is crazy.”
He says he told her: “If it’s so crazy, why don’t you get out?” and says she answered: “I can’t, he controls my career, pays my allowance, and pays my rent.”
James says the second time he spoke to Cassie was at the Sundance Film Festival, when he was in a cab with her and she seemed “proud and super happy”.
James again gets emotional at this point and begins crying again.
He says he once overheard one of Combs’s friends ask how Cassie was, and heard him reply: “She good… she’s my queen… she’s very mouldable.”
Asked if he saw disagreements between the couple, James says “they were about her professional career”.
James says Combs’s security staff carried legal weapons, and Combs’s head of security, Uncle Paulie carried a switch-blade.
Travelling with Combs to multiple locations, he says he was told early on by Combs’s security “to stay in my lane”.
He goes on: “I understood it, to do what I was hired to do and only that job. Uncle Paulie and others said it to me.”
David James lists his personal responsibilities in his role as personal assistant for Combs, which he said included travelling the world with him.
He says his hours were 8am-4am, six to seven days per week, sometimes three weeks straight.
He lists typical duties:
With Sean “Diddy” Combs’s sex trafficking trial under way, here are just a few of the images that have been emerging outside the New York court today.
Combs is on trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges alleging that he exploited his status to abuse women, including Cassie, through threats and violence.
He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have argued that prosecutors compiled proof of domestic violence, but not federal crimes.
David James now enters the witness box – he was Combs’s personal assistant between May 2007 and May 2009.
He says he is here because he was subpoenaed twice and is here to “tell the truth”.
James explains that after graduating in Michigan State, he moved to New York, and wanted to pursue a career in fashion.
He said he applied for the role of personal assistant to the chairman of Bad Boy Entertainment in 2007, after seeing a half page advert in the New York Times.
Quickly becoming emotional, James says he spoke with other members of staff during his interview, with one telling him: “This is Mr Combs’s kingdom, and we are all here to serve in it.”
He says there was a picture of Combs on the wall of Bad Boy Entertainment.
He says he met Combs in his office at a later stage of the interview, describing him as “very professional”.
He says Combs asked him two questions, praising his assertion that he wanted to be a personal assistant because “I can’t stop, I won’t stop”, and telling him: “Yeah, I like that.”
Finally, Morgan is re-questioned by the prosecution.
She is asked what she saw during the alleged incident of violence in Jamaica, and answers: “[Combs] dragged her down the hallway by hair, pushed her down and she hit her head on the brick”.
When asked why Combs did that, she answers: “Because she was taking too long in the bathroom.”
Morgan’s questioning is now over. 
Now, Marc Agnifilo asks Kerry Morgan about a message she sent to Sean Combs featuring a quote from late self-help author Louse Hayes. 
She is asked if the reason she sent him a quote was because she believed “Combs did not love himself”.
She says: “It seemed like he did not.”
She’s asked if she sent it to help him and give him words of encouragement, and she says yes.
Agnifilo asks: “You felt they loved each other?”
Morgan says: “Yes.”
He says: “There were times when you felt he and Cassie should stay together and work things out?”
Morgan again says: “Yes.”
When later asked if Cassie was cheating on Combs, Morgan answers: “I had no idea if she was cheating on him.”
Kerry Morgan is asked about her current relationship with Cassie, and confirms that despite being friends for 17 years, the last time they spoke was in 2018, just after Combs allegedly threw a wooden coat hanger at her head, leaving her with a concussion.
Marc Agnifilo says: “She is married to another man and about to have another baby, you have not spoken to her in seven years?”
Morgan answers: “Yes.”
Agnifilo goes on: “In that period, she left him six and a half years ago, how come you haven’t spoken to her?”
Morgan says: “The reason I stopped speaking to her was because she was not supportive of me after that incident. I draw my line at physical abuse.”
She goes on to confirm Cassie had not contacted her since meeting her in a pizza restaurant shortly after the incident.
Discussing the settlement Morgan reached with Combs, she describes Cassie as the “go-between”, adding: “The money wasn’t coming from her… I did not demand money from anyone, she offered money to close the case on it, so I don’t sue anybody or say anything public about it. All I got was $30,000.”
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