Sean Combs trial updates: Juror dismissed, Kanye West makes brief court appearance

On cross-examination, Sean Combs' former personal assistant Jonathan Perez testified that setting up hotel rooms and procuring drugs were personal errands and not work-related tasks.

"It had nothing to do with your work?" defense attorney Brian Steel asked. "No," Perez responded on the stand. Combs is accused of conspiring with his employees as part of a criminal enterprise.

Perez told the jury under cross-examination that he performed those tasks 1% of the time compared with his business-related duties.

"You just did it because you're a nice person?" Steel asked. "Yes," Perez testified.

Perez testified that he helped "Jane" -- a former Combs girlfriend who took the stand under a pseudonym -- with outfits for hotel nights because she trusted his fashion sense.

"She would ask you to go out and go shopping for her?" Steel asked. "Yes," Perez told the jury.

"Would you look for her for lingerie?" "Yes," Perez testified on the stand.

"Would you look for her for dresses?" "Yes," Perez told the jury.

"The goal for her was to look good for Mr. Combs?" "Yes," Perez replied on the stand.

"Did you ever get the feeling that she was hesitant of joining the king nights?" Steel asked, using Perez's term for "hotel nights" or "freak offs." "No," Perez testified.

Steel followed up, asking, "Did it always appear to you that she was willing?" "Yes," Perez told the jury.

Steel tried to emphasize Perez's testimony, asking, "Did 'Jane' ever appear to you, from your observation, that she was upset or unhappy after the king nights?" "No," Perez testified.

Sean Combs' former personal assistant, Jonathan Perez, testified that Combs had a Gucci pouch containing money and drugs, including cocaine, ketamine, molly, Adderall and Xanax.

The jury saw a text from another assistant who messaged Perez, "Yo will you locate his Gucci pouch in his bathroom. ... Make sure it's in there please and if anything is out and around kind of stuff it back in I guess. LOL".

"I zipped it up -- no residue and I didn't steal one addy," Perez responded, according to the text showed to the jury.

Perez testified that he played a role in obtaining drugs for Combs "a handful of times," either purchasing them or he "grabbed them from someone outside."

"What did you purchase or grab for Mr. Combs?" prosecutor Madison Smyser asked. "Xanax, cocaine and molly," Perez testified on the stand.

Perez testified that he brought Combs to "Jane"'s house in June 2024, the night "Jane" testified Combs subjected her to physical violence. "Jane" is a former Combs girlfriend who took the stand under a pseudonym.

A few hours after dropping off Combs, Perez testified that Combs called him on FaceTime, looking "angry and annoyed."

"He was asking me to confirm that another woman hadn't been on a trip we had been on a week earlier," Perez said on the stand. "'Jane' had been accusing him of another female on the trip a week prior, so it seemed like they had been arguing."

"I let 'Jane' know that there had not been another female on the trip and he hung up," Perez testified.

Perez said on the stand that he then messaged Combs' chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, telling her, "Heads up he and guest are fighting I'm going to pick him up. ... Just the normal her being jealous over other women."

He testified that a moment later he messaged Khorram again, writing, "Just heard from him he said not to come all good."

"Jane" testified earlier that she was subjected to physical violence that night before she claims Combs forced her to take ecstasy and perform oral sex on a male escort.

The jury saw a message from Perez to one of Combs' bodyguards, saying Combs was "asking me to bring him his cash." The bodyguard responded, "We don't have more on hand but will get more now."

Perez testified that the next day he sent another message about cash for "Jane," writing, "Need 3500 cash for his guest."

"Do you have an independent, clear memory of what ended up happening with that money?" Smyser asked. "No," Perez told the court.

"Jane" testified that she sent the escort money for his services.

Sean Combs' former personal assistant, Jonathan Perez, testified that he saw something he shouldn't have: a video of "Jane" -- a former Combs girlfriend who took the stand under a pseudonym -- having sex with another man.

Perez testified that Combs' videographer first discovered the video on an iPad. Perez testified that he went to Combs and then to chief of staff Kristina Khorram.

"(Khorram) said that in the future I should just bring it to her and she would communicate to Mr. Combs," Perez recalled on the stand. "I gave her the general gist of the video that it was 'Jane' and another man."

Six months later, Perez testified, Khorram brought the video up again because "she had gotten a call from someone outside the company talking about the video in some capacity." The jury heard his conversation with Khorram that she surreptitiously recorded.

"I just need you to tell me step by step and don't leave out a beat," Khorram was heard saying on the recording. "An outside person brought up something."

The conversation did not reveal who had approached the Combs team, but "Jane" testified that a male escort tried to extort Combs and "Jane" by saying he would release a video from a hotel night.

"It is out and I just need to know step by step where you found it," Khorram was heard telling Perez on the recording. "Don't leave out anything please."

Perez was heard telling Khorram on the recording, "I took the iPad, I went to the office, I saw what he was talking about, closed it."

Perez testified that another employee advised him to delete the video, but he didn't feel comfortable doing that.

Kanye West was briefly able to watch his friend Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial from an overflow room.

Arriving in a black Mercedes-Maybach sedan, West entered the public entrance of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse earlier this morning. He wore an all-white outfit and black sunglasses.

Like any other member of the public, he had to take off his belt, empty his pockets, and surrender his electronic devices before going through a metal detector.

"He got treated no different than anybody else," a federal marshal who helped Combs through security said.

As he entered the lobby of the federal courthouse, West ignored most of the questions from reporters, including whether he plans to testify in Combs' defense case.

"Are you here in support of Mr. Combs," ABC News asked.

"Yes," he said while nodding.

West was escorted to an elevator and taken to an empty overflow room on the 23rd floor of the courthouse. West and his entourage were alone in the overflow room with four court officers for approximately ten minutes. He sat in the gallery's front row immediately in front of a monitor displaying a feed of the courtroom.

Charlucci Finney, a music producer and longtime friend of Combs, was also in the overflow room. When Eyewitness News reporter Darla Miles entered the room, Charlucci was pointing out elements of the courtroom setup to West, who watched the screen intently. West watched the beginning of the testimony of Jonathan Perez, a former personal assistant of Combs.

West could not enter the main courtroom where the trial is taking place. At one point during West's visit, a member of Combs' legal team showed up in an overflow room on a different floor, frantically looking for West.

After about thirty minutes, West quietly left the courtroom and exited the courthouse. The flurry of reporters and cameramen who tried to capture his exit interrupted the aftermath of a citizen swearing-in ceremony in the courthouse this morning.

About a dozen newly sworn-in citizens were taking photos outside court when West exited, capturing the flurry of action in the background of their photos.