Scott Mescudi, better known as the rapper Kid Cudi, testified in Sean “Diddy” Combs’s New York sex trafficking trial.
Mescudi — who in 2011 dated Cassie Ventura, Diddy’s on-and-off girlfriend for over a decade — took the stand Thursday, saying he believes the music mogul broke into his home and firebombed his sports car. His testimony comes a week after Ventura testified that Diddy abused her after learning about her relationship with Mescudi.
Diddy is facing sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy charges. He was arrested in September 2024 as federal authorities alleged he threatened, abused, and coerced victims “to fulfill his sexual desires” between 2004 and 2024. The 55-year-old music mogul has denied any accusations of wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty.
Here’s what Mescudi and other witnesses have said about the rapper’s dealings with Diddy so far:
Diddy accused of blowing up Kid Cudi’s car
Testifying on Thursday, Mescudi said he believes Diddy had “something to do with” his car being firebombed.
He received a call from his dog sitter on January 9, 2012 informing him that his Porsche, sitting in his driveway, was in flames. When he got to his house, he found what was left of a Molotov cocktail on the ground near his car, ash splattered on the red leather driver’s seat, and smoke residue clouding the driver’s seat window. He believed it was “intentional” and told the court that his damaged car was unable to be repaired.
He arranged to meet up with Diddy at Soho House the next day because “I knew he had something to do with it,” Mescudi testified.
At the meeting, he recalled Diddy “staring out the window with his hands behind his back like a Marvel supervillain.” Both men came to realize they had been “played” by Ventura, who was dating them both at the same time, he said. When they shook hands at the end of the meeting, Mescudi asked: “What are we going to do about my car?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Diddy replied, according to Mescudi, who believed that “he was lying,” he testified.
Although fingerprints and DNA were taken from the scene, no one has ever been charged or arrested in connection to the incident in the past 13 years, Mescudi added.
Last week, Ventura testified that Diddy told her he would blow up Mescudi’s car: “Sean wanted Scott’s friends to see Scott’s car get blown up.”
Mescudi says Diddy broke into his home
The rapper testified about getting a 6 a.m. call in December 2011 from a “nervous” Ventura, who said that Diddy “found out about us,” Mescudi testified. Ventura was “worried” that Diddy would come over to Mescudi’s house because he had asked for his address and Ventura gave it to him, the rapper recalled.
Mescudi then drove Ventura to the Sunset Marquis hotel, where he thought she would be “safe,” when he heard from Diddy’s then-assistant. Diddy and his associate had “forced her physically” into a car; she was sitting in that car parked outside of Mescudi’s house when she made the call, he said.
On his drive back home, he called Diddy, who said he was waiting for him at the house. When Mescudi arrived, no one was there. But he noticed his security camera that was usually focused on the door had been moved, Christmas presents for his family had been opened, and his dog had been locked in a bathroom.
He later received texts from Diddy asking to talk. “I guess he had been in the dark about things,” Mescudi told the court, referring to his relationship with Ventura.
Ventura says Diddy threatened her over relationship with Mescudi
Mescudi and Ventura dated in 2011, while she was still involved with Diddy. Mescudi said he was unaware Diddy and Ventura were still together when they dated.
Ventura testified that Diddy discovered their relationship after finding emails between her and Mescudi’s staff on her phone during a “freak off.” Diddy then lunged at her with a wine bottle opener, she testified.
When Ventura went home for Christmas that year, her family took photos of bruises she says Diddy inflicted after she visited him to talk about Mescudi.
Ventura also testified that she used a burner phone to contact Mescudi because it would be “too dangerous” for Diddy to find out they were talking.
Diddy allegedly blackmails Ventura in anger over Mescudi
Ventura’s mom, Regina Ventura, testified Tuesday that Diddy was angry when he found out about her and Mescudi.
Regina said Diddy wanted $20,000 to “recoup” the money he spent on Ventura and threatened to release explicit videos of her if she didn’t pay. Regina, who said she was afraid for he daughter’s safety, took out a home equity loan to make the payment.
The money was returned to her bank account a few days later, Regina added.
Diddy apologizes “for everything”
Mescudi recalled meeting up with Diddy again at Soho House years after his car had been set ablaze.
There, Diddy “apologized for everything,” Mescudi testified.
“After I got the apology, I found peace with it,” he told the court. “That was the last thing I was expecting to get.”
