Sean Kent
Appearances
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Part of a journalistic process is to reach out to the other side, just so they have their chance to defend themselves or to explain their side of things. If you don't go out for comment, it just kind of creates a one-sided narrative, which as journalists, we don't want that ever.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
So, Phil Pines was an executive assistant for Diddy from 2019 to December 2021. So, it's well after, you know, the video of Diddy attacking Cassie, which he called his low point. And Phil kind of gives the biggest insight into what Diddy's day-to-day life looked like at this period. And Phil alleges that it was drug-fueled, it was...
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
massive partying all the time, women coming and going constantly. I think Phil says that in his two years of intimately working around the clock with Diddy, he maybe saw him sleep alone seven or eight times. And he says that to kind of give us a window into maybe Diddy's mind frame or just what it was like to be around this person. He provided a lot of video or audio notes and
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
And it's just Diddy constantly requesting Xanax or Adderall or mushroom capsules. Phil says that he was asked to procure drugs and to deliver them to him. A big part of Phil's story were these nights that were called Wild King Nights. And if it sounds similar to Freak Offs, It is similar, but it's a little bit different.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
And so Phil kind of explains what he understood was, it was about a month or so in for working for Diddy, and he claims that he got an instruction that he needs baby oil, he needs astroglide, he needs red lights, he needs all these kinds of, I guess, things to set this mood for what would be called wild king nights.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
And then afterwards, Phil says he was charged with cleaning up the rooms, and he describes them as complete chaos. Ich glaube, er hat gesagt, es gab Babyöl auf dem Boden, so viel, dass man es aufschlagen konnte, dass es nicht genutzt wurde, dreckige Schuhe mit Urin und körperlichen Füßen und manchmal sogar Blut.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Und er hat gesagt, es war sehr demoralisierend, und man musste für Stunden da rein gehen und dieses Verbrechen sauber machen. Und er hat gesagt, dieser ganze Punkt war, um... was in diesem Raum passiert war.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Er beurteilt nicht, dass er versteht, dass etwas Unverschämtes geschehen ist, aber er spricht von dem Fakt, dass diese Räume so beschädigt waren, dass es auf ihn ging, und dass er versuchte, die Anzahl der Zerstörung, die in diesem Raum stattfand, zu beurteilen.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Und er macht auch eine wirklich zerstörungsvolle Angelegenheit darüber, wie er sieht, dass diese Partien öffnen und für Tage und Stunden gehen. Phil kündigt einen Fall mit Diddy vor seinem 51. Geburtstag in Turks and Caicos im November 2020. Und Phil sagt, dass Diddy ihn gefragt hat, die roten Lichter aufzusetzen, die er wusste als Code für Wild King Nights.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Und er setzt den Raum auf und sagt, dass Diddy den ganzen Tag partiert. Er sagt, dass er ziemlich trank oder ziemlich intoxiziert ist, was er trinkt oder trinkt. And he kind of encourages Phil to take a shot with him, he says. And then Phil's kind of like, it's not that unusual, but it's a little bit unusual. I took the shot. I went downstairs. I sat in the office.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
I'm summoned up again to the room. And Phil says he goes up, up to the room. He's encouraged to take another shot. And then Phil alleges that Diddy says, prove your loyalty to me, King. And Phil says that Diddy kind of massages his shoulders as a coach would give a pat on the back to like a player and pushes him towards a woman that was there, a guest.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Phil sagt, dass er in Angst geflogen war. Das war sein Boss. Er klingt, als hätte er in den letzten Fällen gehört, wo Diddy offensichtlich andere Mitarbeiter getötet hat. Er wusste über Diddys Angst. Und so sagt Phil, dass er aus Angst verabschiedet war. Und er sagt, dass er die Frau sichergestellt hat, dass sie okay war. He engaged for a little bit.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
And then Phil says as soon as he felt it was safe to leave, he didn't see Diddy somehow, that he got out of the room. And he says he ended up leaving in December of 2021. This past December, he filed a lawsuit against Diddy with those same allegations. And so we'll see his case play out. And it's also important to say that Phil has testified for the grand jury.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
He has said that in October he was part of this second secret grand jury proceedings that have been going on, which some people believe that could lead to a second indictment with possibly either more charges brought against Diddy or even co-conspirators being named and charged in this whole kind of Racketeering Act. Now, you put these to Diddy's team.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
What did they respond to you specifically about Phil? Diddy's team said in response to Phil's lawsuit that, you know, he denies any accusations of sexual assault, that he's never assaulted anyone. And they say anyone could file a lawsuit. So they are kind of denying, blanket denying that Diddy ever assaulted anyone or coerced anyone into anything.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Ja, also eine Ex-Frau von Diddy kommt zum ersten Mal vor. Eine ist seine Ex-Frau Kat Pachione. Und sie hatte eine Auf-und-Auf-Verhältnis mit Diddy. Sie sagt, dass sie ihn in Los Angeles um 2016 getroffen hat, aber sie würden bis 2018 nicht wirklich verbunden sein. Sie sagt, sie würde weiterhin diese Beziehung haben. In 2019 waren sie immer zusammen, unvergleichbar, sagt sie.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Grace sagt, dass sie ein Stewardess auf diesem Super-Jagd war. Ich glaube, dass die Zertifizierungen manchmal für eine Million Dollar pro Woche laufen. Also dieses sehr luxuriöse Super-Jagd, das Diddy für eine Zeit über die Weihnachten im Jahr 2022 zertifiziert hat. Auf Instagram, ich denke, haben wir alle einige der Posts von Diddy gesehen.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
An diesem Zeitpunkt ist er mit seiner neugierigen Tochter in Liebe. Alle seine Kinder sind da, sie skizzen. Er denkt, er sei ein schwarzer Santa. Es ist eine Art dieser lustigen, heiligen Familienreise. Aber Grace beurteilt, dass dieser Charter tatsächlich ein Hellscape war. Sie beurteilt, dass es Sexarbeiter gab, die sich unbewusst um die Yacht herum verletzten.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Sie sagt, dass sie glaubt, dass einige von den Menschen gedrückt wurden, weil sie nach einem einzigen Schuss oder einem gemischten Trinken, dass diese Frauen überfallen und paniken würden. Und nur zu diesem wirklich chaotischen Umfeld zu sprechen, sie beurteilt, dass es eine Zeit gab, in der eine Frau war,
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
who was a guest on the boat, was crying and locked herself in a room and staffers had to escort her off the boat because the woman allegedly said she wasn't feeling safe there. So this whole charter just sounds like an absolute just mayhem. And Grace alleges that one night that she was, she believes she was drugged and that Christian Combs Und Christian Combs ist Diddys Sohn.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Yes, I spoke with a crew member who corroborated aspects of Grace's story, speaking to the environment on the boat, the crying woman that had to leave, and also knowing about Grace's accusation at the time. Diddy's team haven't formally filed a response to Grace's lawsuit, but in the past their lawyer said that the claims were meritless and that they would be filing a motion to dismiss.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Yeah, I reached out to both Diddy and Christian Combs and their attorney had previously said that that lawsuit was meritless and that they would be filing a motion to dismiss that hasn't happened yet.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Yeah, so Nathan is a sex worker who claims that he was hired for multiple freak-offs with Diddy and Diddy's female guest. He claimed that Diddy would be taking a lot of drugs during these encounters. And I think that's similar to what Phil Pine says of when he was being asked to procure these substances for Diddy and then having to clean them up.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Nathan provides a window of what was actually happening in that room. And he says... dass Diddy Ecstasy, Ketamin nehmen würde. Und er glaubt, dass Diddy manchmal während dieser Begegnungen sogar schwarz wird, dass er zwischen 2.000 und 5.000 Dollar bezahlt wurde. Und Nathan glaubt, dass... The whole encounters were a little bit staged or very kind of meticulously planned by Diddy.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
He claims that Diddy would be positioning them or having instructions of how he should be with the woman. And he claims that Diddy almost acted as a warrior and he would pretend to leave the room and then kind of sneak back in and Und so ist es einfach ein bisschen ein bizarres Fenster, was vielleicht in diesen Wild King Nights oder diesen Freak-Offs passiert ist, so Nathan.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Und es gab einige rote Flagge, die das Jahr entlang kamen. Die Pandemie ist passiert und dann kam sie. reconnected with Diddy around 2021. So 2021 is when Diddy is starting his love era. And I think we've seen the Love Off The Grid album. And, you know, he has all these red lights around him.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Ja, es gibt jetzt mehrere Menschen, die über Didi's Drogenverwendung sprechen. Und Didi und sein eigenes Team haben bemerkt, dass Didi, besonders im Jahr 2016, dass es ein Drogenproblem gab und er zur Reha ging und Therapie besucht hat, um diese Probleme zu beantworten, was hervorragend ist.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
dass, ja, vielleicht ging er zur Reha und er bekam Betreuung, aber Jahre nach dem Jahr 2016, glauben sie, dass er immer noch mit mächtigen Drogen gearbeitet hat, die seinen Verhalten beeinflusst hatten.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Sie antworteten nicht auf den Rekord zu Nathans Angelegenheiten, aber sie haben vorhin beurteilt, dass Sean Combs jemanden sexuell verabschiedet hat. Und ich muss noch dazu sagen, dass Diddy's Attorney gesagt hat, dass, weißt du, also was, wenn sein Sexleben ungewöhnlich ist? Diese sind alle verabschiedete Ärzte in diesen Räumen.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Und die Regierung sollte nicht in die Wohnzimmer der Menschen blicken und sie auf das, was sie wollen, verurteilen, wenn jeder legal ist.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Was hat Nicole, die sie erlebt hat, erlebt? Nicole claims that she was in a relationship with Diddy from 2020, kind of right up until his arrest. And in fact, she says, you know, the weekend he was arrested, hours before he was arrested, he had been contacting her, she says, and trying to convince her to come to New York City so that they could talk.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Und sie sagt, dass die letzte Zeit, als sie Diddy gesehen hat, war im Juli 2024 in seinem Haus in Miami. Und das ist nach den Raiden auf seinem Haus. Das sind Monate, bevor er verhaftet wurde. Und sie sagt, dass sie zu seinem Haus kam. Er hat zwei unbekannte Pillen in den Brust gelegt oder sie hat sie einfach diese Pillen genommen. Und sie glaubt, dass sie verblüfft ist.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Sie hat nichts an dieser Nacht in Erinnerung. Außer an einigen Stellen in Erinnerung, wo sie glaubt hat, dass Diddy sie allgemein gefragt hat, einen anderen Mann in die Beziehung zu bringen oder eine andere Person in die Beziehung zu bringen. Und sie glaubt, das ist wirklich alles, was sie an dieser Nacht erinnert. Und sie sagt, das ist die letzte Zeit, als sie ihn gesehen hat.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Bis, du weißt, bevor er verhaftet wurde. Sie glaubt, dass er auf sie aufmerksam war und versucht hat, sie nach New York zu bringen. Ich sollte noch sagen, dass eine Woche danach, als er verhaftet wurde... Nicole filed her own lawsuit alleging sexual battery, sexual assault, among other accusations. Was she filed as a Jane Doe?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
We did not receive an on the record response from Diddy's team regarding Nicole's accusation. However, he has adamantly denied in the past that he's ever sexually assaulted or abused anyone.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
And Kat says that she was actually there for when he was first kind of putting the wheels on the truck of what would be the love album. And she says this was summer 2021. They were in Malibu in this like amazing mansion and working on this music and she claims that Diddy started doing a drug called 2C. It's a combination frequently of ketamine and ecstasy.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
It's pink, it's powdery, sometimes called pink cocaine, but Kat says that he was taking it all that last night she was there. And she claims that she went to bed, he continued on partying, and then he came looking for her. She just describes that it wasn't consensual. There was diary entries that she writes that he turned into a monster, that he wouldn't listen to my no.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
And I think we all get the gist of what she means by that. So this is a really harrowing encounter she describes where, yeah, she says it's non-consensual and that she vowed to never see him again afterward.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Not to my knowledge, no. I think he gave kind of a blanket denial that his team keep using, which says that he has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone. They say man, woman, adult or minor. So across the board, they deny that Diddy has ever sexually assaulted anyone.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Ja, in den Diary-Einträgen schreibt Kat von diesem Zeitpunkt, im Juni 2021, was sie in diesem Moment gefühlt hat. Und dann sagt sie tatsächlich zwei Wochen später, und sie dokumentiert das auch in ihrem Diary, dass sie einen Anruf von einem Teamleiter von Diddy bekommen hat. Und Diddy springt auf den Telefon und er bedroht sie und sagt, dass er sie zurück nach Kanada deportieren könnte.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Und auf die Länge, wenn du nicht weißt, mit wem du redest. Und so sind all diese Dinge in ihrem Journal dargestellt, die sie als eine Art Korroboration für ihre Geschichte zeigt.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Who is Ariel? Courtney is described as a fringe player in the hip-hop media space. He has emerged as part of this Diddy universe as claiming that he was the one who was given Kim Porters, Diddy's late ex-partner, her diary. If you remember from earlier episodes, this diary caused A lot of headlines. There's a ton of uncorroborated salacious claims in it.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
And Courtney has emerged in saying that he was kind of part of the group or the person that actually had these, you know, quote unquote, lost files of Kim. So that is who he is. And then the fall, uh, Courtney pops up with his attorney in New York City, saying that he had a subpoena and that he was going to testify for this grand jury.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
The reason why that is odd is because grand juries are supposed to be completely secret. And then you have a supposed witness standing up outside the courtroom with cameras in his face saying, I just testified. And he also claimed to have alleged videos of Diddy allegedly engaging in sexual conduct with people.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
So it's a really bombshell claim and it hasn't, to my knowledge, hasn't been corroborated. And Ariel Mitchell-Kidd ist sein Anwalt, der mit ihm dort im Gerichtssaal darüber gesprochen hat, über diese verhandelten Videos.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Aber sie repräsentiert auch noch einen Diddy-Angeber, Ashley Parham, die in einem Peacock-Dokumentarium vorgegangen ist, über ihre verhandelte Erfahrung mit Diddy im Jahr 2018 in der San Francisco-Region.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s $50m lawsuit - plus the very latest media claims
Nathan glaubt, dass die ganzen Begegnungen von Diddy unvermeidbar geplant wurden. Er glaubt, dass Diddy fast als Krieger geschehen wäre. Und dass er sich verliebt hätte, um in den Raum zu gehen und sich auf seine Hände und Füße zu schlagen, als ob er etwas sieht, was er vielleicht nicht sehen sollte.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
So if I'm a legitimate victim who's bringing these claims and I'm seeing my lawyer stumble his way around something that simple, it gives me pause. If I'm a jury watching this, it gives me pause. If I'm Diddy's lawyers, it gives me pause. It's just a bad look.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
Absolutely. I think what has ended up happening and this is the danger of going against somebody with the power and financial resources of Jay-Z. What ended up happening is I'm sure his legal team looked for every possible mistake there was. And probably Busby has done this a million times. It's not that big of a deal. Probably other lawyers don't catch it.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
They're like and it's I guarantee you is exactly what Busby said. I'm licensed in New York. I'm licensed in Eastern District of New York. I'm going to end up licensed in Southern District of New York. It's not that big of a deal. And probably most folks won't count it. But when you're probably paying millions in legal fees, they found the smallest detail.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
They drove a truck through it and it has affected him. Probably there's an assistant or somebody in his office currently getting cursed out because they didn't get that small little detail done. And yes, there's no doubt in my mind this detail will affect all of his other cases. Because of a credibility issue.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
And that's the problem with making yourself the face of these lawsuits and making this 1-800 number and making it about me rather than making it about the individual victims. Because all of their credibility, whether they said a word or not, is all now getting called into question.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
And that is not me using some fancy accent. That is literally pro hoc vice. It is a Latin phrase for for this matter only is just to be used if you are not licensed or not allowed to practice in an area. You just get someone permission just to say, you know what? Come on over for this matter only because you are allowed to have any attorney you want. You know, as a person, pick who you want.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
You shouldn't be forced. And so that's the point of this function is allow somebody to come in for that specific matter only. And the court has basically signaled that they're not happy with it.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
Remember what I said? It's for this matter only. So that's what it is for this matter. So he would have to technically for each of those cases file a pro hoc motion because remember, Jay-Z's motion didn't throw all the cases out. It was just about his case. And so technically, you would have to tell the court each case you want to appear on and why. And he filed out none for any of them.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
Do I believe it's realistic? Probably not. Mostly based upon her statement. Because her statement is very, a very, very strong denial. And if the prosecutors were going to meet with her and put her on the stand, you would assume her statement would have been so bold as I've never done anything wrong whatsoever because it was open her up for cross examinations. And why did you lie in the statement?
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
And now you're lying on the stand. I don't. I mean, and that's just my gut reaction.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
Yes and no, because remember, anybody can bring a lawsuit. Anybody can make allegations that they want to. And so they are in a way corroborating each other's lawsuit by facts. But there is no independent evidence corroborating what they're saying. So it'd be like I could bring a lawsuit today and say she did the same thing to me and Diddy's did the same thing.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
So technically it's corroborating, but it's just me. It could also be me just parroting things that other people have said.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
That is such a great question because there's a difference between state system and federal system. And in the state system, you can claim ignorance. But in the federal system, there's something called willful blindness, which means if you willfully do this and are hiding, they can still prosecute you for it. So if you like exactly what you said, you can.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
She willfully blinds herself, and that's something that the federal prosecutors will tell the jury that, nah, she knew what was going on or knew or should have known what's going on. So, yeah, she can't extricate herself from the situation and think that absolves all liability. She still would be in trouble if they chose to charge her under that scenario.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
One would think, and that's something that people need to understand is a lot of times, and I was a prosecutor, what we end up doing is, and maybe this is just assumptions, maybe they met with her, maybe they talked to her, and then they said, you know what, we cannot prosecute this case beyond a reasonable doubt, as opposed to the civil standard, which is more likely than not. Both things.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
So a lot of folks are saying, well, they didn't go after a criminal, which means her civil case isn't true. Well, both things can be independently true. A civil case is brought if it's more likely than not that something happened. To prosecute her criminally or make her a co-conspirator, it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
And prosecutors possibly could have met with her, maybe believed her story. Maybe they thought the willful blindness claim would have been too hard to prosecute and said, we're not going after her. Possibly. Or possibly they think she didn't do anything or they couldn't prove it. There's so many things that could have gone into. But that is a very strong denial.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
And that's why I don't believe she is going to be a witness based upon that denial and that denial alone.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
Yeah, we can read into it. She's not stupid. You know, that's something you don't want to go out on that ledge and make the government that angry with you. And that would be going out to a very strong ledge. And at some point in time, if she has any representation, they're saying you need to worry about yourself.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
Do not go out on the ledge for anybody else because, you know, your words come back in on you. Let's say he gets convicted. Then all of a sudden, for the rest of time, there's a statement of you saying Diddy's innocent and the people don't want to deal with you at all. So, yeah, I would have advised her not to talk about him in the slightest.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
It's not a crime, but it's so damn stupid. It should be the easiest way to describe it. Like, so people get confused just because you're licensed to practice law in America. You can't practice law in every state. We've got different states, different laws, different jurisdictions. So they're all different. So once you take the bar, you are licensed to be.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
a lawyer, then you can practice in a state where you take the bar. Then after you've taken the bar in that state and you practice, let's say, and it happens to us a lot, let's say a buddy of yours calls you in Jordan and says, I want you to try this case with me or help me with this case.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
Well, you don't want to take the bar exam again because it's an incredibly hard, arduous test that you don't want to do again. But what you can do is do what's called pro hoc vici. All that means is for this matter only. That is literally the definition of it. Pro hoc vici means for this matter. And it is a minstrel function. You fill out a piece of paper.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
You get your buddy who's a lawyer in that jurisdiction and say, I vouch for Mr. Kent to practice law with me in Georgia. He knows the laws. You give that application to a clerk or to the judge. The judge simply asks you in some way, there is application, there is on purpose. Have you read the law? Do you understand the law? Can you practice law here and not embarrass yourself? Yes.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
And then the judge signs off on it. That is literally as simple as Busby would have had to do to be licensed. And his would have been easier because he's already licensed in the state of New York. So he has his license there. This is just like a subset of New York. And he's already licensed also in the Eastern District of New York, if I'm not mistaken.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
And so it would have been so easy to easily fill out an application. What this is the equivalent of is everybody in the courtroom is just mad because he didn't follow the simplest step possible.
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
Okay, because here's the other thing that makes it ridiculous. Like, he makes this big, big, big press conference or release that says, I'm withdrawing from the representation of this individual. And I think even the court sent a little stamp on the thing that said... How can you withdraw for something you were not representing to begin with?
Diddy On Trial
Kristina Khorram speaks out and Tony Buzbee withdraws from Diddy cases
That's like me saying I am now withdrawing from being the president of the United States. Well, Mr. Ken, you are never the president of the United States. There's no need to withdraw. I think when you and Cheyenne originally talked way back in the day, I said I had a problem with him bringing all of these lawsuits.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
He sits next to Diddy, you know, during the hearing. They're talking, they're laughing. So they seem to have kind of a more personal relationship maybe than with, you know, Diddy's other lead defense attorneys who are kind of the ones up in front of the judge. And this past week, he just suddenly files a motion saying that he's withdrawing from the case.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
I was going to add Rico's name was left off of this filing. So his name was not part of this motion to dismiss this count. And I guess like the other thing to point what Sean said is that other people have been prosecuted under the Mann Act. And, you know, Ghislaine Maxwell, you have R. Kelly, you have a lot of people that have actually been convicted in or arrested under this act.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
And I think the other layer to this, which is kind of missing from this, is that he's claiming no other black man has been, charge, or at least that we know of in a big kind of high profile sense of hiring male escorts, because these other cases have to do with minors or women.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
And he is kind of making the connection of I'm hiring male escorts, and I haven't seen anyone else being charged for this in this Male escort service is really popular. A lot of people know about it. Why am I the only one being charged with using this site? And I think he says, you know, it's very common practice in American culture to bring in a third person to the relationship.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
So there's a kind of a lot of leaps and things kind of being all connected together. That's one of the points that I felt like people are kind of missing of what he's claiming is. that he's being charged with that he hasn't seen. It's not just the Mann Act, it's the who he was hiring under the prostitution charge.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
And there is not too much detail given, but clearly there was a fork in the road about, you know, something having to do with this case. And he says, you know, like you heard that under no circumstances can he effectively serve as his defense counsel.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
With the Man Act, too, its purpose and its inception was for there was a moral panic in the 1910s and the progressive era. And it actually was more designed to protect, I think, you know, at the time they were saying white women who were moving from rural cities or rural communities into cities.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
And they were saying, you know, these kind of lurky, shady figures were kind of trafficking or transportation of the women, white women. into brothels and to be prostitutes. It was almost to safeguard what they said, white women.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
Yeah, so Didi's team filed a motion about some of the search warrants that happened on Didi's properties back in March of 2024. He is making an argument that those search warrants were extremely broad and they're wanting to suppress some of that evidence at trial. They say that prosecutors kind of withheld some information about some things they gathered, specifically victim one.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
I think they're trying to argue that, you know, they didn't make clear that they've already seen or possessed some of the videotapes that victim one had. And they're kind of. calling into question the credibility of some of the victims and witnesses that the prosecutors used in order to obtain these search warrants.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
I think it looks people have taken it as bad. You know, when a top attorney quits your case in the language used under no circumstance can I continue. I think people are just pointing at that and say, oh, oh, he can't defend him, you know, in making their own assumptions from there.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
There have been kind of reports circulating kind of to what Sean said was that it seemed like there was a breakdown between Diddy's attorneys about going to trial in May and that, you know, Mr. Rico wanted to kind of postpone it because there is so much information here. So that's kind of been the kind of. The attitude that a lot of people think this looks bad for Diddy.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
They think it's like almost an omission of guilt from some of the things that I've seen, which, of course, is not the case.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
I think he called it a day of victory because he's been adamant since he was, before he was even publicly named, that he was going to bat for himself, his reputation, for this awful, awful allegation. And it's something to note that Diddy's team, I asked for a comment about this, and they said,
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
there was no settlement reached because sometimes things like this, when cases are dismissed with prejudice, sometimes you think, okay, backdoor, maybe he did pay her to take the case away. And Diddy's team said there was no settlement. So something happened behind the scenes that, you know, the woman, the Jane Doe, decided to withdraw and not to bring the case again.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
So Jay-Z sees this as an absolute victory lap, but it doesn't mean that he's necessarily done with the woman's lawyer, Tony Busby. If you remember, he's... filed a lawsuit for extortion and defamation against Tony Busby about this case, saying that he made defamatory comments while pursuing this case. And that case is still moving ahead.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
So this isn't entirely just over because this one case was dismissed. So I think Jay-Z has said Tony Busby and Diddy has said the same thing, that he is this attorney that's looking for the spotlight. And they keep calling him a 1-800 lawyer, you know, trying to kind of disbarge or make, you know, the idea that he's out just to collect all these victims and to make a big show of things.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
So Anthony Rico has been part of Diddy's defense team since September. So he appeared in court with Diddy when he was first arraigned and pled not guilty to the charges. And Anthony has been kind of this almost public kind of support figure for Diddy as his lawyer. In court, he stands up and points out that Diddy's You know, children have traveled long distances to be there.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy lawyer quits plus outlandish necromancy claims
Jay-Z said, you know, he named me in this lawsuit right before my daughter, Blue Ivy, has this really big moment for herself. And he kind of accuses him of just, you know, trying to capitalize on that moment for maximum PR, you know, nightmare.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And remember, they haven't seen it yet, so they don't know. And it's one of those, you don't know what you don't know. And I've had cases where I've asked for the outtakes And what will end up happening, you'd be shocked. You'll see sometimes somebody on camera is crying, emotional, they cut. And then they're laughing and giggling with the crew.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And you want to be able to show that for cross-examination. You know, we're doing a podcast now. We all know when the camera's off, people say and do completely different things than when the camera's on. And so that's what his team is trying to do is look for anything that's different.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
Now, what is presented to the jury, because if they're just presented what the television shows and what you see when you tune in and not when the cameras are off, you're not getting a full presentation. And anything that can help Diddy Cross examine these folks and say, these guys are lying. They're in it for the money. They're just emotional when the cameras are on.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
These are the jokes that he was saying. This is a camera crew telling him how to act. If you have to do this scene over and over and over again, let's do that again. We didn't get the emotions out. All that helps his cross-examination, I believe. And I think that's why they want it.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
Now, let's not forget, it's not like this is a motion to say, I want to be allowed to use it. This is a motion that says, I want to be able to see it. And he might see it and might not have nothing there. But I think he's dotting his I's and crossing his T's. But here's the problem. I think they made these motions in anticipation of getting the continuance. So be careful what you ask for.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
You're more in this realm than I am. Outtakes can be a lot. There can be a lot of information to go through. And it's sort of like we have a month now to go through this stuff that may not help us at all. That's going to be the wild part.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
You're not wrong. But, you know, for me, looking at the other side, the way that I would say it is Diddy's on trial for his life, whether we like him or don't like him, but he is fighting for his life and I'm fighting for his life. He wants every avenue possible. These accusations are coming. But from a journalist standpoint, I'd be like, wait a minute.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
These outtakes, that damages the process that we can't get people to be genuine because they're worried about what's going to happen in a cross-examination. And as a journalist, I think I'm sure you understand getting somebody comfortable off camera is one of the hardest things to do. And we have to do certain things to get them off camera.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And we shouldn't have that used against someone on the stand. It goes both ways.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And I've done it myself and I've used it. And so if I ever choose to see you guys, can I have your outtakes, please?
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
What's going on with victim five? Victim five to me is the most interesting. We just randomly throw in victim five. Let's not mention her again, her or him or whoever it is.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
They're just going to give them protection. And it is like their name will not be used. Their name will not be said in court. And so the court will say you can't report a name, but a name not reported in court. But as I mentioned, let's say somebody in the courtroom knows who they are. How do you stop that person from just leaving the courtroom and say, you know, that was Tina from Jersey?
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
Yep, it's called redaction. It's up to the government and for the defense to go through a redaction method and redact it to the point that the jury will not know the name. Because that's all that matters is the jury knowing the name. It's the trial to the jury. It's nobody else.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And so the government will redact if there is a name somewhere mentioned or if somebody says somebody's name in one of those butt-naked baby oil freak-out parties and they say, Tina from Jersey, bring the Jersey Mike subs. If somebody says her name, then they have to redact that out. Mm-hmm. Well, these guys got to be working day and night. I am in shock.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
I'm not in shock that they asked for the continuance. I'm very shocked they didn't get it because this is so much information. And you just highlighted one of the small things people don't think, little things like the redaction. They have to go through all these videos and make sure there's not one mistake. And don't forget. If one mistake is made, something small, that can cause a new trial.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
It sounds crazy, but it's. Pretty darn accurate. The president has basically pardon powers over federal crimes, not over state crimes. And, you know, we have individual states. But if something is a federal crime, the president can, with the stroke of a pen, and you may call it the magic wand, he can sign a pardon after somebody is convicted. That is in our United States Constitution.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
It is allowed. So. If there is a conviction and if Donald Trump wanted to pardon Diddy and just say, you are pardoned from this, you are free, he could. Willie? No. But he could.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
If there is a hung jury and it is through no fault of the United States of America, the case could be retried. And that would be if one jury, and it only takes one, who cannot vote and cannot make a decision of guilt. It just takes one.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
Technically, a lawsuit is just a filing of a lawsuit. It's a complaint. It's one party saying something that has happened. The other party gets a chance to respond, which is called an answer. That answer is filed out and filled in court. Now, in his answer to the court, he cannot respond to her name. But to John Q. Public, he can do whatever he wants until a court specifically tells him no.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And no court has ordered him not to. So it would be the equivalent of if I knew her name or her cousin knew her name or anybody who knew her name and went on C-SPAN and just said, I want to talk about her. So there's nothing to stop it. Most people don't do it, but there's no court order stopping it right now. It's rare and it's wild. And I thought it was interesting.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
Absolutely. And that's the thing that people forget. It may not be illegal, but it is frowned upon. Like we'll call them in and say, you know what you're doing. You're trying to intimidate. You're trying to harass. This is not proper. And Shannon's response is going to be what we've been talking about all the time. She sought to bring the lawsuit. She should not be allowed to be had anonymity.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And so they're going to go back and forth on that. But, yeah, it's going to annoy the court 100 percent.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
We met Brian Steele. We've known each other probably going on about a decade. We met each other in a federal case that we had down here in South Carolina. He was brought along to help a co-defendant. So we spent about a month together in steamy Columbia, South Carolina.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
I am wearing a couple of organizations, some high-profile organizations throughout the country together, American Board of Criminal Lawyers to be one. I consider Brian the best of the best. He is a quality trial lawyer. He's a quality lawyer. He is a great person. The best way to describe it, he's known for being incredibly polished. He is well thought out. He is meticulous.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
He's just a hard worker. And he is a lawyer's lawyer. He is a really, really good lawyer. And I don't like to give anyone compliments that's not named Sean Kent. So for me to give him a compliment, I'm at good of a lawyer.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
Can we get this case continued? But if I know Brian the way that I know him and the amount, and let's not forget, this is a terabyte of information, which basically means you can stretch each paper around the world. That's how much information there is. Knowing Brian, he said, I'd love to be a part of the team. One, what do y'all envision me doing?
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And two, most importantly, do I have enough time to get what I need to get done? So I bet you they told him that we will be asking for a continuance. My assumption is that they said, we believe we will be getting the continuance. And then it didn't happen. And so everybody's regrouping now.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
I understand the logic now. But at the time, the thought process is you try to give the benefit of a doubt to a defendant, because if he is convicted and you make an error of law or an error of some sort, then there's always a chance that it could be an appeal. And we could be doing this whole thing all over again.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
Like if a higher court says you should have given him more time, then I always find that judges are just like, look, we've never asked for one. Let's go. Well, the protection this judge had is, and I said this earlier, those idiots asked for a speedy trial. And when you ask for a speedy trial, a judge can say you wanted it, you got it, let's go.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And number two, you waited way too long or too close to the trial to ask for a continued. So I think the judge's logic was perfect.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
You got it. You 100% have it. His prior bad acts that show that he has conformity with his current accusations.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
That's the part that's crazy. Victim 5 clearly has got some smoke against old Diddy. And so you have to read in between the lines, it's got to be, it's the prior bad act of Diddy against Victim 5. So it's something that he has done in his history or his past or something crazy. relating specifically to victim number five, but it's something that Diddy has done.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
We don't know what they are, but the court clearly knows what they are. And the court in reading this motion says, yeah, that's relevant. That's coming in. So for a judge to deny him part and tell me the part that he granted is massive. I don't know who victim number five is.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
I don't know what the testimony is, but there's something about the path between her, him, them, and Diddy that's going to be a bombshell.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
None of it's come in. And when we talk about prior bad acts and stuff of that nature, a lot of judges believe this. If your case needs prior bad acts to make your case, then you don't have a case. Your case should stand on its own on its face.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
You shouldn't have unrelated stuff to prove somebody's innocence or guilt because just because somebody was a bad person in 1992 doesn't mean you're a bad person today. And that's what they were trying to do. And now they're saying, no, I don't care how bad he was in the early 90s. Tell me about what he did in 2000 blank to 2025.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And if you go through all of these motions we're going to talk about, they all come to a central rule called the rule of completeness. And it's... It ain't complicated. It's common sense. If... You and I are in the middle of a massive text thread. Massive. That is seven months long.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
And one portion of the text thread, I catch you talking about your boss, but if it's taken out of context, it doesn't make sense. The rule of completeness says, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you bring in one portion, the other side can bring in everything so they can bring a full presentation as to what actually happened. And so if you look at all these motions, what the judge said was,
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
outtakes, prior drafts, that's information that's necessary because why were there changes? Who made these changes? What was this information? You need to give it all because the defense has a right to make a full presentation of the full view. I don't know what the prior drafts are, but maybe.
Diddy On Trial
No delay for Diddy’s trial
Some publisher, some editor came in and said something to the effect of, you need to take this out because it doesn't sound scandalous enough or it sounds too scandalous. So Diddy's team wants the rule of completeness. We don't want you to tell this one small memoir with a part. We want it all in. And so the rule of completeness, I think, is what controls all of these other motions being granted.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
I believe zero to 20 years is his best possibility, his best chance. But that comes from cooperation. The government believing your cooperation is helpful, your cooperation taking down potentially a bigger fish than you, if you will. He could cooperate against some lower people and just get a little time cut off the top.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
I think the Enterprise letter is when you're going to start hearing other names. I don't think the names are going to be as interesting as people think. I think they're going to be inner circle names. I don't think it's going to be these great, interesting names that people are expecting to hear. But that, I could be wrong.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Great question. Can they? Yes. Again, and I'm being made to look wrong. I just believe that superseding indictment is coming. If it's coming, it's going to be before March. At that point in time, if they try to supersede this in case, I got to do my math in February, March, April. If they try to do it in like April, the judge is going to be like, no, we're not.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
He's not going to say, no, they can't do it. He's going to say, we're not going to trial in May. Yeah. If they supersede that quick, something of that nature. But yeah, I believe they're right. I think, I still think the superseding is coming, but if it does come, it would come before the enterprise level.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Great question, but remember, these individuals aren't charged with anything. So there's not bond conditions that would say that you can't leave, and that happens all the time. If you are not formally charged, the government has no control to tell you what you can and what you can't do. So if you think you might be a witness and take off, you're welcome to do that. Could it possibly hurt his case?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Absolutely. Yeah, you can't stop somebody from leaving and saying, I'm going on vacation and I'm not coming back. You can put a subpoena in their hand. You know, you can subpoena them for court, but that's the interesting part. You can't subpoena somebody outside the United States.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
They're saying they're drugged. Don't forget, it's easy to prove the court a public opinion, but when you get into an actual court, the federal government has approved their case beyond a reasonable doubt. And someone just getting on the stand and saying, I was drugged? The defense can ask a very simple question. Where's the drug test? Where's the proof? You just saying it now.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
There's a difference between a witness and somebody being accused. I've seen judges say to them, it is not my fault you have lost your witness. It is your job to prove your case. Stop complaining. You should have had this ready beforehand. Now, if the person is a potential co-defendant, that's where the judge says, FBI, Secret Service, U.S.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Marshals, go find them and go get them and bring them back. I mean, that's where we start talking about non-extradition countries and things of that nature. And then it's hard to get those people. So there's a difference between a witness and a defendant. If you're a witness, you can go anywhere you want. The government cannot stop your movement. You can go where you need to go.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Thank you so much for having me. I very much appreciate y'all.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Like, there's a lot that's going to happen. And I understand where the defense is going. There's like, this is consent. And if it is consensual, butt naked baby old freak off parties aren't illegal. What's illegal is the sex trafficking aspect of this case. And they're saying there is no sex trafficking. Always was going to be the defense. Always.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Well, don't forget, here's the great thing about it. We're innocent until proven guilty. It's not how do they prove it, it's how does the government disprove it. So if you're the defense and you're showing the video, they're just like, well, look at the video. The cross-examination is going to be And by that, I mean from the defense.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Because, of course, what's going to happen is the prosecution gets to put their witness on first, whoever it may be. And this female who had the relationship with Mr. Combs is going to get on the stand. I guarantee you she's going to be emotional. She is going to cry. She's going to talk about this relationship.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
She's going to talk about the fact that she was forced to do things she didn't want to do. She is going to say this in a very good way. That's evident. The cross-examination is going to be withering. It is going to take this video frame by frame. This is you with a smile on your face. In this video, anywhere whatsoever, do you say no. In this video, you are seen walking in this way.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
It doesn't appear that you were on drugs at any point in time. The cross-examination is going to be withering. And so everybody who was just reading, it's one thing to read evidence that we have half and half of it, but it's another thing to have a witness on the stand who is going to talk about the fights in the relationship, the money that she got, the things that she got.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
When we define cases, when we do case initiative, what we always say is a witness's credibility takes the stand with them. So this person's credibility is going to take the stand. And so the biggest question I think that's going to happen is the following.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
If Mr. Combs is this most disgusting, abhorrent human being, if he is the monster that you and the government has said that he is, why did you stay with him?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
They would, and I prosecuted it, and what ends up happening is You have to be careful when you are preparing a witness. There's not a lot of evidence. There's videos and so forth, but the evidence is going to come from the stand from the person's mouth. And so when you are preparing a witness to testify, especially of the government, it is the hardest thing to do. Why?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Because you're not allowed what's called lead. You're not allowed to suggest the answer. So really what you're doing is you're trying to get a witness simply to tell their story. So you would say witness one. Realistically, you say, what happened? And then you say, what happened next? That's how we're taught as prosecutors, as a former prosecutor, to get a witness to tell the story.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
And so what you want to do is you want to balance something. You can prepare this witness too much because if she comes across too much, if she comes across rehearsed, if she comes across polished, then she comes across as unbelievable.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
And if you prepare somebody entirely too much, and I've made this mistake as a young prosecutor, when you want to meet with a witness over and over and over again, and what ends up happening is you meet them with them five or six times and they keep crying. They keep crying because they're emotional about this event.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Well, by the 10th and 11th time, they become desensitized to it and it's not emotional to them and they can't cry anymore. And so, yeah, they're preparing her, but they can't over-prepare her because they don't want her to seem too polished. And she's got what we call is warts. She has warts in this case because she has problems that they can't get past.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
You can only prepare somebody so much for the fact that, ma'am, according to this, you are with this monster and presumably you are also a criminal. Because if what the government is alleging is true, if Mr. Combs has engaged in this abhorrent behavior and you were by his side, who did you call? What law enforcement did you contact? What person did you warn? So she's got two options.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Either she didn't see anything, and she didn't see anything, guess what? That goes along with Mr. Combs' defense, or she saw something and didn't do anything, and then that hurts her credibility. That's why I was like, don't be so quick to assume that the prosecution's cadence is the greatest case in the world because the cross-examine of her is going to be withery.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
And that was weird to me. You're not the only one asking that same question. I'm just like, uh, you already have this via discovery. You already have all of this evidence. So that was something that was wild to me also.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
But a lot of times what we have in the federal system is what's called a protective order, which says we will give this evidence to the lawyers, but don't you dare share it or leave a copy. Specifically, don't leave a copy with the defendant. We don't want him to have a copy while he's incarcerated.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
And so that might be really what they're saying is we need a tangible copy so we can give Mr. Combs so he can go through it line by line. I'm sorry, frame by frame and go through it in full detail. That's my assumption is that he is not allowed to have a copy because that's usually the protective order or judge rules on these high profile cases or almost all federal cases.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Protect any victims, any potential victims. That's usually why they do the protective order, not even to make it that specific. Federal judges are very scared of releasing evidence to protect victims. And that happens a lot, Doc.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
And if you notice, they filed a letter and immediately the prosecution came back and was like, what the heck are you doing? The only reason they filed that letter was to prejudice the pool so that we're doing exactly what we're doing. Everybody on social media are talking about those tapes because clearly the court of public defending is against Diddy. It 100% is.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
So that filed that letter, I believe, in hopes of prejudice. But the second they filed it, you saw completely what ended up happening. The prosecution came and filed a secondary letter and said, whoa, there's entirely too much information in here. Can't happen.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
100% in court, in front of a room of people. And so that's the other thing that's awful. They are going to be watching basically porn for hours on end in front of people. So in front of victim one, whoever it may be, there's going to be porno played in the federal courtroom.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Oh, 100%. She's probably being told right now, like, this is going to be played in open court. Your sex history, your sex life is going to be talked about in open court. All of this.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Well, don't forget this. It doesn't matter if she does or she doesn't. This isn't a civil case. This is the criminal case. So she could flat out tell the federal government, I don't want to participate. And they can say, we don't care. This is a crime. Crimes are against the United States. Not against them. Keep calling her victim one, but don't forget, she's a witness to a crime.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
So it doesn't matter if she went to them today and said, I'm not participating. Their response? We don't care. Get your ass on the stand.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Well, you're exactly right. They don't prepare you for that because you understand every case is different. So you read about cases like, I think this Diddy case is going to be studied forever. You know, I think it's going to be studied in law school, but that's the way that we learn is because of what happens with cases is how you learn things that could happen.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Like when I was in law school, we studied the OJ Simpson case because that was a case that had happened. But anybody before OJ wouldn't have known about these cases. We wouldn't have known about court TV and things of that nature because it didn't happen.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Yeah, they haven't had it yet, but what they have is exactly what you want. Usually what ends up happening is the defense could file what's called a bill of particulars. A bill of particulars in the federal system is exactly what it sounds like. It's basically, here's a bill.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Or, like, if you go into a restaurant and you order food and all of a sudden the waiter gives you a bill and it just has a total on it, $75, like, well, what the heck is this for? Break this down for me because you just gave me a bill. Well, the indictment is just the bill against Diddy. Tell me exactly what I ate and exactly what I paid for to get to this $75.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
The bill in particular says federal government break down the charges, the dates, the time, the people, because you've made this allegation And you haven't broken it down. Well, that's why the government said, you don't have to file your bill of particulars, Mr. Combs.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
I would guess we're 80% back, so we're back on TikTok. We're up, but who knows how long it's going to last. It sounds like we've got at least a 90-day reprieve from the executioner, so we'll see how much longer that lasts. But we're back for now.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
We're going to give you an enterprise letter where we break down our times, our dates, our allegations, who we think is involved, the other parties, all of the people here. That being said, we're not going to give it to you until March or whatever the date is. Here's our letter. Ha ha. You got two months to prepare.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Yes. But in the grand scheme of things, the judge is going to say, are you guys ready? You're the ones who wanted the speedy trial. Don't forget, this was the defense who was saying, we want this trial ASAP. The government is not doing anything untoward, if you will. Because their argument is we don't want to give this enterprise letter a day sooner.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
What he shouldn't be concerned about is possibly the reason the government is waiting so long is there's going to be some people on that list who are in his inner circle who he does not know.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Great question. We're all waiting for that, and you are not wrong on that, because in the history of the world, I've never seen a RICO charge with one person. By definition, you can't have a corrupt organization with one person.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
There have never been a Rico of one. By definition, you can't have it. Rico says two or more. So, yes, other names are coming, and it probably, not probably, it 1,000% is going to come with that enterprise label. So they can say, this is who you're dealing with specifically.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
Yes and no, because here's potentially, and of course, assumption based upon experience, they already know who they are. They've already struck their deals. They're already ready to testify. So they've all already been talked to. They know what's coming. They're not going to be surprised on March 8th. They already know all of this stuff is coming.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
And probably a lot of them are going to be witnesses. And so that happens also that these people will get on the stand And they will testify. They'll say, I was there. I was there with Combs. He directed me this. He was doing this, this, this, and this. Now, the cross-examination of them is going to write itself. How much time were you looking at? You were looking at 20 years.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
The government came to you. They never listed you in this RICO charge. So this entire time behind the scenes, you were working to save your own life. That's why you're testifying to this now. If you thought this was such a bad crime, if you thought this was so crazy, if you thought this was so intense, How many times did you go to law enforcement? Who did you warn? Who did you help with a lawsuit?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
The cross-examination is going to write itself for these people if they knew that these charges were coming and they've done nothing about it. So they all have lawyers already.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
So what the defense has done is they're taking an interesting tack, and I think the legal analysis is becoming fascinating. And they're saying, if you look at these videos, this shows a consensual relationship. The great thing for them, for their defense about that, is that's in the past. All the folks on social media and so forth are saying, well, these people are drugged.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s lawyers speak out about sex tapes
I don't see a not guilty. I just don't. I could be wrong. To me, I believe the best possible outcome is he cooperates. And that time may have already passed. I believe that if he would cooperate against other individuals, he would get what's called a 5K, basically a reduction in potential sentence. If he could talk the government into dismissing some of the charges against him,
Diddy On Trial
Elsewhere in the ‘Diddyverse’: Jay-Z, Buzbee and Kanye
The easy thing would have been, I'll take a paid vacation and go. That's wrong. I don't... I've worked too hard and lived my life... The Police Commission is meeting this week to decide next steps, so we'll keep you updated.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
And it's hard to serve somebody who's in the Department of Corrections. It's really hard because you can't get to him. You just can't go in there and talk to Diddy and say, hey, man, I want to go see Diddy and see what he's doing. Can I give him some paperwork? It's harder than people think.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
Correct. So that means the original lawsuit was filed on October 15th, 2024. And then on February 6th, 2025, asked the court permission to amend. And in their February 6th filing, they said, we have done more investigation and we need to add stuff to our complaint to make it more accurate.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
It is, and trust me, I've looked at a lot of lawsuits. 87 pages is... insane. It just is. It's a very lengthy lawsuit. That's how they chose to file their lawsuit. But the language is oddly specific and you usually don't see that. And it's not necessary. It's just additional for sensationalism. What does it help prove or not prove? So, no, I'm not used to seeing stuff like that in the lawsuit.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
Normally, like I would be guessing, but in this situation, I agree that they would have been blindsided. Then if you look at the online filings, our federal system requires everything to be filed specifically online. There's nowhere in the federal filings that show that either of these two individuals have been served or given a copy of the actual lawsuit or answered the actual lawsuit.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
So I'm assuming they found out when everybody else found out, which is crazy if you think about it.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
What's interesting about that is, like I said, when I was doing my research and looking at it, like the, I want to make sure I say their names right, the contra, whatever, that police department specifically said, we looked into it and there was no merit to this situation. So this goes into a different type of level of potential coverup. That's wild.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
Just based upon these allegations, I'm not saying they're true or not true, but the Contra Police Department said we did get this allegation. We did look into it and we discounted it and said there was nothing there. Do you know how strong that is for a police department to come in and say that a rape did not happen when someone says it did?
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
So that's fascinating to me because usually police departments don't do that.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
It is huge, and I'm glad you brought it up because people do get confused because the civil allegation in here is similar to the federal criminal allegations against Diddy. It's the same one as RICO, and people get confused at, wait, what do you mean you can have a RICO civil charge and a RICO criminal charge? But that's exactly what they've alleged.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
Using this corrupt organization to cover up the allegations, cover up Diddy's actions, that he is the leader of this RICO organization, and these two... Jane and John Doe's are saying that this organization is created to be the cover up this cavalcade of indiscretions that Diddy is doing. And that's the whole point of this organization. And that's the lawsuit. So it's wild if you think about it.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
You can bring a lawsuit for anything, any reason you want. Usually the phrase that we use is upon information and belief. And there's two types of evidence. There's direct evidence and there's circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence is eyewitness testimony, actual facts, DNA, things of that nature. That's direct evidence. This person saying that they saw something would be direct evidence.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
I believe, I think it's circumstantial evidence. but it ain't coming into court. So the entire reason it is is to make this complaint completely more sensational because it's not necessary, as mentioned. When you look at these lawsuits, what ends up happening is when they get a copy of it, you have to answer it. And when you answer a lawsuit, you can only do really three things.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
So they can go through and admit each line of the paragraph. They can say, I admit that Drewski was there. They can admit it. They can deny it. Or they can say, we have no knowledge. That's it. It's admit, deny, without knowledge. So you don't have to explain. So that's why a lot of this lawsuit doesn't make any sense.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
So when Diddy is answering this lawsuit, a lot of it's going to be deny it or without knowledge. Deny or without knowledge. I don't know if he sued Michael Jackson without knowledge. So it's a weird lawsuit.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
He has not been served. So like the kids say, you've been served. And that's where it comes from. You have to be served with a lawsuit, which basically means just like you see on television, a process server goes and knocks on your door and says, Mr. Combs, you've been served. Here's a copy of the lawsuit. And then they come back and they write a piece of paper.
Diddy On Trial
Celebs named and lurid new claims in lawsuit; Diddy denies it all
They put down an affidavit that we served Sean Combs at the Manhattan Department of Correction. At this point in time, I gave him a copy of it or I gave it to somebody at his residence who's allowed to accept service. As I mentioned to you earlier, our online federal filings show specifically when someone has been served or when they have answered. He hasn't been served yet.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
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Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
Any other defense attorney, I promise you would have asked for a continuance. I think Combs is running the train. He's like, I don't want a continuance. I want to go forward. I'm tired of being in jail. Let's do this. Any other defense attorney would have asked for a continuance. And the government, I promise you, would have consented to it. They're like, OK, it's wild. We're this quick.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
That's a lot to unpack. One, a lot of states don't have a quote unquote good Samaritan law, which requires you to report a crime. There's no duty. I mean, as much as we say we want you to report and do something about a crime, there's nothing to say that you don't have to just walk away when you see a crime has occurred.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
Naming these specific witnesses is for one reason and one reason only sensationalism. And it's kind of disgusting because if you read lawsuits, you don't mention witnesses. You say a witness. I mean, it's very easy just to mention a witness saw blank, a witness saw blank. So putting these names out there is for one reason, one reason alone. It's for sensationalism.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
And similarly, as we have said, you don't use specifics when giving statements. Public reading it just like that belies common sense. And sometimes you just have to be careful. There are just so many problems. And that's one of the things I hate about the U.S. justice system. Anyone can bring a lawsuit. And there's no rules on how you write your lawsuit.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
You know, I can write a lawsuit however I want right now and mention specifics in it. And it's going to get looks and get clicks when I file it publicly.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
Thank you so much for having me. Much appreciated.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
And this is where I start law dorking out, because I think this is fascinating analysis is what's ended up happening. Since day one, I have said that neither side is ready to go to trial. Because there's terabytes of information, but both of them are playing a game of chicken. Nobody wants to be the one that says they're not ready.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
And when this ends up happening, you find out stuff over and over and over again. You remember at the beginning when we first talked, I said, get ready for a slew of superseding indictments. There's three possibilities. Possibility one, the government is trying to figure out a creative way to get other information in.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
Possibility two is also they have been interviewing and sat down and met with victim two and said, man, she's really credible. This is some great information. we want this stuff directly in front of the jury and then there's possibility three We're not ready. Let's put some other information out there so the defense is the one who is asking for the continuance.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
And if you read the defense's motions, they're all but saying, how can you get ready for all of this? How can you be prepared for all of this? They're giving us this information on the eve of trial. I think in their language, they flat out say, this ain't fair. And we've been preparing for this stuff since you gave us that enterprise letter back in February.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
And now on the eve of trial, you're giving me this stuff now? How can we get ready? And maybe the government's not ready. And they're like, hmm. Your turn to tell everybody you're not ready and it's not us. You can see I'm getting a little excited. I'm sorry, I'm a law dork. And it's a fascinating chess match that is happening right now.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
They're probably still investigating. No one said the grand jury is done necessarily. This is just them going forward. And that's why I've always said I thought many more superseding indictments are going to be coming forward. You just don't know.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
The best way to describe it, the simplest way is Victim 2 before was a bit player in this movie. Now Victim 2 has their own spinoff and they're talking specifically about Victim 2 now. And so she's got her own series. So it ain't just going to be that she's going to be on the stand because before she would just testify about her story. and get off the stand. Well, now they've got to substantiate.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
They've got to prove her story. They've got to corroborate her story. They've got to bring other witnesses about her story. So hers is its own trial. Remember that whole two-week trial? I hope you've got your hotel set for a little bit longer because that, by its count, just added to the trial.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
One hundred percent. The thing that's interesting is if you read the indictment, they specifically reference U.S. Code 1591 E2, which is the definition of coercion. And when you talk about coercion, it says two things. One coercion is you took the hell out of somebody and says, I'm making you do it. The other coercion is the much more subtle, the mental coercion.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
But there is a possibility that both sides could be telling the truth. In a weird, unique situation that in Diddy's mind, I wasn't coercion anybody. This is how my relationships are. She enjoyed this rough relationship, if you will, and enjoyed the benefits of the relationship. She enjoyed the thing she was getting because maybe that's the way I was raised. That's the relationship I have.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
And she never complained about it. That's what I thought. She could be saying, I never told him that. But in my mind, I knew if I didn't do these things, he would cut me off. I'd be out of the relationship. I'd be gone from the relationship. So in a weird way, they both could be telling the truth. The difference is Diddy's way is still against the law.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
One hundred percent. I have a problem with it from both perspectives. As a former prosecutor, the reason you either want everybody wanting to use pseudonyms or nobody, because if I'm on a juror, I'm just like, well, wait a minute. Why do we have this person's real name and not these three? Focus on the witness when they take the stand, the psychology of nobody knows what I'm saying.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
Nobody knows me. I'm much more free and relaxed to say everything I possibly want to say. When you've got that blank face in front of you and nobody knows who you are, you feel a little more free. A lot of times that's when we do, when we have minor victims, we're like, we don't want anyone to see your face so you're more comfortable testifying.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
From the defense standpoint, I don't want you comfortable. You're on this stand accusing somebody of a crime that can have them spend the rest of their life in prison. I don't want you comfortable on the stand. I don't want you feeling that you can say whatever you want without repercussions. I want the opposite. So it's not necessarily from the jury standpoint.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
It's from Diddy's standpoint and the cross-examination. You want that fidgeting. You want that uncomfortable. You want the person looking around. You don't want them comfortable because if they're comfortable, they testify more comfortable. They testify more believable. And the jury's like, oh, I believed her. I felt bad for her.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
And two, going back the other way, when they're protected in their name and identity, it almost shows the jury that we're protecting that person, meaning we believe what they said before they ever got on the stand. Because why would you protect somebody's identity if you don't believe them?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
What they would have to come up with is they'd have to come up with some past background fact goes specifically to the defense. Where you worked is specific for the jury to know. What your name is, if you were tied into another witness, you know, something that it has to be so specific and it's just not there.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
So what I just gave you is the argument that's going to be made and the argument that's going to be shut down because it's the argument that's always made and it's always shut down.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
You'll hear it a lot as it gets closer to the trial. You hear the judge has got to do a probative versus prejudicial balancing test. And it literally is a balancing test. And what he's trying to figure out is probative, meaning does the jury need to have it to reach a decision versus how prejudicial that information could be.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
So it might be necessary because everything's necessary because you want to show every part of who Sean Combs is. Every part, because it's a trial. But showing some of his stuff is so prejudiced, the jury will not be able to unhear it. And that's what the defense is saying. Their argument is going to be he's just not a good person. That's it.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
Whatever we want to believe it or not, that is the prosecution's case in a nutshell. And how much do we get to he cheated on his third grade math test? That might be probative because he's a cheater. But how prejudicial is that to bring something up like that? And the judge is like, well, that's not that big of a deal.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
Well, if the allegations are that he sexually assaulted a girl in the fifth grade, Man, that could be probative, but that's so prejudicial because it has nothing to do with these charges. And that's what the defense is saying. The defense is saying he's not charged with sexual assault. Why are you bringing all this sexual assault information?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
I don't think the court's going to let them to get into all of this information. I just think they will. And that's kind of what the defense is doing, the little sly thing the defense is saying is like, hey, judge, you let this in, we're going to be here a while. And Judges are people too. A lot of judges will say that. Why do you need it? There's a difference between wanting it and needing it.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
Hey, how are you doing? How's everybody?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
And if they're allowed to spend six of these eight weeks, notice I said eight weeks, six of these eight weeks talking about how awful of a human being Mr. Combs is and all the awful stuff that he has done. At some point in time, when the jury starts hearing the other information, it's like, I don't care if he did this, but he's done so much other stuff, it's time for him to go. And they do that.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy hit with additional charges, plus why are Beyonce and LeBron mentioned in a lawsuit?
Juries are people who do that.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
Prosecution is trying to say this is why we're going to win. Defense is trying to say this is why you should like me and listen.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
One hundred percent. Like one of the things that people don't understand is if you've ever been in an argument with a loved one, the person who gets the first word and the person who gets the last word in an argument, some people always assume they win. The government gets the first word in the trial and in the federal trial, they get the last word.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
So you can imagine if they're going first and they're going last, if you are boring and uninspiring in the middle, the jury checks out. They are just not listening anymore because the government's getting the last word. So I always say the defense has got to be much more entertaining, much more flamboyant, and make that jury listen.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
You can do it significantly more in closing arguments because a closing argument is just that it is. I'm going to tell you everything. I'm going to tell you why that guy is wrong. You know, saying, look, guys, everything they said is a load of bull. And let me tell you why. Let me tell you all the awful stuff that the United States of America is about to do during this trial.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
That's the point of opening. You're trying to get that jury on your side, believe it or not, just to listen.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
You'll be shocked. The biggest one I find are people relying on notes. And you say, oh, why would you say, why would they not have notes? The example I give when we teach is I ask, I'll go in a group of people and I say, how many of you are married? Hands raised. And I said, how many of you, when you propose or got proposed to, your significant other used notes? And everybody's hands down.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
I'm like, well, why didn't they use notes? And everybody will say the same thing. Well, because it was an important day to me. And I said, exactly. If this is the most important day of your life, you don't need notes because you believe in this scenario. The same respect, if a defense attorney is reading from notes, he's telling the jury, I don't believe in this case. I'm just reading my notes.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
And you can't make sustained eye contact. If it's not too long and it's about 30 minutes and this is your passion, this is how you feel about your client, then you don't need notes. You're telling a story to somebody. So that's the biggest one is I see way too much reliance on notes. And you don't need notes if you believe in this person.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
Absolutely. Act in some cases. Absolutely. It is 100%. If they like them, if they believe in them, if they are listening to them, then they're going to give the client a benefit of a doubt. You understand? If the jury hates the lawyer and thinks the lawyer is a jackass and they're not going to listen and they start...
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
doing their hands like this because they're saying stuff that they cannot believe in, then all of a sudden, they don't like your client.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
You are so right on that. And that's why a lot of times most trials, anytime we try a case, you have what's called a first chair and a second chair. You probably have seen that in the filings. He is the first chair of the case. All the first chair does is they sit in the first spot. The second chair lawyer or the paralegals behind them are watching the jury.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
And at the end of the day, they're saying, look, you remember the firefighter on the first row? He didn't like when you insulted Donald Trump. He's clearly a conservative and you went too far. Or the woman in the third row. Those are the things that we are doing. And good lawyers have people watching all of these things.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
Not only can they, they 100 percent will. But generally, it's like this is what happened. This is what and they can't say this is a fact. Remember, they can say this is what we believe the evidence will show and what we will prove. But go ahead. Let's hear Madam Prosecutor.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
I like the first three. The fourth one, even though it's good, I would say that for closing argument, because this is what they've showed you. And just because he's a good person doesn't mean good people don't commit crimes. And we have showed you evidence that he will. Two, prosecutors will say, we believe the evidence will show, okay?
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
Because remember at opening statement, no evidence has come in yet. So they cannot say this happened, this happened. Even though we all know it, they will say, you know, through the course of this trial, what we are gonna do is we're gonna present you evidence of the following. And let me tell you who Mr. Combs is. And this is what we believe the evidence will show. We will show you a video.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
We will do this. And they'll be very methodical in that opening statement. And then they'll go through the law because they want to make sure the jury understands. Mr. Combs is accused of RICO. And they probably won't call him Mr. Combs. They'll probably call him the defendant. And that's a lot of times what the prosecution does. They'll say the defendant is accused of the following.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
And they will be very methodical and go through it.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
I love one and three. I hate two and four. And let me tell you why. One and three are flawless. And that's what a good defense attorney will do because they'll come out there and they'll specifically, we call it the eight mile defense. Have you ever watched eight mile with Eminem at the penultimate scene? He comes out and he's like, tell these people something you don't know about me.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
And so that's where they might own is like, let me tell you about this guy. Let me tell you about Sean Combs, not Diddy, but Sean. Sean loves his children. He loves his community. And now he's find himself face against the awesome power of the United States of America. Let me say this again.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
The United States of America with all their power, all their money, all their influence are going after Sean. Imagine if you will, you find yourself with the might of the United States of America coming against you. It's hard to fight. And that's what we're going to do together. I'm not going to sit here and tell you he's a perfect human being because he's not.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
And we all have our mistakes that we've made in our life. Now, the United States of America is going to do everything. And what you're doing by saying United States is you want to make sure everyone knows it's the U.S. versus him. It's the U.S. versus him. It's the U.S. versus him. And so you go that far.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
Now, we do not usually as defense attorneys, we try our darndest not to get into the evidence. Remember our whole point in our opening statement, what you did in number two. was do what the prosecution does. The evidence will show this. We're not talking about this. We're talking about, let me tell you about Sean. Let me tell you about how good of a guy he is.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
Let me tell you how good of a person he is. And let me tell you about the mistakes he's made. And we're not going to hide from those mistakes. So that's why we don't do number two. Number four, even though you're thinking he's testifying, even though I'm thinking he's testifying, there's always a chance he's not. And for two reasons, you don't 100% say he's going to testify.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
One, somebody from the prosecution could mess up and then there's no reason to put him on the stand. And then if a jury, if you make a promise to a jury, an opening statement and don't do it, they're going to hold it against you. They're like, oh wait, she said he was going to testify. Why didn't he?
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
You'd be shocked how many times we've had clients who are convinced they're going to testify, and then they watch a bunch of witnesses get embarrassed. They watch a bunch of witnesses get cross-examined. Some information comes in, and they back off. He's like, I'm not taking that stand. And so you don't want to make a promise, an opening statement that you can't deliver.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
I think earlier you said it, and you might say, ladies and gentlemen, the jury. You might not say, ladies and gentlemen, the jury. You might say, hello. I usually just walk up to them. I take a deep breath, and I say, hey, guys, let's talk. Because you want a conversation. Guys, let's talk. I want to tell you about Sean. I don't call him the defendant. I don't call him client.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
And I get mad when lawyers we teach try to do the same. He is not a defendant. He is not a client. He has a name. His name is Sean. You might want to explain why he's called Puffy. In certain situations, you don't get into the background. But with this client, you would. You would talk about. I love the first thing you said is you went into the social media stuff. I would 100% do the same thing.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
Length, if you go entirely too long, and we always tell lawyers, if you go way too long and you bore the jury, because don't forget, the jury are just people. If you've ever been watching a movie or anything about legal shows, they can get to their point very succinctly and very quickly, and the jury's expecting the same thing.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
One of the things that I would do in a case like this is I'm a storyteller and I believe that defense attorneys should all be storytellers because you want the jury's attention. Well, ladies and gentlemen, all you've been hearing for months is the evilness of Sean Puff Daddy Combs. But now it's time for us to tell you the rest of the story.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
And all I'm asking you is during the course of this trial, listen for the rest of the story without the influence, without social media, without TikTok, without Instagram, but with facts and evidence and actual witnesses.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
I'll be watching. I'm going to have a little notepad critiquing.
Diddy On Trial
The start of Diddy’s trial: What to expect
An opening statement is just your opportunity from the prosecution standpoint to say, this is what we intend on proving. The defense standpoint is really it's sort of like a handshake. If you ever walked into a club or walked into a bar the first time you've met somebody, it's can I make you like me in a very short, quick period of time? And so that's really the point.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
There's all types of little things you're trying to figure out, but without letting the jury know what you're trying to get to. Everyone thinks it's a science. It's a big gamble too. And it's a guessing game. And it is, it is the dirty little secret in the legal system is it's a stereotyping system. When you're all in closed doors, we all say the same things.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Like, defense attorneys want Black and minorities on juries. It's like, why do we want Black folks and minorities? We find them to be more likely to listen, more sensitive, have gone through more oppression, more likely to find not guilty. Prosecutors try to avoid Black folks. They try to avoid minorities for the same reason.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And I wish it wasn't that way, but, you know, that's the way it works sometimes.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Yeah, and that happens a lot. The anonymity of a jury should happen in almost every trial. If you've ever watched any trial, you never see the jury's faces on the video footage. If there's ever cameras allowed in a trial, we don't let our juries be shown because you don't want them intimidated. You don't want people calling them. You don't want people contacting them.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And the judge tells them every day, you cannot discuss this case. You cannot talk to this case. You can't talk to your family. You can't talk to your friends. You can't talk to media. The second the case is over, the judge releases it. He's like, yeah, I'll talk to whoever you want to.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And that's also something you have to be careful about. There's a lot of times there are... People out there who want to get on high profile cases because they know you can make money on it down the road. There's nothing to stop somebody to talking about how they've dealt, what they've gone with.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Absolutely. Like that would be now see that would be one of those situations you would go to the judge and say, I don't want to use one of my peremptory strikes. I don't think this person can be fair and unbiased based upon their history. I'm asking the court to remove this person for what's called cause.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
For cause, get this person off of the jury because there's no way they could be fair and impartial. Because remember I told you, the only question that the judge asks is, ma'am, can you be fair and impartial? And I've had this situation. ma'am, you have just mentioned that you are a victim of a crime. Do you think you can be fair and impartial? And she says, yes, I can. The whole time crying.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And then, of course, like judge with all due respect. And he's like, I understand, Mr. Kent, ma'am, we're going to excuse you for calls, even though she's answered the question. Right. Sometimes you have to watch the body language because you see sometimes people cannot be fair and impartial.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
It's going to be different than anything we've ever seen. That's why people are so interested in it. And I don't think it's the tip of the iceberg where they see what's really going to happen.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
It has to be something that has scientific reliability to the community at whole. After the judge determines it has some level of expertise, the next thing they have to do is what's called a probative versus prejudicial balancing test. The judge has got to make a decision if this is actually going to be probative, helpful, or just prejudicial just to put information in there.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
It is... Diddy's team filed and said, judge, we are not going to be getting into this, which I think is hilarious. It's sort of like you're not getting into something that the court wouldn't allow you to get into anyway. So it's sort of like we're not going to do this. And I can see the judge saying, well, I wasn't going to let your tail do it anyway. So why are you telling me that?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
But because our rules are very specific when it comes to victims of sexual assault, we don't want individuals to be victimized again. And so what we say under the rules is if a person takes the stand and say, I have been victimized, generally, you are not allowed to get into their past sexual history, the things they've done with other people, because it's irrelevant and it's embarrassing.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
The underlying reason on why we do that is we want victims to come forward of sexual assault. You don't want to create a system where they're scared to come forward because they're going to talk about the nasty stuff they did at a kegger in 1994 in college. You don't want that stuff to come in because it's like, oh, my God, I don't want my mom to hear this. I don't want this to hear about it.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And it's embarrassing.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Well, it's, we're not going to get into it either. But, you know, why would the prosecutor want to get into the victim's sexual history with other individuals?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
There's a rule right next to 412 that's called 413. And 413 basically allows you to get into Diddy's sexual history if somebody has made a claim about him. It is the nuanced, unfair thing about our system. So everything that I just told you that we don't want to do to victims, we allow in the federal system against defendants.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
But if somebody has claimed without proof, believe it or not, there doesn't have to be a conviction. But if somebody says he sexually assaulted me, I want to get into it. The government's allowed to get into that.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
It's not in this federal system. I mean, if you it's even more crazy when you look at the two rules, right? I mean, 4-12-14, they're right next to each other. We don't want to re-victimize anyone. victims, but you're on trial for your life. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but you're on trial for your life. We're going to bring in other acts that are completely unrelated.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And from the beginning, the first time we talked about it is when you go to the stand, your credibility goes with you. And if anybody is out there has ever testified, testifying is the most nervous thing you can do. And a lot of times what people want to do is if their anonymity is not protected, sometimes people say, I'm not testifying. You know, I'm not putting my name out there.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
For example, you could have a sex position expert. Yes, that might be science, it might be expertise, but you just don't want to throw that in front of jury. And third and the most important thing the judge has to make the decision, is it actually going to help the trier of fact? Because really, the funny part about it is all an expert is, is somebody who knows more than you know. That's it.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
I don't want to be associated with this trial. And so what prosecutors try to do is say, we will limit your testimony. Nobody will know who you are. It'll just be initially because you're trying to convince this person to testify. A lot of these women, men, so forth, don't want their name associated with this case.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And I bet you there's a bunch of them out there who aren't telling their family and friends, yeah, I was in the middle of one of those freak-off parties. I flew out there from Colorado, dah, dah, dah, dah, because it still has a stigma to it. And so if I'm the defense, I want their full names. I want their full testimony. I want them on the stand. And they're going to confront anybody.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And we have a confrontation clause. If you confront somebody, show yourself. Show yourself. Show yourself. You must show who you are so that I can properly cross-examine you.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And don't get the subtlety of the jury hearing the prosecutor saying, we are only referring to you by your initials because we don't want your name. That's telling the jury, we believe them because we're only letting you know, go by your initials. You understand the subtlety of saying, we're only going to use you by your initials because we're worried and we're scared and we're fearful. you.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Trials are supposed to be fair. And that little subtlety of being able to refer to as initial, it's even, we have made objections and I know other defense attorneys have made objections that you're not allowed to be referred to as a victim because it's a subtlety. You are the, well, you're not a victim of anything until there is a conviction technically.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And so there's an objection that we don't want this person to be called a victim at this point in time, because it's a subtlety of not giving Diddy a fair try.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Thank you so much for having me. It's starting to get more interesting. It's starting to cook, and every week's going to get a little more fascinating, I think.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
So we always make the joke that a fifth grader is an expert on everything in the fourth grade because he knows more than everybody in the fourth grade. And that's the standard. It's weird, but that is the standard.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
The state, the federal government has to pay for the federal government and Diddy has to pay for his experts.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
The phrase you're looking for is credibility issues. And you've already laid down the first question every prosecutor is going to ask Diddy's experts. How much were you paid to be here? I was given $50,000 to be here. How many times have you ever testified for the United States of America? Never. Isn't it true you only testify for defendants? Yes. So you've been paid. You've been paid by Diddy.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
If you were saying something against Diddy, would you be testifying right now? Well, no. So really, you're a hired expert. You're hired to give an opinion that helps Diddy, not the other way around.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
The United States will go first. After the United States goes first, they put on their entire case. After they put their case on, and they'll say, we believe Mr. Combs has committed sex trafficking, and this is why. They'll stop. Then Diddy's team goes. Diddy will put on an expert statement. The expert will get on the stand and he'll say, I've been doing this for 30 years.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
I've worked in law enforcement. I've worked for the federal government before. And everything the United States just said ain't true. That's not sex trafficking. And this is why. And the United States has an opportunity to go right after him and say, well, I am an expert in sex trafficking. I've also been doing this for 30 years. And what Diddy's team just said, that's not true.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And then it turns into a battle of experts.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
The point of an expert is that it is supposed to make the jury understand complicated issues. A good way to talk about it or think about it is I've had a lot of trials and we're talking about DNA. DNA is a complicated issue. It's very complicated for people to understand. It's complicated for me to understand.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And so when the United States or somebody I'm trying to case with, and as I told you, I had a murder two weeks ago about DNA evidence and we spent a lot of time trying to make it simple for the jury. So we called an expert to be able to say, this is what DNA is and it's not that complicated and it doesn't work in this situation. A murder charge is easy.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
The intentional killing of somebody else would malice a forethought. You know those elements of the offenses. You can't kill somebody. Sex trafficking gets real nebulous and complicated on what is actually sex trafficking. Is it coercion? Is it force? Is it just trying to suggest? So that's where those experts will be helpful.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
But as you know, because of this nuanced area, it's going to be going back and forth. I don't think there's no black letter law for them to make a determination on what's what.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Henry Lee and the experts in that case showed Americans how important Experts were. It's such a big deal. It's a seminal case for understanding not just the law, but how to try cases and how important a specific witness can be to changing the tide. The DNA testimony, all of these situations are a strong belief.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
When people are looking back and they're like, how in the world was OJ found not guilty? It was the experts. A good expert, a great expert is worth their weight in gold. A person who can testify effectively and make a complicated issue simple is the greatest thing that a jury can have to make a case or make a decision. Like a perfect example, you talked about memory experts.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
You know, that's a very complicated issue. And I've had experts explain it to the jury this way. They'll look right at the jury and they'll say, you ever get up in the morning and know for a fact that you put your keys on the counter? You're like, yep. And then you go and want to get your keys and your keys are missing.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And everything in your heart of hearts have told you specifically your keys were on that counter. You know they were on the counter. And you look all around the house and you're like, somebody's moved my keys. You got to start yelling at your spouse. Where'd you put my keys? I know they were there. I know where they're there.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And then two seconds later, you go and you look in the fridge and they're in the refrigerator. And you're like, how in the world did they get there? And in your memory, our memories are so fallible, they create situations. And what you'll see is the jury, everybody on the jury going, yeah, that has happened to me before.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And then when it ends up happening, they start trusting the expert and then they make it make sense. And for defense, we use that all the time, that we can get a really good expert who can make something that complicated, simple, then the jury start to trust them.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
They can put them in a hotel. They can pay for it so nobody can get to them so they're not at home. Because one of the big things we don't want is we don't want undue influence to a juror. We don't want people contacting a juror. We don't want Diddy's team. We don't want the prosecutor.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
We don't want anybody running into them at the grocery store at the 7-Eleven and be like, so what do you think about Diddy? You want them a free and clear mind just focused on the evidence, which in 2025 is almost impossible.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Hey, how are you doing?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
So they're going to send out these questionnaires that both sides and the judge can look at together. The defense would send what they want as potential questions. And the judge will say a lot. I'm not asking that. I'm not asking that. I'm not putting that on questionnaire. The prosecution will send questions. I'm not asking that. I'm not asking that. I'm not asking that.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Because it's you can't ask in the questionnaire. Do you think Diddy did it? Because that goes to the penultimate question. But you can ask generic stuff. That's going to eliminate, if there's 600 folks, that alone will eliminate, I'd say, about 150. So now you have about 450 people.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Then there is going to be things that are called peremptory challenges that we have talked about before, that either side, they get a certain number of challenges that they said, I don't want that guy. Why? because he's got a Kanye West shirt on. I don't want that guy because he's got a funny hat. As long as it's a race neutral reason, the defense of the prosecution can eliminate anybody.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
That is such a bigger topic. But what ends up happening, and I'll give you a very quick view, you're exactly right, it should be gender neutral. But what we do, our Supreme Court has specifically said there are certain groups of individuals who have been historically treated poorly, and they go in order.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
So they first start with race neutral, then they start with gender neutral, and it has different levels of scrutiny. So you're right, it's supposed to be a gender neutral reason, but the court doesn't look at that the same way. You know, because the defense could say, Mr. Kent, why'd you exclude that woman?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Well, because she's a woman and this is a case against Diddy and we want to try to keep as many women off the trial as possible. Mr. Kent, did you put any other people who fit that category in the jury? No, Your Honor. Our strategy is to get rid of as many women as possible on this jury. You can almost get away with that. You can't get away with, well, because he's black.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
You have to have a neutral reason dedicated to your case for eliminating somebody.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
You know, the funny part about it is sometimes I've done that. Like I've picked a jury before and everything looks great on a piece of paper. And then you see the jury stand up and you look at you. Yeah. I'm like, I don't know what it is, but I don't like that guy. Strike.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And sometimes the judge is like, Mr. Kent, why did you, like, if the government challenges, because there's been situations like Mr. Kent eliminated nothing but white males over, why were you eliminating these folks? And I have to give my neutral reasons. That dude was looking at me angry and I don't like him. You know, you do things like that.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
But for the most part in these situations, I think they've got teams who are going to be scouring through these lists. They're going to be looking at those questionnaires, seeing how they answer questions. The problem, though, with questionnaires is nobody's going to write on a questionnaire. I hate Diddy. I'm a racist. I want to spend the rest of my life in prison.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
That would be easy, but they're not going to answer that way.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Every defense has different strategies. Every prosecution has different strategies. And what we're trying to do is it's like a divided attention test. You understand? Because if you ask a very specific question, you know the answer you're going to get. Do you hate Michael Jackson? No one's going to answer that question. You understand?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
And that's a great question. And there's a standard before you can get in front of a jury. We have a couple of tests. It's from case law. One's called Daubert, D-A-U-B-E-R-T, and one is called Frye, F-R-Y-E. Those are the standards. The judge must, before you can even allow this person to get in front of the jury, they actually have to be an expert. You just can't say I'm an expert in gum chewing.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
Like no one's going to answer that specifically, so you're not getting an answer. Like a question I may ask on the Diddy case is, are you on TikTok? Oh. You know, and that puts something in my mind. That's a juror that I'm not going to potentially want. Are you on social media at all? Someone says, no, I'm not on social media whatsoever.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence want witnesses named - plus Buzbee and Andrew Tate
So if I'm not on social media at all, that might be somebody I want that person. That's somebody I potentially want for my trial. So those are... You want to ask very generic questions. What year were you born? Like you might want to know if, you know, did you like bad boy entertainment?
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
I will say that I am working on a potential death penalty trial down in South Carolina.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
Correct. That's the correct way of saying it.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
Correct. And probably the easiest way to say it is that position will be working on the side to take away his freedom because that person from that press conference is no longer going to be here because as soon as the new president takes office, they're going to replace that individual. And I think he's already announced that he will be retiring.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
Correct. And don't forget, this is the government's position. They're like, we have this evidence. The easiest way to describe it is it's their opinion of what the evidence shows. They're saying this is our position of what we believe when we get in front of a jury, this is what the evidence is actually going to show. The defense will, of course, say we don't believe the evidence will show that.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
Now, if we go a little further, and I've told everyone, specifically with the freak-offs, At the time of the indictment, the allegations were only dealing with adults. And so dealing with adults, it's on the government, it's incumbent on the government, no matter what is in the video, they must prove coercion. They must prove they forced them to do something they weren't likely to do already.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
So the government can play the videos and the defense can come in and say, yeah, they're nasty and all of these people were voluntary participants.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
Hence the issue. And that's always the problem is going to be the coercion aspect. And so it's going to be a back and forth of were you actually coerced or were you a voluntary participant? So long as it stays this way with adults.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
Here's why it's so scary. Because, of course, in America, I'm like, oh, we have guns everywhere. And our gun laws are pretty arcane and archaic. The problem with scratching serial numbers off on a gun is we cannot tell where the gun came from, where the gun was initiated, who owned the gun originally, what crime was a gun possibly used on. And that's what ends up happening.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
Absolutely. It's a federal crime. It's a state crime. Not only is it just illegal to scratch it off, it's illegal to possess a firearm with an obliterated serial number, again, for tracing purposes.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
The scariest charge that he is facing, even though the sex trafficking and the baby oil freak-off parties and the prostitution are getting all of the press, the really scary crime that he's looking at is the RICO charge, the Racketeer Informed Corruption Organization Act. Rico? Rico is, he's got a corrupt organization. He is the mob, if you will.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
And underneath the mob, they're committing so many other crimes that we have to stop him. And so what they're able to do is say, you've got obliterated serial numbers. They're able to bring in so many unrelated crimes that that's what's going to get him in the most trouble, I believe.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
I can think of, I've been doing this 25 years, I can think about maybe two, maybe three successfully defended RICO charges against the federal government. That's the one they always win.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
And that's a great question. That's called a superseding indictment. And it's just like super superseding indictment. It means it takes the place of the other indictment. So originally when they went to our grand jury, the federal grand jury, they said, oh my God, that's awful. They put a rubber stamp on it. They said, he's indicted.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
Well, the grand jury, who is an investigative body, kept meeting. Maybe they'll keep watching social media. Maybe they're watching press conference. They're like, man, he keep mentioning a lot of children. That's nasty. And so the federal government says, we'll keep investigating. And now they're like, well, I think children are involved.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
So they'll meet again and they'll say, let's rip up that first indictment. And here's the new one that still has all of those original allegations, but now we're placing children with it. I believe. This trial in May is not going to happen. I would be shocked.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
I really believe what's going to happen is a superseding indictment is going to come out, which potentially is going to name children and is going to name co-conspirators. Because the thing that's interesting about his indictment is he's the only name mentioned. And to have a RICO indictment, R-I-C-O, the last part is that O, and that's organization. You cannot be an organization of one.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
So I think other individuals are about to be named. And they're going to supersede and name minors. The reason the government is going to name minors is it eliminates the defense of coercion. I don't care if a 17-year-old girl said, I voluntarily went to the butt-naked baby old freak-out party. That's me popping my booty like the backseat of a lowrider in a Dr. Dre video. That's me in that video.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
That's me doing all that stuff. I wanted to do it. Tough. You can't because you're a minor. You cannot consent. The law does not require them to prove coercion. That's why I also think there's going to be a superseded indictment because they're going to be like, you can't defend that, Diddy. You just can't.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
I think we'll know sooner. I think probably February or March, you'll know if there's a superseded indictment. It won't be at the very end. I think probably around February, the government, if they're going to do it, they will announce, here comes a superseded indictment.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you.
Diddy On Trial
The history of Diddy: What you need to know
I give all glory to God. If it wasn't for God, I wouldn't be able to walk out here to talk to y'all today. I want to thank my mother for being by my side every day. He was wrongly accused. These last 14 months have been very, very tough.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
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Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
So that question happens all the time, especially when there's co-defendants or not co-defendants.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
Not at all. Judge wants to make sure everybody understands this is Diddy's day in trial and nobody else. You'd be shocked how many times because juries are just you, me and otherwise. And so 12 random people sitting in a room can think what they want. You could have somebody in that room saying this is not fair. I heard that Jay-Z and Beyonce were involved in this, which makes no sense whatsoever.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
But that's the judge stopping that right now and say this has nothing to do with anything you've heard, anything outside of this courtroom. You focus on Combs.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
I've asked that question every single jury questionnaire. Every single questionnaire I ask people, do they watch those type of legal shows?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
No. I don't know if y'all have watched Law & Order, but 90% of the times if you watch people watch Law & Order, there's always a conviction the government's always right. So people who are friends of Law & Order, there's almost always a conviction at the end of the trial. And there's other shows that people watch, there's almost always a defense. So you're trying to see what people's mindsets are.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
If you're a big fan of Law & Order, and you watch it over and over again, that means you're watching for the end, potentially for a conviction. And sometimes you're like, I don't like those folks.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
I wouldn't put Cheyenne on. She would not get on my jury. You're off. I'm bouncing you immediately.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
In and of itself, no. And so that's why two things that have happened kind of make sense. It's hard to find a defense to these charges based upon what other folks are saying. So good criminal defense lawyers are trying to find either creative ways or truthful ways, and hopefully they can be both.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
So in this situation, by them saying that he is a swinger, he thought that this was okay, I didn't know this was basically against the law. Well, there's something specifically in the federal system called willful blindness. Willful blindness means, and the judge will tell the jury this,
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
just because you didn't think it was against the law or just because you turned a blind eye to crimes that were occurred, you are still just as guilty.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
For example, if your husband is a drug trafficker and you get all the proceeds and you're living in this multimillion dollar home, but you never ask questions and he doesn't go to work and I've never seen him do drugs, but it is to be assumed, well, that's called willful blindness and you're just as guilty of drug trafficking. So the government can argue that.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
The government filed notice against Diddy's team saying, you guys are trying to squeeze an expert in here, not necessarily about insanity, but about Diddy's mens rea. Mens rea is the mental status that is required to form criminal intent. So it specifically says...
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
The government respectfully submits this memorandum of law in support of its motion to preclude the opinion testimony of Dr. Ellie Owen. The notice testimony relates to the defendant's diminished capacity to form the mens rea required to commit the charged offenses. So they're going to try to bring in an expert that says Diddy could not form the necessary mens rea
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
the criminal intent to know what he was doing was committing a crime. And my assumption is it is their attempt to say basically, yes, I did it. But, and even if it's a crime, I didn't know it was a crime and I couldn't have formed the necessary mens rea to be convicted of it being a crime. That was a very convoluted answer, but I hope that makes sense. But it's,
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
Yeah, I see you all shaking your head like what in the world?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
Yes and no. There is something under the law called voluntary intoxication. You cannot voluntarily take drugs yourself and then say, I'm crazy and do crazy stuff if you voluntarily induced a drug. And so that's why I don't think they have offered anything of a true insanity defense.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
They're trying to do some type of public policy that if all of your friends jumped off of a bridge, would you jump off of a bridge? I literally think that that is the defense that they're going with, that since everybody thinks swinging is acceptable, Then Diddy thought it was acceptable, might even get into the fact Diddy's childhood thought that this was acceptable.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
So he could not form the necessary mens rea to form a criminal state of mind necessary for a conviction because you need a criminal state of mind unless the government argues willful blindness. He knew what he was doing. He was just turning his eye to it.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
Yeah, you're exactly right. And what people don't, I mean, and maybe people didn't see it, this defense and the judges. Rulings are triggering one 100% true fact. Diddy will testify. You understand? Because there's no other way to get this testimony out without him taking the stand and saying, this is a lifestyle that I have grown accustomed to, that I believe in.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
Because it's not like they're going to be able to put in, and I'm not going to say any celebrities' names, but people saying, this is what we all do. We all do it. This would be him having to testify. I find it strange that the judge says you cannot just simply say other people do it and give specific names.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
But I would be remiss if those specific name people were not allowed to testify if they're on the witness list. You understand? So if a celebrity showed up and said, I was at a party with Diddy, this is what I did. This is me. I think that would be allowed. But Diddy's team is not going to be able to just randomly point to celebrities names.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
they could send you a subpoena. You would go through a whole thing. You would have your lawyer try to quash a subpoena. There's a lot of stuff that you go through, but the things we always say is when we're sending subpoena out, you don't want to witness who doesn't want to be there from a defense standpoint. You understand?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
So if you try to force somebody to get on the stand, you never know what they're going to say. So I'm sure they tried to voluntarily get people and they said, heck no, because here's the problem. You put me on the stand. I'm going to hurt you more than you're going to help me. Don't you dare try to force me to get on the stand in the middle of your trial.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
Not uncommon in the slightest. It does. I mean, it happens on almost every trial that I have. If somebody rejects a plea offer for a couple of reasons. One, don't forget. Diddy's not doing the talking. His lawyers are doing the talking. And a lot of times what happens when someone gets convicted, you don't want them later to say, I didn't know there was a deal on the table.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
My lawyers never told me. This is completely unfair. So this is the judge making sure that... You knew that there was a plea offer, Mr. Combs. You rejected the plea offer. And he asked him the questions. Have you been told the plea offer? Yes. Have you been told what the terms are? Yes. Has anyone forced you or threatened you in any way to take or not take it? No.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
You on your own have made the decision that you do not want this deal. Yes. And you understand this deal will never, ever be back on the table. Yes. That protects the government also in case he tries to appeal later and say, nobody told me everything. So this is incredibly common, happens in every trial.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
And like clockwork, usually what ends up happening is the second the defendant rejects that plea deal, the government's like, oh, yeah, by the way, here's all the other evidence we plan on using against you now. And it's like, you turned it down? You sure? You positive? You sure? By the way, here are all the angles of this butt naked freak off party we intend on offering against you.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
And they just go from there. There's like, now that you've turned it down, we're coming after you.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
You're not wrong. And that's why I said, I don't think they're really trying to argue insanity. They're trying to argue justification, justification. And that's just impermissible. They're trying to justify it because they're not arguing he's insane.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
I don't believe because you said the exact right thing, because what we always talk about is if somebody is truly insane and they commit a crime, I always say, if you're going to commit a crime and you want to prove you're crazy, get butt naked and put on a chicken suit and sit on the front yard and wait on the cops to come. But the way that he's acting this out is showing a sane state of mind.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
So I really think this defense is going to justify Sean and not to exonerate Sean.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
Hey, how are you doing?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
What's interesting about that is you remember, and that's why I think this is fascinating if it comes in, because remember... They have said they're not going to go into any 404B evidence, the prior bad acts against other situations.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
They've got so much information just related to victim one and stuff about this case that it could be prior bad acts in and of itself and they don't have to get into it. And so if they're trying to call it something different, like the coercive control, because this whole thing is about coercion. Did he coerce her into doing something?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
And so the government must prove that she was coerced, that this was not voluntary.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
That is such a dumb damn question because you're putting such a thought inside of the jury's head. What is someone going to answer to that question? No, I think rich people go to the same rules. That is such a dumb question because the problem is you might get the answer. And then what ends up happening?
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
And you're actually already starting it for them. You're specifically saying Diddy is wealthy. You know, you're sending the questions like, hey, do you think this wealthy guy gets away with everything? Because you're already putting wealth into the jury's mind. And I don't know if that's actually necessary. I'm not a fan of that question.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
You are. But that that actually is a great quote, because that is true. Like in almost every trial, a lot of times when there's co-defendants, the co-defendants not there. And so in unique trials, what usually ends up happening, like let's say it's a drug trial and two people are accused of selling drugs and the other person's not there.
Diddy On Trial
Diddy’s defence: ‘He’s a swinger’, plus jury selection begins for trial
A good defense attorney is going to point the what that person must be the person who did it. And the judge has to say, look, this is Sean Combs day in trial. I don't want y'all to sit here and say anything about anybody else. If there's a trial for the other people, that'll happen at another date and time, not today.