NEW YORK — A lawyer for Sean “Diddy” Combs began grilling the rap mogul’s longtime former partner, Casandra Ventura, on Thursday after the jury heard two days of devastating testimony from the R&B singer known as “Cassie” about being subjected to years of horrific and dehumanizing abuse.

Attorney Anna Estevao was tasked with carefully threading the needle on Ventura’s cross-examination, with the defense acknowledging in its opening statement that she was beaten savagely by Combs. She attempted to characterize Ventura as having consented to take part in Combs’ fantasies, desperate to please him, being jealous of his other women, and participating in a mutually destructive dynamic.

Combs’ lawyers say he may have been violent but is innocent of charges alleging he ran a criminal enterprise and trafficked victims for sex; they maintain the case is about infidelity, love and financial greed and that “freak offs” — dayslong, drug-fueled sexual performances with male commercial sex workers — were consensually entered into by the alleged victims.

Estevao launched into cross by pulling up pages upon pages of sexually explicit and affectionate texts Ventura and Combs sent each other around 2009. The lawyer also introduced correspondence showing Ventura was sometimes enthusiastic about freak offs, like telling him “I’m always ready to freak off” in 2009 and “too excited” in 2017, to establish she wasn’t coerced. In other portions, Ventura indicated she was uncomfortable early on.

“The last time was a mistake but since has made me feel a little dirty and grimy as opposed to sexual and spontaneous. That’s the only reason why I go back and forth in my mind with wanting and not wanting to do it,” read one 2009 email exchange from Ventura to Combs that was shown in court.

Estevao appeared to try to establish that Ventura’s discomfort with freak offs had less to do with the performances themselves and more with the role she played in Combs’ life, especially compared to his late on-and-off-again partner and mother of three of his kids, Kim Porter.

“I get nervous that I’m just becoming the girlfriend that you get your fantasies off with,” read one 2009 email.

Portraying Combs as being vulnerable, the attorney also elicited answers about the couple’s drug use, attempts to get clean, and Combs’ displeasure with Ventura’s drug habit. Ventura affirmed he at one point sought to prevent L.A. dealers from selling to her.

The attorney also questioned Ventura about Combs overdosing on painkillers at the Playboy Mansion in February 2012 and needing hospitalization.

Ventura said she thought her using drugs was only a problem for Combs “if I wasn’t doing it with him.” On Wednesday, she said she developed a serious addiction to opiates, which she used to come down from the extreme physical exertion involved in freaks offs, cocktails of drugs fed to her by Combs, and the depressive moods that followed.

As Ventura is 8 1/2 months pregnant, expecting her third child with husband Alex Fine, Manhattan Federal Judge Arun Subramanian told the defense team it must finish up with cross-examination by around midday Friday. The judge chided Combs’ team for attempting to negotiate more time, with lawyer Marc Agnifilo calling Ventura the most important witness in the case.

Ventura, who remained calm throughout cross-exam, took the stand as the trial’s star witness on Tuesday and, over two days of questioning by the prosecution, shared countless devastating accounts of being brutally battered by Combs throughout their nearly 11-year relationship. Photos and videos of her injuries accompanied many of the accounts.

She said she first met Combs, 17 years her senior, when she was 19 and signed to Bad Boy Records, and said they began dating within a couple of years. Ventura said she was sexually inexperienced when they started sleeping together and that it was her first adult relationship.

The “Me & U” singer said Combs taught her about “voyeurism” and a “swingers lifestyle,” directing her to find escorts on websites like Craigslist and arrange their travel to hotels and properties nationwide. She said he usually masturbated while directing her and the strangers to perform sordid acts, including making men urinate on her. The sessions lasted for days, at least once a week over a period of years.

Asked why she engaged in the encounters she said she never wanted to participate in, Ventura said she lived in constant fear of Combs’ violent wrath and his power over her career and that he had threatened to release footage of the degrading performances.

“I just didn’t want to feel scared anymore,” Ventura said Wednesday. “The leverage of having an incriminating or a derogatory, humiliating video of somebody, telling them they’re going to release it if you don’t behave the way they want you to or whatever the case may be. It was just always like that.”

Ventura described Combs’ psychological and physical abuse as ultimately demolishing her sense of self, stifling her career and leading her to contemplate suicide. She revealed Wednesday that he settled a lawsuit she brought in November 2023, just 24 hours after she filed it, for $20 million. The criminal probe and a mountain of other lawsuits soon followed.

Asked by Estevao on Thursday whether she knew her suit ruined Combs’ reputation, she said, “I could understand that.”

Combs, 55, wore a beige sweater, white shirt and gray slacks to court Thursday and was spotted taking notes during testimony. His mother and five children have attended the trial, though his daughters were absent Thursday.

He has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Enabled by a network of well-paid employees, virtually unlimited resources, and immense influence, the feds say the multimillionaire Bad Boy Records co-founder abused, threatened and coerced women and others into realizing his sick sexual desires, shielding his reputation and hiding his criminality from 2004 to 2024.

Ventura on Wednesday testified about him threatening to have his henchmen incinerate Kid Cudi’s car after learning she was dating him in 2011, not long before it exploded in the rapper’s driveway. She said Combs also threatened to hurt them both and put “a wine bottle opener between his fingers and (lunged) at me” after finding out.

The sex trafficking counts allege Combs enticed and transported Ventura and Jane, which is a pseudonym, to engage in sex acts with commercial sex workers by force and fraud and after coercing them into depraved freak offs under the guise of a romantic relationship. The jury is also expected to hear from a former personal assistant of Combs who will allege he sexually assaulted her.

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