The key ruling that might make or break Diddy trial: Live updates

To hear all the explosive testimony from singer Cassie Ventura and the other witnesses in Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs’ trial, tune in to Daily Mail’s hit podcast The Trial.

From sworn testimony to video evidence and the rapper’s every subtle move, our team of journalists take you inside the courtroom of the world’s biggest celebrity case.

Daily Mail has been following Diddy’s downfall from the very beginning. Join us as we hear from experts involved in the case, and members of the rapper’s inside circle.

A significant part of the prosecution’s case against Diddy relies on whether the jury believes his alleged victims were coerced into the so-called freak-offs or that they were willing participants.

To prove that victims were coerced, prosecutors brought in expert testimony from clinical psychologist Dawn Hughes, who also testified for Amber Heard during her case against Johnny Depp.

Hughes told the court last month that victims may say things they don’t mean – like wanting to participate in certain sexual acts – as a means of survival. She said victims who are subject to violence also disassociate which can affect their memory.

Her testimony was meant to explain why Diddy’s alleged victims stayed with him and continued sending loving messages appearing to consent to what they now say was sex trafficking.

However, Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that Hughes could not speak to the jury about coercive control, which can make victims become reliant on their abusers and keeping the abuse a secret, as reported by USA Today.

Now prosecutors want Hughes to come back on the stand to explain to jurors why victims stay in relationships with abusers.

The wrote Hughes is needed to explain ‘how different forms of abuse combine, the “environment of fear and obedience’ that impacts a victim’s decision-making and emotions, and how abuse is ‘interspersed with rewards, positivity, affection, and normalcy” to create attachment and dependency.’

Diddy’s lawyers, on their part, have asked the court to not allow more expert testimony, arguing that ‘Hughes’s use of broad generalizations about typical behaviors, divorced from any examination of the alleged victims in this case, is contrary to guidelines regulating Hughes’s profession.’

The mogul’s fate could depend on what Judge Arun Subramanian decides; he wil issue a ruling at the end of Jane’s testimony.

Dawn Hughes arrives at Diddy’s trial on May 21.

On Thursday, the gray-bearded hip-hop mogul turned to face courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg in the first row to make an unusual request.

‘Soften me up a bit, you’re making me look like a koala bear,’ Combs said, according to Rosenberg.

Rosenberg, a well-known sketch artist, has been documenting the proceedings for Reuters in Manhattan federal court, where photography and video recording are prohibited.

Diddy is not the first high-profile defendant to remark on Rosenberg’s depictions of them.

Earlier this year, Rudy Giuliani told Rosenberg she had made him look like his dog.

And in 2023, Donald Trump Jr. had a blunt request for Rosenberg during a civil fraud trial over his family’s real estate business: ‘Make me look sexy.’

In her lawsuit, Cassie accused Diddy of luring her into his circle and using his fame, wealth and connections to control her during their troubled 11-year relationship.

She claimed Diddy groomed her, paying for everything with ‘wads of cash’ and telling her ‘don’t worry about money, I have money’. She accused him of ‘perversely insisting’ she called him ‘Pop Pop’, a family name she used for her grandfather. Cassie alleged she was even tasked by Diddy to secure the services of male sex workers for his regular ‘Freak Offs’ – debauched orgies fuelled by drugs and alcohol.

By making the complaint, Cassie’s actions opened the floodgates for dozens of alleged victims to come forward.

Just four weeks into the trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and I want to prepare you for the possibility that these proceedings could come to a sudden, screeching halt.

I spent most of my professional career around courtrooms as a consultant for trial attorneys, instructing them, not on the legal aspects of cases, but on the human elements, specifically how jurors responded to their arguments.

At this moment in the Combs trial – with the prosecution expected to wrap up its arguments in the coming days – I question whether the jury has been presented with enough evidence to reasonably expect them to find a legal basis to convict.

And for that reason, I predict the judge may be tempted to essentially throw the case out of court.

Read Dr Phil’s full analysis here:

On Saturday, Diddy’s legal team filed a letter requesting the trial be dismissed following a testimony from Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie’s friend and fashion designer, Bryana Bongolan.

Combs’ lawyers have argued that the prosecution knowingly allowed the false testimony to be given because they had seen receipts showing the mogul was in the east coast at the time.

On Monday, judge Subramanian said he will wait for the prosecution to answer to the defense’s motion, and he will have an answer on Tuesday.

Prosecutors played an audio note from 2023 where Diddy tells Jane to ‘get on her job’ after she said she was not available for a freak off.

‘I’m about to really disappear on you, you feel me?’ the annoyed mogul said on the voice note, adding that Jane had a ‘rude awakening’ coming to her.

‘You better get on your job, that’s all it is,’ he said. ‘Because you got me on my job.’

Jane said she understood her job to be keeping Diddy happy, which included having sex with male escorts as the mogul watched.

Diddy’s ‘job,’ meanwhile was providing financial support for Jane by providing her $10,000 a month.