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- [00:02]
Paul
Seriously popular.
- [00:03]
Narrator
The following episode explores a number of allegations regarding the artist Diddy. He denies all charges and has pled not guilty to sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
- [00:14]
Kayla Brantley
Welcome to the trial of Diddy. I'm Kayla Brantley.
- [00:17]
Hermania Rodriguez
And I'm Hermania Rodriguez.
- [00:18]
Kayla Brantley
Paul, we'll be back in a second.
- [00:29]
Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. From streaming to shopping, prime helps you get more out of your passions. So whether you're a fan of true crime or prefer a nail biting novel from time to time, with services like Prime Video, Amazon Music, and fast free delivery, prime makes it easy to get more out of whatever you're into or getting into. Visit Amazon.comprime to learn more.
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Paul
The biggest secret in the entertainment industry.
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Kayla Brantley
That really wasn't a secret at all.
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Sponsor
At the height of his career, Sean Diddy Combs had it all.
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Kayla Brantley
Everything Diddy touched turned to gold.
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Hermania Rodriguez
Now he faces multiple federal charges in New York, including sex trafficking and allegedly running a criminal enterprise.
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Sponsor
Another woman has now come forward alleging.
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Hermania Rodriguez
Comes of sexual assault music mogul and rapper Sean Diddy Combs.
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Paul
She claims she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Combs.
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Sponsor
Oh, this guy is dangerous.
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Kayla Brantley
From freak offs to the mysterious list, the shocking case that has gripped the world is finally here. And we'll be bringing you every detail as it happens.
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Hermania Rodriguez
Welcome to the trial of Diddy.
- [01:46]
Kayla Brantley
And as we're recording right now, news just broke that Cassie is reportedly in labor. You'll remember she gave her testimony while she was eight and a half months pregnant. Well, it looks like now her baby's on the way, so we wish her all the best. We are back with week three of the US versus Sean Combs case. And here on the trial of Diddy, we bring you every detail from the court word for word, exactly as it happened. And that's because we're in the courtroom every day and we use the transcripts.
- [02:14]
Hermania Rodriguez
That's right, Kayla. But of course, because of Memorial Day, the court was not in session on Friday the 23rd and Monday the 26th. But we're back in session today, the 27th of May, and we're gonna be bringing you all of the latest developments from the rest of the week. So today we have a special guest. Attorney David Gelman is with us to discuss everything we know so far about the case.
- [02:35]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah, we're so happy to have David on. He's a friend of the pod. But before we get into him, let's bring you up to date with what we've been hearing. Just this morning in the Past few hours from Capricorn. Clark. Capricorn is Diddy's former assistant and she's been on the stand testifying to the fact that Diddy threatened her life on several occasions. Now, this all gets pretty complicated, but we will try to keep it simple. Clark said she started working for Death Row Records fresh out of college and Suge Knight was her manager. As we know, Suge Knight is currently behind bars serving a 28 year prison sentence for a fatal hit and run. He's also the father of Capricorn's best friend's children. And of course, he's Diddy's arch nemesis. Now, Clark said that she started working for diddy back in 2004 and it was that year that she was taken to Central park around 9pm One night by Diddy and his then head of security, Uncle Paulie. She said she was threatened because Diddy found out that she used to work for Suge Knight. He told her if her connection with Knight caused any trouble from him, he would, quote, have to kill her.
- [03:36]
Hermania Rodriguez
She said that she was also taken to an empty office, which was due to be the new Bad Boy Records headquarters, and forced to take a lie detector test about missing jewelry. She was allegedly told that if she failed the test, she would be thrown into the East River. You'll remember we heard last week from David James, who was another employee of Diddy's, who also said he was forced to take a lie detector test over some missing jewelry. Now, we heard today that because Clark was so nervous and scared, she actually failed the test and she was forced to repeat it for five days straight. She said she would spend an entire workday taking it over and over again. She said that Uncle Paulie would pick her up and take her to the empty office every day and she would have to keep taking the test and not be able to leave until they, quote, got to the bottom of this.
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Kayla Brantley
Yeah. And it was at this point that rapper 50 Cent was also mentioned. And Capricorn testified that she was in an elevator at MTV with Diddy and his then manager, Chris Lighty. She said that Diddy was threatening Lighty because he was also managing 50 Cent, who Diddy took issue with. Clark recalled hearing Diddy tell Chris, quote, I don't like the back and forth. I don't like that. I like guns.
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Hermania Rodriguez
Clark also spoke about a time that an actress, Lauren London, who was a mutual friend, was in the kitchen and they were chatting about why they did not have men at the time. She said Diddy then called Cassie into the room and ordered her to sit down, stand up, turn around, turn the other way, and so on. Cassie complied with Diddy's demands and Diddy let Clark and London know that this is why they don't have men, because, quote, you bitches won't do that. To which Clark and London replied, you're motherfucking right, yeah.
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Kayla Brantley
Clark also recalled an incident in 2011 where Diddy bombarded her hotel room and she said that he looked disheveled with ripped clothes and he was armed with a gun in hand. She said he was upset about Cassie's relationship with Kid Cudi and he blamed her for not telling him about it. He ordered her to get dressed because he said they were going to kill him. She said. When they arrived at Cudi's house, she stayed in the car and called Cassie while Diddy and his security, a guy named Reuben, got into Cudi's home. And of course, this is what we heard last week from Kid Cudi's testimony. She said she could hear Cudi in the background while she was on the phone with Cassie and Cudi was urgently trying to come back to his house. She said that she warned Cassie. She said, quote, cassie stuck, stop him. He's going to get himself killed.
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Hermania Rodriguez
She said that Diddy threatened to kill all of them, Clark, Cassie, and Cudi, if Clark and Cassie did not convince Cudi to not go to the police.
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Kayla Brantley
We'll be bringing you more of Capricorn, Clark's explosive testimony in Friday's episode and everything else that happened this week. But we will be right back with David Gelman.
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David Gelman
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Hermania Rodriguez
Okay, Kayla, so for the past three weeks, we have heard testimony from a lot of people about the way that Diddy behaved. We've heard from his ex girlfriend Cassie Ventura, his former bandmate Dawn Richard, his former assistants George Kaplan and David James, as well as rapper Kid Cudi. We also heard shocking testimony from two male escorts who participated in the freak offs with Cassie and Diddy. Danielle Philipp and Sheree Hayes. AKA the Punisher.
- [07:32]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah. And one of the most eye opening was the testimony of Israel Flores, who's the security officer who responded to the infamous 2016 incident at the Intercontinental Hotel, which was broadcast first by CNN and really was the major catalyst in these charges being brought. That, of course, was the video of Diddy beating Cassie.
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Hermania Rodriguez
In addition, we also heard from the federal agents who performed the raids on his Miami mansion and the New York City hotel where Diddy was staying before his arrest. Now, the agents told the jury that during the raids, they found part of assault rifles, an excessive amount of baby oil, drugs, tens of thousands of dollars in cash, and a bathroom mirror covered in what could only be described as positive affirmations.
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Kayla Brantley
Yeah. And with today's testimony of Diddy's former assistant, Capricorn Clark, it feels like so much more is coming to light, especially. Especially now that she's testified that he said that he was going to have people killed. And it's important to let our listeners know that Diddy has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. But now we have David Gelman. He is the founder and lead attorney at Gelman Law Firm and a friend of the podcast. He's here to help us analyze the charges and where the prosecution and defense are at the moment. Welcome back, David.
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Hermania Rodriguez
So, David, it's very interesting because the defense has quite an interesting strategy, which is to say Diddy might be guilty of domestic violence. He might be a terrible person, he is a drug addict, but that's much different than being a sex trafficker or the head of a criminal enterprise. So tell me the difference between that, because his charges are federal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, and whether you think the prosecution has been making that point.
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Paul
Yeah, Hermania, that's a really good question. And I think the defense is doing a fantastic job, what they're doing right now with their play, because putting it out in the open immediately in their opening statements that there's a lot of domestic violence that occurred in this relationship. And you know that Diddy, he has a drug habit and that look, he's not a perfect person. You're going to hear a lot of different things that are probably going to make you cringe. And I think that was really smart to do it. Get ahead of the curve now to the charges himself. I'm really surprised right now what the government is doing, because frankly, all they're trying to say is that Diddy's a bad guy. Yeah. Okay, great. We all realize this out pretty quickly after Cassie was testifying about how she got kicked and punched repeatedly. But these are not the charges that he's facing. He's facing racketeering charges and conspiracy to commit racketeering. He's facing sex trafficking along state lines. He's facing prostitution charges. Well, none of these charges so far federally have been proven and especially not beyond a reasonable doubt. So I think the defense, what they're doing is a fantastic job and I'll be very curious to see what their case in chief is going to be like when it's their turn to present their evidence. Right now, every witness that the government has put on the stand, the defense has done a fantastic job at showing that they may not be the most credible individuals in the world. Cassie is a great example. When the evidence came out in cross examination that she claimed that she was raped by Diddy after their relationship ended, but then it was claimed that she had sex with him again after the alleged rape and that her husband now tried to FaceTime her while she was having sex. These show there's a lot of credibility issues. The other thing I just wanted to point out is that when Cassie was taking the stand and some of the other females who were taking the stand, Diddy's female attorneys were questioning them. And I think that really is important and that plays a big role with juries because it's not a guy is, you know, berating a woman. So I really think that was another good thing that they did.
- [11:31]
Hermania Rodriguez
So just a follow up on that. What is the extra step that the prosecutors have to prove to take this from a case of domestic violence to sex trafficking? Why? What else would they have to show? Because they do have a few weeks left to expose their case.
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Paul
Well, for the sex trafficking charge, they're going to have to prove that Cassie was not willing and she was forced and coerced and threatened actually, you know, violated physically to have sex with individuals not just in New York, wherever, but across state lines. So what they did in Miami or LA or anything like that, and right now I don't think they're going to be able to prove that because there's been text messages and also testimony from other individuals, especially that punisher where he said that, you know, she was enjoying it and that she was actually telling him what to do. It's going to play very difficult to a jury where. How are you going to prove that she was forced to do all this when she was saying in text messages that she wants to do these freak offs, that she is setting up these freak offs, that she's paying money for These freak offs and then telling these prostitutes what to do, that's going to be a big uphill climb for the government to really prove in this matter. And you know, I know she's going to say or that she said that she was under the influence a lot but that's only going to take you so many places.
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Kayla Brantley
And as far as the racketeering charges, you mentioned the sex trafficking, but what is it going to take the prosecution to then prove that this is racketeering?
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Paul
So that's a little easier because he's charged with not the racketeering per se, but conspiracy. So conspiracy is Diddy along with any associate, one or more people have conspired to do illegal acts in furtherance of their corporation, I. E. Bad Boy Records. So they're pretty much saying that, look, Bad Boy Records was a front, if you will, for criminal enterprise and that they did illegal activity. So their main thing is that Diddy and maybe a co conspirator threatened individuals. And with Kid Cudi in particular where they said that they firebombed his vehicle. Again, the evidence that has been presented so far is not there. And so I don't know where they're going to get more witnesses or more evidence to prove that there was actual racketeering going on because if this is all they have right now, it's not looking good for the government.
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Kayla Brantley
Well, we did just start week three. It's supposed to be an eight week trial so you know, we do have five more weeks to go. So we will see what they do come up with. But so far, you know, we've had Cassie, we've had Kid Cudi, the Punisher, Dawn Richard from making the band. Who do you think so far has given the most compelling testimony?
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Paul
I guess you have to put Cassie, make her the number one so far due to the fact that she testified.
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Kayla Brantley
For three days while being eight months pregnant.
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Paul
Yeah, that I'm sure does, you know, pull at the, the hearts a little bit of the jury and the defense. They tried to cover it up as much as possible and they even asked the court to cover up Cassie's stomach, although that was obviously overruled. So I, I think her testimony probably would be the most compelling so far and hurts Diddy the most. But that's not saying a lot because again she testified about all this domestic violence that happened with Diddy and nobody's, you know, denying that. I don't even think Diddy's denying it, but she wasn't really able to get any meat on the bones for the racketeering charges because she couldn't prove that she couldn't place Diddy at any firebombing of Kid Cudi's car or any other acts of violence or coercion. In my opinion. She also didn't make a good case that she was forced to participate in these freak offs as the government is alleging that Diddy did. Because again, text messages and phone calls were presented in her cross examination where she said, yeah, look, I can't wait to do these freak offs. And then again with the punisher's testimony as well, it makes it very difficult to prove for Cassie that she actually was not a willing participant in this whole process.
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Kayla Brantley
But I do wonder then that video from the hotel where Cassie's clearly running away, trying to get into the elevator to get away from the freak off. You know, of course we see him grab her, push her down and drag her, physically drag her back. Does that not then prove that, you know, she didn't want it?
- [16:11]
Paul
Maybe, maybe not. Again, domestic violence, that is a case of domestic violence. I don't now the defense can is going to say this had nothing to do with the freak off. This was just a situation between just Cassie and Diddy regarding an argument, you know, Diddy was high on drugs or whatever else. So I think that's where they're going to go. And I think that's a credible argument that they can make because there's been testimony again from multiple individuals that he was high a lot of the times, that he punched and kicked Cassidy and was very mean to her and very cruel to her. And so that video that was presented from the hotel that would show that as well. So I think that goes towards the defense's argument really that this is a domestic violence issue, it's not a federal issue.
- [16:59]
Hermania Rodriguez
Well, the prosecution also brought in an expert on abuse to kind of answer to those texts of Cassie saying she wants to freak off forever. It's something we have seen in other trials, including the Amber Heard trial with the same expert actually. How effective do you think these experts are to a jury? They are there to exactly answer to all these things you have said. Well, why would she say she loved freak offs? Well, the expert says because she's been traumatized, she's been beat up, she's scared.
- [17:28]
Paul
You know, I take them with a grain of salt. And the government I don't think had a choice but to call this expert. And I thought she testified, you know, somewhat credibly. The problem is where you have these actions from Cassie and her testimony is what it is. You can have this expert saying all day, hey, look, you know, it's emotional abuse that she had and it's like almost like a Stockholm syndrome where, you know, you can't get away from your captor and you, you fall in love with your captor. And that's what they're kind of portraying Cassie as. But the evidence that came out through cross examination from Cassie, I don't think it's going to help that expert's testimony. And look, the defense is definitely going to have their own expert, I would assume, who will testify that there wasn't this dependence on Diddy. And then when you have competing experts, really a lot of times what's going to happen is they're going to cancel each other out. So the jury, in my opinion, once they hear from the other one, which I assume they will, eventually they'll cancel each other out. And then the jury's gonna say, all right, well, we don't care about the experts anymore. We're going back to square one. And that's Cassie.
- [18:41]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah, it feels like there's a thin line between abuse and coercion here. And they're gonna have to do a really good job at defining which is which.
- [18:50]
Paul
It's the government who has to prove all this. Not the, not Diddy, not his defense team. And the government has to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. So again, when you're having all these thoughts and you know, saying, well, all right, it may have happened, but we're not 100%, that's perfect reasonable doubt right there. And the defense is just eating that up.
- [19:11]
Hermania Rodriguez
So I've also been struck by Diddy really putting on the charisma in the courtroom. I mean, he's talking to reporters, he's asking people, how are you doing? He's blowing kisses, and he is really seeming to direct his team. In fact, I just saw a report that when they were done cross examining Kid Cudi, Diddy's lawyers asked him if he wanted them to ask him another question and Diddy said no. So he's directing his team to that level. Can this backfire on Diddy or will this help him with the jury as seen as a mogul who's very smart, who rose up from the bottom, who has all this charisma.
- [19:52]
Paul
It probably is good for him, cuz it humanizes him a little bit. It's very difficult for this particular jury, I'm sure, to assimilate to Diddy to, you know, say, oh yeah, we're just like him. Well, you're of course you're not like Diddy. Diddy is trying to, you know, kind of make it so that they can look at each other, you know, kind of eye to eye. That look, we have some similarities. You know, look at him. He has gray hair now, which I think that probably is something that was a calculated move on Diddy's part or his defense team's part because it may show that he's not this violent guy who, who ordered all these attacks and, and freak offs and all. You know, he's just a, he's just like us. You know, he has gray hair by him blowing kisses to his family and, you know, saying how are you doing and whatnot and being somewhat jovial, if you will. I think that's probably good for him. I, I don't think it's going to hurt him at all with the jury. Is it going to help in the end? I mean, again, maybe a little. If you are able to have some sympathetic jurors, then I think it'll definitely help him, but it's certainly not going to hurt him. And as for, like when the defense team asked Diddy, hey, should we ask any more questions? I don't necessarily think that had anything to do with Diddy's like, input or anything like that. They're kind of just making sure, hey, do you think we missed anything that you have told us? And when he said no, obviously that that was good enough for them.
- [21:16]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah. You see him being very cordial, giving his attorneys hugs, telling them that he's proud of them and, and it is interesting to see that that side, he's always, you know, throwing those heart hands to his mom and his family, even being there. What do you make of that? Especially during Cassie's testimony. That was very disturbing.
- [21:36]
Paul
Yeah. I'll be honest, I was pretty surprised that he would have his whole family there. I think it's a really good move to have them there. And it sucks what they're hearing and I'm sure it's not fun for them to hear it at all, but they're powering through it so, you know, good for them.
- [21:50]
Kayla Brantley
And of course, I have to ask you this. If you were to put money on this case right now, it's May 27, what would you say? Guilty or not guilty?
- [21:59]
Paul
I mean, look, if it's right now, not guilty all day long. Look, like you said before, there's still a lot of time to go. The government, they're saying, oh, they're trying to build this brick by brick. Well, all I can tell you is they better have a brick truck outside because it doesn't seem like they have a lot of bricks that are being placed right now that are doing anything. So I'm very curious to see what else they have and then I'm really curious to see what Diddy is going to do and his defense team.
- [22:28]
Hermania Rodriguez
Well, thank you so much to our legal expert David Gelman. Hopefully we'll have you back on the podcast soon. Thank you.
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Kayla Brantley
Thank you so much.
- [22:37]
Paul
Thank you.
- [22:42]
Kayla Brantley
Thank you so much for listening to the Trial of Diddy. Make sure to tune in on Friday for our next episode.
- [23:01]
Al Ko
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