Diddy the diva complains about unflattering court sketches: Live updates

To hear all the explosive testimony from singer Cassie Ventura and the other witnesses in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial, tune in to Daily Mail’s hit podcast The Trial.

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On Thursday, the gray-bearded hip-hop mogul turned to face courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg in the first row to make an unusual request.

‘Soften me up a bit, you’re making me look like a koala bear,’ Combs said, according to Rosenberg.

Rosenberg, a well-known sketch artist, has been documenting the proceedings for Reuters in Manhattan federal court, where photography and video recording are prohibited.

Diddy is not the first high-profile defendant to remark on Rosenberg’s depictions of them.

Earlier this year, Rudy Giuliani told Rosenberg she had made him look like his dog.

And in 2023, Donald Trump Jr. had a blunt request for Rosenberg during a civil fraud trial over his family’s real estate business: ‘Make me look sexy.’

Prosecutors showed the jury audio of a sex session between Diddy, Jane and a male escort on Friday.

Jane said the audio shows the moment she asked the escort, who she named as Don, to wear a condom.

Diddy then came in the room and asked Don what he was looking for, Jane added.

Jane is then heard saying ‘you promised’ – referencing a previous conversation with Diddy where she told him she preferred to use condoms, the alleged victim told the jury.

The mogul then said it was ‘fine’ for the escort to weat a condom.

But when they got to the room, Jane said ‘I wasn’t able to wear condoms.

Jane spoke of Diddy’s alleged demands for the freak offs on Friday.

She said she and the male escorts would not use protection when having sex because ‘it was not her parner’s preference.

Jane told the court that she asked Diddy if the ‘entertainers’ could wear condoms ‘more than once.’

But Jane said that Diddy reacted by being ‘dismissive and kind of… guilt trip [her] out of it, it wasn’t something he wanted to see.’

She added the mogul’s tone was ‘a bit condescending and [he] wanted me to move on from the subject as if it wasn’t going to happen….

‘He said he didn’t want to see a rubber while he was watching.’

Prosecutor Maurene Comey has started questioning Diddy’s third alleged victim Jane on Friday.

Jane appears nervous as she tells the jury about the mogul’s requirements for their ‘hotel nights’ or ‘freak offs.’

Judge Arun Subramanian told lawyers on Thursday that he twice saw Combs looking at the jury and ‘nodding vigorously’ during the cross-examination of Bongolan.

The judge said Diddy’s behavior was ‘absolutely unacceptable’ and ‘cannot happen again.’

The judge said he would consider further measures if the conduct does not stop, including kicking the disgraced mogul out of his own trial.

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said he understood.

The judge then added sternly: ‘There should be no efforts whatsoever to have an interaction with this jury.’

Prosecutors asked the judge to turn the livestream in the overflow room when alleged victim Jane is on the stand.

They said they want to avoid a situation where nonredacted information is shown to those in the overflow and press rooms.

Bryana ‘Bana’ Bongolan sued the rap mogul for $10million in 2024, accusing him of sexual battery and physical abuse.

She claimed Diddy force-fed her ecstasy and during a photoshoot told her ‘I’m the mother******g devil. I could kill you’.

Bongolan’s lawsuit further included stories she heard while working with Combs, including that he threatened to blow up rapper Kid Cudi’s car after he slept with Ventura.

Her complaint also featured a rumor that Diddy previously ‘skinned a rival’s dog’, although she admitted she did not know if there was any truth to the story.

The judge and lawyers want to ensure Jane’s testimony is completed in time for her to make a trip abroad next Thursday.

The judge indicated he might also have a longer trial day on Monday and Tuesday. The longer days are necessary because prosecutors had hoped to begin questioning Jane as early as Wednesday, but she didn’t get on the stand until Thursday afternoon. Prosecutors plan to continue direct examination into Monday.

Jane’s time on the witness stand is expected to meet or exceed the four days that Cassie Ventura testified in the trial’s first week.

The trial begins its fifth week on Monday. Prosecutors had indicated that they were ahead of their plans to finish presenting evidence within six weeks, but the optimistic forecasts have disappeared in recent days.

The disgraced mogul is wearing a dark crew neck sweater today.

He gave a handshake to his lawyers Jason Driscoll and Xavier Donaldson as he entered the room.

Most of his other lawyers got a hug, while Nicole Westmoreland got a hand grasp and a smile.

Diddy has appeared pleased with Westmoreland after her cross-examination of Bryana Bongolan, who claims the rapper dangled her off a 17-story balcony.

Jane, the third alleged victim brought by prosecutors to the stand, will continue her testimony on Thursday.

She is testifying under a pseudonym after the state requested that her identity be kept private.

Prosecutors say Diddy ‘used lies, drugs, threats, and violence’ to coerce Jane into so-called freak-offs – sexual performances where she would be forced to have sex with male escorts as Diddy watched.

A security guard told how Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs counted out $100,000 from a brown paper bag to buy the only copy of a video showing him beating up his ex-girlfriend on Tuesday.

Eddy Garcia, who worked at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, told in vivid detail how the hip hop mogul used a counting machine to add up the money for the bribe in 2016.

Garcia said that Diddy called him ‘Eddy, my angel’ for deleting it from the servers and giving it to him on a USB stick.