NBC Nightly News. Legacy isn't handed down.
We're NBC News. I'm Tom Brokaw.
We hope to see you back here.
I'm Lester Holt. It's carried forward. Tom Yammus is there for us.
Firefighters are still working around the clock.
As the world changes, we look for what endures.
We are coming on the air with breaking news right now.
We look for a constant, and from one era to the next, trust is the anchor.
For NBC Nightly News, I'm Tom Yammus.
A new chapter begins.
NBC Nightly News with Tom Jammos, starting Monday on NBC.
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 Thursday, May 29th.
Just a heads -up, in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details in harrowing subject matter.
Today the prosecution called a woman to the stand they allege is another victim of combs We do not know her name.
She is testifying under a pseudonym, which is Mia and at times She seemed so overwhelmed by what she was telling the jury that she started to hyperventilate Like Cassie Ventura Mia alleges that combs sexually assaulted her She also described what it was like working for him accusing combs of keeping her awake for literally days at a time than living in fear.
Those allegations could put him directly in the crosshairs of the RICO statute.
NBC News correspondent, Chloe Molas is back outside of the federal courthouse to tell us more.
Hey Chloe. Hey Andrea.
Okay, so big day in court today.
Before Mia started her testimony, the judge gave a clear instruction to the jury not to put any weight on the fact that she was testifying using a pseudonym.
Do we know why exactly she has chosen not to use her name?
We know based on a letter that prosecutors sent the judge in April Andrea that she is just so fearful as To her identity getting out there that it could hurt her with her job Professionally it would just cause irreparable damage.
We were mandated by the judge not to even describe her appearance So I can't even tell you what she was wearing I can't tell you the color of her hair what she looked like I mean, we have to be really, really careful in abiding by these rules.
Chloe, give us a background on Mia.
Who is she and how did she get into Sean Combs's world?
So she had briefly worked as a personal assistant for the actor Mike Myers.
Yeah. You might remember him from movies like Austin Powers.
And she said that job was like a 10 to six job and that if she ever worked on the weekends for Mike Myers that she would only be like watching his dog.
So then she got this job interview to work for Sean Diddy Combs.
and she thought that this was the opportunity of a lifetime.
And she was told that she would only be working about 40 hours a week, and she said that very quickly, even on her first day, she realized that this was not the case.
She actually said, Andrea, that on her first day, she didn't get to go home until 1 p .m. the next day.
So right off the bat, she said that things were toxic and that there would be high highs and incredibly low lows.
She worked for him from 2009 to 2017 and she was promoted along the way.
Yeah, so she was a personal assistant for most of that time, but her dream was film and television, and ultimately he made her an executive at his company, and she was able to help him with film and TV projects.
So Chloe, aside from working these long hours, she has a lot of allegations that she has made against him about what it was like working for him.
Yeah, and as she's talking about all of these things, she's shaking, she's crying, she's looking down, her voice is trembling, and she says that did he threw things at her, threw her against a wall, threw her into a pool, that he threw an ice bucket at her, that he threw a laptop that narrowly missed her head one time?
Let's just bring all these things you just talked about into the actual charges in this case.
So Danny Cevallos, our legal expert, explained yesterday, to get a conviction on the racketeering charge, the prosecution has to show that some of the illegal acts that allegedly Combs engaged in are on a list of RICO crimes.
One of the crimes on the list is slavery or forced labor.
Those are the terms. Is the prosecution saying that there was some form of that with how he was treating his employees?
She testified about one time staying up for five days straight in Las Vegas, and that her body started to have a physical breakdown, that she had temporary hearing and vision loss, and that finally, Diddy was like, okay, now you can go to bed.
She also said that she has ADHD, so she had a prescription for Adderall, and that she took that, and that's what also helped her stay awake.
Mia on the stand said that Combs made her move into his house so she could be near him at all times, and she needed permission to leave. She wasn't allowed to lock her door because Combs said that this is my house, but that other employees of his could, and that she wasn't allowed to leave, not even so much as to run errands for herself or to see any of her friends, that she was always on the clock, and that one time she left his house, she stuck out around 2 a .m. after he had fallen asleep because she was desperate to see some friends and that he sent security to go find her.
So, yeah she felt like she couldn't leave. I mean she talked about things that were so extreme like she couldn't even change her tampon because he wouldn't let her out of his sight.
These are just insane stories to hear if true.
Very hard to hear. And again this is Mia's testimony, this is her account under oath.
What did Mia say she was doing for all those hours?
Like what was her job description?
I'm sure when you were, I worked for a celebrity, when you worked for a celebrity there's many hats that you wear.
I mean, look, I worked for someone pretty tough in my 20s as well, and I worked crazy hours, and I worked on the weekends, and I remember crying a lot and I would get screamed at.
And sometimes in certain industries you feel like that's a rite of passage, but what Mia is describing just moves the goalposts even further.
I mean, she says that at one time she would be doing metaphorically 17 ,000 things, everything from doing his taxes, reading movie scripts, anticipating his moods, checking the weather if it's going to be raining, making sure to grab an umbrella, making sure that she was there at his house before he woke up and staying with him until he went to bed, which we know could be like 4 a .m. And she even had to, like, crack his knuckles.
I mean, the whole thing, it's just a wild litany of things that she claimed she had to do.
Ok, you can't pay me enough to crack someone's knuckles.
Wow. Same here. So unpredictable hours, nonstop responsibilities, but could the defense argue that this is just a high stress job for a high profile person, not a crime?
She said that she was constantly humiliated, that he would question her intelligence, he would threaten her job, that she would be suspended without pay for the most random of things that would upset him.
And she also said that it wasn't just her as the personal assistant, that there were other PAs that worked for him, but she felt like she would get the brunt of everything and that if somebody messed up, that ultimately somehow it would be her fault.
We should say that, like other employees of CALMS that we've heard testify already, there were parts of the job that Mia said she loved.
She said that she begged him for years to stop being a personal assistant and to pursue her true passion, which was film, and that ultimately, he allowed her to do that, helping procure films that he could star in or films that they could invest in?
She said, even though I had this insane assistant situation, the joy that she would get out of doing TV and film was overwhelmingly awesome.
And, you know, I think that the defense tomorrow is going to say, okay, we've agreed he was a jerk and he was violent.
They said that in their opening statement, but that these employees agreed to this arrangement that these were like trade -offs and perhaps they might have text messages and emails that paint a very different picture.
Mia's employment overlapped with Combs's relationship with Cassie.
And Mia testified that one of her duties was to keep track of Cassie for Sean Combs.
That's right. I mean, she said that she interacted with Cassie a lot and that she would be sent over to Cassie's apartment and sort of monitor her, almost babysit her.
And there's this story of this party at Prince's house in which they actually snuck out.
And Combs was so upset that they had snuck out and gone to this party in L .A., that he showed up and ended up cheesing Cassie down and started to physically beat her until Prince's security intervened.
And that after that, Diddy actually suspended Mia's pay.
Hm. When we come back, we'll have more of her testimony, including what she says happened the day she and Cassie tried to escape Combs on a paddleboard, plus Mia's own story of being sexually assaulted by Sean Combs after the break.
And now a special series with daily updates from the trial of Shawn Combs.
I'll be talking to NBC News correspondent Chloe Malos every day after court about what she's seeing inside, the witnesses, the evidence and what it all means.
Dateline True Crime Weekly.
Listen now. Wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit Down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with the one and only Hugh Grant to talk about his chilling film heretic and four decade run of unforgettable movies.
Yes, you can find our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts.
Hi, everybody. I'm Al Roker from the Today Show.
Let's kickstart your wellness journey with the all -new Start Today app.
Everything you need for a healthier you, all in one place.
Fitness challenges for all levels, meal plans that are easy and delicious, and so much more.
It's built to fit your lifestyle, and our experts will guide you every step of the way.
Come on, let's do this!
To subscribe, download Start Today from the app store!
App Store on your Apple device now.
Terms of flight, cancel anytime through Apple under profile settings.
So Mia described a number of times when she says Combs got violent with Cassie.
Yeah, so she said that she saw Diddy beat Cassie up multiple times.
Mia gave a description of the sounds that she heard. Thuds, things hitting walls that she believes Is violence between Combs and Cassie?
It's similar to what we heard from Dawn Richard who was in the girl group Danity Kane, who testified about being around Cassie and Diddy and also hearing things happen in different rooms. We also previously heard from a male escort who said that he saw Combs once drag Cassie by her hair into another room and he heard slapping sounds.
Tell us about this story that Mia told on the stand about trying to get away from combs while she was with Cassie and they were all on vacation?
She said that they were in Turks and Caicos, and that Cassie came into her room and was terrified and started putting furniture against the door and just kept saying, he's gonna kill me.
And they had, they were I believe on the first floor and they had doors that exited to the beach and they ran out on the beach and Combs was chasing them and they were running towards the ocean and then they got on some paddle boards and they started just paddling out as far as they could into the ocean to try to get away from him.
And as they turned around, you know, he got smaller and smaller as they were getting further away.
And then they actually started to see bad weather coming in and storm clouds.
And they were worried, like, do we stay out here and risk our lives in the ocean, or do we go back to shore and risk our lives there?
And ultimately, they decided to go back to shore.
Mia, despite all of this, said she never saw Cassie fight back against Combs.
That's what she says.
but that is the exact opposite of what we heard in opening statement from Sean Combs' criminal defense attorney, Tanny Garagos, who has maintained that there was violence on both sides of the relationship.
Mia described cleaning up after freak -offs and she had a more civilized name for them.
She called them hotel nights.
Yes. And she's not the first person who has testified about having to clean up these hotel rooms. She actually described it as a nightmare, candle wax, that you just couldn't get out of the carpet.
There would be broken glass, even blood that Diddy supposedly told her was period blood.
Oh. Oil on the walls, wet towels, water on the floor.
I mean, you can just imagine the sort of damage that was done to the room.
Yeah. Mia says she never reported combs to the police and she kept working for him, kept getting a paycheck.
I mean, she said that she felt a loyalty to him, that part of the deal was to protect his reputation.
I mean, it's similar in testimony to what we've heard from Cassie as to why didn't she ever fully sever ties during this decade -long on -and -off relationship.
All right, so this part gets very, very serious this afternoon.
Mia on the stand says Combs sexually assaulted her.
She understandably got very upset talking about this in court.
Yeah, so she was crying and she said that after Diddy's 40th birthday, she was in his apartment and he had everybody leave. I believe they were in the kitchen and that's when he had her take a couple of shots of vodka and she hadn't eaten or had anything to drink that day.
And so she said it hit her really hard. And then she said that all of a sudden he had kind of pushed her up against a wall and put his hand up her dress and then she talked about another instance at his home in LA.
It was around 2009, 2010 so she doesn't exactly remember when it allegedly happened, but she was sleeping in a room in his house.
She was in a bunk bed and, like I told you before, she wasn't allowed to lock her door.
And she said that she woke up to Diddy on top of her and she starts to really cry at point on the stand, and she said that he penetrated her and that she just froze.
So, yeah, this is very difficult testimony.
And again, these are Mia's allegations that Sean Combs has denied.
Very hard to hear. Did the prosecution ask Mia why she didn't report any of these sexual assault allegations?
Yeah. So she said that she was desperate, terrified, and trapped.
that this was her fault, and she actually said that she never planned to ever tell anybody about this.
She said, quote, I was going to die with this.
I didn't want anyone to know, ever.
She will be back on the stand tomorrow, Chloe, Mia?
Yeah. So we're expecting her to be back on the stand in the morning for prosecutors to continue their direct questioning.
And then, things could get pretty heated in the afternoon when cross -examination begins with Diddy's criminal defense attorneys.
And we will see you back here tomorrow, Chloe.
Thank you. She said that I— Thank you.
Thanks for listening.
We will, of course, as we said, be back tomorrow with a new episode.
If you wanna read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter Diddy On Trial.
Go to NBCNews .com slash Diddy to find that.
On Trial is produced by Frannie Kelly with help from the Dateline True Crime Weekly team.
Our Senior Producers are Allison Orr and Liz Brown -Kurloff, Original Music by Jessie McGinty.
Paul Ryan is Executive Producer and Liz Cole is Senior Executive Producer of Dateline.
the first question.
On ABC.
