Lauren LaRosa (0:00)

This is an iHeart podcast. Let's get to it. Time to do it. I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything. And everybody, you know, she don't lie about that, right? Lauren came in hot. Hey, guys, it's Lauren LaRosa back here again for another breakdown outside of the courthouse for Sean Diddy Combs trial. You know your girl. Love to take y' all to court. Love to take y' all to court. Here on the Latest with Lauren LaRosa. Now, this is your daily dig on all things court culture on all things entertainment, news, exclusives and the conversations that shake the room. Now we're doing a behind the scenes of the grind. Check in. Back on the grind. I would say today outside of this courtroom, I'm feeling a bit undecided. And I think the undecided feeling comes because you guys know, whenever I am here and I'm in court, after I hear the testimonies, after I see some of the things that are presented, all of the things that are presented, I like to then give y' all the information. But also I like to walk away with feeling like, okay, if I was a juror today just based on everything I've seen up until this point today, where would I land? Leaving court today, Brendan Paul has been on the stand. He has been examined by the government, by the prosecution. He's also been examined by the defense, which is Diddy's team, and cross and recross and crisscross and all of the things with Sean Combs, like a lot of the other witnesses. Right. But what he's doing is he's more so speaking directly to things that are trying to build a picture. And the picture that the, the government is trying to build with him is that this whole thing was a huge enterprise that wrapped around one man, his money and his power. They were going through conversations and emails and text messages that alleged that, you know, Brendan Paul would, you know, who on the stand admitted that he would be responsible for setting up hotel nights which were the freak offs. That was the 2024, 2023 later down the line, name of these freak off incidents. But he had testified like he would be in charge of setting them up. He testified that he would also be in charge of breaking them down. Allegedly. He says he alleges that that direct command came from kk, who was Christina Caron, who is, you know, was one of Diddy's go to head of operations and everything. Right now when he's talking to the government, he's talking about being in Charge of these hotel or these King nights. He talks about it very casually. He says that, you know, he would have to come there, he would set things up. He would buy supplies for the actual night. So when he would buy the supplies, he would do it on his personal credit card or his personal. You know, from his personal money, his personal account. They then the government asked him, well, how did you. How are you compensated for that? He says, we would. We would get it back, you know, from the team. If anybody's ever done an expense report, you know, exactly what he described. He said that he would submit the receipts. He would have to talk about why he had to purchase these things, and then it would take a little minute, but he would then get the money back. He said that when he would have to submit these things, he would. He alleges he would have to submit them via email. On the email would be KK, Christina Karan, and a woman from a company named TriStar. When he was asked what was TriStar, he said, the government is going in. Their testimony with Brendan Paul is they are trying to establish the fact that all these things were happening. The money from this company was the. Was the backing, was the front money for all of these things that were happening. And not only that, but also there were employees who were involved in all these things at every level. And that wasn't just something that coincidentally happened every now and then, as we've heard prior to, and as the defense has tried to, you know, angle every now and then, like, you know, things would be dropped off allegedly, or hotels would need to be booked or, you know, but this was Mr. Combs personal time is how the defense has. Has been picturing this or setting this up with Brendan Paul. They have him on the stand, and he's like, no, this was my job duty. They even brought up a schedule of his, right? He would be giving a written schedule of, like, what his day would look like. He would then put the schedule in his notepad in his phone. So they brought up the notepad in his phone. This is an alleged schedule set by kk. You know, who's this head exec on Diddy's team. She's calling the shots. And in the schedule it actually had set up for hotel nights. So the. The government is establishing, like, this was not just a incidental. You know, maybe he got close and trusted one assistant and allowed that assistant to do these things thing. This is something that went down. That was a part of the job description, basically. Like, so then the government is going through different conversations with him. And they then start to talk about, you know, they bring in the drug use. So now once this has happened and once the government decides that they're going to sit back and let the defense come in and do their thing, Brian still is on defense. He stands up and he starts having a conversation with Brendan Paul. So the way that he starts is he's establishing the fact that Brendan Paul is a very smart individual. Brendan Paul is an individual who not only went to college, but he played, you know, sports in college. He played for a very reputable, well known athlete while in college. And at first I'm trying to figure out where Brian still was going. And then I realized I'm like, okay, this is him. He's setting up Brendan's character because he's about to use Brendan Paul as a way to get out of this whole enterprise conversation, right? At least one of the witnesses to do that. So he's establishing him as this character who is, you know, very makes great decisions, has a great work ethic, has, you know, been raised to be morally like sound and, you know, you're here to tell the truth, correct? And he's like, yes, they mentioned the fact that, you know, Mr. Paul was given an immunity order. But even though he was given an immunity order, he's like, you know, I was going to tell the truth here regardless. And Brian still does a good job of establishing all of that character. And then they get into the real things. So then Brian still is like asking about, he asks about a ton of things. He asks about, you know, the hotel nights and these different things. And he, he gets it in there that, you know, again, did he seem as like, well, that was his personal time, right? Trying to separate the two. But then they go to the day that Brendan Paul was arrested. Now this was a big deal. This was a big story because after the CASSIE lawsuit dropped and then after the Cassie so Cassie lawsuit drops, things are crazy. Things are crazy things and crazy. And then the Cassie video from CNN drops. If you guys remember. And I remember because we were reporting on it at the time at tmz, if you remember, there was photos of Diddy and a man. They were traveling to the Bahamas with his family. The man was arrested. When the man was arrested, all of the headlines that came out alleged that he was Diddy's drug mule. Because this man was arrested and. Or he was arrested trying to get to Mr. Combs and there was drugs in one of his bags that he had with them, right? So they bring this up and they're Having a conversation about it. And Brian still is like, you're not a drug mule. Correct. Because that is how the government was painting it. It's like, you know, there's all these drugs. There's all these things even down to. Right. I'm going back real quick. The government was so detailed today in making sure that they really had, you understand how much of a job it was to be a Sean Combs assistant and having to involve yourself in things like hotel nights and baby oil and Astro Glide. They showed a photo that Brendan Paul took. This photo had a cabinet where there was baby oil and Astroglide laid out. And they asked him, why did you take this photo? And he says, we had a new house manager and we would have to order everything that Mr. Combs needed from a house manager. Right? And they're like. And so then he's explaining that I sent this photo because I wanted this house manager to see, here's exactly how things are supposed to be organized. Right? And the government is like, okay. Without even having to say at all anything. It's like, so this was a real part of your job. But anyway, now we're back. We're on cross with the defense, and the defense is establishing that, you know, that whole drug mule allegation and narrative is a bunch of bs. Brian still is like, you're not a drug mule. He's like, no. And he's like, well, what is your definition of a drug mule? And he's like, to me, it's somebody who, you know, like, carries a button, like, ton of drugs, kilos across state and things of that nature. And Brian Steele was like, well, how much did you actually have on you? And he said, 0.7 ounces. And Brian still is like, oh, that was. That's a personal use amount. And then they get into a conversation in the back and forth that Brendan Paul. It then comes out that the day that Brendan Paul was arrested for having those drugs on him, and, you know, all of the headlines painted this as him smuggling drugs and allegedly for Diddy, or smuggling drugs to wherever they were going to. Allegedly, right? He says that he got one of the best attorneys in the town, which is why his case was dropped. Whose drugs it was because he felt a sense of loyalty to Diddy. But he said once he got in front of the judge and the judge saw, okay, it's 0.7 ounces. They asked him, you know, how did this get here? He says, it was just in his bag. He didn't remember it was in his bag. It was Dropped now for background, they then clarify the. Him not understanding it was in his bag and where the drugs came from. So they're like, were these drugs given to you to specifically take somewhere for Diddy that day? Like, because that's what is being alleged. That's what's being set up here. And he's like, no, it was basically. It was something he had cleaned up from another hotel night or another king night, and he put it in his bag when he cleaned it up and forgot it was in the bag and went to travel with it. And then he was arrested. And I'm like, okay. Because at first, I'm like, okay. He's a great summary witness for the. He's a great witness for the prosecution because it's very straight to the point. It's easy for you to understand exactly what they're trying to get to with him. He's naming all these names from the company. He's talking about how things is paid for versus how they not like all of the things. Right? So you get where he's going, and you get it real fast. But then they put him on for the defense. They let the defense talk to him. I'm like, dang, he a good witness for them, too. Because now it's looking more like, okay, drugs were used, but it's not this big illegal operation to smuggle drugs and people, the way that you guys are making it seem allegedly, right. They even get to the point of talking about the Love album that dropped because Brendan Paul was a part of the team that worked on the Love album, and he referenced it as a great. Like, it was, like, the best time ever. Right? Brian still says, you saw, you know, Mr. Combs do drugs a lot. And he's like, you know. Yeah. And he says, well, would you say. Because. Right. You. You stayed up. You guys were up. Y' all in production for the album. You ain't sleeping. Like, you're not sleeping things. You're. You're in it. So you were right there. You witnessed it all. He's like, yeah. And he's like, would you say that Mr. Combs was able to highly function during this time? Because that was a crazy time. There was. There was so much going on. You're dropping music. He was able to be up with y' all all night after doing all these things. He was creatively overflowing as he was taking drugs. Correct. And I'm like, oh, I see what they're doing again. They're trying to humanize all of this behavior. They're trying to number one, you know, they're. They're alleging that this is all because of drugs and, you know, not able to make good decisions because of that. Right. But now they're turning the drugs into something that, like, it's just casual. This is just what he does. And we can't sit here and prosecute a man because this is what he does. That's where the defense was going with Brian's. Brian. Brian still with Brendan Paul. So he's like, I mean, he couldn't really answer the question because, I mean, how can you tell that? But he did admit. Yeah, he was able to stay up with us. So I, you know, it's going to be. And then everything's over, right? Then it just ends with him. It's going to be really interesting to see, you know, as this rests. And again, I keep saying it and the defense comes in, like, where they go with things, because these final couple witnesses are. They're adding some color and some context, but it kind of opens it back up again where it's like, okay, you can kind of see both sides of the coin here. So the defense is going to be the last thing we hear. And in the counter to the defense, things are supposed. We're supposed to rest today. It is Friday, June 20, 2025, but they did not. And again, I had said earlier on the Breakfast Club this morning that I didn't think that they would. I didn't think that they would because they did lose a day this week in court. So it'll spill over until Monday. And we should now start hearing more about who, like, who were the witnesses that the defense are about to call. I'm Lauren LaRosa. This is the latest with Lauren LaRosa here with another exclusive update from outside of the trial of Sean Combs. You guys could be anywhere with anybody getting all this information, but y' all choose to be right here with me. So, Lowriders, I appreciate you guys, and I will catch you in my next episode. This is an iHeart podcast.