Ye, the embattled rapper formerly known as Kanye West, showed up Friday at Manhattan federal court to support Sean “Diddy” Combs at his criminal sex-trafficking trial.
Ye made the surprise appearance at the courthouse shortly after 11 a.m. on Friday. The “Jesus Walks” rapper, though, never actually made it into the 26th-floor courtroom where Combs’ trial is unfolding.
He instead sat in the front row of an overflow room on the courthouse’s 23rd floor after he was denied entry into the main courtroom where the trial is taking place, courthouse sources told Business Insider.
One source told BI that Ye was not on Combs’ list of approved family members or friends.
“He did not wait in line like everybody else from the public,” the court source said. “No one gets special treatment.”
Courthouse staff opened an overflow room where Ye and Christian Combs, one of Combs’ children, were able to watch the proceedings on a screen, a court source said. Ye’s bodyguard and another Combs supporter also sat with them, according to the source.
Ye, who wore an outfit of all-white denim, listened to about half an hour of testimony before he left. At the time, Jonathan Perez, a former personal assistant for Combs, was on the witness stand.
Milo Yiannopoulos, who has been a spokesman for Ye, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Combs’ sex-trafficking and racketeering trial is now in its fifth week.
The prosecution is expected to rest its case next week before Combs’ defense will present its side to the eight-man, four-woman jury.
During jury selection, potential jurors were quizzed about their knowledge of other celebrities who may have had some connection to the case.
The list included Ye. During the trial, he’s only been mentioned once, in passing, by another one of Combs’ assistants.
Kid Cudi, another celebrity listed on the juror questionnaire, testified earlier in the trial about a dispute with Combs involving Cassie Ventura.
Ventura, a singer who was signed to Combs’ record label and dated him for around a decade, testified at the start of the trial that Combs abused her and coerced her into participating in elaborate sex performances called “freak offs.”
On Thursday, another accuser in the case, who used the pseudonym Jane, testified that she attended a sex performance hosted by another rapper.
The rapper wasn’t named in the case, but Combs’ lawyer described him as “an icon in the music industry” and as someone who was “very close with Combs” and had collaborated with him professionally.
Jane testified that she attended the sex performance as part of a trip to Las Vegas in January 2024 to celebrate the unnamed rapper’s girlfriend’s birthday.
According to Jane, that rapper flirted with her while they watched another man and woman have sex in a hotel room.
“He said something along the lines of that he thought I was beautiful, and he always wanted to blank me,” Jane said Thursday, censoring herself in the courtroom.
