Exclusive: Tory Lanez thinks his appeal hearing went well, according to his lawyers

Summary

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The Breakfast Club — Tory Lanez Appeal Hearing Exclusive

Date: August 19, 2025
Host: Lauren LaRosa (Pop Culture Correspondent segment on The Breakfast Club)
Episode Theme:
A deep dive into the latest developments in Tory Lanez’s legal battle, focusing on exclusive updates from his legal team about his appeal hearing related to the Meg Thee Stallion shooting conviction.

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Overview

This episode of The Breakfast Club features an exclusive report by Lauren LaRosa, highlighting recent updates from Tory Lanez’s legal team following his latest appeal hearing. The segment provides insider insights from Cesar McDowell, the head of "Unite the People" (Lanez’s current legal team), breaking down the appeal after Lanez’s conviction for the shooting of Meg Thee Stallion. LaRosa discusses the key legal points raised, the confidence exuded by Lanez’s team, and what could come next — all delivered in the show's signature conversational tone.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Current Legal Landscape

• Tory Lanez’s legal journey: Lanez has shifted legal teams multiple times, now working with "Unite the People."

• About the hearing: The latest appeal hearing, held Monday of the same week, was before a panel of three female judges, including a Black woman. Lanez's lawyer, Laura L. Capero, represented him.

  “This went down earlier, top of this week. In the hearing...Tory Lanez attorney...working with Cesar and Mitchell McDowell...the CEO and co-founders of Unite the People.”
  —Lauren LaRosa [03:05]

2. Core Legal Arguments in Appeal

Lanez’s team presented 11 critical points of appeal, focusing on these principal claims:

• Withheld DNA evidence: Alleged delays in receiving DNA evidence, limiting Lanez's defense.
• Kelsey’s testimony & use immunity: Argument that Meg Thee Stallion’s friend Kelsey was given immunity, making her "unavailable" to the defense, which Lanez’s attorneys argue is unconstitutional.

“They are claiming, number one, that there's DNA evidence that was withheld...They're also alleging that Kelsey's testimony...the way that they did not get to question Kelsey and investigate her claims…They're saying it's unconstitutional.”
—Lauren LaRosa [04:21]

3. Confidence from Lanez’s Team

• Cesar McDowell’s assertion: At least 2 to 3 appeal points are expected to be granted, which could result in either exoneration or a new trial for Lanez.

  “He will say 100% that Tory Lanez will be granted at least two to three of the issues...either fully exonerate Tory Lanez or...allow for a new trial.”
  —Lauren LaRosa, relaying McDowell’s words [06:10]

4. What Happens Next?

• Decision timeline: While such decisions can take up to 90 days, Lanez’s team believes a resolution could come “in max 60 days,” or possibly sooner.

• Clarification of the process: Previous failed petitions (for new evidence and a new sentence) were single-issue motions, not the broader appeal now under review.

  “From what I was told by Cesar McDowell, Tory Lanez’s legal team are all very confident that they'll hear back way less than 90 days...max 60 days.”
  —Lauren LaRosa [10:55]

5. Public Perception and Celebrity Support

• LaRosa encourages fans and listeners to chime in online, noting the evolving and divided public opinion, with strong voices on “both sides” — those supporting Tory Lanez and those supporting Meg Thee Stallion.

• References to how these split allegiances have affected both artists, with Meg Thee Stallion even resorting to court orders due to harassment.

  “People feeling like he shot her were very, very loud...there are a lot of people on the opposite side that are alleging that Meg thee stallion is lying...”
  —Lauren LaRosa [12:10]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On lawyer confidence:

  “Beyond a shadow of a doubt, he believes that between two or three of these things...Tory will either be exonerated and get to walk, or he will be allowed to retry these different errors.”
  —Cesar McDowell (as paraphrased by Lauren LaRosa) [06:39]

• On persistence in appeal:

  “Anybody's gonna tell you if you're in a position like Tory Lanez is in, you just fight until you can't fight anymore.”
  —Lauren LaRosa [11:09]

• Call to audience:

  “Let me know what y'all think. Take it to the streets. Take it to the tweets. Does Tory Lanez walk on any of these charges?”
  —Lauren LaRosa [13:12]

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Timeline of Key Segments

• [02:19] Lauren LaRosa's intro and episode context
• [03:05] Details on Tory Lanez’s appeal hearing and legal team changes
• [04:21] Overview of major appeal arguments (DNA evidence, Kelsey’s testimony)
• [06:10] Quoting Cesar McDowell’s confidence in success on at least 2–3 issues
• [10:55] Timeframe for a possible decision (60–90 days)
• [11:09] Reflection on legal perseverance and arguments not being new
• [12:10] Discussion of public and celebrity reactions, shifting support
• [13:12] Lauren’s closing questions to listeners

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Tone & Style

Lauren maintains a conversational, candid style throughout, blending factual reporting with personal opinions, acknowledgments of fatigue (“long first day back after vacation”), and direct engagement with listeners.

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Summary

This episode delivers an exclusive, detailed update on Tory Lanez’s appeal efforts, highlighting both the substance of his legal team’s current arguments and their pronounced optimism. Lauren LaRosa offers clarity on common misconceptions around the appeal process, directly communicates the outlook from Lanez’s inner circle, and acknowledges the divisiveness and dynamic shifts in public sentiment. Audience participation is explicitly encouraged, with Lauren calling for reactions on social media, ensuring the discussion continues beyond the segment.

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Transcript

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[B]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Now through August 26th, it's back to Deals time where you can enjoy storewide deals and earn four times points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Kettle, Haagen, Dazs, M&MS. Ritz, Chips Ahoy, Arrowhead, All Poppy Charman and Red Bull. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions. App albertsons or safeway.com for more details.

[C]

I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite sized stories of missing and murdered black women and girls in America. Stories like Erica Hunt, a young mother vanished without a trace after a family gathering on 4th of July weekend 2016. No goodbyes, no clues, just gone. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[D]

It's Black Business Month and Money and wealth podcast with John Hope Bryant is tapping in. I'm breaking down how to build wealth, create opportunities and move from surviving to thriving. It's time to talk about ownership, equity and everything in between. Black and brown communities have historically been lasting. Line Let me just say this AI is moving faster than civil rights legislation ever did. Listen to Money and Wealth from the Black Effect podcast network on iHeartrad radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[E]

Do we really need another podcast with a condescending finance bro trying to tell us how to spend our own money? No thank you. Instead, check out Brown Ambition. Each week I your host, Mandy Money gives you real talk, real advice with a heavy dose of I feel useless. Like on Fridays when I take your questions for the baqa. Whether you're trying to invest for your future, navigate a toxic workplace, I got you. Listen to Brown ambition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[D]

Let's get to it. Time to do it.

[A]

I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything and everybody. You know she don't lie about that, right?

[B]

Lauren came in hot.

[A]

Hey guys, what's up? It's Lauren LaRosa and this is the latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment, news, exclusives and today we got a good Tory Lanez exclusive and all of the conversations that shake the room. Now hopping right on into the latest, because I am, like powering through at this point. It has been a long first day back after vacation. I want to get right to this story. So earlier this morning on the Breakfast Club, we talked a lot about Tory Lanez and the hearing, the appeals hearing that his team recently had. This went down on Monday. So this went down earlier, top of this week. And in the hearing, which lasted for some time, the arguments are very detailed, but I watched the hearing. So I watched Tory Lanez attorney, who is working with cesar and Mitchell McDowell, who are the CEO and co founders of Unite the People, which is the legal team that has been working with Tory Lanez. And y' all remember, Tory Lanez has switched lawyers. He's went from Sean Holly and then he went to a second legal team. And now he has been working for some time, though, but he has been working with Unite the People. So Laura L. Capero stood before a panel of three judges. Now, these three judges, all women, one judge is a black woman, heard Laura, who is up here for Tory Lanez. They also got to hear arguments in rebuttal of what Tory Lanez team is claiming was done unfairly to him. So just to summarize it really quickly, Tory Lanez team have submitted two petitions already to courts. And these petitions involved, they were asking if they're able to enter completely new evidence, and a court said no. They were also asking for just a completely new sentence, and a judge said no. Now this, this is the big conversation, though. Like, this is the big boy. This is the one that will determine whether or not Tory Lanez gets gets to walk or gets to retry some of the issues or the things or the errors that his team is claiming went down in the original Meg Thee Stallion case. All that after that house pool party that they went to with Kylie Jenner. So they are claiming, number one, that there's DNA evidence that was withheld and that, you know, Tory Lanez team did not get in time enough to respond to. They're also alleging that Kelsey's testimony and the way that they did not get to question Kelsey and investigate her claims in a certain amount of time are just. They're saying it's unconstitutional. So it's something called use immunity. And I've spoken to Tory Lanez's legal team, and from what they're explaining to me, their whole point is, is that at one point Kelsey was, you know, she was able to be questioned and all the things. Then she gets on the stand once she decides to testify, and she's given immunity. Not Only is she giving immunity for the testimony, but she's also able to plead the fifth when it comes to anybody being able to ask her different questions. So Tory Lanez team is saying, look, that made her unavailable to us, and that's like constitutionally and based on the Constitution. That's just not right. Now, they're also saying here that because of there's 11 different things that they have dissected and broke apart and decided to present in front of this panel of judges. But of the 11. So after speaking to Cesar McDowell, who is one of the co founders of Unite the People, which again, is Tory Lanez's team, legal team, so he is leading Tory lanez's legal team. McDowell actually tells me that of the full 11 things, he believes strongly, like, he will say 100% that Tory Lanez will be granted at least two to three of the issues that they are asking for the judge to see. And when I say granted, that means either out of two to three of these things, a judge will either fully exonerate Tory Lanez or a judge will allow for a new trial to happen. Now, this is according to the head attorney, the head of Unite the people, Cesar McDowell. He says to me, beyond a shot of a doubt, he believes that between two or three of these things, specifically the things I mentioned, the conversation about the DNA, the conversation about Kelsey's testimony and how they allege that, you know, just constitution based on the constitution, Tory's rights were violated. Tory will either be exonerated and get to walk, or he will be allowed to retry these different errors of these conversations that they're bringing up now. That is a strong statement. And I asked him, I said, are you for sure that I can say that, like, because let's just be honest here, y'. All, Tory Lanez has been at this fight for some time now. This is not a new. You know, Tory Lanez just woke up last week and said, hey, I want to fight and try and get out of here and try and get. Tory Lanez has been fighting since the moment he was convicted. He's been convicted. He's facing 10 years behind bars because of the alleged shooting of. Or I mean, I don't even gotta say alleged, because he was convicted. He was found guilty of the shooting of Meg Thee Stallion. Now, I won't go into too much detail about everything that they're alleging was done wrong, because we did talk about this briefly on the Breakfast Club, but I do want to give you guys an update exclusively after talking to Cesar McDowell. So I also asked him, how does Tory Lanez think that yesterday's big appeal hearing went? He told me that he believes Tory Lanez believes that this went well. That actually, everybody in their legal camp believes yesterday went well. Now, I watched the full hearing, and I'm not gonna, you know, lie to you guys. So, yeah, they had their points, and they presented a lot of information to Orleans team. But at the same time, the other side shot right back with the same amount of, here's evidence, here's information, here's what they could have done. And there was a bit of a rebuttal after that. So Tory Lanez's attorney, Laura, she got back up after those arguing for Meg Thee stallion, or those arguing in favor to keep Trey Lanez in jail, sat back down, and, you know, she just refuted the things that came back up. But I'm be honest with y'. All. This argument is nothing different than what we've heard in various different ways. I know that there was a letter sent over to the judge a while back, and this was around a time when Tory Lanez decided that he didn't want to work with Sean Holly anymore, who is a famed attorney who was representing him. He mentioned, you know, just different things that he alleges weren't allotted to him. Tory Lanez has tried to have the conversation about the DNA for some time now as well. These are not new arguments whatsoever. So to hear that Tory Lanez thinks that this went well, to hear Cesar McDowell say, We are for certain that at least two to three of these things will be granted, that is a big statement. Now, I did ask him, you know, if these things are granted, what happens right away? And again, as I mentioned earlier, this is not the appeals conversation where, you know, it's just one thing that they're deciding on. So a lot of people are confused as well, because the other two petitions that we've been talking about with Tory Lanez that were not granted, once those things were taken off the table, people thought that Tory Lanez's ability to appeal in general was just done. Those were one issue conversations. So they were only asking and requesting one thing. Hey, can we please submit new evidence? No. Hey, can we please have a conversation about a different sentence? No. This big conversation right here, there are 11 different things that they're saying hey, about. So this is the big one. Now, I did ask as well, because I have been reading, and from what I read, this could take up to 90 days to make a full decision about for that panel of judges, the three judges that come back and say, hey, we have our decision, and go through their, you know, breakdown of what their decisions are on each of the 11 things. And from what I was told by Cesar McDowell, they are all. Tory Lanez's legal team are all very confident that they'll hear back way less than 90 days, that they'll actually hear back in max 60 days. And to be honest with you, it sounds like they think that it could even be a little bit sooner than that because that's just how confident they are and how they've presented with their arguments or the errors that they're alleging that were made in trial when Tory Lanez was convicted. Now, again, this is one of those things where, I mean, any attorney that you ask is going to tell you that somebody like a Tory Lanez in a position he's in because people keep saying, why is he wasting money on attorneys? Why is he wasting his time on attorneys? Why is he wasting his time, money, energy, on even thinking that anything will be overturned, that he'll be able to come home, the evidence was there. Anybody's gonna tell you if you're in a position like Tory Lanez is in, you just fight until you can't fight anymore. You try and bring things to people's attention in all the ways that you can. And again, these are not new arguments. I think people are paying more attention now because Tory Lanez has, you know, official documents in court asking for these things to be paid attention to. But since the moment he was convicted, this man has been saying he did not do it. Now, I don't know how y' all feel. Y' all gotta let me know in the comments. Please take it to the streets in the tweets. You for the tweets. We outside. We outside. We outside in the tweets.

[D]

Every other page are gold.

[A]

Do y' all feel like Tory Lanez has a shot? And surprisingly enough, you know, the ties change. I know how people get. It's like one minute y' all feel one way, the next minute y' all feel another. Because I remember when, you know, all of this first kicked off and the verdict came down and, you know, you had so many people having the different conversations and, you know, different celebrities coming out in support of Tory or in support of Megan and blah, blah, blah, people were very clear what side they stood on. People feeling like he shot her were very, very loud. People who I. E. There was a lot of people on the other side. And this is what Megan Nastalia talks about a lot of and also has had to put orders in court about a lot. There are a lot of people on the opposite side that are alleging that Meg thee stallion is lying about who shot her and does not know who shot her. I want to know how y' all feel. You know again, Cesar McDowell, the head of Unite the people who was leading Tory Lanez's legal strategy for him to say to me that they believe that at least two to three of these major topics will be granted in Tory's favor, meaning he could either be retried or he could completely walk. That is a huge statement. Let me know what y' all think. Take it to the streets. Take it to the tweets. Let me know what y' all think. Does Tory Lanez walk on any of these charges? After listening to what you guys listen to today, what was presented, I want to know.

[B]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Now through August 26th, it's back to Deals time where you can enjoy store wide deals and earn four times points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Kettle, Haagen, Dazs, M&M's Ritz, Chips Ahoy, Arrowhead, All Poppy Charman and Red Bull. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Shop in store or online for easy drive up and go. Pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.

[C]

I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite sized stories of missing and murdered black women and girls in America. Stories like Erica Hunt, a young mother vanished without a trace after a family gathering on 4th of July weekend 2016. No goodbyes, no clues, just gone. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[B]

What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced.

[A]

He said you are a number, a New York State number and we own you.

[B]

Listen to Shock incarceration on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[D]

It's Black Business Month and Money and wealth podcast with John Hope Bryant is tapping in. I'm breaking down how to build wealth, create opportunities and move from surviving to thriving. It's time to talk about ownership, equity and everything in between. Black and brown communities have historically been last in line. Let me just say this AI is moving faster than civil rights legislation ever did. Listen to Money and Wealth from the Black Effect podcast network on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast.