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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 late 2022 until he was separated from Combs on the tarmac of Miami-Opa Locka Airport and arrested on drug charges last March.
Paul had been on a private jet with Combs, some of his staffers, and the mogul’s twin daughters bound for the Caribbean when officials turned up to the small regional airport. Unbeknownst to Combs, federal agents were currently swarming 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 him.
Upon searching Paul’s personal luggage, Paul said police found a small amount of cocaine. Paul said his “heart dropped” when the agent pulled the drugs from his bag because he hadn’t meant to travel with it. “I was sweeping [Combs’] room and put it in my bag and forgot it while I was packing,” Paul said, confirming that it was a mistake to pack it. But rather than say the cocaine belonged to Combs, Paul kept his mouth shut out of “loyalty.” That was the last time Paul said he spoke with Combs.
While Paul said the drugs belonged to Combs, he testified that neither Combs nor his chief of staff Kristina Khorram asked him to transport the substance. During cross-examination from Combs’ defense attorney Brian Steel, the 26-year-old was asked if he was Combs’ drug mule during his 18-month tenure working for Combs. “Absolutely not,” Paul said, laughing at the descriptor.
Still, Paul admitted to buying thousands of dollars worth of “hard drugs” and marijuana for Combs, as well as setting up for “Wild King Nights,” the highly choreographed sexual encounters also known as “freak-offs.”
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The former Syracuse University basketball player 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.
Upon taking the stand, Paul said he was tipped to the job by one of Combs’ former assistants, Elie Maroun, who gave him a blunt assessment of the role. “He told me get in to get out,” Paul recalled. “If you have a girlfriend, break up with her; and you’re never going to see your family.” Paul said he took this to mean that working for Combs would “require all of my attention.”
When it came to buying drugs for Combs, Paul said he purchased marijuana, cocaine, Tusi, ecstasy, and ketamine from dealers named Guido, One Stop, Baby Girl, and Ovi. (Paul said he believed these drugs to be for Combs’ personal use.) He said he bought marijuana for Combs every two months, paying $4,200 for a total of 16 ounces. He said he bought hard drugs for Combs less than 10 times, paying between $300 and $500 while other times he would pick up packages without having to pay himself. Occasionally, Paul said he saw one dealer make visits to Combs’ home.
Paul said that after procuring the drugs, he would give them directly to Combs, or put them in a Gucci pouch where the drugs were stored. Once, Paul testified, Combs had him try some of his tusi, a bright pink powder that’s commonly a mixture of ecstasy and ketamine. Paul said he did it “to prove my loyalty,” adding, “I felt euphoric but did not feel the full effect. He asked if it was good … I said yes and then I kept working.”
As for the “wild king nights,” Paul said he helped with setup and clean up on a few occasions, though he testified that Combs’ former chief of staff Khorram “didn’t really want [him] involved.” He said he only knew of Combs’ ex-girlfriend Jane (the pseudonym used by one accuser, identified as Victim-2 in the indictment) participating in the freak-offs. (Jurors later heard audio of Combs and Khorram discussing if Paul should grab supplies for the hotel night, ultimately tasking another “trustworthy” assistant.)
Paul said that he understood wild king nights involved “partying, alcohol, sex, drugs.” While these encounters first took place at hotels, Paul testified, Combs started doing them elsewhere after Casandra “Cassie” Venture sued Combs in 2023. (That suit was quickly settled, though Ventura was one of the prosecution’s key witnesses during the trial.)
On the occasions he helped set up these encounters, Paul said the necessary supplies were listed in a shared Notes app document. He said the items he packed for Combs included everything from candles and incense to condoms and soup, as well as Astroglide, liquor, and the Gucci pouch with drugs. He also testified to once packing $5,000 in cash for Combs. (The male escorts hired to participate in the freak-offs were often paid in cash.)
After the freak-offs, Paul said the rooms were in “disarray.” He said he would pile up towels and sheets, throw out empty bottles of liquor and baby oil, all while wearing rubber gloves “for sanitary reasons.”
The jury was also shown a photo Paul had taken of one of these rooms. It showed towels and sheets laid out over the furniture and the floor, with at least one linen dotted with a brown-ish stain. Paul said he took the photo to give Combs’ travel manager a heads up that there might be charges for damages.
When asked about the wild king nights by Combs’ attorneys, Paul said he considered them to be an “like an escape” for Combs during his personal time.
Paul said that he typically worked 80 to 100 hours a week for Combs on a starting salary of just $75,000 a year (which was later bumped up to $100,000). During one stretch, he recalled, he stayed up for the better part of three straight days while Combs worked on his 2023 album, The Love Album: Off the Grid. Paul said he took prescription Adderall, and the “rare, rare use” of cocaine, to stay up during the long days. “I was young, so I was able to handle it,” he said.
At one point during his testimony, the jury saw a screenshot of an iPhone note detailing Combs’ schedule in February 2023. Paul said Khorram created the schedule, which largely revolved around the women in Combs’ life — who was flying in, who was flying out, if there was a hotel night booked, who was going on vacation with Combs — with other work sprinkled in between.
Paul said his primary job was to “make sure” Combs was happy. He recalled Combs saying he did not “take no for an answer,” and told his staff to “move like Seal Team Six.” Combs once fired him, Paul said, after he forgot to bring his Lululemon fanny pack when they went on a walk. “I don’t want to see your face anymore,” Combs allegedly told him. (Paul said Khorram told him to lay low until the incident blew over.)
Paul’s last day of employment for Combs coincided with Paul’s arrest on March 25, 2024. 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.)
Bieber issued another statement to coincide with Paul’s testimony today, saying, “He was subpoenaed to come to court and tell the truth, which he did — word for word. Now that Brendan has finally had the opportunity to tell the full story about his employment, we are hopeful that the last 15 months of defamatory statements about him will cease.”
After Paul’s testimony ended, and before the next witness took the stand, the prosecution returned to Combs’ relationship with Ventura. They entered several text message conversations into the record, which showed how Combs responded to Ventura when she pushed back against him, the freak-offs, and his alleged abuse.
One exchange was from May 2, 2017 after Combs and Ventura allegedly got into a fight after appearing together at the Met Gala. Ventura texted Combs, “You hurt me so bad. You took all your anger out on me per usual. You dragged me down the hallway by my hair.”
She added, “I felt like I was dead last night,” and, “I was scared of your rage.” She then reminded Combs that one of his staff members “had to tackle” him during the altercation, before stating, “That’s not love, that’s possession… Your love me shouldn’t equate to what you ‘do for me.’”
In response, Combs said, “You were negative all night. You don’t treat me like the king.”
In another exchange a few months prior, in March, Combs texted Ventura about hiring someone for a
freak-off. The next day, Ventura sent Combs several messages that appeared to allude to another altercation: “WTF really?… You threw out all of my shit … You beat my head in.”
Combs responded by accusing Ventura of “start[ing] all of this.” She replied, “I guess I’m not down with abuse. You hit me in my head a good two times.” As Ventura described what allegedly happened to her during the freak-off, Combs accused her of not giving him the chance to finish, later asking if she knew of any female escorts.
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.
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.
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.
From Rolling Stone US
