It’s not exactly the rap battle anyone ever likely envisioned, but May 22 will see Sean “Kid Cudi going head-to-head as the Happy Gilmore 2 star gives testimony in the Bad Boy Records founder’s sex-trafficking trial.
Kid Cudi (a.k.a. Scott Mescudi) will take the stand in Judge Arun Subramanian’s lower Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, prosecutors confirmed today.
Starting off Wednesday’s hearing before the jury was in the room by informing the judge and defense team that the “Man on the Moon” rap star would not be testifying today, the feds unveiled at the end of the day, after the jurors had exited, that Kid Cudi would now be in the witness box on Thursday. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey (Yes, as we’ve noted before, daughter of former FBI Director, U.S. Attorney and Trump foe James Comey), the feds expect Kid Cudi to be a brief witness. Along with the Grammy winner, the prosecution intends to call a total of five witnesses on Thursday – all to be dealt with quite quickly, they insist.
Joining the likes of Cassie Ventura, a couple of male escorts who were paid to have filmed sex with Ventura in the much-discussed “freak-offs,” Ventura’s mother and some law enforcement officials, Mescudi will be the 13th witness for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Combs’ criminal case. Like every day of the trial, jury selection and pre-trial hearings, Combs was in court today, and will be tomorrow.
Predicted to last eight weeks, the criminal trial of the racketeering, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and more. Incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his arrest, after a trio of failed $50 million bail attempts, Diddy has always insisted he is innocent. He has taken the same position in the dozens of civil suits of abuse and assault that have been filed in the court dockets over the past several months. Rejecting a plea deal from the government, Combs could face life behind bars if found guilty in this criminal trial.
From the moment Cassie Ventura filed her very quickly settled ($20 million) abuse and assault suit against ex-boyfriend Combs in late 2023, the name of Kid Cudi has been connected to the self-described “toxic relationship” between the “Me & U” singer and the “All About the Benjamins” performer.
As various filings, plus testimony from Ventura and her mother have stated, the singer and Mescudi had a short romantic relationship in 2012. Along with various threats against the duo, a jealous Combs promised to blow up Kid Cudi’s car in his own driveway to keep him away from Ventura. As Ventura’s 2023 filing bluntly said: “Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway.”
At the time, reps for Kid Cudi confirmed the car destruction from a decade before.
Cudi will testify right after the jury has heard more from former Diddy executive assistant George Kaplan. In court Wednesday under the duress of a subpoena, like fellow Combs ex-EA David James who testified earlier this week, Kaplan entered the witness box around 11:45 a.m. PT.
Detailing his gofer duties today to the court, Kaplan is known to have left Combs’ employ after a year, in some part due to the violence he is said to have seen. Before Kaplan, this third day of the second week of Combs’ May 12-starting trial heard testimony from psychologist Dawn Hughes and Homeland Security Investigations special agent Gerard Gannon. The latter was involved in the raid on Combs’ Miami residence in the spring of 2024.
Along with the Combs’ trial, Kid Cudi will be back in lower Manhattan next month in a completely unrelated manner. Co-starring Tribeca Film Festival on June 7. Directed by Ti West and produced by Jordan Peele, the short is connected to Kid Cudi’s latest single of the same name.
