By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A former top aide to Sean “Diddy” Combs testified Tuesday that the hip-hop mogul threatened to kill her during her first day on the job and waved a gun as he kidnapped her years later in an angry rush to find and kill rapper Kid Cudi.
Capricorn Clark’s account of Combs’ volatility and violence launched the third week of testimony at his Manhattan federal sex trafficking trial.
Prosecutors called Clark, the former global brand director for Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment, to support a charge that he led a two-decade racketeering conspiracy that relied on beefy bodyguards, death threats and the silence of frightened staff to ensure he got what he wanted.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to an indictment alleging he abused his longtime girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, and others. If convicted, he could face 15 years to life in prison.
Clark’s tearful testimony came days after Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, testified that Clark called him from a car outside his home in December 2011 and told him Combs had forced her to accompany him to Cudi’s house.
Combs was angry Cudi was dating Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, Clark said.
Clark, referring to Combs as ” Puff,” said he came to her home holding a gun and demanded she get dressed because “we’re going to kill Cudi.”
Her voice shaky, Clark recounted how they rode in a black Cadillac Escalade to Cudi’s Los Angeles home, where Combs and his bodyguard entered the residence while Clark sat in the SUV and called Cassie.
Clark testified she told Cassie 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 asking, “He’s in my house?” She said 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 Escalade and asked Clark who she was talking to, she said, then grabbed the phone and called Cassie back.
They next heard Cudi driving up the road, Clark said. Combs and his bodyguard got back in the SUV and chased after Cudi, finally giving up when they passed police cars that were heading to Cudi’s house.
After the break-in, Clark said, Combs told her she 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, Clark said.
Clark said she and Cassie then went to Cudi’s home, telling jurors: “We needed to talk to him. We needed to make sure he wasn’t going to make a police report about Puff.”
After that, she said, she watched in shock as Combs viciously assaulted Cassie over her relationship with Cudi.
Combs kicked Cassie with “100% full force” to the legs and back as she curled on the ground outside his home in a fetal position and wept silently, Clark said.
Clark said her “heart was breaking from seeing her get hit like that” and that neither she nor Combs’ bodyguard intervened.
The answer prompted an objection from Combs’ lawyers, and Judge Arun Subramanian told jurors to disregard it.
Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo questioned Clark’s recollection, leading her to reconsider certain details. She admitted some haziness about events that happened “such a long time ago.”
On Thursday, Cudi testified that he dated Cassie briefly in December 2011, believing she’d broken up with Combs, but they agreed over the holidays to break up.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner questioned Clark about her off-and-on employment with Combs from 2004 to 2018, beginning with her first day when she said Combs and a bodyguard took her to Central Park after 9 p.m. and said he hadn’t been aware of her past work for other rappers.
Clark testified that Combs told her that if that work became an issue, he’d have to kill her.
Clark said she was only weeks into the job when Combs tasked her with carrying diamond jewelry and it went missing. As a result, she said, she was repeatedly given lie detector tests over five-day stretch 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, adding that they eventually let her return to work.
Even the alleged kidnapping didn’t scare Clark away, Agnifilo noted.
Last year, after federal agents raided Combs’ homes, she suggested returning to his employment as his chief of staff. Combs rejected the offer, Agnifilo said.