Sean Combs‘ former personal assistant, Brendan Paul, took the witness stand Friday as prosecutors’ penultimate witness at the music mogul’s sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial in New York.
The ex-staffer, described in multiple civil lawsuits as Combs’ “drug mule,” worked for the Bad Boy Records founder from 2022 until he was separated from Combs on the tarmac of Miami-Opa Locka Airport and arrested on drug charges.
The former Syracuse University basketball player, 26, had came to court Tuesday morning to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said he would sign an immunity order, compelling Paul’s testimony. Combs was not in the courtroom for the exchange.
Paul was traveling with Combs and the mogul’s twin daughters when federal officials surrounded the group as they were about to jet off to the Caribbean for spring break on March 25, 2024. Unbeknownst to Combs, federal agents had swarmed his homes in Los Angeles and Miami to carry out search warrants in connection to the Southern District of New York’s sex trafficking and racketeering investigation into Combs.
While seizing Combs’ electronics, investigators also searched Paul’s baggage, finding cocaine and marijuana candy, according to an arrest report obtained by Rolling Stone. Led away in handcuffs, Paul was the only person arrested as part of the raids. Last May, Paul struck a deal with Miami prosecutors that sent him to pre-trial drug diversion as an alternative to prosecution. His charges were dropped in December after he completed the program. “Mr. Paul is pleased to close this chapter of his life,” his defense lawyer, Brian H. Bieber, told Rolling Stone at the time. (The deal was offered because the substance amount allegedly found was not of a “trafficking” level, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office told Rolling Stone at the time.)
Combs, 55, was arrested in September and has pleaded not guilty to five felony charges of sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors alleged that under the racketeering count, Combs possessed and distributed narcotics, including ecstasy, cocaine, oxycodone, and ketamine. If convicted as charged, Combs could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Paul’s arrest came just weeks after music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who worked closely with Combs on 2023’s The Love Album: Off the Grid, sued Combs for sexual harassment and abuse in February 2024. In the lengthy filing, Jones accused Paul of being Combs’ drug “mule,” allegedly “acquir[ing] and distribut[ing]” drugs to Combs and his associates. (Combs has denied the accusations in Jones’ lawsuit, and the case is ongoing.)
Paul’s name has popped up a few times in the criminal trial. On Monday, a compilation of text messages between Paul and Combs’ longtime chief of staff Kristina Khorram, as well as other personal assistants for Combs, showed how the lower-ranking employees were expected to set up “King Nights” at a moment’s notice and deliver drugs and cash to Combs whenever he beckoned.
Southern District of New York
Another former assistant, Jonathan Perez, told jurors last Friday that his tenure with Combs overlapped with Paul. One of the assistants’ main jobs, Perez said, was to make sure a black “Gucci pouch” that was packed with “cocaine, ketamine, molly, Adderall, [and] Xanax” traveled everywhere with Combs.
One of the mogul’s recent ex-girlfriends, a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane, also mentioned Paul in her testimony. She told jurors that shortly before she endured her first so-called “hotel night” without the aid of any drugs in mid-October 2023, Paul allegedly whispered words of comfort to her.
Jane said Combs had been growing impatient while she and Perez were out picking up lingerie costumes for the looming freak-off. “He said, ‘I’m just here waiting for you. What the fuck is taking so long,’” Jane said. Combs barked at her over the phone. “[He] called me a bitch from there.”
When Jane arrived at the L’Ermitage hotel suite, Paul “looked really upset,” she said. “I remember that assistant was shaking his head and just saying to me, ‘You don’t deserve to be called a bitch,’” she recalled.
Earlier in the week, SDNY special agent DeLeassa Penland testified Tuesday about the accuracy of evidence compiled in a chart presented by prosecutors. The chart contained 71 alleged instances of Combs booking hotel rooms for freak-offs with Ventura between August 2009 and June 2017. The chart contained the names of the male escorts and corresponding travel information if they were flown in from out of state. Penland said the data was compiled through bank statements, hotel and flight records, text messages, and videotapes.
During cross-examination, Combs’ defense attorney Teny Geragos asked Penland why certain alleged freak-offs weren’t included in the chart — like the December 2011 freak-off that Ventura said ended with Combs allegedly lunging at her with a wine bottle opener because he discovered her romance with musician Kid Cudi. Geragos also questioned why Combs’ name wasn’t always listed on certain dates when alleged freak-offs occurred.
Although prosecutors showed a few brief clips of freak-off videos to jurors for the first time Monday, Geragos went more in depth, playing 10 different clips taken from multiple freak-offs between 2012 and 2014 for nearly 20 minutes straight Tuesday morning. Jurors awkwardly fiddled with their headphones, tapped their pens, and held their chins as they watched the videos. Combs largely seemed unfazed, taking glances at the jury. At one point, Combs seemed to bob his head as if he were listening to music.
Paul is one of the government’s last witnesses, and prosecutors are expected to rest after their last summary witness as soon as Monday. The jury has already heard from several former assistants, who, like Paul, testified that they were expected to act as drug and cash couriers for Combs. They detailed his jet-setting, “can’t stop, won’t stop” work ethic, which they were also expected to adopt. Two former assistants, Capricorn Clark and a woman using the pseudonym “Mia,” stated that they would often go days without sleeping and were on call nearly 24/7.
George Kaplan, who also testified under immunity, seemed proud to have learned from Combs during his two years as Combs’ assistant but admitted his breaking point came after seeing two alleged violent episodes involving Combs and two different women.
