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- [00:00]
Kayla Brantley
Welcome to the Trial of Diddy. I'm Kayla Brantley.
- [00:03]
Hermania Rodriguez Poleo
And I'm Hermania Rodriguez Poleo.
- [00:05]
Kayla Brantley
We'll be back in a second.
- [00:17]
Marc Maron
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
- [00:37]
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- [01:04]
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- [01:53]
Kayla Brantley
The biggest secret in the entertainment industry that really wasn't a secret at all.
- [01:58]
Maureen Callahan
At the height of his career, Sean Diddy Combs had it all.
- [02:02]
Kayla Brantley
Everything Diddy touched turned to gold.
- [02:05]
Hermania Rodriguez Poleo
Now he faces multiple federal charges in New York including sex trafficking and allegedly running a criminal enterprise.
- [02:12]
Maureen Callahan
Another woman has now come forward alleging.
- [02:15]
Kayla Brantley
Comes of sexual assault Music mogul and.
- [02:17]
Hermania Rodriguez Poleo
Rapper Sean Diddy Cohen.
- [02:18]
Maureen Callahan
She claims she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Combs. Oh, this guy is dangerous.
- [02:24]
Kayla Brantley
From freak offs to the mysterious list. The shit. The shocking case that has gripped the world is finally here and we'll be bringing you every detail as it happens.
- [02:34]
Hermania Rodriguez Poleo
Welcome to the trial of Diddy.
- [02:40]
Kayla Brantley
Welcome back to the trial of Diddy. We are recording right now on Tuesday, July 8. It's about 1pm and in an hour, Diddy's expedited sentencing hearing is scheduled.
- [02:51]
Hermania Rodriguez Poleo
That's right and as we know by now, Diddy was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking on Wednesday but convicted of two prostitution related charges. Last week his lawyers sought a remote hearing to discuss expediting his sentencing which was originally scheduled by Judge subramanian For almost four months from now on October 3, we'll be unpacking that process along with updating you all on Diddy's grand reception as he made his way back to MDC last week after the verdict.
- [03:21]
Kayla Brantley
So we have a great episode today where we hear from Daily Mail columnist and host of the Nerve podcast Maureen Callahan. I sat down with her and went over the verdict and she gave all her unfettered thoughts about it.
- [03:34]
Hermania Rodriguez Poleo
Welcome to the Trial of Diddy Exceptional Circumstances featuring Maureen Callahan. Welcome back to the Trial of Diddy. Diddy will meet with the judge, prosecution and defense attorneys in a virtual hearing at 2pm today to discuss the sentencing schedule. The post trial hearing comes less than a week after Diddy was convicted of two of the five criminal charges in his sex trafficking and racketeering case. Diddy's defense team will try to convince Subramanian to skip some procedural steps and sentence him as soon as possible. The defense argued, quote, exceptional circumstances that warrant a rushed sentencing, including the death of Kim Porter, the mother of four of Diddy's children who passed away in 2018.
- [04:32]
Kayla Brantley
Diddy's defense attorney Mark Agnifolo said to the judge in court last week, quote, the mother of some of his children had passed away many years ago. These kids, the two daughters here sitting in the middle of the second row, don't have a parent. The prosecution appeared to oppose this motion and continue with the usual course, which would also include a pre sentencing report from probation officials that would require Diddy to sit for an interview. Prosecutor Maureen Comey said that, quote, the only things exceptional about this defendant are his wealth, his violence and his brazenness.
- [05:04]
Hermania Rodriguez Poleo
So we now have some details of what went down apparently at MDC last week. That's the jail in Brooklyn where Diddy has been staying since his arrest last September. So apparently Diddy received a standing ovation from his fellow inmates as he returned to jail following his victim on being declared not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering. According to his lead attorney, Mark Agnifolo, the inmates all said that they, quote, have never seen anyone who beats the government. Of course, this is just one of many controversial post verdict scenarios and celebrations that we saw, particularly outside the courthouse last week where, as you mentioned, people were seen spilling baby oil on each other.
- [05:53]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah, spilling baby oil. You know, I spoke to a woman who was wearing a shirt that said free RICO is not a rico. And there were just a lot of celebrations, a lot of chanting. You know, Free P. Diddy was one of them. And even Diddy's son, Christian King Combs, he was spotted on stage at a nightclub celebrating his father's win.
- [06:12]
Hermania Rodriguez Poleo
Meanwhile, markagniphila spoke to the Associated Press and told them that for Diddy, he sees a long road ahead once he's freed and will resume his work on personal demons. Agniphilo claimed that Diddy will likely reenter a program for domestic batterers that he had just started before he was arrested last year. Agniphilo said Diddy is doing okay. He said he speaks with the mogul four or five times a day. According to the lawyer, Diddy genuinely desires improvement and, quote, realizes he has flaws like everyone else that he had never worked on. He said that Diddy burns hot in all matters, and the lawyer added that Diddy has come to see that he has these flaws and there's no amount of fame and no amount of fortune that can erase them, the lawyer said. You can't cover them up.
- [07:01]
Kayla Brantley
We'll be right back with Maureen Callahan after this.
- [07:15]
Marc Maron
Hey, it's Marc Maron from WTF here to let you know that this podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. And I'm sure the reason you're listening to this podcast right now is because you chose it well. Choose Progressive's Name your price tool and you could find insurance options that fit your budget so you can pick the best one for your situation. Who doesn't like choice? Try it@progressive.com and now some legal info. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law not available in all states Breaking up.
- [07:49]
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- [08:22]
Kayla Brantley
Foreign welcome back to the Trial of Diddy. I'm Kayla Brantley. Today's Tuesday, July 8th, and we're currently awaiting the results of Diddy's post trial hearing. But while we wait, I have the pleasure of chatting with my colleague, Daily Mail columnist and host of the Nerve podcast, Maureen Callahan. Maureen, thank you for being here with me. I know I've been on your show before, but it's so nice having you on here.
- [08:54]
Maureen Callahan
It's such a pleasure to be on and really talking about this case with someone who has been covering it in ways that the rest of the Media, I think, has been falling down on. So thanks for having me.
- [09:06]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah. And I mean, thank you for always covering it and following it and, you know, having me on to talk about all the crazy stuff that's been going on. But now you have a column out in the Daily Mail. The title of that is Shame on Diddy, Shame on the Jury, Shame on this dark day that set women back a generation. So for our listeners, we know how Maureen feels about this verdict. Can you talk a little bit about why that was your headline?
- [09:32]
Maureen Callahan
So I actually was very surprised by this verdict. I consider myself pretty jaundiced and cynical. But in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein verdict, which found him guilty of rape, and that was a jury composed of more men than women. It was a jury that had heard very complicated testimony about sexual assault, the ways in which sexual assault and rape survivors behave during and after, and things that don't necessarily track as textbook logical reactions. It was like an enormous leap in understanding just how nuanced and complicated this issue can be. And then the Diddy verdict, which logically made no sense to me, you know, finding him guilty on these lesser charges that really amount to nothing, and not the actual trafficking charges, which were incontrovertibly proved to my mind beyond a shadow of a doubt by the prosecution. And not only that, Kayla, but compound that with seeing his supporters upon this verdict being read, spraying each other with baby oil and exalting shirtless outside the courthouse, his family, his mother and his children exiting the courthouse, smiling, waving, blowing kisses. No sense of proportion for what these women had testified as to what had been done to them. We all know here in New York, those of us who have been living with Sean Combs for, I feel, far too long, we know exactly who we're dealing with here. And this whole thing, front to back, just felt like a travesty and a smack in the face to women everywhere.
- [11:07]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah. And you did write in your column, you know, if this isn't enough, truly, what does it take? And what do you think it will take for someone to eventually come and be served justice?
- [11:20]
Maureen Callahan
You know, Kayla, this is a sort of ambient noise part of the equation that I do think is actually quite crucial. Note the number of virtue signaling celebrities who have had not one word to say about this case either. The Oprahs of the world. And I just went to town on her the other day on a mini nerve. There's no shortage of photographs of her with Diddy smiling and kissing his cheek and hugging up on him. Same with Harvey. Has she Said one word, either pro or con. You say, I think this verdict was fair. This is not the Sean Combs I know. He is not capable of doing anything like this. Or you say, my thoughts, prayers, and support goes behind the victims. Nothing. Nobody in the celebrity entertainment complex. And I think the media, the celebrity media that covers this stuff has a lot to answer for, because you cannot play coverage of a case like this straight down the middle. You can't. And so you'll have the access Hollywoods and the Entertainment Tonight saying, here's the verdict. That's it. Now, to that point, I just want to add that I watched very closely the local and national news coverage of this verdict. And here in New York, you saw a lot of anchors and reporters. Almost all of them. Almost all of them, Kayla. Women of color who literally would say sandra Bookman on ABC was one of them. This verdict's none of our business. I'm sorry. A federal prosecution of a dangerous guy, in my opinion, is all of our business. It is what it is. I don't think that's good enough. I don't. We all saw that video.
- [12:56]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah. And you're talking about the media coverage. But what made this case so different and such a circus, really, was that, you know, when I went down to the courthouse, there were issues, influencers everywhere and tiktokers everywhere and, you know, giving their legal advice and conspiracy theories. And I think that that's one of the things that made this case. Obviously, Diddy's huge, but it really added fuel to the fire.
- [13:20]
Maureen Callahan
But truly, Kayla, what's. What shocks me about that is Diddy, and tell me if you think I'm wrong, but I don't think this guy has been culturally or musically relevant in years. So what is it. What is it that goes to the support here?
- [13:33]
Kayla Brantley
See, I. I would have to disagree with you there, just because he kind of established himself as an icon. The year before he got arrested, he was winning essentially lifetime achievement awards. So I think he was kind of at the point in his career where he was getting all of his flowers. He had done the hard work, and now he got to enjoy that status of being a legend and a mogul and an icon. So I think that obviously drew a lot of eyeballs to it. But then you see the charges and the allegations, and you see a video, and I think it's almost like a car crash. It's impossible to look away from. But, Maureen, one thing that. To play devil's advocate here, a lot of people will argue that the prosecution did not bring A strong enough case that, you know, when you think of sex trafficking, you think of a Jeffrey Epstein. When you think of RICO charges, you think of the mafia and the mob. And here no one else was charged, no underlings were charged. So how do you reconcile that? You know, potentially maybe the prosecution just didn't bring a strong enough case.
- [14:34]
Maureen Callahan
It's so interesting. So I have two thoughts about this. I have always thought it was highly suspicious that no other big names were brought into this, that there were no other co conspirators who were similarly charged alongside Diddy. Because if you're going to say this is a national network of criminal activity, it's not enough to just say the hired help was, you know, renting out these hotel rooms and staging them and then cleaning them up. I wonder how many people cut deals to get the prosecution to the point where they felt they could go after Diddy for a RICO charge. I also wonder, you know, as you were in the courthouse every day. I was not. I do wonder if the prosecution just did not tell a good enough story and if they were just too heavily relying upon the emotionality of the jurors having to watch those freak off videos. Hear and see a nine months pregnant Cassie. To my mind, as I wrote in the column, I think the most haunting and poignant image of this entire travesty was the courtroom sketch of Jane Doe, who was on the stand for like six consecutive days. And we were not the courtroom sketch. We just saw a featureless face. And that to me just said everything about the outcome of this trial. Jane Doe, that image will stand for all of the women who have been or are being or will be sexually abused or trafficked or suffer domestic violence. And who will look at the outcome of this trial and say, why bother? Why bother reporting my own assaults if the legal system is just going to beat me up all over again?
- [16:10]
Kayla Brantley
Well, there have been so many civil cases coming out. You know, Diddy, he's over this case. But once this is fully over, you know, and maybe he will get out of prison. We don't know sentencing yet. He has faces a lot of civil cases and a lot of those alleged victims have said that, you know, Cassie, coming forward was really the catalyst and inspired them to then come forward. But do you think that now with this, you know, he was found guilty but pretty much getting off on the big crimes that will see those cases starting to fall off?
- [16:41]
Maureen Callahan
I don't actually, because there is a lower threshold for civil cases. If you recall, after the OJ Criminal verdict, Ron Goldman and his daughter Kim went ahead with their civil suit against OJ and they won that. The evidence submitted in criminal court, like, once you hear it, you can't unhear it. Once you see that Cassie video, you can't unsee it.
- [16:59]
Kayla Brantley
And the jury we know were made up of eight men and four women. You know, age ranges from 31 to 60s. Do you think if they had a different jury, it would have made all the difference?
- [17:11]
Maureen Callahan
I do. I think the composition of that jury really worked in the defense's favor. And I would love to know who the prosecution had as their jury consultant. At least a couple of these adult jurors were living with siblings or parents still or had adult children living with them. Some of them, their ages were advanced enough. And this is not a slight against chronological age, but it seems a generational thing, a generational understanding. Well, how could a woman be abused but also text such loving messages to her abuser, or at one point say she loved participating in a freak off, but at another saying she wanted out and she was done? You know, I also will say this, Kayla. I put nothing past Sean Combs. Nothing. And I would not be surprised if he got to at least one or two jurors. When we heard as they went into deliberations that one of the jurors was being so recalcitrant that the other 11 were highly alarmed, I thought to myself, I don't like this. I don't like it.
- [18:14]
Kayla Brantley
And we do have to remember, you know, these jurors were not sequestered.
- [18:17]
Maureen Callahan
They were not. And, you know, before the trial began, Diddy and his attorneys attempted three different times to get him released on bail. And each time he was denied. And the finding, if I, if I recall correctly, and I think I do, was that he was considered such a danger in terms of witness tampering and intimidation that he had to stay put.
- [18:39]
Kayla Brantley
Well, right now he does face 20 years, a maximum of 20 years. He has a hearing today. Sentencing so far is set for October. So he will be in prison for a while. Do you think he's going to get off with a lighter sentence?
- [18:53]
Maureen Callahan
I think so much of this is going to go to what the judge ultimately feels. The message he needs to send is, I was disturbed a bit to hear that the judge was joking with Diddy after the verdict and when his defense team was moving to let him out on bail. And the judge sort of winkingly said to Diddy, I'm sure you'd love to get out of here, right? And did. He laughed and sort of Threw a gesture at him, like an affectionate gesture. And I just thought that was really inappropriate. Really. I don't think a female judge would have done that. I don't. I long for the days when Fran Leibovitz is the judge on Law and Order and she's smacking people down. You know, bring Fran in there. Yeah. I mean, you know, the prosecution will put forward what they think is an appropriate sentence, as will the defense as well, a third probationary board. And Alan Dershowitz, the famed lawyer, has said that he thinks Diddy's going to get off with a slap on the wrist. And, you know, know the time he's served so far will count towards whatever sentence he's given. Will he be sentenced concurrently or consecutively? But I think the judge. I can only hope that the judge gives deep thought to the message that this sentence will send to not just abused women, but to celebrities, the wealthy and the powerful who for good reason really do believe that they are above the law.
- [20:14]
Kayla Brantley
Do you think this has changed Diddy at all?
- [20:16]
Maureen Callahan
No, I think that Diddy. This is just my opinion based on my own years of reporting in this, in the field of criminal justice and criminal investigation. And I remember Diddy back from when I was a kid. City College was his first offense. He promoted an event at City College where nine. It was overpopulated and nine people were killed in a stampede. And he got off. And he got off on the nightclub shooting, which everybody in New York believes that he did. And shine took the fall. I think this is a criminal mind. And I think he will be emboldened by this verdict. Not hindered, not remorseful, not seeking to do better and turn his life around. And as I said, on the nerve the other day. I can only hope America's five star hotels stop taking his bookings.
- [21:07]
Kayla Brantley
No more Trump International and Intercontinental and Lurmitage in Beverly Hills.
- [21:12]
Maureen Callahan
No, not that. Those who stay in Motel sixes should need to suffer otherwise. Just keep it in your house, for Christ's sake. Excuse my language.
- [21:19]
Kayla Brantley
Do you think Diddy will try to make a comeback and will he be received well from the public?
- [21:23]
Maureen Callahan
I think he will try to make a comeback. I think he will. I think he'll probably try to brand himself as, you know, the face of me too overreach. And I think a large reason that we're seeing so many celebrities and people in the hip hop world, save 50 cents, save Eminem, keep their mouths shut, is because they know he may be of use to them someday and or he knows where their bodies are buried. I think both are very likely.
- [21:49]
Kayla Brantley
Time will tell. Thank you so much, Maureen.
- [21:52]
Maureen Callahan
Yeah, we'll be living with this for a long time. Thank you Kayla for having me.
- [22:01]
Kayla Brantley
Thank you for listening everyone. That's it for today's episode of the Trial of Diddy. We will be back on Friday with more details on the pending sentencing trial and with a larger overview of how we arrived at the jury's shocking split decision. For more exclusive interviews on this case, be sure to subscribe to trial plus@crimedesk.com if you haven't already. Foreign.
- [22:37]
Marc Maron
Hey, it's Mark Marin from WTF here to let you know that this podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. And I'm sure the reason you're listening to this podcast right now is because you chose it well. Choose Progressives Name your price tool and you could find insurance options that fit your budget. So you can pick the best one for your situation. Who doesn't like choice? Try it@progressive.com and now some legal info. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.
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