Rapper Kid Cudi says his car was set on fire weeks after Sean 'Diddy' Combs broke into his home

But Combs wasn’t there when he arrived, Cudi said. Instead, he found that someone had opened Christmas presents he’d bought for his family and locked his dog in a bathroom.

Cudi said he wasn’t sure what was going on, so he called the police.

A few weeks later, Cudi testified, his Porsche was destroyed by fire while parked in his driveway. Cudi said he was at a friend’s house when his dogsitter called and “told me my car was on fire.” Photos shown to the jury showed a hole cut in the car's fabric roof and a Molotov cocktail was found in the passenger seat.

Cassie testified last week that Combs had threatened to blow up Cudi’s car and hurt him after he learned she was dating the Grammy Award-winning rapper, who is known for his alternative hip-hop style.

Cudi told jurors that Combs denied involvement in the car fire when they met to try to smooth things over the next day at a Los Angeles hotel. He said he sought the SoHo Hotel meeting — brokered by his manager and Combs’ bodyguard — because “after the fire I said, this is getting out of hand, I need to talk to him.”

Cudi said he didn’t have conflicts at the time with anyone other than Combs.

“I knew he had something to do with it,” Cudi said, leading Combs’ lawyers to object. Jurors were told to disregard the remark.

At the end of the meeting, as they stood and shook hands, Cudi said he asked Combs: “What are we going to do about my car?” Cudi said Combs gave him a “very cold stare” and responded: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Cudi said he was miffed by Combs’ answer but let it go.

Cudi said he told Combs that he was taking him at his word. Eventually, he said, he made peace with the situation, and there were no more incidents at his house.

A few years later, Combs apologized to Cudi “for everything” when they ran into each other again at the SoHo House hotel, Cudi testified.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex the trafficking and racketeering charges against him. He denies that he used threats and his standing in the music industry to abuse women and others, and that he forced Cassie or anyone else to take part in drug-fueled sexual performances called freak-offs.

The federal investigation of Combs began in November 2023, a day after Cassie sued him in Manhattan federal court alleging years of sexual and physical abuse. The lawsuit was settled by Combs for $20 million the next day.

In four days of testimony last week, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, said Combs subjected her to abuse through most of the nearly 11 years she was with him from 2007 through 2018.

She said she developed a relationship with Cudi in late 2011 that she ended within weeks after Combs learned about it when he looked at her phone during one of the hundreds of freak-offs she said she endured over the years.

George Kaplan, Combs' personal assistant from 2013 to 2015, testified earlier Thursday that he saw Combs be violent with Cassie only once, on a 2015 trip to Las Vegas aboard Combs' private jet. He said he heard glass breaking behind him and saw Combs standing with a whiskey glass in his hand.

“There was tremendous commotion and a scuffle, and then after the glass crashed, Cassie screamed: ’Isn’t anybody seeing this?” Kaplan testified, adding that neither he nor any of the security workers or Bad Boy staff on the plane responded to her call for help. He said he didn't want to lose his dream job, but that he quit after that attack and a later incident in which he saw Cassie with a black eye.

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Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

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