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- [00:02]
Larry Levine
Seriously popular.
- [00:04]
Kayla Brantley
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.
- [00:17]
Larry Levine
The biggest secret in the entertainment industry that really wasn't a secret at all has finally been revealed to the world.
- [00:26]
Marjorie Hernandez
At the height of his career, Sean Diddy Combs had it all. It seemed like everything Diddy touched turned to gold. Now the once untouchable hip hop mogul is fighting for his life as he faces multiple federal charges in New York, including sex trafficking and allegedly running a criminal enterprise.
- [00:46]
Kayla Brantley
Music mogul and rapper Sean Diddy Combs has faced four different lawsuits in recent weeks alleging sexual assault. Combs can be seen grabbing Ventura and.
- [00:55]
Larry Levine
Throwing her to the ground.
- [00:56]
Marjorie Hernandez
Oh, this guy is dangerous.
- [00:58]
Woman has now come forward.
- [01:00]
Larry Levine
A legend comes of sexual assault.
- [01:02]
Kayla Brantley
She was drugged and sexually assaulted by Combs.
- [01:05]
Marjorie Hernandez
I'm DailyMail.com journalist Marjorie Hernandez, and over the last six months, I've been investigating this incredible story and speaking to the people in the eye of the storm. Welcome to the trial of Diddy.
- [01:25]
Kayla Brantley
Hey, I'm Kayla Brantley, reporter at large for the Daily Mail in Manhattan.
- [01:28]
Marjorie Hernandez
And I'm Marjorie Hernandez, DailyMail.com's West coast news editor.
- [01:32]
Kayla Brantley
And welcome to episode 16 of the Trial of Diddy. So, Marjorie, episode 16. I can't believe we've been here for 16 weeks. What's up? How, how are you doing?
- [01:45]
Marjorie Hernandez
Been quite busy as always. There's something new every day with this case.
- [01:50]
Kayla Brantley
Always.
- [01:50]
Marjorie Hernandez
And cases now that there's even more civil suits to have been filed against Sean Combs. And we'll get into that.
- [01:57]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah. So we might as well just get into it now. We have a lot of news to catch up on. As well as our guest today.
- [02:04]
Marjorie Hernandez
That's right, we have friend of the pod, Larry Levine, back with us later. Larry's a director and founder of Wall Street Prison consultants. He spent 10 years in federal custody for narcotics trafficking, securities fraud, racketeering, obstruction of justice, and machine guns. And now he helps prepare people for when they're going into federal prison.
- [02:26]
Kayla Brantley
Yeah. So clearly Larry has a lot of inside knowledge on what it's like inside prison. And he also teaches survival skills and he knows all about life inside. So who better to tell us what Christmas is really going to be like when, like, Diddy, you're locked up? That's coming up in a bit. But first, let's catch you up on what's been going on.
- [02:47]
Marjorie Hernandez
At the end of last week, three more men accused Diddy of Rape and sexual assault in a string of new lawsuits which were filed separately in New York supreme court on Thursday, December 12th. These events allegedly occurred between 2019 through 22. Now, two of the accusers alleged they went to parties with Diddy where he, quote, personally offered them alcoholic drinks which made them unconscious before they said he raped them. One man says he met diddy back in 2006 and began working for him. The allegation here is that in February 2020, he met Diddy at a hotel to discuss unpaid wages. And during that meeting, the John Doe alleges Diddy prepared him a drugged drink which caused him to lose consciousness, only to wake up to find Diddy assaulting him.
- [03:34]
Kayla Brantley
Diddy's lawyers immediately dismissed these new lawsuits, suggesting they were, quote, full of lies. And speaking to BBC, Diddy's lawyers went on saying, quote, we will prove them false and seek sanctions against every unethical lawyer who filed fictional claims against him.
- [03:50]
Marjorie Hernandez
There are now over 30 civil cases filed against Diddy, a number of which alleged sexual assault dating back over 30 years. Now, the three men have all decided to file their lawsuits anonymously and they say they're afraid of Diddy's reach and his influence. Diddy is of course facing federal criminal charges and sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. He's alleged to have orchestrated a long running scheme involving sexual abuse and exploitation.
- [04:19]
Kayla Brantley
And it's always important to say that Sean Combs has pleaded not guilty to all all of the accusations. Both he and his legal team have repeatedly and strongly asserted his innocence. Diddy's trial is currently scheduled for May 2025.
- [04:34]
Marjorie Hernandez
That's right. Now there's also been a couple of updates to the Jay Z allegations that came up last week. Claire Harder at the LA Times wrote a piece this week entitled Jay Z Accuser Admits Inconsistencies But Stands By Her Rape Allegation.
- [04:50]
Kayla Brantley
And the headline goes on to quote Jay Z himself who has said, quote, true justice is coming.
- [04:55]
Marjorie Hernandez
This all follows on from an interview on NBC News with the Alabama based woman who accused Jay Z and Diddy of raping her when she was 13 years old. You'll remember that this lawsuit was initially filed against D back in October which accused him of assault at an after party following the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2000. Then on Sunday, December 8, the original complaint was amended in the US District Court in New York and added Jay Z as a defendant. This filing alleges that both he and Combs, quote, took turns assaulting the minor.
- [05:30]
Kayla Brantley
And I do want to add that at this Point. Jay Z, Shawn Carter, and Diddy have both strongly denied the allegations. Now, the woman and her lawyers have acknowledged that there were some inconsistencies in her account. When responding to questions from NBC News, she told NBC, I have made some mistakes, but she stands by her allegations overall. And these inconsistencies related to an alleged attack 24 years ago do not necessarily mean the allegations are false. And, Marjorie, can you break these elements down for us?
- [06:01]
Marjorie Hernandez
Sure, Kayla. So the woman claimed she spoke with Benji Madden from Good Charlotte at the after party, but a representative said neither he nor his brother Joel actually attended that year's VMAs. Indeed, they were touring the Midwest at the time. She also said that her father picked her up after the alleged rape, but he has since told NBC News he has no recollection of doing so. There are also some photos of Jay Z and Diddy taken on the night of the alleged incident, and now they do not match description of the location where the woman alleges the assault took place. Again, this was 24 years ago. Again, this doesn't mean she's not telling the truth, Marjorie.
- [06:40]
Kayla Brantley
Her story was shocking already, but it is interesting that there have been inconsistencies with her story. But, yeah, again, like you said, this doesn't mean that she's not telling the truth. And last Friday, Jay Z issued a new statement which proclaimed his innocence and went on to denounce the woman's attorney, Tony Busby. Jay Z was quoted as saying this incident didn't happen, and yet he, talking about Busby, filed it in court and doubled down in the press. True justice is coming. We fight from victory, not for victory. This was over before it began. This 1-800-lawyer doesn't realize it yet, but.
- [07:16]
Marjorie Hernandez
Soon, unquote, Busby hit right back and said, quote, our client remains fiercely adamant that what she has stated is true to the best of her memory. Busby went on to say that she has even agreed to submit to a polygraph and that the whole experience has been so distressing for her that she's experienced seizures and had to seek medical treatment.
- [07:38]
Kayla Brantley
In a statement, Diddy's legal team called the allegations, quote, shameless publicity stunts designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them, just as lies have been spread about Mr. Combs, while Jay Z called the claims idiotic.
- [07:53]
Marjorie Hernandez
But just before we recorded this, on Wednesday, Busby announced on Instagram that he was suing Roc Nation and lawyers Marcy Croft and and law firm Quinn Emanuel for, quote, violation of various state laws, including Barratry and just so you know.
- [08:09]
Kayla Brantley
Barratry is a criminal offense that involves instigating or encouraging groundless litigation for profit or harassment. It can also refer to repeated or persistent litigation for the same purposes. Barratry is illegal in all 50 states.
- [08:24]
Marjorie Hernandez
Right. And Busby is also suing for impersonation of a public official. He says this case has been brought on behalf of a former client of of the firm who he alleges was illegally solicited by agents working on behalf of the defendants. These agents, Busby claimed, pretended to work for the state of Texas and offered his former client money to sue the Busby law firm. The conduct, he says, was caught on tape and was targeted at his firm specifically so they would not pursue cases related to the Diddy litigation.
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Kayla Brantley
Busby writes, let me be clear. We will not be bullied or intimidated and intend to cooperate with authorities to ensure all involved prosecuted to the full extent allowed under Texas law. So we will absolutely be tracking this one closely.
- [09:11]
Marjorie Hernandez
And just last Friday, Diddy announced via new court filing that he had abandoned his attempt to get released on bail. His attorney sent word to the 2nd U.S. circuit Court of Appeals withdrawing Combs's appeal of several decisions denying him bail.
- [09:27]
Kayla Brantley
And to get Diddy's exact quote, his lawyers wrote, Mr. Combs does not seek to appeal the district court's denial of his renewed motion and hereby moves to voluntarily dismiss the appeal. A signed statement from Diddy himself clarifies that he did this voluntarily and he understands the ramifications of dismissing the appeal. So for now, that's it. Diddy will stay at the Metropolitan Detention center in Brooklyn ahead of his trial next year. It's been 94 days since his arrest back in September and one week today will be Christmas Day. So what will that be like if you're locked up? Well, if there's one person who really knows, it'll be someone who spent 10 years inside. And today, that's guest Larry Levine.
- [10:09]
Marjorie Hernandez
Welcome back to the show, Larry.
- [10:11]
Larry Levine
Hey, glad to be with you.
- [10:12]
Kayla Brantley
Okay, Larry, if our listeners don't remember, please tell us about yourself.
- [10:17]
Larry Levine
About Myself, I spent 10 years in federal custody. I was in 11 different federal prisons. I got charged and sentenced for narcotics trafficking, securities fraud, racketeering, obstruction of justice and machine guns. They moved me around to 11 different federal prisons across the U.S. i got two 10 year sentences and a five year sentence all ran concurrent. And when I got out, I started a company called Wall Street Prison Consultants. And I am the very first prison consultant in the United States. Matter of fact, I started the industry. And now I help people that are going into custody get out early. I help people going through their criminal case, you know, before they've been sentenced.
- [11:06]
Kayla Brantley
Right.
- [11:06]
Marjorie Hernandez
So now that we think that he's staying in prison, what do you think his Christmas will look like behind bars? Well, what's that like in there?
- [11:13]
Larry Levine
Question. Okay, first of all, the bop, the Federal bureau of Prisons, they give you a gift bag. It's a big plastic bag. And when I went in in 98, I mean, it was a big fucking bag. And it had cookies and candy and potato chips and all this crap in it. And they act like they were doing you a favor giving you this gift bag. But what they didn't tell you, that they mark up the stuff on the commissary 30%. They take that 30% markup and they buy the holiday bag. So you're actually. They didn't give any shit. You paid for that bag. And that bag over the years, it shrinks every year. So that's your holiday festivities. There'll be candy canes in it. They may serve, I'm going to say may serve a special meal on Christmas. I was, like I said, in 11 different facilities. And we had Cornish game hen and we had ham and. But that's, you know, we could go to the regular dining hall. This guy's not going to the dining hall because he's locked in a cell. Now it gets to another question. Is he really in the shoe? This has racked my brain after reading the U.S. attorney's motion against him getting bail, and they said he was using other people's telephones. Now, if he's in the shoe, if he's locked in that cell 24 7, he doesn't have contact and access to other people. He does not. Maybe he can have a conversation through the vents and they can shout and lie about things to each other. But the. For him to use other people's telephone service, he would have to have their pack number. So personal access code. In other words, you go up to the phone and you. You punch in the number and it has numbers that you've entered in on speed dial. Well, he. In order to set all that up and get all these pin codes from people, he'd actually have to have physical access to them. This is not something that you could just do.
- [13:23]
Marjorie Hernandez
Now, let's step back. Let's step back for a moment. So, Larry, you mentioned this was information in the U. S. Attorney's document which alleges that Diddy had access to other inmates code like you Mentioned. And again, you said, we're not sure whether or not he's in the shoe. Can you explain what the shoe is? For people who don't know, the shoe.
- [13:46]
Larry Levine
Is the special housing unit. In other words, in a regular housing unit at mdc. And I spent two years at MDC myself in la, so I'm real familiar with what happens in a regular housing unit. You have a common area and you have all these cells, like around the walls, and they don't have bars or anything. They have steel doors with, like, little slats on the bottom they can slide food in and like a rectangular window that goes up and down. Well, if you're in the shoe, you're essentially locked in there by yourself. You're not going out into a housing unit. You're not going anywhere. And it's not really solitary confinement because they could. Big could in quotation marks, they could put somebody in there with you, but you're not getting the same kind of visits people get. You're not socializing with people. You have limited access to the showers. You have limited access to the telephones. Really, the only people you can see are your lawyer and maybe one or two people on your visiting list. So they limit you. They limit your access. Your whole day is. I don't know. He's probably got a radio in there with them and he's listening to the local New York stations. I'd imagine that he's got a Bible in there with them. They'll get. They'll give him a Bible, but maybe some discovery. Maybe they won't let him have discovery because he's got like a fob that he can go and plug into a computer there in the shoe, and he can read his discovery. But you're really. You're isolated while you're in the shoe.
- [15:27]
Marjorie Hernandez
Right, but you said you're questioning rather whether or not he is in the shoe.
- [15:30]
Larry Levine
That's because the U.S. attorney said that he was using other people's phone numbers and phone access. And that would be. If you're locked in your cell, a How are you going to get other people's access codes that are also in the shoe in different cells? I don't want to say it's impossible, but pretty much fucking impossible to do. And then you're going to add all your telephone numbers to other people's account. If you were in a regular housing unit, that would be pretty easy to do. And if you got caught, they would pull good time from you. They'd send you to the shoe or whatever they'd restrict your phone access.
- [16:11]
Marjorie Hernandez
They have to explain that in order to get access or have conversation or call an inmate, your number, person on the outside has to be on their list. Right.
- [16:21]
Larry Levine
An inmate calls you. It's almost like a speed dial. Okay, well, these numbers are rendered in. And then when you go to the phone, it's a blue telephone, you pick it up. It's got an armored cord on it that's really short, so you can't crack someone over the head with the handset. I've seen that. And you put in the number that you want to call, and then you put in your personal access code. And when you do that, the call just goes out. So it's almost like it's speed dialing as far as where you're calling. So if you try to call a number that's not in the system, it's not going through. If you don't have the PAC code, the personal access code, call's not going out. So again, the only real way he could get all this in the system is if he had access to other people. This isn't something that could be done and shouted over the vents because the cops would hear it. You know, I don't see it. Either he used the phone and he had access to other people, or he doesn't. The U.S. attorney put in, remember in that motion to deny bail, the US Attorney said that he had people's pack codes, that he had other phone numbers in there. But keep in mind, they never said how he did that, did they?
- [17:37]
Marjorie Hernandez
We have so much more coming up, but for now, let's pause for a break.
- [18:02]
Kayla Brantley
Welcome back to the trial of Diddy. And we are still here with Larry Levine.
- [18:06]
Marjorie Hernandez
And you know, last Friday, his lawyers just announced that they're going to abandon their attempts to get him out of jail, according to documents. And I believe that they actually told the 2nd U.S. circuit Court of Appeals that they're withdrawing his appeal. So I guess for now they're going to stop trying to get him out of prison.
- [18:28]
Larry Levine
That's a wise idea. They need to concentrate on getting his issues resolved. Apparently, they're giving him the best defense that they can.
- [18:37]
Kayla Brantley
Larry, I want to go back to Diddy's Christmas and the sacks that you're talking about. What was in your sack or in these?
- [18:45]
Larry Levine
It's like a plastic bag. It's a square, plastic, clear bag. It's almost like a big pillow. And over the years, it has shrunk. I know this because I was locked up for 10 years myself. I got several of These. So they've got like some off brand cookies in there, off brand potato chips in there, some candy in there. Maybe they have a pair of gloves in there or they'll have a coffee mug, a beanie to wear. But he's not going to need any of that because you know where he is. And it's all knockoffs. And I got a client in Lompoc just called me yesterday that just got the bag and he told me it was the worst holiday bag that he's ever gotten. And this guy's been locked up for several years. It's a bunch of crap that probably was purchased because it was out of date. Because the prison system sells you out of date stuff. And they're trying to act like they're doing the inmates favor. It's like, oh, here's your Christmas gift. You know, one year a place I was at, they gave everybody an individual little Cornish game hen. They gave you a Ben and Jerry's ice cream and they gave you like a little carton of eggnog. He's not going to get that sitting in mdc. I mean, I'm sure they'll give him something special, something. But other than this mediocre holiday bag, there's not much more he's going to get. If he was in a regular housing unit, then he would be exposed to all that other food.
- [20:16]
Marjorie Hernandez
Are families allowed to add more money to his commissary?
- [20:20]
Larry Levine
Yeah, but in the shoe you have a different commissary list. In other words, you could go to bop.govbop.gov click on MDCLA, you can actually pull a copy of the commissary list and you can see all the stuff the inmates can buy. The only thing is that's for inmates in general population. Inmates that are in the special housing unit, they don't get all that stuff. Maybe there's a dozen items they can buy. Maybe they can buy some sweats and some candy bars again, potato chips, some cookies. They try to limit what you can have in your cell.
- [20:59]
Marjorie Hernandez
Who determines the limitations?
- [21:01]
Larry Levine
The warden.
- [21:01]
Marjorie Hernandez
I wanted to ask you, going back to the facility, where did he is right now? Do you, do you have any clients there right now and have they heard anything about Diddy?
- [21:11]
Larry Levine
I have some client. I actually one client there because the other clients got transferred to real prisons. They got sentenced. They don't hear anything. They're on a regular housing unit. They know what you and I know. Maybe some of the staff are talking about particular things. But you're isolated. Nobody knows what's really going on in the Shoe. Sometimes there's inmates that get into trouble. They send them up to the Shoe to do a couple weeks or a month up there. They may pick up some information and then come back down to their regular housing unit. But really, the inmates on a regular housing unit, they're not aware of what's happening in the Shoe.
- [21:53]
Marjorie Hernandez
But that particular facility is infamous. As you mentioned, Jeffrey Epstein. That's where he was. He was in the Shoe.
- [22:00]
Larry Levine
It's. God was. Two years ago, in the winter, the heat went out, the hot water went out. These buildings are old. All right? At least how. I was there 26 years ago, and it was 10 years old. Okay? So these. These buildings are like 45 years old. And there were two of them in New York. There was MCC New York and MDC Brooklyn. And they closed the one. Okay. They closed the one Epstein was at for obvious reasons. But the buildings are falling apart. The whole purpose. I mean, look at the name. MDC Metropolitan Detention Center. These people that are there are going through the court process.
- [22:48]
Kayla Brantley
This.
- [22:48]
Larry Levine
They're being detained. MDC was not designed to hold people for several years. It's designed to move people through, and they just don't have the staff and they don't have the funding to do the repairs on the facilities that are out there. That's one of the reasons they closed all these places. They're in such disarray, and they need to be repaired, and they just don't have the people and the financial resources to do it.
- [23:18]
Marjorie Hernandez
That's a good point, though. You said it's. It's a place where they're supposed to move on after they've gone through the trial. But a lot of these cases are taking years.
- [23:26]
Larry Levine
I was in MDCLA for two years. Yeah. There was a guy named Kevin Mitnick. Kevin was there, like, almost four years fighting his case. These cases take forever.
- [23:40]
Marjorie Hernandez
Can you talk about also what this does mentally for somebody like a Diddy who's always had this glamorous life and access to everything and having now to spend his holidays in a jail facility?
- [23:54]
Larry Levine
People are lonely during the holidays. They miss their families. They miss. They miss people. Their friends at some institutions. Riots. Well, I don't want to call them riots. Disturbances, jump off. People are depressed during the holidays. Absolutely. And nothing is moving. It's like dead time because the courts have closed down for the holidays. Prosecutors are on vacation. Judges are on vacation. Your lawyer. They're spending time with their families. They don't want to talk to you anyway, so you're just sitting there isolated and at a regular institution on a holiday. There are so many people that are coming in to get a visit that they have to limit the amount of time in the visiting room. So that two hour visit you might have normally got may only be 30 minutes long. And this creates a lot of tension among the inmates where I've seen more fights break out during the holidays between inmates than any other time and I'm talking based on my 10 years of experience at 11 different places. Holidays are the worst.
- [25:08]
Marjorie Hernandez
Thanks again for the ever insightful Larry Levine, our friend of the pod. Always hear from him.
- [25:16]
Kayla Brantley
We love having him on. Right Marge?
- [25:19]
Marjorie Hernandez
He's great. He's great.
- [25:20]
Kayla Brantley
All right, so we'll now be off duty for a couple of weeks enjoying the holidays and we'll return on Friday, January 10th with our long promised second Q&A episode. So we will both spend some quality holiday time diving into all of your comments, thoughts and suggestions for the show. In the meantime, what would you like us to cover? What other trials are you interested in? Let us know by email thetrialailymail.com or you can WhatsApp us at 447-7966-57512. Make sure to start your message with Trial.
- [26:00]
Marjorie Hernandez
As ever, thank you for listening. Please share all your comments, suggestions and thoughts on the Trial of Diddy on Apple or Spotify and follow us on tick tock@DailyMailCrime. Do follow the Trial of Diddy as we will be back in the new year with fresh information, new insights and some expert guests. Happy Holidays.