On Friday morning, as the government approached the finish line of its case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, a federal prosecutor announced to the court that the government was calling Brendan Paul to the stand.
Paul was, for about a year and a half leading up to the hip-hop mogul’s downfall, one of Combs’s several personal assistants. It was his third day in court after a series of delays earlier in the week—a special agent’s testimony went longer than expected, a juror called in sick with vertigo—and he showed up on each in a tightly cropped suit, a fully buttoned shirt with no tie, and Y2K-era wraparound sunglasses. Paul was arrested in March 2024 at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport for cocaine possession when he landed there with Combs, the same day that federal agents raided Combs’s Miami and Los Angeles residences.
When he finally spoke in court, he seemed at ease and unhurried.
“My charges have been dropped,” Paul told the jury, “because I have a really good lawyer.”
A few months before Paul’s arrest, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura had sued Combs for sexual and physical abuse, setting into motion a wave of further civil suits and a federal indictment on racketeering and sex trafficking charges. (Ventura and Combs quickly settled; Combs had denied wrongdoing in connection with the additional suits and pleaded not guilty in his criminal case.) With intrigue around Combs’s legal troubles peaking, and Paul’s mugshot appearing on TMZ, the 26-year old music producer quickly became a minor but absorbing player in the overall saga. The little that was known of him came primarily from his days as a walk-on college basketball player. At Syracuse University, he roomed with his former prep school teammate Buddy Boeheim, the son of the basketball team’s long-tenured coach Jim. There, he told The Athletic in 2020, he was among the two best dressed players on the team: “For us, it’s the way you put it together.” In press coverage surrounding his arrest, Paul was typically described as Combs’s “drug mule,” with his name appearing in a similar capacity in three of the civil suits filed against Combs. (Paul was not named as a defendant in those suits and has denied wrongdoing in connection with them.)
Paul’s drug charges were dismissed after he completed a pretrial diversion program, and he testified at Combs’s trial after he was subpoenaed and granted immunity. He volunteered on Friday that he had been carrying the cocaine in a Goyard bag; he said that it belonged to Combs and that he had found it after sweeping Combs’s hotel room, forgetting that he was carrying it on his flight.
After Paul graduated from college in 2022, he testified, he moved back to his hometown of Cleveland, where he and his father built a music studio in the basement of his parents’ home. An associate made him aware of the opportunity to work as Combs’s assistant, offering some advice: “If you have a girlfriend, break up with her.” He was told he wouldn’t see his family, such were the demands of the role, and that his goal should be to “get in, get out” after amassing a Rolodex from the adjacency to Combs.
Given Paul’s background in music and sports, his responsibilities included plans for the release of Combs’s 2023 album and workout and meal regimens. He was also tasked, he testified, with rolling joints in Combs’s Los Angeles garage and obtaining weed, cocaine, ketamine, and tusi for Combs that he would carry with him in a Gucci pouch. At a Coachella afterparty, Paul said, Combs asked him to test some tusi for him to ensure that it was good. He said he did so out of loyalty—the same reason, he said, that he didn’t tell law enforcement whom the cocaine really belonged to when he was arrested. Combs, Paul said, “used to say he wants us to move like Seal Team Six.”
