Ashley Banfield (0:00)

Foreign welcome to another episode of Drop Dead Serious. I'm Ashley Banfield. As always, Atlas is in the studio with me. So every so often you'll hear a little erf or arf or a clearing of his throat. But he's my trusty sidekick, so he's just going to be here. We're now day eight, if you can believe it, of Diddy's federal sex trafficking trial. And if you thought it couldn't get any darker today, some somehow it did. The jury saw photos of sex toys and assault rifles. They heard from a psychologist who's made a career testifying in abuse cases. And they listened to a former assistant describe how he was told to clean up baby oil and drug residue and used condoms from hotel rooms after his boss, Sean Diddy Combs, checked out. Point of personal order here. I too work with a staff, and if they ever complain about me, I will remind them that staff members had to say in a federal courtroom that they cleaned up their boss's used condoms. So in retrospect, I can't possibly be so bad. Imagine being that employee up on the stand having to tell that story. You're going to hear a lot more about that in just a minute. The prosecutors say all of this is evidence of a pattern of behavior and that is control, coercion and corruption with the highest boss in the enterprise calling the illegal shots. So let's just get right into how the day unfolded. The morning began with a shake up of sorts. Yes, that was just a sneeze from Atlas. The federal prosecutors announced that Kid Cudi, the famous rapper and the former boyfriend of Cassie Ventura, would not, in fact, be taking the stand today, despite earlier plans that he would. It had apparently something to do with his scheduling. No bother. Prosecutors had another witness ready to go and they said Kid Cudi would be coming up later. But before that witness actually took the stand, both sides got into an argument with over a photo, specifically a photo of Kim Porter, Diddy's longtime girlfriend and the mother of four of Diddy's children. The defense wants to enter that photo into evidence, but the prosecutors are really against it. They say that it's emotionally manipulative and, quote, extremely low relevance, end quote. And that it could confuse the jurors by suggesting that if Diddy were convicted, look at these four children, they'll be left without a parent. And that would be true because Kim Porter died. These four kids effectively were being looked after by her and Diddy became the only parent. And he's been, you know, in a federal jail cell since September. So they're being looked after by someone else now, and some of them are of age. Anyway, no ruling on whether that photo is going to be entered into evidence, at least none that's been made public. So you'll have to watch this space for when that decision is made. And, like, why that photo now? I really want to see it. But first up on the stand today, Homeland Security Special Agent Gerard Gannon. And he picked up right where he left off on day seven. Agent Gannon described that raid on Diddy's Miami mansion. And this time, he wasn't just talking us through it. He was pulling open evidence bags right there on the stand in front of the jury and holding up some pretty embarrassing items that were pulled out from inside. And I'm going to get to all of that in a minute, too, so be patient. But he also showed more photos to the jury, particularly of an expensive Gucci bag that the feds said they seized from the master bedroom during that raid of Diddy's Miami mansion. Remember, it's like, over 20,000 square feet. So they had, like, up to 90 federal agents busted down the front gate of this mansion and, like, you know, descended on this place. They knew that Diddy was out of town, by the way. They knew he was actually, I think, out of the country. And so I think there were only five or six people at the mansion at the time. A couple of staffers, a producer, you know, some random folks. But you know what the defense, what do they know? They don't know who's going to be there. And it's 20,000 square feet. So when you raid a place, you got to raid it fast, you know, so that people don't get rid of evidence or stash stuff or do whatever people do in situations like that. But, man, oh, man, can you imagine 90 federal agents showing up in that really posh Miami neighborhood? It's on an island. It's like a gated community. And they just, like, rammed down the big gates out front. There was no knock. There was no, excuse me, Mr. Diddy, are you home? They just rammed the gates down and descended upon the mansion. So photos show that that bag I was talking about, the expensive Gucci bag, it was filled with what the government said was Xanax, cocaine, Ketamine, and mdma. And the photos also showed a red suitcase that was found in the guest house, the security room in the guest house. And inside that suitcase was a loaded.45 caliber handgun. I want to note here, though, that they were specific to say that the serial numbers on that handgun were intact. I say that because of something I'm about to say in a bit. And the something I'm about to say actually matters a lot. But hang on, because in the master bedroom, agents uncovered a wooden box that was engraved with the name Puffy. I wonder who that belonged to. And it contained MDMA and psilocybin, which, if you've heard about psilocybin, is sort of commonly known as magic mushrooms. That's the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. And then came the so called free cough inventory. Hmm. Yeah. Get ready. And if you're, you know, prudish, cover your ears. 25 bottles of baby oil, 31 bottles of astroglide, and a green and yellow rubber duck. I don't even want to imagine what the business of the rubber duck was for, so I'm just going to move on, because they didn't say what the business of the rubber duck was for either. But all of those things were pulled from hallway drawers and upstairs closets, and all of them were photographed and cataloged by the federal agents during that big, big raid. The prosecutors alleged that these were part of Diddy's orchestrated sex events and that these are the things that lie at the center of his sex trafficking charges. And then there were pictures of the master bathroom and specifically the bathroom mirror. This is kind of like, weird, super cool, very bizarro. And I don't think it's relevant necessarily to the case, but I love the fact that the agents noted it. According to the agents, the mirror in Diddy's master bathroom was completely covered in black Sharpie and lipstick, like messages that were scrawled across the mirror. It almost seemed like it was like a fever dream or something. And things were written like, quote, you're a legend and you're an icon, Puff Daddy. And quote, what do you want? Question mark. And one that simply read, quote, upward motion, end quote. I'm getting Al Franken vibes. You're good enough, you're smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me. If you're too young, you've got to Google that. And you have to watch Al Franken, who was a senator, but before that he was a player on snl, and before that, a writer on snl. And he had that hilarious skit where he would sit in front of the mirror and, like, do his personal affirmations. And that's what I got the vibe from when I heard about the messages on Diddy's bathroom mirror. Nobody said who wrote those messages, and prosecutors did not claim that it was Diddy himself, but the jury saw every word because the federal agents photographed everything during that raid. And in the closet, they also said they found three cell phones that were hidden inside a pair of Balenciaga boots. I just love the visual. Three cell phones hidden inside these black, clunky Balenciaga boots. I'm thinking, okay, were these cell phones that were burner phones, were these cell phones to keep the girlfriends apart? Like, what were the cell phones for? And why were they hidden? Anyway, we can ponder that forever. But as for other firearms, I. I alluded to this earlier. We heard about this yesterday. We heard there were other firearms, right? But the courtroom got to see this up close and personal today. And the visuals on the stand were nothing short of electrifying. Because when you're in a courtroom and somebody brings out rifles, everybody stops and looks, no matter what. Even if they're tired or bored or, you know, in a food coma after lunch, whatever it is. You bring out weapons in a courtroom. And it's a moment. It's always a moment. And this time, they brought out two AR15 style rifles. We heard about them yesterday, and we heard that the serial numbers were rubbed out. But today they brought them out and showed them to the jury and to the gallery and, you know, to the artists who scratch those images for us. Thank you so much for all your work, because federal courtrooms don't allow cameras. Don't get me started. So those ars were found inside of Diddy's main bedroom closet on the same shelf as the oil and the lube and all the platform heels. Like boxes and boxes of stripper shoes. Like, serious stripper shoes. Big platforms, big spike heels. You know, the ones I say stripper shoes, you say, I get it. And there was also lingerie. Like, lots of lingerie. Some of it, like, still packaged, almost like, hi, what's your name? Want some lingerie? This is fresh and new, but it was there and they photographed all of that. And don't forget I mentioned that those weapons had the serial numbers scratched out. That is a huge. No, no. I mentioned this in yesterday's podcast, but I'll say it again today, especially if you ever think about scratching out your serial number on your weapon. If you own a weapon, don't do it. It's a crime. You're not allowed. And Diddy's not allowed either, no matter how rich and famous. I'm just surprised it's not a charge because it's supposed to be a federal weapons charge anyway. It isn't but let's move on. The more important thing today about the weapons is that the prosecution argued that where they found these two ars that had the serial number scratched out, that was key. They said the proximity of these weapons to all the sexual items, that paints a chilling picture of coercion, and it paints a picture of power, and it paints a picture of control. The kind of control that prosecutors say Diddy used to force women into, quote, stage managed sex acts, often with male prostitutes, often videotaped. I don't know about that. I mean, go. Go for it. You know, throw the spaghetti against the wall if you're a prosecutor. Sure, why not? The two AKs are found right next to the lube and the stripper heels and the baby oil and the lingerie and the messages on the mirror. But maybe, maybe you'll get a juror or two who thinks, yeah, okay, that makes sense. Maybe he brought those AKs out to let those ladies know who was boss. Or maybe it was like role playing. Or maybe it was like, okay, I keep a gun in my closet too, where I keep other things doesn't mean I use the guns for the things that are in the closet. I think you're going to hear more about that, and particularly I should say that the defense pushed back. Diddy's lawyer, Tenny Garagos, pointed out on cross that even if the serial numbers were missing, law enforcement has other ways to trace guns like DNA or fingerprints. And though nobody mentioned this in open court, it is worth noting again, rubbing those serial numbers out, that is what you call illegal. Super duper illegal. I don't know why they didn't bring it up in court. If I were the feds, I would have, if you're going to say, look, these guns are next to the lube, why not say, oh, and that's an illegal act right there. Then came Dr. Don Hughes, a familiar face in high profile abuse cases. And you might remember her from Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard. Another trial with sordid personal details that seem to capture the Nation's attention. But Dr. Hughes was not diagnosing anyone today. She was testifying as what is called a, quote, blind expert, meaning that she had not personally met with Diddy or Cassie or any other prosecution witnesses to develop specific opinions. Dr. Hughes was put on the stand to explain the emotional traps of abusive relationships and why victims stay, why victims come back, and why sometimes they don't say anything at all about the abuse they endure. She told the jury that most of these relationships start with love, specifically love bombing. You know, when someone just can't do enough for you, you are the prince or the princess in the relationship, and everything is effing magic. That's love bombing. But when violence starts to creep in, this is cool. She said victims often will hang on for the version of the partner that they once knew and that they once loved. It's, quote, the good version. That's what Dr. Hughes called it. The good version. And that makes sense, right? You got so love bombed. Everything was just out of this world. It was amazing it could return that way. This is just a blip, right? This violence? I know this guy to be better. I know this guy has it in him to love me the way I need to be loved. I've had it happen. So this is what Dr. Hughes says starts with the love bombing, moves to violence, and the victim is certain things will get better again. And she actually told the jury that that bond is called a trauma bond and that it's powerful enough to keep somebody locked in a cycle of abuse over and over again. She talked about that honeymoon phase that abusers often reinitiate after each episode of violence, flooding their partner with affection and gifts and love bombing to draw them right back in. Right. I think we've heard about this a lot. I think we've seen it a lot. I'm so sorry, honey. I love you so much. You know I didn't mean it. I don't know what I was thinking. I was crazy. I wasn't in my right mind. It'll never happen again. How many times have you heard it? How many times have you seen it? Either in Hollywood, either. A friend, someone, you know, some news story. We see it. We hear it all the time. But this doctor was there to put it on the record and give the expert testimony about it. She said victims often stay silent because of shame, because of humiliation, because of fear of not being believed. Right. We've seen that a lot. And that's a fear made worse. When the abuser is wealthy and powerful or well connected and the victims do talk, it's often to a sister or a mother or maybe a close friend, but it is not often to the police. Cassie Ventura's name was not mentioned directly in this part of the testimony, but the subtext was pretty obvious. Dr. Hughes had actually reviewed Cassie's prior statements and echoed several of the behaviors that Cassie had described on the stand, curling into a ball. Remember that? During the beatings, using drugs so that she said she could get through the free coughs and then going. Going back to. Diddy over and over again, she told the jury, quote, substances allow us to numb our pain and get rid of fear, shame, and anxiety. Oh, yeah. Remember when Cassie said she kept taking the drugs to numb the pain, the suffering, the embarrassment, the abuse, all of it? There was the expert to back that up. And the expert also talked about memory. Dr. Hughes said, the trauma doesn't erase memory so much as it distorts it. Victims might remember sensory details like the smell of alcohol or the chipped paint on the ceiling, but when the violence becomes routine, quote, events are going to blend together, end quote. But on cross examination, the defense attorney, Jonathan Bach, came out swinging. He accused Dr. Hughes of being a hired gun, someone who makes more money from testifying than from her actual clinical practice. Diddy's lawyer asked, how much are you being paid for today? And did Dr. Hughes had to answer, $6,000. She added that she bills $600 an hour. Outside of court, the defense attorney pointed out that Dr. Hughes has never testified on behalf of a man accused of a sex crime. And she agreed, that's correct. I don't evaluate offenders. But prosecutor Mitzi Steiner followed up and then did some redirect examination here and asked if she's ever been retained by defense attorneys. And Dr. Hughes responded, yes, of course, including one of Diddy's own attorneys over there, Brian Steele. Oops, There's a moment. She said she was retained in a past case but was never called to testify. And that was a little testy, almost like the defense lawyers wanted to point out, yeah, you got retained, and then, you know, once you weren't going to play ball with the defense, you weren't going to do what they wanted. They basically didn't use you. And she said, no, I wasn't called to testify. That was interesting, that moment. And then the defense tried to bring in a new piece of evidence, a document from a training session that Hughes once led, advising survivors on courtroom etiquette, like how to dress and behave while testifying. They argued it showed that she, quote, made a cottage industry of being a professional witness. But the judge, Judge C. Romanian, shut that down, saying the document had no bearing on the facts of this case. And I'm just going to say right here, I have been doing this for longer than maybe some of you have been alive almost four decades. And if there's one thing I see in court all the time, it is, first of all, expert testimony, experts who are paid and get up on the stand to testify, either for the prosecution or the defense. And the other side brings up the fact that they are paid to get up there and testify for the other side. It's the way that a cross examination will try to muddy up whether we should really believe this person. What you're paid for, what you're saying, ugh, could we really believe you? But trust me, if you've never been on a jury before, and I can completely relate if you haven't. This happens all the time. This is trial 101. Experts are called almost in every trial, and they are paid for their time. They don't volunteer to get on a plane, lose a couple of days of work, spend money on a hotel to help some stranger out somewhere. They're paid, they're hired, but they're under oath. Right? So ostensibly, what you're getting is the truth from them, unless they're really skeevy. And that's why you go after their credentials if their credentials are good. You know, it's hard to go after the credentials if their credentials are bad. Maybe you can point out to the jury that, oh, this guy can be paid by anybody to say anything. And I've seen that happen, too, but I don't know that they got that out of this, out of this witness. I'm not so sure the defense was able to really chop her up and spit her out. I mean, honestly, it's the rules of trial. Experts are paid, experts are on the stand, and oftentimes each one will have an expert saying the opposite of what the other guy is saying. So then it's a battle of the experts. So once that doctor was off the stand, we had the last day. We had the last witness of the day. Finally, the much anticipated George Kaplan. This is another one of Diddy's former personal assistants. And to say that George was an unwilling witness would be an understatement because it was actually expected, even early this morning, that George Kaplan was going to get up on the stand and say, I invoke my Fifth Amendment right to stay silent to, you know, avoid self incrimination. Meaning I plead the Fifth. I plead the Fifth. We've seen it before, right? We thought that's what he was going to do. That was what we were told he was going to do. But in a surprising turn, he ended up taking the stand under subpoena. Right. He didn't come voluntarily, and he talked. Turned out prosecutors agreed to grant him immunity, so that meant that he was free and clear to speak at will. And George did. So what'd he say? He testified that he worked at combs enterprises from 2014 to 2015. He said his job started with simple tasks like carrying Diddy's bags, packing them with clothing and medicine and iPads and computers and food. That's kind of personal assistanty. But George said it didn't stay simple for long. Soon, George was spending late nights with Diddy in the studio. And soon he was preparing hotel rooms for Diddy on short notice. Sometimes, like just in advance of when the hotel room was going to be used. Inside those hotel rooms, George said that he recreated the same setup every single time. Candles, liquor, baby oil, Astro Glide, and clothing. Once Diddy had left the hotel room, George testified it was his job to clean up. You think your job is bad? Let's just stop and picture that for a minute. This is a personal assistant that has to clean up after a freak off. Like, how long would you last in that job? I can tell you how long I'd last. The first time I walked in and saw what it was I was supposed to clean up, I'd be like, I'm getting another job on Craigslist. But George told the jury, quote, there'd be empty bottles, baby oil on the bed, on the floor, on the table, and condoms. He also said that one time he saw a brown powdery residue, possibly crystallized drugs on the bathroom sink. And then came the drug pickups. You know, everything I just described about the hotel room and putting out lube and baby oil and getting hotel ready, getting hotel, hotel rooms ready for free coughs and then cleaning up after, that's all really gross stuff. And I'll let you know where. I think that's also part of rico, because you can't just use your employees to do illegal stuff. And if the prosecution can prove that those free coughs were actually illegal, they were coerced, and there were like sex workers flown over state lines, then all of that free cough stuff was illegal. And the staff members were used to make those happen. But what I'm about to say next is where it's just so effing obvious that it's just illegal. Illegal. You don't even need to make any chain connections here. George said that Diddy asked him twice to procure drugs for him, once in Miami and once in la. And both times George said, and listen closely here to these facts, okay? Or at least his testimony. He says their facts. George said that he was given cash and a phone number to call in each case. He said he met a man, made the exchange, and delivered a bag back to Diddy in Miami. He said that he knew it Was MDMA in the bag in la? He said he did not check inside to see what the contents were. I know that, you know, you do not need to be a rocket scientist to recognize that that is drug trafficking. Period. End of story. And if Diddy is your boss in his enterprise, his big, big billionaire enterprise, and he is ordering you to do these things with a cell phone, calling a drug dealer, making the score, handing the money, getting the money from the enterprise, handing the money to the drug dealer, getting the drugs in return, and then muling those drugs back to your boss, witnessing inside that they are illegal drugs. I don't even know why we need to go on. Right, there you go. There is one predicate act right there, the one where he witnessed the MDMA in the bag. One predicate act called drug trafficking. You only need 2, 2 over the course of 10 years to prove RICO. And you need to prove a pattern. And I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel like a broken record with some of these fact patterns. Patterns being the obvious word of importance here. So, yeah, for all those naysayers out there, I'm not seeing it. I'm not seeing rico. Well, damn it, listen to the case, listen to the testimony, listen to it line by line and actually do a score sheet. It's a bingo card by now. Actually, I just got a really good idea. I think I'm going to create a bingo card for Etsy because we got nine weeks of this trial. All right, back to what George was testifying to. He described working 80 to 100 hour work weeks. There's another reason, like, I'm out of here. Uh, his starting salary though was pretty sweet. 125,000 a year. So hello, Maybe that kept him. Look, he didn't stay long, but that's not a bad salary. He said that he earned Diddy's trust and he got to know the inner circle. And he named a few of those folks, like Christina K.K. coram, Diddy's former chief of staff. George testified that Christina, quote, basically ran Mr. Combs life, end quote. But George also described fear. This is important. He told the jury that his job was threatened, quote, maybe monthly, and that sometimes when Diddy was angry, he spun it as motivational. Like the time George could find a one gallon water jug and instead brought back two half gallons. Right. That's innovative. That's problem solving, solution finding. But he said Diddy got in his face and told him, quote, he was only to be surrounded by the best, end quote. Fear is important. My friends, once again, get your bingo card. Get used to that expression. I'm going to use it a lot. Because on the bingo card should be forced labor, coercion. When somebody makes you afraid for your job, for your life, sometimes that's coercion. Right? And this guy is an employee in the enterprise. That's important for rico. It's important for racketeering. By the way, that is where court wrapped up for the day on day eight. And George is not done. I'm really enjoying this testimony. I'm. I'm thinking this, this is like, once again, if you're, if you're playing bingo, you're getting a lot of points on George's testimony. You got a lot on Cassie's. You got a lot on the security guard at the Intercontinental Hotel. You got a lot on the. The sex workers, too. But George is coming back to the stand Thursday morning, and once he wraps up, all eyes turn to Kid Cudi. I can't wait for this one. You know, Kid Cudi is going to bring in a whole other aspect of this case. You've probably heard up until now that Cassie said her life was threatened, Kid Cudi's life was threatened, and that Diddy, in Cassie's words, was going to blow up his car. Right? So Cassie was scared because she was starting to date Kid Cudi when she and Diddy were. Were falling off. P.S. diddy's got, like, effing millions of girlfriends. He's stupping every effing girl, you know, from Miami to la. But he's jealous as hell, you know, if Cassie's dancing with, what, Chris Brown in a club at some point and maybe starting to see another guy because she's falling off with Diddy. Classic control freak. Classic. Right? Like I keep saying, Diddy is not going to survive this case. Whether he is convicted or not, he's going to be spit out on the sidewalk in the front of the Manhattan courthouse, a piece of. He literally will be the dirtiest, slimiest, Epsteiniest Cosbyist kind of guy. You know, he'll be one of those. He'll be one of the guys that we know does this. Two women, you know, and we've seen it. We've seen it on tape. We've seen him kicking, punching, and dragging a girl by the hair who's curling up in a ball to try to protect her head. Yeah, there's no getting around that. There's no getting over that either. Okay, so a lot of notes were made today. Like I said, the bingo card. This staffer I think is going to keep delivering to tomorrow. So I can't wait to what happens next. George Kaplan comes back. He'll get on the witness stand tomorrow. When he's done, all eyes shift to rapper Kid Cudi. And don't you know, Kid Cudi's car actually did explode in his driveway right after Diddy threatened Cassie that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi's car. Yeah, I can't wait to hear the evidence in that particular case because that, my friends, is called arson. Arson is a predicate act. What you got, Atlas? You wanted one of these cookies? Hold on a second. There you go, bud crunch. Can you hear it? The asmr Atlas crunching a cookie. Anyway, Kid Cudi is going to be super critical to this case because another predicate act for RICO will likely be destroyed or will likely be described by the prosecutors. And that is the arson. I don't know if they're going to be able to tie it to Diddy or Diddy staffers, but like I said, you know, strap in, pour a drink for that one. So we've now heard from agents, we've heard from assistants, we'd heard from security, we've heard from escorts, we've heard from Cassie's own mother. And if you can believe it, the prosecution says it is still just getting started and we are halfway through week two. So you know this. We are following every minute of this trial. So make sure you subscribe. I don't want you to miss a thing. I just keep, boom, dropping bonus episodes. In fact, I'm going to drop another one probably tomorrow on a big, big development in the quadruple murder trial in Idaho. This one kind of shook me, this development. I'll just give you a little teaser on it because remember that Dateline if you've been watching the Dateline episode that just vomited so much gag ordered information out. Well, the judge is super upset about it, but not as upset as the defense. And the defense is making. Hey, yeah, defense is making big hay. And now the defense wants the trial delayed. We've been like all set up for early August, but there might be a delay. So I've got Brian Enten on a special episode that I'm going to drop a bonus episode. So make sure you subscribe. I don't want you missing these things. They're fun, they're cool, and they're always really informative. At least I think so. I'm Ashley Banfield. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for watching. And remember the truth isn't just serious. Strong, dead serious.