NEW YORK - Sean Combs's defense lawyers began questioning a woman who dated the music mogul up until his arrest, and who has testified in agonising detail that he pressured her into drug-fueled sex with escorts.
In the initial hours of questioning, defense attorney Teny Geragos sought to demonstrate that the woman speaking under the pseudonym Jane had agency throughout her relationship with Combs -- an attempt to show that what prosecutors deem to be sex trafficking was in fact consensual.
The defense exhibited loving messages and voice notes the pair shared, and also asked Jane about her "jealousy" regarding Combs's "polyamorous" lifestyle that involved other girlfriends.
Geragos elicited testimony from Jane in which she said she gravitated to men who were "successful."
The witness, who told jurors she still loves Combs, also testified that at points she felt "very loved" by him, and that he was her "baby."
Attorney Geragos spent much of the afternoon prompting Jane to read lengthy, lewd texts aloud.
During the uncomfortable, painstaking process Jane repeatedly emphasised there was an "undertone" to the messages in which she felt compelled to write what Combs wanted to hear.
Jane was largely calm and confident throughout defense questioning, but one particularly tense exchange saw her patience wane.
Jane previously told jurors how the final year of her relationship with the artist known as "Diddy" exploded into violence in June 2024.
At the time Combs was already under investigation by federal authorities, and the now-infamous security footage of him assaulting his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura in a hotel was public.
Jane, who began seeing Combs in early 2021, detailed how she had longed for a more traditional romantic relationship with him.
But she said 90 percent of their time together resulted in sometimes days-long sex parties that saw Combs direct her to have sex with male escorts while he watched, even as she told him the encounters made her feel "sleazy" and "disgusted."
Jane told jurors Combs paid for her rent at the time and still does, and he covers her legal expenses.