Brett Cooper (0:00)

Blackmail, revenge, sex, parties, baby oil, and public lawsuits. Welcome to your average Monday in Hollywood. Alright, guys, so last week on Thursday, as I was getting ready to release my episode on Taylor Swift's involvement in the It Ends with Us drama, unfortunately, a new bombshell dropped. But at the time I had already filmed the episode. I was also having a particularly nauseous pregnancy day, so I did not feel up to doing a selfie edition. So I think we should talk about it now because Justin Baldoni's lawyers have come forward with some pretty insane accusations about Blake Lively and Taylor Swift. So as we covered in Thursday's episode, Taylor Swift has officially been subpoenaed by Justin Baldoni's team. And of course, both Taylor and Blake's teams are challenging this. But the new update in the case is that after Blake's team fought the subpoena and filed their response, Justin Baldoni's lawyers then filed yet another response. And guys, every single time I think that this case cannot get get even more crazier, they outdo themselves. So let's quickly go over that before we get into Diddy. But before we get into that, make sure that you're following our podcast page and rate the show if you're enjoying it. And as a reminder, I am going on tour this spring. We already had our first couple of stops and it was so much fun. And we do have tickets remaining in some of the city. So if you want to check that out, go to BrettCooper.com where you can see all of the stops and buy all the tickets. You can also find information there about Cooper Confidential, which is my subscriber only platform. Again, that is@brettcooper.com and also in the description below. All right, so the insane update is that Wildlike Lively' is fighting the subpoena and saying, do not involve my friend. Do not involve Taylor Swift. There is no way that she is involved in this production whatsoever. While all of that was happening, Justin Baldoni's team was talking to a source and preparing something behind the scenes. So in response to Blake's team fighting all of that, they filed a response claiming that Blake Lively threatened to release personal text messages if Taylor did not make a public statement in defense of Blake Lively. She was saying, you need to be on my side, otherwise texts from our 10 year friendship are going to come out. Now I do not know if she was saying that as a form of like general blackmail and saying like I am going to intentionally release things or if she was just saying like, if you don't come out and support me, then this will just come out in court. I really don't know. But regardless if this is true, it is truly wild. Now, all of this is coming from a tip from an anonymous source that spoke to Justin Baldoni's legal team. We have no idea who the source is, but obviously this is somebody who is very, very close to Taylor Swift. And it has to be somebody that is cred that would spark Justin's team into action to actually file this in a court of law, to send this in a response to a judge. Now, in addition to all of that, Justin's legal team, based on that information, is now also accusing Blake Lively of witness tampering because she allegedly was asking Taylor to delete text messages between the two of them. So she is simultaneously saying, allegedly, that Taylor was not involved and she should not be subpoenaed. And then on the other side of her mouth, behind the scenes, allegedly is saying, you need to delete these text messages so that you cannot be complicit. Now, of course, Blake Lively's team immediately shot back, denied all of these accusations. However, the update as of this morning is that Justin's lawyer signed a sworn affidavit confirming that all of this information is accurate. Now, of course, we don't know who this source is. We have not seen their messages. We have no idea. But that seems pretty freaking credible to me. Truly, truly wild. I'm sure more will come out. Taylor Swift, whether she likes it or not, is embroiled in all of this. There are all of these, like, Easter eggs going on with her right now. Like, I think that she actually might be releasing a new album or doing her re recording of Reputation. All of the Taylor Swift stans on X are posting about that. I think that she is trying to focus on that. But her ex best friend, or maybe still best friend, who knows, Blake Lively is pulling her into this scandal. So hopefully we will have updates for you on that as well. But now, without further ado, we need to turn our attention to a different celebrity lawsuit, one that is far more disturbing, probably the craziest to ever come out of Hollywood. And of course, that would be the case surrounding Sean Diddy Combs. Now, before we get into this, I do just want to give a disclaimer. There are going to be some incredibly disturbing things we're talking about that are very sexual in nature, that are very violent in nature. I'm sure that if you know any of the rumors about Diddy, you probably know what I'm talking about. So if that is not your cup of tea. If you don't want to hear that today, this might not be the episode for you. But I'm just giving you a warning now. This is going to be a long trial. Who knows how long this is going to go on? I think right now it is set to go for eight weeks, but who knows if they will actually come to any decision whether there will be a mistrial? Who knows? I'm expecting this to be in the public eye for a very long time. And so I think the best way to start this and start unpacking it for everyone as we're probably, you know, all encountering tweets and tiktoks and news stories about all of this is to go back to the beginning and lay a good foundation because there are a lot of stories here, a lot of characters here, a lot of history that I do think we need to understand. So the first piece of context that you need to have is that after years and years of rumors and speculations involving his freak offs and his parties and connections to, you know, Justin Bieber and Usher and all of these different things, Diddy was officially arrested in September of last year. And his trial has just now started again. It is supposed to be around eight weeks long. And one of the most important people that you need to know about who is involved in this case, this is the prosecution star witness that would be Diddy's ex girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. So to start us all off, I just kind of want to walk through their relationship and timeline because there is so much context here that is important to understand as we all inevitably watch this unfold on social media and in the public eye. So to go back to the start, Cassie Ventura met Diddy in 2005 at the age of 19. And in 2006 Cassie signed a 10 album record deal with Bad Boy Entertainment, which is Diddy's label. And guys, after learning everything that we have just learned about Justin Bieber and the contracts that he's under, the way that all of that works, the way that he is still under contract because of the albums that he is supposed to produce, you need to know 10 albums, that is a career long contract. And that only becomes crazier and obviously very sinister when you start to understand the personal relationship that they had outside of business and outside of that connection with, with the record label. So then fast forward a year in 2007, while Diddy was still in a relationship with Kim Porter. And even though throughout their entire relationship she was under contract with his label, she only released two things. She released one album in 2006 and a mixtape in 2013. So why didn't she release more? What happened with those 10 albums? What was happening behind the scenes? Well, it seems like their relationship was taking up most of the time. In 2012, they finally made their relationship public and they were quickly seen as a knit couple. And they were seen as a knit couple for years. They attended red carpets together. They posted heartfelt messages about each other on social media. I mean, they were together for years and years and years. But what the public was seeing was very different than what Cassie is saying happened behind closed doors. Now, before we get into all of that, I wanna take a second to tell you about my sponsor, Nimmy Skincare. 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Their company represents amazing values that we can all stand behind. And their products are proudly made in the USA and because of that they are an forced to increase their prices when tariffs and costs rise. So you can always trust that you are getting great value. So if you are ready to make the switch, take Nimmy's simple skincare quiz on their website and get a skincare routine curated just for your skin type and your concerns. So head on over today to nimmieskincare.com that is nimiskincare.com and use code COOPER for 15% off your order. Your skin and your wallet will thank you. Okay, so now that you guys have been introduced to Cassie, we can all be introduced to Diddy's freak off parties. And in 2008 when Cassie was only 22 years old, Diddy first asked her to partake in what is now known as a ditty freak Off. And he framed this as this voyeuristic fantasy, explaining that he wanted to watch her engage in sexual activities with another male, specifically an escort that he would bring in while he directed the encounters. And these freak offs happened at various times in different locations around the world. They were elaborate. They were produced sex performances between Cassie and male prostitutes that Diddy arranged, directed, masturbated during, and more often than not, electronically recorded. Now, according to Cassie, these freak offs would be 36 to 48 to 72 hours. And the longest went on for four days. He was producing this, these sexual activities between her and other people as he sort of engaged and directed all of this for four days straight. Now, these freak offs continued for years, and Cassie and Diddy did go on a break in 2011, but they got back together and these freak offs just kept continuing. And I want you guys to think about this, because it is not just about what happened behind closed doors, but how these doors were able to stay shut for over 20 years. Because based on what we're all learning in this trial from the testimonies, from everything coming out, is that these freak offs often took place in relatively public areas. Like they took place in hotel rooms where Diddy's activities would go so far as to destroy an entire massive suite, requiring the entire place to be fully renovated, fully gutted, and fully redecorated. And the public didn't hear any of it. He would be caught on security cameras and that footage would never come out and no one would ever say anything. How was this such an open secret for 20 years? And it is just now coming to trial. Now, moving forward a little bit through all of those years. In 2018, Cassie and Diddy officially announced to the public that they had finally officially separated. And Cassie then, very quickly after, began dating the trainer that Diddy had hired and assigned to her during their relationship. Take a look at this TMZ article from 2019. Diddy sources say that Cassie betrayed him by sleeping with her trainer. She calls bs. Now, at the time, Cassie's team denied all of these allegations and they were insisting that they started dating after their breakup. But obviously Diddy felt betrayed and he was angry. And Cassie has now alleged that after the breakup, he came to her apartment and he raped her. So even though their breakup was final in the public eye, there were still things happening behind closed doors. Now, another piece of context that you'll probably see throughout this trial is that Cassie ended up marrying this trainer and his name is Alex, and they now have multiple children together. And right now, during this trial, while she is testifying, she is eight months pregnant with, I believe, their third child. Now, fast forward to 2023. That is when Cassie finally filed a lawsuit against Diddy. As you can see here, one article reads, music mogul Sean Diddy Combs faced a lawsuit by singer Cassie Ventura that accused Combs of using his position of power as a music executive and wealth to abuse ventura for nearly 10 years. A day after it was filed, the two reached a settlement on November 17th. Now, by this time, obviously, Cassie was married. She had two children. And the reason why she filed this lawsuit is because she started having flashbacks because of the trauma that she endured during this relationship, and she just could no longer take it. At one point, according to the stories that she is now told, she asked her husband, Alex, if he could do this without her and be a single parent. She said, quote, I couldn't take the pain. She basically said that she wanted to walk right out the front door into oncoming traffic. And the only reason why she didn't do that is because her husband convinced her not to. And this prompted her to go get help, to work through all the trauma that she had endured during this relationship with Diddy. Now, through going to therapy, she started unpacking all of this, and she began writing down everything that she had endured until she had an entire book full of this abuse. And finishing that book is what finally inspired her to take action. I wanted Shawn to read it, to understand. I don't think he understood. I was begging for sorrys. I wanted him to understand the pain that he put me through. And even though she was begging for sorrys and she wanted to leave, nothing ever happened. And so years, years, all she wanted was some kind of apology and acknowledgement of everything that he had put her through. Now, at the time, she did send Diddy this book, but he and his team, they did not take her seriously. Then she offered to sell this book to him for $30 million. He said no again. So that is when she made the decision to sue him. She filed the lawsuit, which then settled for $20 million in 24 hours. And that lawsuit is then what sparked the criminal investigation that we are now seeing, because it's not Diddy vs. Ventura in this case. This is a federal prosecution, which makes the the story and makes the allegations and the accusations even bigger than just what happened with Cassie Ventura. Now, before we get into his charges and everything that has happened with the trial thus far, I want to take a second to talk about my sponsor, Preborn. Now, when a woman faces an unplanned pregnancy. Her whole world is shaken and she wants to make the right choice. But often in this crazy culture and society, everyone around her is insisting that what she has inside of her is just a clump of cells, not a life. And preborn's mission is to empower that woman with the choice of life. 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We now know the story of Cassie Ventura, at least how it all began. We've heard the rumors of the freakoffs for literally years. The allegations of rape, the ties to Usher and Jay Z. But what is is Diddy actually being charged with? Because I think that that is something that a Lot of people don't understand. It was something that I really didn't understand until I started doing research for this episode. So to break all of that down, Diddy is facing five charges, which include racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Now, the racketeering charge alleges that he ran a criminal enterprise through his business empire, mainly his record label, Bad boy Entertainment, from 2004 to 2024, engaging in crimes including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. Now, on top of that, he is facing two counts of sex trafficking, where he is accused of forcing women into commercial sex acts, including organizing these freak offs, using drugs and violence and threats to ensure compliance. And the last two counts are involving him transporting women across state and international lines for the purpose of prostitution. And I really think this is important to lay all of this out because if you read the headlines and you see all the stories about Diddy and Cassie, you might think that this is some, you know, civil lawsuit between the two of them about their relationship. But this is a criminal investigation on the basis of sex trafficking. That is what they are accusing him of. Which takes us into the next thing that I think we need to break down, which is his legal team, because, guys, it is stacked. Now, there are at least eight people on his legal team, at least that we know of. The heavy hitters include a man named Mark Agnifilo. Hopefully I am saying that correctly. He is most famously known for defending the NXIVM leader Keith Rainier. If you guys have not heard that story, that cult, it is truly, truly insane. There's a whole podcast about it, but that is the man who defended him. Now, next up on his team is a woman named Tenney Garagos. Now, interestingly, Tenney's father is also an incredibly powerful celebrity attorney, and his past clients have included Hunter Biden, Chris Brown, and Michael Jackson. And her father, Mark, is a friend of Diddy's, and he has repeatedly defended Diddy throughout this entire situation, even as recently as a few days ago on Megyn Kelly's show and in an interview with tmz, which is just crazy to me. Moving on, we also have Brian Steele. And you also might recognize him from when he represented Young Thug and the clips from that trial went viral. And yes, everyone, he is the lawyer that told the judge in that trial that Thug stood for truly humble under God.