'Jane' is one of the final witnesses against Sean 'Diddy' Combs. Here's why her testimony about 'king nights' matters.
US Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
- Sean "Diddy" Combs' prosecutors are beginning to wrap up their Manhattan sex-trafficking case.
- "Jane," their third and last sexual-assault witness, is taking the stand on Thursday.
- Prosecutors say Combs sex-trafficked her from 2021-2024. She is also key to a racketeering charge.
"Jane" is the final sexual assault accuser to take the stand against Sean "Diddy" Combs at his federal trial in Manhattan, and her testimony is meant to bolster the two top charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Her testimony follows that of R&B singer and sex-trafficking witness Cassie Ventura, who said Combs coerced her into humiliating sex with male escorts in the 10 years ending in 2018. Former Combs employee "Mia" has also testified and said he sexually assaulted her at least four times between 2009 and 2017.
Jane, who is expected to be called Thursday, is the millionaire music and lifestyle mogul's last victim before his arrest, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say Combs sex-trafficked Jane —meaning forced her to cross state lines to engage in sex with paid male escorts — between 2021 and 2024, the year he was arrested at the Park Hyatt, a Manhattan luxury hotel.
Inside Combs' hotel room, investigators recovered bags of ketamine and ecstasy powder, a blue party light, and more than a dozen bottles of baby oil and sexual lubricants, a Department of Homeland Security investigator testified during the trial's first week.
Prosecutors have previously described these items as the ingredients for freak offs, the dayslong sexual performances at the center of the sex trafficking case. Prosecutors have suggested that Jane will testify to having participated in Combs' final freak off, at that hotel.
She may call the performances by another name used by prosecutors, "king nights."
Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS
Jane's testimony may be key to proving not just sex trafficking, but racketeering as well. Racketeering requires proof that Combs, through his business empire, committed at least two underlying crimes.
Those potential underlying crimes include sex trafficking. They also include bribery and obstruction of justice.
During her May 12 opening statements, Emily Johnson, an assistant US attorney, told the jury that Combs and his family members repeatedly reached out to Jane in an attempt to influence her testimony against him.
"You will hear him try to manipulate Jane into saying she wanted freak offs," Johnson said in her opening, describing a recorded phone call she promised the jury would hear.
"You will hear him interrupt Jane when she pushes back," the prosecutor added.
Prosecutors say Combs made sure that Jane would continue to receive housing payments from him after his arrest, something they may describe as a bribe.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to the indictment, through which he risks a maximum potential sentence of life in prison.
His lawyers have insisted that all sexual contact in the indictment was consensual, and they have described his business activities as legitimate and not constituting a criminal "racket."
The trial may continue into early July, depending on the length of the defense case, which is expected to begin in mid-June.