肖恩“吹牛老爹”库姆斯的性交易和敲诈勒索审判的陪审员周三听取了库姆斯前雇员的证词，他同意作证，只有在他得到保证，他不会被起诉他可能详述的任何罪行。
这一进展发生在这起引人注目的案件作证的第七天，该案件揭开了一个男人的私生活的帷幕，这个男人在超过一代人的时间里一直是音乐和文化潮流的引领者。
检察官利用库姆斯前助理乔治·卡普兰的证词，试图证明库姆斯涉嫌建立一个犯罪企业，满足他的性欲，同时保护他的公众形象。
卡普兰向陪审员讲述了为库姆斯安排酒店房间以参加检察官所谓的毒品刺激的性派对的详细过程，以及卡普兰如何在事后亲自打扫房间以“保护”库姆斯免受潜在的尴尬，如果酒店员工看到后果可能会发生。根据证词，这些情节可能会持续几天，涉及非法毒品和性工作者。
库姆斯在联邦刑事案件中拒不认罪，如果罪名成立，他可能面临终身监禁。他的律师辩称，库姆斯可能犯有其他罪行——比如虐待他的前伴侣和服用非法药物——但没有像检察官指控的那样参与性交易或敲诈勒索。
联邦检察官本周一直在整理一份长长的证人名单。周三上午，他们传唤了第一位专家证人，以及一名联邦探员。检察官计划周四传唤他们最知名的证人之一，格莱美获奖艺术家卡迪小子(Scott Mescudi)将出庭作证。
政府证人名单的其余部分不公开。辩护律师向法庭发出信号，检察官可能不会传唤一名名叫“吉娜”的证人——第三名据称将指证库姆斯的受害者——因为他们在与她的律师沟通和安排她的出庭方面遇到了困难。
证人向陪审团解释了作为尚恩·库姆斯私人助理的一天
库姆斯的前私人助理卡普兰在周三下午开始作证，解释了为这位说唱大亨布置和打扫酒店房间的过程。他的证词是在联邦检察官试图确定库姆斯的行为模式和帮助他涉嫌犯罪的同伙网络之际发表的。
他作证说，他经常只接到几个小时的通知就去布置房间，并准备了一个“酒店包”，里面装满了梳子的必需品:蜡烛、婴儿油、Astroglide润滑剂、一个音频扬声器和额外的衣服。
卡普兰作证说，他的任务是在库姆斯收拾完房间后打扫房间，在“桌子上、地板上、床上”发现“许多空瓶子”和婴儿油他作证说，他担心如果酒店员工在库姆斯离开后立即打扫房间，他们可能会试图出售怪异事件后的图像视频。
根据卡普兰的说法，库姆斯据称在两个场合要求他购买非法药物——在迈阿密购买一袋摇头丸，在洛杉矶购买一种未知物质。他说他后来把毒品给了库姆斯。
尽管看似平淡无奇，但关于他担任库姆斯私人助理15个月期间所涉任务的证词，可能有助于检察官向陪审团展示精心策划的怪异行为是如何需要犯罪集团的帮助的。他明天将面临交叉询问。
专家证人提供有毒关系的背景
随着周三审判的进行，检察官试图反驳辩方对明星证人凯茜·温图拉早些时候证词的努力，这位歌手与库姆斯有着11年的关系。文图拉告诉陪审团，她受到库姆斯的虐待和攻击，并被迫与陌生人和男妓发生性行为，以满足库姆斯的偷窥幻想。
检察官传唤心理学家道恩·休斯(Dawn Hughes)向陪审团解释说，许多人选择留在虐待关系中，因为他们觉得被困住了，或者形成了一种“强烈的心理纽带”，将他们吸引到施虐者身边。
“在最好的情况下，我们很难和一个人分手，”休斯说。“当你有所有这些暴力和虐待时，你只是试图以这种非常微观的方式过一天又一天。”她解释说，受害者的情感力量往往会致力于避免挨打，而不是想办法摆脱虐待关系。
虽然休斯作为专家证人不被允许直接分析库姆斯与文图拉的关系，但她为文图拉在证词中提到的一些话题提供了间接背景。休斯告诉陪审团，如果受害者能够逃离虐待关系，他们通常会回来，因为文图拉作证说，她曾多次与库姆斯在一起。
休斯还说，受害者通常会采取被动的自我防御机制，不会激怒他们的施虐者，比如“蜷缩成一团”。早些时候的目击者Dawn Richard和Kerry Morgan都作证说，他们看到Ventura在被Combs殴打时变成胎儿的姿势。
在漫长的交叉询问中，辩护律师试图将休斯描绘成检察官的雇佣杀手。
“你从未出庭作证为一名被控性犯罪的男子辩护，这难道不是事实吗?”巴赫问道。
“没错，我不评价罪犯，”休斯回应道。
但检察官随后试图削弱法庭在重新引导讯问上的策略。
"你也被辩护律师聘用了吗?"检察官米茨·斯坦纳问道。
“是的，当然，”休斯说，并指出她受雇为库姆斯自己的辩护律师在另一个案件中工作，尽管她没有被传唤作证。
陪审团看到了对库姆斯迈阿密海滩住所的搜查证据
美国国土安全调查局(United States Homeland Security Investigations)的一名特工对库姆斯进行了大量的刑事调查，他在早上开始向陪审团介绍一些证据，他说这些证据是从这位说唱明星在明星岛的专属迈阿密海滩飞地的家中找到的。
特别探员Gerald Gannon作证说，联邦特工在离库姆斯据称存放怪胎用品(包括婴儿油、内衣、厚底鞋和性玩具)仅几英尺的地方找到了两支带有污损序列号的AR-15突击式步枪的零件。检察官辩称，暴力威胁让库姆斯得以强迫他所谓的受害者参与疯狂行为。
陪审员还看到了据称在库姆斯住所发现的大量药物，包括各种药片、大麻、粉末和其他药物，检察官指控这些药物用于让女性在反常情况下顺从，并允许她们在筋疲力尽后继续表演。
Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial day 12 recap: Jurors hear from expert witnesses and Diddy's former assistant
Jurors in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial on Wednesday heard from a former Combs employee who agreed to testify only after he was guaranteed that he would not be prosecuted for any crimes he might detail.
That development came on the seventh day of testimony in the headline-grabbing case that has pulled back the curtain on the private life of a man who had been a music and cultural trendsetter for more than a generation.
Prosecutors used the testimony of former Combs assistant George Kaplan to try to prove how Combs allegedly built a criminal enterprise that would feed his sexual desires while protecting his public persona.
Kaplan told jurors about the elaborate process of setting up hotel rooms for Combs to participate in what prosecutors allege were drug-fueled sex parties called "freak offs" and how Kaplan personally cleaned the rooms afterward to "protect" Combs from potential embarrassment that might ensue if hotel staff saw the aftermath. The episodes, according to the testimony, could be days-long affairs featuring illegal drugs and sex workers.
Combs has pleaded not guilty in the federal criminal case and faces the possibility of life in prison if he is convicted. His lawyers have argued that Combs might have committed other crimes – like abusing his former partner and taking illegal drugs – but did not engage in sex trafficking or racketeering as prosecutors have alleged.
Federal prosecutors this week have been working their way down a lengthy witness list. They called their first expert witness on Wednesday morning, as well as a federal agent. Prosecutors plan to call one of their most high-profile witnesses Thursday when Scott Mescudi – the Grammy-winning artist known as Kid Cudi – takes the stand.
The remainder of the government's witness list is not public. Defense attorneys signaled to the court that prosecutors may not call a witness known as "Gina" – a third alleged victim who would testify against Combs – because they are having trouble communicating with her lawyer and arranging her appearance.
Witness explains to the jury a day in the life as Sean Combs' personal assistant
Kaplan, Combs' former personal assistant, began his testimony on Wednesday afternoon by explaining the process of setting up and cleaning hotel rooms for the rap mogul. His testimony comes as federal prosecutors try to establish both a pattern of conduct for Combs and a web of associates who helped him allegedly commit crimes.
He testified that he often was given only a few hours' notice to set up a room and came prepared with a "hotel bag" filled with what were essentials for Combs: candles, baby oil, Astroglide lubricant, an audio speaker and extra clothing.
Kaplan testified that he would be tasked with cleaning the rooms after Combs was done with them, finding "lots of empty bottles" and baby oil "on the table, on the floor, on the bed." He testified he was concerned that if hotel staff had cleaned the rooms immediately after Combs left, they might try to sell videos of images of freak-off aftermath.
According to Kaplan, Combs allegedly asked him to buy illicit drugs on two occasions — a bag of MDMA in Miami and an unknown substance in Los Angeles. He said he later gave the drugs to Combs.
Though seemingly mundane, the testimony about the tasks involved in his 15-month tenure as Combs' personal assistant potentially helps prosecutors show the jury how orchestrating elaborate freak offs required the help of a criminal enterprise. He is set to face cross examination tomorrow.
Expert witness offers context on toxic relationship
As the trial progressed Wednesday, prosecutors attempted to rebut defense efforts to push back on earlier testimony from star witness Cassie Ventura, the singer who had a 11-year relationship with Combs. Ventura told the jury that she was abused and assaulted by Combs and forced to engage in sex acts with strangers and male prostitutes to satisfy Combs' voyeuristic fantasies.
Psychologist Dawn Hughes was called by prosecutors to explain to the jury that many people opt to stay in abusive relationships because they feel trapped or form an "intense psychological bond" that draws them to their abuser.
"It's hard for us to break up with someone under the best of circumstances," Hughes said. "When you have all this violence and abuse, you're just trying to live day to day in this very micro way." She explained that oftentimes victims' emotional strength becomes devoted to avoiding beatings instead of plotting a way out of an abusive relationship.
While Hughes as an expert witness was not allowed to directly analyze Combs' relationship with Ventura, she offered indirect context for some of the topics Ventura touched on during her testimony. If victims are able to escape an abusive relationship, Hughes told the jury, they often return, as Ventura testified that she did repeatedly with Combs.
Hughes also said that victims often adopt passive self-defense mechanisms that don't provoke their abusers, such as "curling up in a ball." Earlier witnesses Dawn Richard and Kerry Morgan both testified that they saw Ventura drop into a fetal position during beatings they said they witnessed Combs inflicting.
During a lengthy cross-examination, defense attorneys attempted to portray Hughes as a hired gun for prosecutors.
"Isn't it a fact that you have never come into court, taken the witness stand in defense of a man accused of a sex crime?" Bach asked.
"That's correct, I don't evaluate offenders," Hughes responded.
But prosecutors then tried to blunt that courtroom maneuver on redirect examination.
"Have you also been retained by defense attorneys?" prosecutor Mitzi Steiner asked.
"Yes of course," Hughes said, noting she was hired to work for one of Combs' own defense attorneys in a different case, although she was not called to testify in that case.
Jury sees evidence from raid of Combs' Miami Beach home
A special agent from United States Homeland Security Investigations, which conducted much of the criminal investigation into Combs, began the morning by walking the jury through some of the evidence that he said was recovered from the rap star's home on the exclusive Miami Beach enclave of Star Island.
Special Agent Gerald Gannon testified that federal agents recovered the parts of two AR-15 assault-style rifles with defaced serial numbers only feet from where Combs allegedly stored materials for freak-offs, including baby oil, lingerie, platform heels and sex toys. Prosecutors have argued that the threat of violence allowed Combs to coerce his alleged victims to participate in freak-offs.
Jurors also saw the trove of drugs allegedly found in Combs' residence, including a variety of pills, marijuana, powders and other drugs that prosecutors have alleged were used to make women compliant during freak-offs and would allow them to perform long past the point of exhaustion.
