Former President Barack Obama may not have been a participant in the raunchy sex parties at the center of accusations against hip hop mogul Diddy, but he still left an indelible impact on them.
Diddy, who is facing decades in prison while standing trial for sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, and racketeering, wanted the theme of “hope and change” to be part of his drug-fueled “freak off” events, so he threw Obama’s image and likeness into the mix, according to witnesses who testified in court on Tuesday.
Cassie Ventura, the longtime girlfriend of Diddy, whose given name is Sean Combs, claims she downed copious amounts of drugs to numb herself into participating into voyeuristic sexual escapades that lasted for hours and sometimes days. Some of those drugs were Obama-branded.
Ecstasy pills that proliferated around the room were acquired by David James, Combs’s personal assistant who spoke about his celebrity boss’s extreme tolerance and taste for illicit substances.
The billionaire rapper would take “opiates during the day and ecstasy at night,” James testified on Tuesday, according to the Western Journal.
At one point, he demanded that James go out and acquire ecstasy pills that were pressed to display the “former president’s face.” When questioned about whom he meant, James confirmed he was talking about Obama.
Part of Tuesday’s proceedings included testimony by Regina Ventura, the mother of Cassie, who claimed that the hip hop mogul at one point tried to extort her for $20,000. The alleged demand came after Combs apparently discovered that Cassie was carrying on a relationship with another man.
Displayed in court were pictures taken by Regina that show bruising up and down her daughter’s legs, allegedly at the hands of Combs.
Added into evidence was email correspondence between the two women where they detailed some of the more horrific threats allegedly made against Cassie by her abusive boyfriend.
“I was scared for my daughter’s safety,” Regina testified, saying she took out a loan against her home to pay Combs, though the money was eventually returned to her.
Sharay Hayes, a male exotic dancer known as “The Punisher,” told the court that he engaged in sexual activities with Ventura while Combs watched and acted as a director, ordering gallons of baby oil to be poured on them and at one point demanding that Hayes urinate on his girlfriend.
He said that Ventura appeared reluctant but willing.
“It seemed like there was consent there as far as I was concerned,” he testified.
Combs has been detained in New York City since September last year when the Justice Department charged him following a raid of his Los Angeles home by the FBI.
He is one of the richest and most influential hip hop artists and producers in history, with a net worth believed to exceed $1 billion and countless platinum plaques chronicling his successes with artists including Notorious B.I.G., Justin Bieber, and others.
Federal racketeering charges, the most serious faced by Combs, carry a sentence of up to life in prison.
