This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.
George Kaplan, who spent two years working for Combs Enterprises and 15 months as one of Sean Combs‘ personal assistants, shared his testimony in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial against Combs Wednesday. He testified that Combs threatened his job “maybe monthly.”
Kaplan testified about setting up hotel rooms for Combs in Los Angeles, New York and Miami, sometimes with only a “matter of hours” notice.
“There was a hotel bag,” Kaplan told the court. The bag contained clothes, a speaker, candles, liquor, baby oil, and Astroglide. On subsequent occasions, Kaplan testified, “I just tried to recreate the bag.”
According to Kaplan’s testimony, Combs “would have guests” in the hotel rooms, often a “female partner.” Kaplan testified that when Combs’ stay was over he would see “lots of empty bottles” and baby oil “on the table, on the floor, on the bed.” Kaplan testified about seeing a crystalized powder on the bathroom sink on one occasion.
He testified it was his job to clean up the rooms.
“I tidied them,” he told the court. “I made it as close as I could to the way it was found when he came in.” Asked why he cleaned up after his boss instead of asking hotel staff to do it, Kaplan replied, “I think that it was implied in the role as you continued to work closely with Mr. Combs that you protected him.”
Prosecutor Maureen Comey asked, “How was cleaning up these hotel rooms related to your job of protecting Mr. Combs?” Kaplan replied, “I would see often that hotels would sell videos and images and try and embarrass celebrities and other figures and that was something I wanted to avoid.”
Kaplan alleged that on two occasions Combs asked him to procure drugs.
Once, in Miami, “He gave me a number to call and some cash to pick up what he wanted.” Kaplan testified, “The guy came and I paid him for drugs.” He testified it was a bag of MDMA that he gave to Combs.
According to Kaplan’s testimony, the second time was in Los Angeles at the Bel-Air Hotel.
“It was a very similar exchange. Call this number, meet this person, bring this back to me,” Kaplan testified. “I arranged to meet the person in Hollywood.” The exchange went down the same way as the Miami exchange, according to Kaplan’s testimony. “I gave him money. He gave me a bag. I didn’t know what the bag was,” Kaplan testified. “I gave it to Mr. Combs.”
Kaplan was granted immunity from prosecution by Judge Arun Subramanian. Without such immunity, Kaplan had signaled his intention to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
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