With no cameras in the courtroom in the federal trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, one of the key people taking in every word and noting reactions is ABC Coordinating Producer Tonya Simpson who’s there with her pen and notebook. Host Brian Buckmire talks with Tonya about the dramatic testimony of Cassie Ventura, the government’s first major witness. To get access to all the trial updates in this case, follow "Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and what is the podcast about?
Hi, I'm Brian Bachmeier, an ABC News legal contributor and host of Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy. You're about to hear our latest episode following everything going on in Sean Combs' trial from the prosecution and the defense. Remember, to hear all of our updates on this case, follow Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy.
We're dropping two new episodes every week, including one that's not available anywhere else. Now here's our episode.
Hey, it's Brad Milkey. This week on The Crime Scene Weekly, we're talking about a mom who gained national attention for faking her own kidnapping. Sherry Papini is back in the spotlight, but now she's changing her story and trying to change her custody arrangement with her kids. Listen to the latest from the case on The Crime Scene Weekly.
A warning that this episode includes discussion of violence, sexual assault, and suicide. So please take care when listening. This week, USA v. Sean Combs has been mostly about one witness, singer Cassie Ventura, who was in a romantic relationship with Sean Combs for over a decade. Cassie brought the first civil lawsuit against Combs in 2023.
It included allegations of sex trafficking and was settled quickly with no admission of guilt. This week, we learn through her testimony the amount of that settlement, $20 million. For a long time, that lawsuit was the only look we had into her experience with Sean Combs.
I remember when we were researching earlier episodes of this podcast, the lawsuit was one of the very few sources of information we had to draw from to try to understand her side of things. And now, here's Cassie Ventura, sitting in court, very pregnant, answering question after question, testifying to how she believes Sean Combs held her career back.
How she started off participating in orchestrated sex performances called freak-offs because she wanted to please Combs. How she says leaving a freak-off early led to Combs beating her in the hallway of the Intercontinental Hotel back in 2016. The jury saw videos of that incident captured by the hotel's surveillance cameras.
Combs denies the federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and interstate transportation for prostitution he's facing, and he's pled not guilty. Under cross-examination, the defense asked Cassie to read texts she'd sent to Combs. Texts they say show her willingness, eagerness, and agency in the relationship.
The defense also questioned whether her reluctance to participate in Combs' freak-offs was because she wanted their relationship to develop more, and to be more than their sexual encounters. In other words, was the story more about jealousy and infidelity than the serious charges Combs is facing?
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of Cassie Ventura's testimony in Sean Combs' trial?
So I think when I watch trials, I watch them a little differently than the average person, which I also think is somewhat at a bit of a disadvantage because at the end of the day, it's not an attorney who decides guilt or innocence. It's everyday citizens who sign up and choose to be jurors. But when I listened to the testimony yesterday, And I watched the jurors.
I'm thinking, here is the square hole. This is the peg that the government is trying to fit into it. And is it fitting? Is a square peg too big? Is it a circular peg? Is a triangular peg? Whatever it is. And I would say in the first day of Cassie's testimony, it didn't feel like this peg was fitting correctly into the hole.
And the reason for that is, is as a former public defender at the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn, I've represented people who have been victims of domestic violence, victims of sex trafficking, people who have sex trafficked others. And I say, listen to it. I was like, does this sound like domestic violence or does it sound like trafficking?
And then the first day I was like, these sound like the elements of a crime that would be more in line with domestic violence from the facts that we were hearing. But on the second day of testimony, that's when I started to hear testimony and evidence. And also the way that Cassie was talking about Sean Combs, I was like, I've heard this tone before. I have heard this type of conversation before.
I have heard these elements before. And that's when I started to piece together, I think they're getting closer to the trafficking allegations. Now I say closer because they still need to have individuals come forward and testify to say, I was part of this criminal enterprise. Sean Combe did this intentionally for the purpose of trafficking. This wasn't just a violent relationship.
I think they still need a lot of pieces, but I'm starting to see the pieces align with what the government is accusing in the second day of testimony.
And I also think in my non-expert, non-legal opinion, I think that Cassie's testimony has done a lot for the charge of transportation to engage in prostitution. She has testified about multiple cases. escorts that they hired and how these same escorts, they would see them in different cities, in different states.
She talked about how they would arrange travel for some of the escorts at one point internationally. She says they flew an escort to Ibiza for a freak off. I want to get your thoughts on that. And also, what about the racketeering?
So I always hate to look over a defense attorney's shoulder and be like, this argument doesn't really make sense. But when the defense made the argument that this is not transportation for the sake of prostitution, because Sean Combs was paying for the time of escorts and dancers because he was just believing he was paying for their time, wasn't paying for sex.
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