P. Diddy’s Former Assistant Tells All in Sex Trafficking Trial

Bombshell testimony from someone who reportedly saw how Diddy operated from the inside. Shan Comb's former personal assistant took the stand in his former boss's sex trafficking and racketeering trial. He claims to have set up and even cleaned up hotel rooms that were covered baby oil and astrolglide lubricant.

Here are pictures of some of that lubricant found at Combmes's Miami mansion in a raid. Not to mention before this witness's testimony, he tried to plead the fifth what he didn't want to say in open court just feet away from his former boss. A former boss that could spend the rest of his life in federal prison.

We're on the case presented by law and crime. I'm Chris Stewart. When I say the name George Kaplan doesn't really have the same pop as Cassie or Kid Cuy or Diddy, but when you're looking at the trial of Shawn Diddy Combmes accusing him of sex trafficking and racketeering, the name George Kaplan matters a good bit because George Kaplan was incredibly close to Diddy during a very crucial time in the government's case.

Here's a picture of George Kaplan entering the federal courthouse in Manhattan this week. Kaplan worked for Combmes Enterprises from 2013 to 2015, which is the umbrella company that oversaw everything Shaun Diddy Combmes from his music to his liquor brands to his clothing brands. Kaplan says he started out as a personal assistant to other executives at the company.

But then in 2014, he worked directly for Shaun Diddy Combmes as a personal assistant, the person that he first called in court the chairman. So far in this case, we have seen witnesses who were singers and rappers and even escorts. These were people who were in Shawn Comb's inner circle, a man who was accused of running a sex trafficking and racketeering operation.

But Kaplan came from a very different background. He was brought into Diddy's circle because he started his career at Nickelodeon, the kids TV channel. He said his boss at Nickelodeon moved over to work at Combmes Enterprises and then Kaplan came with him.

Eventually, Kaplan worked his way up to work directly for Shaun Diddy Combmes. Kaplan detailed some wild over-the-top things that he had to do when he worked for Diddy, and some of them were illegal. Before his testimony on Wednesday, Kaplan said he planned to plead the fifth in order not to incriminate himself while answering certain questions.

The government found his answers to be so important, they requested that Kaplan be given immunity and the judge granted him that. Kaplan went into detail about the intense hours that he worked and the over-the-top requests that he had to fulfill for Shawn Combmes. He said he was paid $125,000 a year.

Now, when you hear that money, you have to wonder whether it was worth it. Before we get back to what's happening in the courtroom in New York, I do want to bring you a law and crime legal alert. Because if you received a Depo PArol shot and you were later diagnosed with a spinal or a brain tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible for a lawsuit.

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Kaplan said that he worked between 80 to sometimes 100 hours a week for Diddy on average. Sometimes work would start at 9:30 in the morning, but he wouldn't be done until 7:00 in the morning the next day. In some ways, Kaplan was really just a gopher for Combmes.

He would run errands, pick up prescriptions, get Comb's food if he was hungry. and also make sure that his office was ready each day. He would even set up Diddy's toiletries in his bathroom and make sure they were all facing forward.

But he also said that Combmes would regularly threaten his job. The first time that happened, he said, was just a week into his position working directly for Shawn Combmes. Did he asked him to go get a gallon of BPA free water from Whole Foods.

Kaplan says when he got to the grocery store they were out of gallon versions of that water. So he bought two half gallons to make one full gallon and that just set Diddy off. Kaplan said Diddy would actually threaten his job on a monthly basis.

Now while that anecdote it might remind you of the reality show Making the Band on MTV when Diddy sent the contestants to go get him cheesecake miles away in Brooklyn and they had to do it on foot. All of that, while sensational, maybe harsh, it's not illegal. But then Kaplan started answering questions that put him in the middle of several scenes that the government is trying to paint in this trial.

One of Kaplan's main duties was that he set up the hotel rooms that Diddy would stay at. He said his goal was to make it feel like home for Combmes, and he would take a hotel bag and then unpack it in the room. Kaplan said that Diddy's bag would have clothes, a speaker, candles, liquor, baby oil, Astroglide, that's a lubricant.

And if you have been following this trial, you might know where we're going. Baby oil and Astroglide are two of the alleged main ingredients that were used in the freakoff parties at the center of this trial. The drugfueled sex parties that involved escorts that would go on for hours.

According to Diddy's ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, who has already testified in this trial, she was a star government witness. Here's a picture of Astrolglide lubricant that was found in Diddy's Miami mansion when it was raided by federal agents in March of last year. Not only did Kaplan set up Diddy's hotel room, he would also clean it up after Combmes left.

The prosecutor asked Kaplan what he remembered about cleaning up the hotel rooms. And he said, quote, "Lots of empty bottles, empty Gatorade bottles, empty liquor bottles, and often baby oil, which he said would be on the table, on the floor, on the bed, around the room. " He also said one time he saw a brown crystallized powder in the hotel room, which he got rid of.

Kaplan also said he would clean up the hotel rooms before the housekeeping staff would get there in order to help protect Shawn Diddy Comb's image so someone couldn't take a picture of a dirty hotel room or one filled with baby oil and then sell it to a tabloid. Kaplan said when Diddy was in a hotel, which sometimes would be for multiple days, that's when he would go home to rest. So he says he was not there during the alleged freakoffs.

Kaplan also talked about going and buying drugs for Diddy. Kaplan said on one occasion he bought Diddy the party drug MDMA. He said Diddy gave him a phone number and some cash, and then Kaplan called the number, had a man come by Diddy's house, gave the man the cash, and the man gave Kaplan a bag full of pills, which he believed were MDMA.

He also talked about another instance when he bought substances for Diddy, but he didn't know exactly what those substances were. MDMA, though, is one of the drugs that was found in Diddy's Miami mansion in that raid, according to federal agents. And one of Diddy's former personal assistants testified this week that Combmes took drugs throughout the day, almost every day.

Percoetses in the morning and then he'd switch to more party drugs like ecstasy and MDMA at night. Kaplan also testified that he witnessed Combmes abuse Cassandra Ventura. He said it happened on a private jet and Combmes asked Kaplan to get cream to conceal the bruising on Cassy's face.

The prosecution asked Kaplan why he didn't intervene and he said it was because of concerns over his career. He also talked about an incident when Combmes allegedly threw green apples at a former girlfriend named Gina in the hallway of his Miami mansion. Kaplan testified he eventually left his job with Combmes Enterprises partly because he no longer wanted to cover things up.

On cross-examination, he did tell the defense that he had respected Combmes as an entrepreneur. They also questioned whether he actually saw the incident of Cassie being abused allegedly on the jet and Gina having apples thrown at her allegedly at that home in Miami by Shawn Combmes. Joining us now to talk more about this is retired FBI agent Bobby Shicone.

Thank you for taking the time to to be with us today. Let's talk about this witness, uh, George Kaplan. Not a not a household name.

He's not a performer or superstar like some of the other people that we we've seen on the stand. Why is he an important witness though when you look at the story the government's trying to tell? Sure, Chris.

Well, I mean, on the outside, a guy like this looks like very much at the bottom of the uh of the totem pole in a in a case like this with all the people around um this case, but he serves a crucial role even though he doesn't seem like the most well-known name because sometimes the personal assistants who are almost anonymous for most of the time served like a crucial role, especially in this case. You know, we've heard testimony that he prepped the hotel rooms before that he got there. That means he made sure there was baby oil and lubricant and and the things and alcohol and things like that.

And then following up on that, after these so-called freakouts would take place in these hotel rooms, he would clean it up, you know, and and the question was posed to him like, why not let the hotel, you know, housekeeping staff clean it up? Well, there was stuff in there like, you know, this copious amounts of sexual lubricant and things like that that would kind of tarnish a popular public figure's reputation. So, he said his job was to kind of protect um Diddy's reputation and get all of that stuff out of there.

He wasn't making the beds, per se, but he was cleaning up all that other stuff that someone would come in and say, "Wow, what is all this? It looks like there was a sexual orgy in here last night. " And and what stood out to me too and and I know it's the prosecutors who were trying this case in court, but I think of the federal agents who who built this case and were identifying some of the key players who would play a part in in the prosecution's work.

You have Cassie describing these freakoff events uh and and others who who have talked about it, some of the male escorts, but then here's someone also and it's like corroborating some of the details. You know, you you have the baby oil that's in the room and there was a lot of it. There was this Astroglide sexual lubricant and there was a lot of that and then that backs it up.

It seems like he is someone if you're a juror and you were like this sounds way too wild to be true. In comes George Kaplan backing it up. Yeah.

Well, you hit the nail on the head with for prosecution is all about corroboration. So like each witness doesn't stand on their own because the the defense the defense team tries to attack each witness and undermine their credibility. So that person's not telling the truth.

They had a reason to lie. They had motivation. But when you start each the independent witness especially corroborating each other.

They don't know each other. They have never talked to each other, you know, and so but what they're saying all ties together. And then you have physical evidence obtained by the federal agents who did the search warrants that also bolster the testimony of some of these witnesses.

So it starts to build a case. It's like a web it builds for the prosecution that really it's really hard to attack uh the defense has a hard time attacking that because even if you try to attack each witness individually, you know, in closing arguments, the the prosecution is going to say, "You can believe this witness because not because they said it themselves, but because what they said was corroborated by another witness who they weren't in cahoots with. It was corroborated by the physical evidence that the federal agents found in his house.

" Like for example, you talk about the Astroglide. If his if his assistant comes in and says, "Yeah, I would clean up all the Astrolglide in the hotel room and then the federal agent comes in and says, "We found a case of Astroglide in his house. " That kind of corroborates that testimony.

So, it works together. So, it elevates their credibility, elevates their believability for the jury. I and I want to get to some of the physical evidence that federal agents found at his house in Miami um in just a moment, but one more bit um on Kaplan because I think everybody's had a tough boss in their life, but never to the point of some of the stories that he was telling.

He said he worked hundred hours a week in some cases. Um and then there's this anecdote about the Whole Foods. He was supposed to go get a special type of water and a gallon.

Came back with two half gallons and Diddy was upset about that. he threatened his job on a monthly basis. Some could look at that and be like, Shawn Combmes is just a really tough boss.

As a federal agent and you're building a case, what stands out to you when you hear stories like that? And and along with, of course, we hear more stories of physical abuse against some of his his partners, no physical abuse against Kaplan, but these types of stories. What stands out to you?

Well, it's um you it's again back to cooperation. It's like uh building a a picture of who this person is. So you have to add little pieces.

So again, you're not just hearing it from one person that Diddy was a intense individual, you might say. So it's believable that somebody that's a really hard boss, and when we say hard, like you said, he was told to go get a a gallon bottle from Whole Foods of this BPA free, which is a type of plastic that doesn't have contaminants or less contaminants. And he came back with the same thing, but they didn't have the gallon.

So he bought two half gallons and Diddy got in his face about it and said, "I'm, you know, I I'm used to getting what I want. I, you know, so he's really like an overbearing boss and right in his face just short of violence. " Like when somebody's like face to face with you nose to nose as he describes, it's it's just just short of violence.

So it's building this character profile of Diddy. And this is just another piece that kind of lays the foundation that this guy was an intense guy. he would get in people's faces, even his personal assistant for the most minor infraction, if you will, um of behavior.

Diddy would would consider that, you know, um really he would take it personally and so he would get in his face and get, you know, just short of violence and then you have other witnesses come and saying he was violent. So, it's all about building blocks and this is kind of laying the foundation for who this person, you know, did he was. And we see uh we have dozens of pictures of some of the evidence that the government is now presenting in this trial from when they raided Diddy's house in Miami.

Uh this was March 2024. I I know you look through some of those pictures. We have as well, but I mean you're you're you were a federal agent.

You have done these types of raids. What stands out to you with with what the agents were able to get at that house? Well, it seems to me, and I've done hundreds of raids just like that, those pictures really kind of uh brought me back to the days when I was doing those kind of searches.

Um what stood out to me was especially having read last week's testimony and yesterday's testimony, um when I looked at those pictures last night, um it fits the picture that the prosecution's building through the testimony. So the, you know, and that's that's what the marriage between the investigators and the prosecutors are all about. the prosecutors want to build this narrative, paint this story, and the federal agents go out and get the paint and the brushes so that the prosecutors can paint the story in the courtroom.

And so when you look at those pictures, they're they're corroborating the witnesses who said, you know, we had this kind of stuff. We had baby oil, we had astrolglide. Sure enough, there's the Astroglide in the picture in his house.

There's the baby oil in his closet. So again, it's like it's like perfect stuff to corroborate and bolster the testimony that you're going to have. I I liken it to the paint and the brush and then you give that stuff to the prosecutors who paint the picture in the courtroom.

There there are some items too that stood out to me and and if you could just take us into the mind of of one of the agents during this raid because there's a ton of these like high heel platform shoes and to the untrained eye you could be like well this guy he just lives kind of a you know fast life and here's just a ton of shoes and he's rich and he just has them in the house. How do you know? Um certainly based off the stories and the evidence you have going in, but how do you know to look for items that are not illegal, but they play into something that you're arguing is illegal when it gets to trial?

Yeah. Well, on the federal level, we were always kind of working with the prosecutors early on in the investigation, whereas sometimes the locals kind of don't meet the prosecutors till after an arrest. So during the investigation, you're working with your prosecutors.

In fact, to get a search warrant, you go to the US attorney's office and work with an assistant US attorney to get that search warrant. So that the narrative that the prosecutors are going to build in the courtroom already starts early on in the investigation. So when you go to execute a search warrant, you kind of know what you're looking for.

In fact, there's a constitutional requirement of specificity in a search warrant. You have to kind of list the things that you're going to to to seize, and it's kind of listed in the search warrant. And you know, so it depends on the crime alleged and the search say we have we believe evidence of these particular crimes are in this you know so if you're talking about sex trafficking and you're talking about um you know sexual blackmail and things like that is the narrative then when you come across you know these shoes that kind of you know maybe exotic dancers a lot of times will use and that those kind of shoes you know when you're talking about the narrative of these freakoffs which they already knew when they committed when they executed the search warrant, they knew about the free costs and they knew they were going to be a part of the story that's told in the courtroom.

Those are the things you want to see. So, whatever whatever these big sex parties were, you know, that led to the freakoffs at the end of the party, whatever how it happened, you know, you want to seize anything that is of that nature. So, if there were exotic dancers, if there were, you know, um, escorts um, involved in your narrative, then if these are something that people like that would wear to one of those parties, that's one you want to take because maybe he brought people in and had them wear particular types of shoes that he wanted them to wear, so he had those shoes at his house.

So, you know, you're seizing things that are and and these are the things that are aren't necessarily criminal. Obviously, they found guns, they found drugs, they found bullets. Um, and those things are the easy ones you take, right?

You take the cocaine and you take the the the all the other stuff, but the stuff that is not of a criminal nature, but also tells the story like the astral, it's not illegal to have baby oil. But if part of your narrative is we had these parties and people poured baby oil all over each other, you know, then you seize the baby oil. even though it's not illegal, you seize it because it's part of the story, part of the narrative of what you're going to tell in court.

And Shawn Combmes's defense is really, you know, a lot of his attorneys have said, if you've seen the the assault video that CNN had from the hotel in 2016, yeah, it's bad, but this isn't a domestic violence case. Um, there were drugs that were found in the home, MDMA, cocaine, according to federal agents, but this isn't this isn't a drug case. How do those items, the drugs that were found in the house in Miami, factor into the argument that he was running a sex ring and that this was a criminal enterprise that Shawn Combmes was running?

Well, here's how they factor into that. So, so the the sex ring and the sex trafficking um allegations include the fact that he would drug some of these people and get them to a point where they either couldn't consent or they were almost incapacitated. and then he would have them perform for him um on camera and then maybe take them across state lines, take them say, and this doesn't have to be like in a in a darkened van driving across some this could be getting on a plane and flying from Los Angeles to Miami or vice versa or to Vegas.

As long as it cross the state lines for the purpose of, you know, this sexual activity, that's sex trafficking. And so, um, if the person is doesn't have the ability to consent or you're using these drugs to get them incapacitated, that's part of the scheme of getting them to the point where they'll do things that you want them to do that they wouldn't do if they didn't have those drugs in their system. So, you take those drug, you seize those drugs as part of this overall scheme of getting people drugged um, and getting them to do what you want them to do, perform for you on camera, travel with you, or whatever it is.

So that's again part of that story the prosecutor's telling in as far as the sex trafficking charges and as far as the drugs just kind of turning to that because he had them in baggies you know MDMA um he's accused of you know done ecstasy in the past you have cocaine you know if I was caught with those things I would be charged and I would be you know I would be in pretty tough trouble with the laws is not facing drug charges why why is that this is just a sex trafficking case this is not a case related to him buying drugs or using drugs. Yeah. I think mainly because when I was working drugs for in the federal government, we had thresholds.

You had to have you usually want drug trafficking charges. Those bring the heaviest penalties. We don't really charge drug use cases at the federal level.

So, the amounts of of cocaine there, this is not like they raided, you know, a Colombian cartel leaders home in Miami and they had a garage full of kilos of cocaine. This was more of again to be used for the not personal use because it was a little more than that, but these were used to have these parties. It was part of the parties.

So the MDNA, the ecstasy, even the cocaine was all part of this this narrative of these drugfueled parties that led to the trafficking, the sexual trafficking, other charges. So it's not necessarily a drug case. They didn't find, you know, huge amounts of drugs that they could charge him with drug trafficking.

They these were the endusers of the drugs. Excuse me. those drugs weren't being sold to other people per se.

So those weren't the federal charges that they were interested in because they were very small amounts of drugs in in the context of a federal drug trafficking charge. Um and so they that's why he got charged with drug trafficking. And we're still, you know, Bobby on the front end of this trial.

It's expected to go for another six or maybe seven weeks. Um but to this point, you see the evidence that's been presented. You see the evidence that the government has.

uh some of the testimony that we've been hearing from the courtroom at this point. How strong do you feel about the case that the prosecution is making? Because Shawn Combmes, I mean, he has an all-star team of lawyers that are trying to say, "Okay, this isn't a domestic violence case.

This isn't a drug case. He's a swinger. " Uh and that's really all that's happening here.

What's just your takeaway through the first couple weeks of what we've seen and heard? Well, I mean, I think it's a strong case so far. that, you know, it's a good thing you pointed out.

We're very early in this process, but so far, you know, Cassie was a very important witness and the the the defense didn't really um hurt her as much on cross-examination as I think they might have hoped. Um I think she's a believable witness. I think she's a, you know, um a witness who the juryy's going to have sympathy for.

And so, um I don't think the defense has hurt many of the witnesses so far on cross-examination. Uh but but again, it's early in the trial. Um anything can happen.

You know, I was a juror two years ago on a five-month murder trial, and you know, as the as the trial moves on, different things happen. So, it's like you got to tune into this thing every day if you want to really see the story unfold because, you know, any day can be a a banner day for either side. You know, one witness could explode or whatever.

Um, and so I think so far so good. Um, but as you said, we're very early in the trial. Wow.

Also, as a retired FBI agent, they kept you on kept you on uh on the jury for that trial on a murder a murder trial with special circumstances, which is the highest charge we have here in California. And yeah, I was I ended up being the jury foreman. And not only am I a former FBI agent, I'm an attorney.

So, they they kept me on on the on the jury and I wound up being the jury foreman. And uh yeah, it was a five five and a half month murder trial. So I I I I know that I know the side of it as a juror now, which is a really open my eyes to differently to how I see trials and stuff um as a juror.

Yeah. I mean, and there are long days, too, that these jurors are going through where even though we're all captivated by the transcript. I mean, the courtroom is not the most stimulating place um all the times, especially once they Yeah, we get to see only the highlights.

It's like it's like a sports show. You get to see the highlights, but man, those jurors are sitting through a lot of testimony that isn't so exciting. Yeah.

And that's that's also an important part to think about, too, is for as as much as all the highlights, it still comes down to those people in the jury box and the decisions that they make. Retired FBI agent Bobby Shicone, always great to have you on Law and Crime. Hope to see you again soon.

Thanks, Chris. Combmes's trial is expected to last another six or seven weeks. He's charged with racketeering, sex trafficking by force, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. That will do it for On the Case, presented by Law and Crime. Subscribe to us on YouTube and Spotify.

I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time.