Here are the A-listers mentioned in the Diddy trial so far

Editor’s Note: This story contains discussions of rape or sexual assault that may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can find help and discreet resources on the National Sexual Assault Hotline website or by calling 1-800-656-4673.

(NewsNation) — The Sean “Diddy” Combs federal sex crimes trial entered Day 3 as potential jurors are being sorted out in the Lower Manhattan court. The disgraced music mogul is accused of sex trafficking, sexual abuse and racketeering. Combs has pleaded not guilty.

Prior to his arrest, Combs lived a life of multimillion-dollar luxury surrounded by some of the most recognizable names in the entertainment industry. 

The imprisoned rapper helmed Bad Boy Records, had his own fashion line, Sean John, and was a heavy hitter in the liquor industry with brands Cîroc vodka and DeLeón tequila. He also hosted the most elite stars at his annual “White Parties” in the Hamptons and Beverly Hills — parties that may have been a setting for some of the alleged criminal activities. 

Considering Combs’ former stature in Hollywood, it is no surprise that notable names are being brought up in court and a part of the jury question list to see if potential jurors have connections or strong opinions about the mentioned celebs.

NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield noted Tuesday that several celebrities were mentioned in court. 

“Those connections and Diddy’s impact are not only fading away, they are under the spotlight like never before in the last place you might expect: jury selection,” Banfield said. “Everybody is trying to connect the dots between the shiny, famous names and the beleaguered rap star Diddy.”

Celebrities that have been mentioned in the Combs federal sex crimes case, but without clear context, so far:

Ye, the former Kanye West

He released a song, “Lonely Roads Still Go to Sunshine,” that features Combs and his son, Christian “King” Combs, shortly after his arrest. West included a phone conversation taped with Combs supposedly in prison in the song.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 26: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs (R) accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Coke from Kanye West onstage during the 2022 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater on June 26, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)

Mike Myers

The tie to Combs is unknown if there is any at all. The former “Saturday Night Live” cast member made a joke about the rapper in his film “Austin Powers.” 

Michelle Williams

The Destiny’s Child singer was mentioned on the first day of the trial without context.

Lauren London

The former partner of Nipsey Hussle said Combs helped her get through the funeral of the rapper.

Christian ‘King’ Combs and Justin Combs

Diddy’s son Christian is accused of sexual assault and battery that allegedly occurred in 2022 on a yacht chartered by his father in a 2024 lawsuit. He and his brother, Justin, were handcuffed during the raid on their father’s mansion that led to his arrest in September 2024.

Dallas Austin

He is a record producer who dated Combs’ ex-girlfriend and mother of some of his children, Kim Porter. She died at age 47 in 2018.

Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura

An ex-girlfriend of Combs who was also an artist for his music label, Ventura is set to testify in the trial. In March 2024, CNN obtained video footage from the InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles from March 2016 that allegedly showed Combs chasing down and violently assaulting Ventura. Ventura received a monetary settlement from Combs in 2023 after she claimed he had allegedly abused her. He apologized for his actions, which were caught on camera, after the footage went public.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Cassie Ventura attend the ‘Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’ Costume Institute Gala 2018 at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York on Monday, May 7, 2018. (Laura Thompson / New York Daily News via Getty Images)

Kid Cudi

The rapper had a romantic interest in Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, and allegedly, Combs threatened to blow up his car. In February 2012, Cudi’s car blew up in his driveway, according to Ventura’s lawsuit.

Michael B. Jordan

The actor once dated Ventura, which was referenced in her lawsuit.

Aubrey O’Day

A former member of Danity Kane has been outspoken about the ex-label executive, calling him a “soulless man” and saying the working conditions for the girl group were toxic. O’Day once said Combs’ alleged “mistreatment was enough to have changed the course and direction of my entire life.”

Dawn Richard

Another former member of Combs’ pop group, Danity Kane, is suing him in a civil case for sexual abuse, inhuman working conditions and says she witnessed him allegedly abuse Cassie.

Lisa Bloom, who represents Richard, told Banfield that these celebrity names could be mentioned but not necessarily take the stand.

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Trump Supreme Court battle could be dismantled by Congress members’ own history



New evidence is emerging that could deal a major blow to President Donald Trump's case for stripping birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants.

The president has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to restore “the original meaning” of the 14th Amendment, which his lawyers argued in a brief meant that “children of temporary visitors and illegal aliens are not U.S. citizens by birth," but new research raises questions about what lawmakers intended the amendment to do, reported the New York Times.

"One important tool has been overlooked in determining the meaning of this amendment: the actions that were taken — and not taken — to challenge the qualifications of members of Congress, who must be citizens, around the time the amendment was ratified," wrote Times correspondent Adam Liptak.

A new study will be published next month in The Georgetown Law Journal Online examining the backgrounds of the 584 members who served in Congress from 1865 to 1871. That research found more than a dozen of them might not have been citizens under Trump’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, but no one challenged their qualifications.

"That is, said Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia and an author of the study, the constitutional equivalent of the dog that did not bark, which provided a crucial clue in a Sherlock Holmes story," Liptak wrote.

The 14th Amendment states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside," while the Constitution requires members of the House of Representatives to have been citizens for at least seven years, and senators for at least nine.

“If there had been an original understanding that tracked the Trump administration’s executive order,” Frost told Liptak, “at least some of these people would have been challenged.”

Only one of the nine challenges filed against a senator's qualifications in the period around the 14th Amendment's ratification involved the citizenship issue related to Trump's interpretation of birthright citizenship, and that case doesn't support his position.

"Several Democratic senators claimed in 1870 that their new colleague from Mississippi, Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first Black man to serve in Congress, had not been a citizen for the required nine years," Liptak wrote. "They reasoned that the 14th Amendment had overturned Dred Scott, the 1857 Supreme Court decision that denied citizenship to the descendants of enslaved African Americans, just two years earlier and that therefore he would not be eligible for another seven."

"That argument failed," the correspondent added. "No one thought to challenge any other members on the ground that they were born to parents who were not citizens and who had not, under the law in place at the time, filed a declaration of intent to be naturalized."

"The consensus on the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause has long been that everyone born in the United States automatically becomes a citizen with exceptions for those not subject to its jurisdiction, like diplomats and enemy troops," Liptak added.

Frost's research found there were many members of Congress around the time of the ratification of the 14th Amendment who wouldn't have met Trump's definition of a citizen, and she said that fact undercuts the president's arguments.

“If the executive order reflected the original public meaning, which is what the originalists say is relevant,” Frost said, “then somebody — a member of Congress, the opposing party, the losing candidate, a member of the public who had just listened to the ratification debates on the 14th Amendment, somebody — would have raised this.”

‘The bell of stupidity’: Conservative’s Christmas video lampoons Trump’s latest speech



President Donald Trump was supposed to prioritize the economy at a MAGA rally last week — but instead rambled about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and other familiar foes.

In a Christmas-themed video, The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson (a Never Trump conservative former GOP strategist) and journalist Molly Jong-Fast brutally mocked the speech for failing to get the desired economic message across.

Jong-Fast told Wilson, "Let's talk about how positively b----- the whole thing is. It was meant to be a rally on affordability. Here's what was not discussed: affordability. Here's what was discussed: Marjorie Taylor Greene. He calls her Marjorie Traitor Brown."

Wilson, sounding amused, interjected, "And I'm also intrigued by how she's somehow a leftist."

Jong-Fast told the Never Trumper, "It has really been a week for Trump."

Wilson laid out a variety of ways in which Trump and the MAGA movement are having a bad Christmas, from the Epstein files to the economy.

"There is no unringing this bell of stupidity," Wilson told Jong-Fast. "They have f----- it up. They have made a giant mistake."

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