Sean Combs now awaits trial in Brooklyn's infamous Metropolitan Detention Center. In May, his highly publicized case is scheduled to go to trial. What do we know about the charges Diddy faces, the case prosecutors plan to present, and how his legal team might try to get him acquitted? Host and attorney Brian Buckmire breaks down the legal issues of Diddy's upcoming trial with Aaron Katersky, Sean Combs now awaits trial in Brooklyn's infamous Metropolitan Detention Center. In May, his highly publicized case is scheduled to go to trial. What do we know about the charges Diddy faces, the case prosecutors plan to present, and how his legal team might try to get him acquitted? Host and attorney Brian Buckmire breaks down the legal issues of Diddy's upcoming trial with Aaron Katersky, Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC News. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and main contributors of this podcast?
The first time I saw Sean Combs enter court after he was charged, I remember doing a little bit of a double take. Sean Combs sitting right there. I mean, he looked right at me.
That's ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Aaron Katursky. Aaron's been covering the courts in New York and other places for more than 25 years. He's reported on the trials of lots of high-profile people, including defendants like Diddy, who were charged with sex crimes. People like Harvey Weinstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
We have some access in some of the hearings of sitting in the jury box. So you're really just a railing away from the defendant in some cases. And right after his arrest, I didn't think he looked great.
Aaron says Diddy looked stunned, like he was a little surprised at where he found himself. Cameras aren't typically allowed inside federal courtrooms, so the only way to see what's gone on at Diddy's hearings has been to go in person. Aaron's gone to nearly every hearing in Diddy's federal criminal case so far.
I was there in the courtroom today, David, as Sean Combs entered in a black T-shirt, gray sweatpants and sneakers. Several of his children and his sister were there watching as he pleaded not guilty. And then they saw him led out by the marshals. Then I remember a different hearing. He walked in. He looked like he had lost weight.
He looked like he was in a jovial mood, smiling at people in the courtroom. He clearly enjoys when his family comes to court. It is noticeable. For a while, his attorneys were pointing out who was who in the courtroom, so the judge had a sense of who was in the room, and the judge actually welcomed his family to court, which I had never really heard before.
How he's going to be when he's on trial, there's no telling, because what's coming is going to be fairly graphic and potentially damning.
And Aaron says there's something else that struck him in these early hearings.
There is one other optic and that's who's at the other table. The prosecutor's table is all women who are bringing a case against an accused sexual abuser. And I think that's another powerful image that the jury may well notice too.
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Chapter 2: What are the charges Sean Combs is facing in the federal case?
The allegations in the criminal case against Sean Diddy Combs span two decades of the mogul's life and career. The indictment lists all of the names he's gone by. It's called USA v. Sean Combs, a.k.a. Puff Daddy, a.k.a. P. Diddy, a.k.a. Diddy, a.k.a. P.D., a.k.a. Love. The case is sprawling, both in how much time it covers and the criminal behavior it accuses Combs of.
It alleges that through all of those name changes and career moves, Diddy created and ran a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. These charges are serious, and if convicted, Diddy could wind up in prison for the rest of his life.
Combs has pled not guilty to all charges. His attorney called the federal case against him an unjust prosecution and said Combs is an imperfect person, but not a criminal. Over the course of this series, we've traced Diddy's rise to fame, power, and wealth, and the allegations that have cast a shadow over that rise. Diddy's trial is set to start soon, so we're switching gears.
This episode is gonna sound a little different. Aaron and I are gonna sit down for a talk and nerd out on the legal issues we think you need to know about before the trial begins. It'll be a conversation between a defense attorney and a longtime legal reporter. We'll cover the charges against Diddy and what they really mean.
We'll highlight some of the evidence the government says they have and dig into possible strategies for his defense. I'm Brian Buckmeyer. From ABC Audio, this is Bad Rap, the case against Diddy. Episode 6, USA v. Sean Combs. In this series, we've talked about the many civil lawsuits against Diddy, roughly 60 active cases in total now.
The first one that really set this story in motion was the one brought by Diddy's ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. You'll remember, that suit quickly settled with no admission of guilt. The other civil lawsuits are moving at their own pace, but this trial is for the criminal case brought by federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York.
Criminal cases could put him in jail. Civil cases could cost him money. But there's one that may be more important than any other, and that's the civil case since settled brought by Cassie Ventura, his former girlfriend, because that's the one that caught the eye of federal prosecutors.
So how do you think that maybe Cassie's and other lawsuits may affect the federal criminal investigation and even the case?
Federal prosecutors do what you and I do, right? They read stuff. They read the papers. They watch TV. And if they look at something and they say, man, what's alleged here? This could be criminal. So the prosecutors are reading these things and it does give them at least at the outset, a place to start.
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Chapter 3: What does 'racketeering conspiracy' and 'sex trafficking' mean in this case?
Chapter 4: How do 'freak-offs' relate to the criminal allegations against Sean Combs?
Criminal cases could put him in jail. Civil cases could cost him money. But there's one that may be more important than any other, and that's the civil case since settled brought by Cassie Ventura, his former girlfriend, because that's the one that caught the eye of federal prosecutors.
So how do you think that maybe Cassie's and other lawsuits may affect the federal criminal investigation and even the case?
Federal prosecutors do what you and I do, right? They read stuff. They read the papers. They watch TV. And if they look at something and they say, man, what's alleged here? This could be criminal. So the prosecutors are reading these things and it does give them at least at the outset, a place to start.
And that's when they start to figure out with, in this case, federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations, where they need to search, what they need to look for, and where it all might be.
I'm curious for this answer, especially because we, you and I know so much about this case and I don't think it's an easy one to distill into a sentence, but imagine someone is living under a rock and they're, they're kind of just running by and they're like, Aaron, what's this case about? Like, just give me a sentence.
If you were to boil it down to a sentence, a couple of words, what is this whole case against Diddy about?
Freak offs. Freak offs.
I only laugh because we have circled that idea so many times talking about this case.
And yet it does do an injustice because the freak-offs, which the defense and prosecutors characterize certainly in different ways, are either these orgies that women are forced to participate in, or it's a prudish government snooping into somebody's private bedroom activities.
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Chapter 5: What evidence is expected to be presented in the trial against Sean Combs?
Chapter 6: Who might be the prosecution's star witness in the trial?
Chapter 7: How might civil lawsuits influence the federal criminal investigation?
And yet it does do an injustice because the freak-offs, which the defense and prosecutors characterize certainly in different ways, are either these orgies that women are forced to participate in, or it's a prudish government snooping into somebody's private bedroom activities.
Chapter 8: What are the possible defense strategies Sean Combs' legal team might use?
I like the larger umbrella and how you kind of posed it, at least from the defense standpoint, of Sean Combs just really likes some freaky stuff. And maybe they do a couple of pills before they have sex. Maybe they drink too much alcohol before sex. And everyone was okay with that kind of lifestyle. And I think you said it well, that the government's just like a prudish prosecution.
Yep. And the case in some ways turns on how our sensibilities about sexual assault have evolved, right? Because we now have a more discerning sense of what it means to consent or not, or to be put in situations where consent is possible or not. And I think we as a society may look differently upon that type of argument than we would have 20 years ago.
According to prosecutors, there was no consent. These women had no choice. They were drugged. They were held against their will. There's a kidnapping that's part of this. There's an awful lot of deviant behavior that's described in the indictment.
The freak-offs come up so often when we talk about this case because they bring together the three main charges Diddy is facing. Racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Prosecutors say these alleged crimes involve at least seven victims.
Transportation to engage in prostitution is pretty self-explanatory, but the other two charges are worth spending some time on. Racketeering conspiracy. We've talked about it in previous episodes. It's where two or more people agree to take part in a pattern of criminal behavior.
It's sometimes called a RICO charge, and RICO is just an acronym for the name of the federal law originally intended to combat organized crime. Rudy Giuliani famously used it to target the mafia in New York City as a U.S. attorney in the 80s.
And just the idea that he's charged with racketeering conspiracy means federal prosecutors are treating him like a mob family. He is an entity, a criminal entity in the eyes of prosecutors unto himself. And the whole purpose of this criminal enterprise that they allege Sean Combs to be is to gather up women and use them, coerce them for Combs' own sexual pleasures.
Then there's the sex trafficking charge. It's a term you've probably heard before, but I think it's often misunderstood. So here's an attorney's definition. Sex trafficking is making a person engage in sex acts they don't consent to through force, fraud, or coercion. And it doesn't necessarily have to involve the exchange of money.
What kicks this up to a federal charge and not just a state charge is when the victims are made to cross state lines. So you can see how the freak-offs encapsulate all three of these charges.
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