NEW YORK — A former top aid to Sean “Diddy” Combs testified Tuesday at his sex trafficking trial that the music mogul threatened her with death on her first day on the job and later kidnapped her at gunpoint to join him in an effort to kill rapper Kid Cudi.
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The testimony from Capricorn Clark, the former global brand director for Bad Boy Entertainment, launched the third week of testimony in the trial on a violent note as prosecutors try to prove Combs led a racketeering conspiracy spanning two decades that relied on beefy security employees and others to ensure he got what he wanted.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of an indictment accusing him of a pattern of abuse toward his longtime girlfriend Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, and others.
Clark’s testimony came days after Kid Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, testified that Clark called him from a car outside his home in December 2011 and told him that Combs, angered because Cudi was dating the singer Cassie, had kidnapped her and forced her to ride him with him to Cudi’s home.
Clark, who mostly referred to Combs as “ Puff ” during her testimony, said he came to her home that morning with a gun in his hand, demanded that she get dressed and come with him because “we’re going to kill Cudi.”
She said they rode in a black Cadillac to Cudi’s home in Los Angeles, where Combs and a security aide entered the residence while Clark sat in the car and called Cassie.
Clark testified she told her that Combs “got me with a gun and brought me to Cudi’s house to kill him.”
Clark said she heard Cudi in the background of the call asking, “He’s in my house?” She told Cassie, “Stop him, he’s going to get himself killed.”
Cassie told her she couldn’t stop Cudi, she recalled.
Combs returned to the vehicle and asked Clark who she was talking to, Clark testified. He grabbed the phone and called Cassie back, she said.
They then heard Cudi’s vehicle coming up the road, she said. Combs and his bodyguard got back in the vehicle and chased after Cudi, finally giving up when they passed police cars that were heading for Cudi’s house.
After the break-in, Clark said, Combs told the people with him that they had to convince Cudi “it wasn’t me.”
“If you don’t convince him of that I’ll kill all you,” he said, punctuating his threat with an expletive, according to Clark.
On Thursday, Cudi testified that he dated Cassie briefly in December 2011, believing that she had broken up with Combs, but they agreed over the holidays to end the relationship after all that had happened.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner questioned Clark about her off-and-on employment with Combs between 2004 and 2018, beginning with the first day on the job when she said Combs and a security staff member took her to Central Park after 9 p.m. and said he hadn’t been aware of her past history working with other rappers.
Clark, her voice shaky at times, testified that Combs told her that if her past work for rap rivals became an issue, he’d have to kill her.
She said she was only weeks into the job when Combs tasked her with carrying some diamond jewelry on a flight to Miami and it went missing.
As a result, she said, she was taken to a largely empty building in Manhattan where, over a five-day stretch, she was repeatedly given a lie detector test by a man who seemed five times larger than her own size.
“He said: ‘If you fail this test they’re going to throw you in the East River,’” she recalled.
Clark said they eventually let her return to work.
If convicted, the 55-year-old Combs could face 15 years to life in prison.
