Jurors see more texts between Cassie and Diddy as prosecutors prepare to rest case

Diddy’s trial was abbreviated this week. The proceedings were effectively canceled Wednesday after a juror called in sick, and federal court wasn’t in session Thursday in observance of the Juneteenth holiday. But this morning, all the key players returned to the courtroom to hear testimony from one of the rapper’s former personal assistants.

Here’s what you need to know about Day 27 of the trial:

• Brendan Paul testified about the demands of his job as one of Diddy’s former assistants. He told jurors he once went without sleep for three days. He recalled being asked to buy thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs. He said the music mogul didn’t take “no” for an answer and compared his staff assistants to the U.S. military’s SEAL Team 6.
• Paul, facing cross-examination from defense attorney Brian Steel, agreed that Diddy’s ex-girlfriend “Jane” did not seem hesitant or apprehensive before “freak offs.” Paul said Jane appeared to be a willing participant in the sexual encounters — contradicting her testimony and the government’s narrative.
• U.S. government prosecutors walked jurors through text messages from Cassie Ventura to Diddy. In one text, Ventura said she didn’t deserve to be beaten by him. “That’s not love, that’s possession,” Ventura wrote, apparently referencing the 2016 hotel assault recorded on video.
• The defense again attempted to portray “freak offs” as consensual encounters. They entered into evidence a March 2017 text message in which Ventura wrote: “I love our FO’s, when we both want it.”

🔎 The view from inside

By Adam Reiss, Chloe Melas, Katherine Koretski and Jing Feng

Diddy, wearing a white sweater and black pants, appeared engaged in today’s testimony. He seemed to pay close attention to prosecutor Maurene Comey as she questioned U.S. government summary witness Joseph Cerciello, a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security.

Paul, the ex-assistant, struck an ambiguous note as he concluded testimony for the day. When asked by prosecutor Christy Slavik how he feels about Diddy today, Paul replied with two cryptic words: “It’s complicated.”

👨‍⚖️ Analysis: In this case, the star witnesses are text messages

By Danny Cevallos

Cerciello, the Homeland Security special agent, testified about charts of evidence compiled by prosecutors to confirm they correspond to thousands of pages of records, including text messages.

Diddy will almost surely not testify. But it doesn’t really matter. That’s because in a modern criminal case — especially a federal criminal case — prosecutors can get witnesses and defendants’ “testimony” in front of the jury without them ever taking the stand. Combing through thousands of pages of text messages is something at which special agents and federal prosecutors excel. It doesn’t matter that a single text message or a short series of messages could be taken out of context. Prosecutors will introduce it and add their own context. After all, if the defendant thinks these statements are misleading, he can take the stand and dispute them, right? Except, most of the time, the defendant does not take the stand.

In this case so far, the star witnesses have arguably not been the humans. They have been things like text messages, financial records and other documents. For some reason, people have always put things in text messages as though they could never become public. We’re all guilty of that, too. All of us are likely part of a text message “group” with our friends or family where we say things that, if publicly revealed, would cause us a lot of problems. Certainly for Diddy, these texts have caused him a lot of problems — arguably more than the people who testified against him.

🗓 What’s next

U.S. government prosecutors are expected to rest their case on Monday. Diddy’s defense team has signaled it will need around two days to present its case. If that rough timeline holds, closing arguments could take place Thursday.

PSA: Every night during Diddy’s trial, NBC’s “Dateline” will drop special episodes of the “True Crime Weekly” podcast to get you up to speed. “Dateline” correspondent Andrea Canning chats with NBC News’ Chloe Melas and special guests — right in front of the courthouse. Listen here.