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MANHATTAN (CN) — A former Syracuse University basketball player who worked as a personal assistant for music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs recalled purchasing and delivering drugs for the Bad Boy CEO during prosecution testimony at Combs’ criminal trial in New York federal court.
Brendan Paul, an aspiring music producer who worked for Combs from late 2022 to March 2024, testified he and other assistants who procured party drugs for Combs in Los Angeles and Miami were directed to act “like Seal Team Six … just be militant, get things done without him asking.”
Testifying under an immunity order, Paul recalled being asked to buy thousands of dollars worth of drugs for Combs, including marijuana, Xanax, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine lollipops and the pink powder drug cocktail known as “Tusi.”
The Cleveland native testified Combs’ preferred strains of marijuana were King Louis and Sunset Sherbert.
Paul recounted being introduced to and meeting up with dealers named “Guido,” “One Stop,” “Baby Girl” and Ovi.
He said he paid for the drugs in cash that was dispensed from Combs’ Gucci pouch or from one of Combs’ security guards.
Paul was arrested for cocaine possession in March 2024 at the Opa-locka executive airport near Miami, at the same time that Homeland Security agents, along with local police officers, were raiding Combs’s mansions in Los Angeles and Miami Beach as part of a federal investigation.
“I was sweeping his room and put it in my bag to put it elsewhere, and forgot to put it elsewhere,” he explained at the beginning of his testimony on Friday. Combs was also on board the private flight to the Bahamas with Paul, along with Combs’ oft-mentioned chief of staff Kristina Khorram, referred to by multiple trial witnesses as “KK.”
He testified the cocaine he arrested in possession of was actually Combs’ but said he took the felony charges due to “loyalty.”
“My charges have been dropped because I have a really good lawyer,” he said later during direct questioning, explaining that he underwent a drug diversion program.
Paul said he was tasked with getting supplies for so-called “Wild King Nights,” drug-fueled sex marathons typically at hotel rooms, and was also responsible for cleaning up the aftermath of those baby oil-steeped private parties, “to avoid getting damages charges.”
He testified he also left cash tips for hotel cleaning staff for rented rooms that were often left in “disarray.”
Combs, 55, is standing trial on five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He has emphatically denied the accusations against him and pleaded not guilty to his indictments.
Combs’ defense attorney Brian Steel pushed back against the media characterizations of Paul as a “drug mule.”
“This was a minor part of what you did with Sean Combs and the other co-workers,” the Georgia-based defense lawyer asked Paul during a brief, rapid-fire cross-examination.
“It was personal use at best,” Steel said of the 0.7 grams of cocaine that Paul was arrested for possessing. “That’s it — that’s the whole case — and that case is dismissed.”
The trial, now in its sixth week, is expected to run up to eight weeks into early July. Prosecutors previously expected to conclude their case on Friday, but have pushed back that benchmark due to a sick juror earlier in the week.
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