By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The singer Cassie was content celebrating her 29th birthday with drinks, drugs and karaoke with friends, but her boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs, had a different idea.

The hip-hop mogul insisted on taking Cassie, his R&B protégé, to a Los Angeles hotel for another of his “freak-off” sex marathons, her friend and former stylist testified Wednesday at Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial.

Deonte Nash told jurors that he saw the temperamental Combs berating Cassie as she pleaded for him to let her enjoy her birthday on her own terms. Later that night, Nash said, Cassie told the stylist, “I don’t want to freak-off,” but that she had to because Combs was making her.

Nash testified that the 2015 conversation was one of several times Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, confided to him that she didn’t want to engage in Combs’ drug-fueled hotel encounters. Earlier in the trial, Cassie testified that these often involved Combs watching, directing and sometimes filming her as she had sex with a male sex worker. She said she engaged in hundreds of such encounters during her nearly 11-year relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018.

Nash said he remains close with Cassie, even advising her on her trial wardrobe. He said he contacted her Tuesday to congratulate her on the birth of her third child.

Sean “Diddy” Combs, right, blows kisses to people in the audience during his sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Along with shedding light on Cassie’s feelings about freak-offs, Nash also corroborated her testimony that Combs frequently beat and tormented her. Combs would threaten to hinder Cassie’s fledgling music career and said he’d ruin her reputation by releasing recordings of their sexual encounters, Nash said.

The stylist said he was at Cassie’s apartment, helping her pack for a music festival, when Combs stormed in, grabbed her by the hair, pulled her off a couch and hit her repeatedly. Nash said he jumped on Combs’ back in an attempt to get him to stop, but Combs bucked and threw him to the ground.

Combs resumed whaling on Cassie, who’d fled to a bedroom with Nash and another friend, knocking her head into the edge of the bed frame and causing a large, bloody gash above her eye, the witness said.

“Look what y’all made me do,” Combs said, according to Nash.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he led a racketeering conspiracy for 20 years that relied on fear and violence to get what he wanted. If convicted, he could face 15 years to life in prison.

Earlier Wednesday, Combs’ lawyers asked for a mistrial — which Judge Arun Subramanian denied — after they said prosecutors had tried to imply that Combs interfered with a police investigation into the January 2012 firebombing of rapper Kid Cudi’s Porsche 911. Subramanian told jurors to disregard testimony about fingerprint records that ended up being destroyed months after the fire.

Combs’ ex-assistant testified Tuesday that Combs said he wanted to kill Cudi after he learned that Cassie and Cudi were dating in December 2011.

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A few weeks later, Cudi’s Porsche was firebombed. A Molotov cocktail was found in the front seat, made out of a 40-ounce Old English 800 malt liquor bottle and a designer handkerchief, according to Lance Jimenez, an arson investigator for the Los Angeles Fire Department, and photographs shown in court.

Combs’ lawyers moved for a mistrial after Jimenez, prompted by prosecution questioning, testified that fingerprints taken from Cudi’s vehicle were destroyed in August 2012, about eight months after the fire. Jimenez said someone at the Los Angeles Police Department who wasn’t involved in the investigation ordered the fingerprint cards destroyed. He said this wasn’t normal protocol.

Combs’ lawyer Alexandra Shapiro accused the government of prosecutorial misconduct for even broaching the idea that something untoward happened with the fingerprint cards. She said prosecutors should’ve known better because some prospective jurors were eliminated from consideration for the trial after they said they believed Combs could buy his way out of trouble.

“These questions were designed to play right into that,” Shapiro said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik countered that “a mistrial is absolutely unwarranted here,” telling the judge that she only asked Jimenez about the fate of the fingerprint cards to counter defense suggestions that the firebombing was poorly investigated and that the area was not canvassed for fingerprints.

No arrests were made as a result of Jimenez’s investigation, but federal prosecutors contend Combs was responsible for the fire and have included the episode as one of several acts of alleged wrongdoing supporting the racketeering charge against him.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of roughly 80 fired federal employees on Wednesday appealed their terminations to an administrative body in charge of protecting the rights of federal employees from partisan political practices. Notably, that board’s chairwoman was also recently fired by President Donald Trump.

The 18F employees, who worked on technology projects such as the IRS’ Direct File, filed an appeal at the Merit Systems Protection Board against the General Services Administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

They claim they were identified in February for a reduction-in-force because of their “perceived political affiliations or beliefs,” as well as “protected speech and actions supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and actions to resist and blow the whistle on management’s improper handling and transition of control concerning sensitive data and systems.”

In February, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk posted on his social media site that he had “deleted” 18F. Musk was responding to a post by an X user who called 18F “far left” and mused that Direct File “puts the government in charge” of preparing people’s taxes. “That group has been deleted,” Musk wrote.

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The appeal documents state that the employees were removed from federal service “through a purported RIF because they were perceived to be left-wing, radical, or affiliated with DEI activities,” which “abuses the laws and regulations governing RIFs to punish perceived political opponents and to coerce conformity with their values and political positions, and violates federal civil rights statutes.”

One of the MSPB’s primary functions is to protect federal workers against partisan politics and other prohibited personnel practices by adjudicating employee appeals, according to the board’s website.

The workers’ complaint comes after the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to fire the head of the board, Cathy Harris, while a lawsuit plays out.

According to the MSPB website, as of April 9, Acting Chairman Henry Kerner is the sole serving board member, and the board is currently without a quorum to vote on petitions for review.

A White House official did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge said the Trump administration’s effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil because of his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University was likely unconstitutional.

But in a lengthy order issued Wednesday, Judge Michael Farbiarz declined to release Khalil from a Louisiana jail, finding his attorneys had not sufficiently responded to another charge brought by the government: that Khalil did not properly disclose certain personal details in his permanent residency application.

The judge said he would outline next steps in the coming days.

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Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump’s widening crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

He was then flown across the country and taken to an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, thousands of miles from his attorneys and wife, a U.S. citizen who gave birth to their first child while he was in custody.

Khalil’s lawyers argue his detention is illegal and part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to suppress constitutionally protected free speech.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a rarely used statute to justify deporting Khalil and others, citing “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

In his order Wednesday, the judge said Rubio’s order opened the door to “arbitrary enforcement” and would likely be found unconstitutional.

Inquiries to the State Department were not immediately returned.

By JEFF MARTIN, ANDREW DEMILLO and SAFIYAH RIDDLE, Associated Press

There are plenty of hideouts in the rugged terrain of the Ozark Mountains, from abandoned cabins and campsites in vast forests where searchers are hunting for an ex-lawman known as the “Devil in the Ozarks.”

Others are not only off the grid but beneath it, in the hundreds of caves that lead to vast subterranean spaces. As local, state and federal law enforcement entered the third day of the search, they continued to scour the region around the prison.

“Until we have credible evidence that he is not in the area, we assume that he’s probably still in the area,” Rand Champion, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

This undated photo provided by the Arkansas Department of Corrections Communications Department shows inmate Grant Hardin. (Arkansas Department of Corrections Communications Department via AP)

Fugitive Grant Hardin “knows where the caves are,” said Darla Nix, a cafe owner in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, whose sons grew up around him. Nix, who describes Hardin as a survivor, remembers him as a “very, very smart” and mostly quiet person.

For the searchers, “caves have definitely been a source of concern and a point of emphasis,” said Champion.

“That’s one of the challenges of this area — there are a lot of places to hide and take shelter, a lot of abandoned sheds, and there are a lot of caves in this area, so that’s been a priority for the search team,” Champion said. “It adds to the challenge of a search in this area, for sure.”

Impersonating an officer

Hardin, the former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving lengthy sentences for murder and rape. He was the subject of the TV documentary “Devil in the Ozarks.”

He escaped Sunday from the North Central Unit — a medium-security prison also known as the Calico Rock prison — by tailoring an outfit to mimic a law enforcement uniform, according to Champion. A prison officer opened a secure gate, allowing him to leave the facility. Champion said that someone should have checked Hardin’s identity before he was allowed to leave the facility, describing the lack of verification as a “lapse” that is being investigated.

It took authorities approximately 30 minutes to notice Hardin had escaped.

Champion said that inmates are evaluated and given a classification when they first enter the prison system, and “based on what he’s assessed is the reason he was sent here.” There are portions of the Calico Rock facility that are maximum-security.

While incarcerated, Hardin did not have any major disciplinary issues, Champion said.

Authorities have been using canines, drones and helicopters to search for Hardin in the rugged northern Arkansas terrain, Champion said. The sheriffs of several counties across the Arkansas Ozarks had urged residents to lock their homes and vehicles and call 911 if they notice anything suspicious.

Dark places to hide

In some ways, the terrain is similar to the site of one of the most notorious manhunts in U.S. history.

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Bomber Eric Rudolph, described by authorities as a skilled outdoorsman, evaded law officers for years in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. It was a five-year manhunt that finally ended in 2003 with his capture.

Rudolph knew of many cabins in the area owned by out-of-town people, and he also knew of caves in the area, former FBI executive Chris Swecker, who led the agency’s Charlotte, North Carolina, office at the time, said in the FBI’s historical account of the case.

“I think it is very likely that he not only had campsites and caves, but he was also spending some time in those cabins,” Swecker said.

“He was anticipating a great conflict and he had clearly lined up caves and campsites where he could go,” he added.

Rudolph pleaded guilty to federal charges associated with four bombings in Georgia and Alabama, including one in Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Games.

There are about 2,000 documented caves in northern Arkansas, state officials say. Many of them have entrances only a few feet wide that are not obvious to passersby, said Michael Ray Taylor, who has written multiple books on caves, including “Hidden Nature: Wild Southern Caves.”

The key is finding the entrance, Taylor said.

“The entrance may look like a rabbit hole, but if you wriggle through it, suddenly you find enormous passageways,” he said.

Local residents might discover some caves as teenagers, so a fugitive would want to choose one that deputies in the search didn’t also discover as teens, Taylor said.

It would be quite possible to hide out underground for an extended period, but “you have to go out for food, and you’re more likely to be discovered,” he said.

Hardin pleaded guilty in 2017 to first-degree murder for the killing of James Appleton, 59. Appleton worked for the Gateway water department when he was shot in the head Feb. 23, 2017, near Garfield. Police found Appleton’s body inside a car. Hardin was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

He was also serving 50 years for the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher in Rogers, north of Fayetteville.

He had been held in the Calico Rock prison since 2017.